AJ is TWENTY-ONE!!!

 Happy 21st Birthday to AJ! He is also amazes us with his hard work and his clear path forward! Since we were all in Ohio he celebrated his 21st birthday with us. Perhaps not the way he planned but we think he still had some fun.

The first legal beer was at lunch at AJ's favorite restaurant - Buffalo Wild Wings!

 That evening we celebrated at the local pub in Hudson - Kepners. We had a very entertaining evening celebrating AJ! Not every kid gets to have his parents AND his grandmother at his 21st celebration!

Steve, AJ, Dom, Stefanie, Aunt Meli, Doug, Granny, Aunt Abby, Missy, Rachel & Todd

Father and son

Aunt Abby and Uncle Todd introduced Irish Car Bombs to everyone. Super. I wonder who would guess who was the fastest at our table? My brother was a close second but his wife won the night!

Abby, Todd, AJ, Dom

Lots and lots of proper celebrating!

And don't worry! AJ also celebrated with his friends and his sister at school over the weekend! 

Stefanie & AJ

Happy 22nd Birthday Dominic!

We got to celebrate with Dominic twice this year! Lucky us! We are so proud of Dominic and everything he has accomplished!

We celebrated in Germany while he was home for spring break with his favorite homemade apple pie.  There is also a hilarious video of him singing Taylor Swift's "22".  However, that is up to him to share!

Sparklers for birthday candles!

 Then we celebrated again in Ohio! It was a nice treat to be with him on his birthday this year!

More apple pie!

Jack is never far from Dominic

Rest in Peace Dad...

I have struggled with what I should write on this blog, if anything, about my dad suddenly passing away. As I've contemplated this, I decided yes, it's OK and appropriate to share the awful with the great.

I am lucky to have had a dad who loved me. One who looked at me like this and was proud of everything I did. Well maybe not everything but at least the good things.  Every girl should be so lucky.

So here's to you Dad! May life in heaven be even better than life on earth!

West Point Spring Breakers!

 Conal, Charles & Dominic

Dominic brought two buddies home with him for spring break.  What a great week we had with Charles and Conal. It was so lovely to have them here!

We were at Andechs Monastery almost as soon as they landed. Dominic shares his Dad's love of the place, well and the bier.

Dom

Enjoying our snacks!

Missy & Stefanie

Throughout the week the boys were busy. They visited Neuschwanstein, Munich, Salzburg, had an epic Starkbierfest evening with us and spent the day celebrating St Patrick's Day Munich style. Luckily they had some time for relaxing too.

Relaxing

We started their St Patrick's Day crawl off the right way, a traditional German breakfast, weißwurst, pretzels and a weißbier!

Rachel's Prom!

Mirsa, Anto, Rachel, Fabi & Lonneke

Today was Rachel's junior prom! Isn't she gorgeous? Her school has a tradition that junior girls wear short dresses and senior girls where long dresses.  She and her friends followed the rules, and I'm sure they will enforce them next year.  

Steve and I were glad we were invited to take photos and see the girls off once they were ready!

I love the quick look I get here!

Starkbierfest

Steve and I have made quite a tradition of attending Starkbierfest every year. We love this celebration, Steve loves the dark winterbier that the monk drinks and we always have SO.MUCH.FUN.  This year was no different and it was terrific to have Stefanie, Dominic and Dominic's friends Conall and Charles with us. Our friends Denise and Rob and their daughter Tasha also joined us for the fun!

Boys are ready to go! We love dressing our guests in traditional trachten!

 The night always starts out calmly enough in the huge beerhall at Lowenbrau Keller.

Steve, Rob, Tasha, Stefanie, Dom, Charles, Conal & Missy

There are two contests at Starkbierfest. The strong man contest and Miss Starkbierfest. To qualify for strong man you have to first lift 250KG (over 500 lbs). Dominic tried to do this two years ago but couldn't quite make it but this year he did it!

So up on the stage he went with a lot bigger competitors!

Dominic is 4th from the right

The first few competitors couldn't lift the competition stone. They measure the distance off the ground in centimeters. Then Dominic got all the way to 18.6 (a little higher than our photo). For the next few competitors he was solidly in the lead. But then the big guys stepped up! Still we were impressed Dominic had the strength to get that far!

 Stefanie also tried for Miss Starkbiefest. Usually the crowd votes but this year the Bavarian band behind her voted, which she didn't understand.  Obviously the women who played up to them in their speeches took the prize! But impressive she got up there and spoke German to the crowd!

 Stefanie and her friend Tasha danced all night long!

 And we did too with Tasha's parents!

Rob, Denise, Missy & Steve

It was a great evening!

Missy & Dominic

Missy & Steve

Beautiful Bavarian Girls

Stefanie's Home!

Stefanie's home!!

We are excited to have Stefanie home for spring break! She will overlap with Dominic for a day or two at the end but right now we are focused on doing some of her favorite things!

Stefanie loves hanging out with us, which we of course LOVE! We took a walk to Ludwig's Chapel here in Starnberg. He is often referred to as Mad King Ludwig and "drowned" in two inches of water in our lake. There is a beautiful chapel at the very picturesque spot

Afterwards we embraced the very German tradition of coffee and cake in the afternoon at Hotel Schlossberg!

While Rachel went to school Stefanie and I of course visited Munich and shopped. Also we visited the Buccheim museum on the lake they had a super fun 1960s inspired exhibit.

Plenty of downtime at home too, like all college students she does like to relax and hang out with her sister!

Happy 17th Birthday Rachel!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, charming and super smart Rachel! Our "baby" is SEVENTEEN!

Rachel celebrated with a party with friends the weekend before her birthday. Lucky for her, her sister was here to chaperone. Photos weren't shared with me, so this all I've got. :)

We like celebrating birthdays - door decorations and breakfast in bed are part of the tradition!

Steve and Stefanie wake up Rachel with a birthday cupcake!

 And of course there are presents! The birthday girl also received a crown from her friends - Perfect!

Her wish will come true this year! She blew out all the candles!