Summer Vacation Part I - spending time with kids and family.

July - finally vacation is here, and it's time for my yearly visit to the Czech Republic where I'll spend some time with the kids and my mom in Náměšť nad Oslavou.  Of course july is also my birthday so it's an opportunity to celebrate with my extended family.

My trip went smoothly but I'm still surprised that it does take 12 hours from Grenoble to my destination.  Bus, plane, train and voilà, I'm finally there...

I was greeted with a very lovely, traditional "grandma's cake" that the kids decorated and lots of hugs and kisses of course....

During my stay we've experienced the heat wave so some days we did not even dare go outside but before it got really bad, we went on a little trip to Třebíč and spent the day at the outdoor aquapark. 

Train ride....

 

Both kids really like swimming, but Anna is just crazy about it.  If you give her diving goggles, she is more below water than above, doing crazy twists and turns, like a little fish.

Passed out after a full day of swimming.

When it got really hot, we had watergun fights!

The terminator.

On other days we went to the chateau because every year there is a folk festival with some activities for the kids including puppet shows, games and crafts.  I also bought a new camera (Nikon D7100) so I spent some time trying to read the manual and play around with all the new settings, which is still ongoing.

Church...

Zámek (chateau)

Street at night...

Trying to do some light painting.... :))

We also had many visits from the family.  I got to see my cousins, my aunts, my grand-mother and my dad.  The kids got to see their 2nd cousins and 1st cousins.  Tommy and Anna's (1st) cousins, Vítek and Eliška are roughly the same age as our kids so they get along really well.  We usually see them in the winter for skiing and in summer they stay together at my mother-in-law's place.   And because we had all these visitors, my mom and I decided one day to do some crazy baking of Czech traditional pastries but since we used alot of yeast and it was super hot out, the dough was rising like crazy and we could barely keep up with it!!

Poppy seeds, plum paste and cottage cheese (czech type), main fillings of these pastries.

2nd cousins.  Klára and Magda.

1st cousins.  Eliška and Vítek.

In Náměšť each year there is a "fair" with rides for kids so of course we had to go there and spend some money :)

Tommy really missed Vítek.  They were quite happy to see each other again.

Hands free!!

In motion.

More fun.

Before I knew it, the vacation was over and I headed back to Brno to visit my dad once more, before I took off back to Grenoble, and back to work.  The kids are now with my parents-in-law and we will see them in one week in Austria!!