Shaha Shenanigans: Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The hardest thing about living here the past four and a half months has been, hands down, the weather.

Sunshine is rare here.

We arrived in mid January to ice and snow and your typical cold winter temperatures, almost every day was overcast. But, the winter weather dragged on until mid-April! The entire month of March was overcast with temps in the thirties. Miserable.

FINALLY, mid-April the temps began to rise and the leaves began to sprout, and then came the worst hay fever I've ever experienced. It may have something to do with the fact that Germans don't believe in weed control. Dandelions were EVERYWHERE and these aren't your normal wink-a-dink dandelions. My friend took a picture of one that was taller than her three year old. And with sequestration, lawn maintenance on post came to a standstill. Fortunately, within the past few weeks I've been able to get the right medication and the mowers have started up again.

Now we are dealing with rain. The month of May has had more rainy days than non, by AT LEAST two to one I would say. And when it rains here it's not like just a little rain storm that blows in and out like the ones I grew up with in Price, Utah. No, this rain comes down hour after hour. It's a good thing we like our quarters, because we spend a lot of time inside!

The forecast this weekend? Rain with temps in the fifties. Just like last weekend.

Welcome June!

I figure we'll have the window of perfect summer weather when I'm in the hospital delivering a baby. And then it will all be over. That's my kind of luck.

This morning outside our quarters

So on this rainy day I'll post a few pics from the past month, when it actually WASN'T raining.

We went to the Fruhlings Festival downtown, which is their spring festival here. It's just like a fair in the states, except they have better food, more intense rides, and the crowds are dressed in traditional German folk costumes, you know, instead of baggy pants with their boxers hanging out.

Dreaming of schnitzel on the way to the fair

I was fascinated with the men dressed up in their lederhosen and the women in their dirndls. Can you see the confidence they are exuding? They felt totally comfortable with themselves. I loved it! Next festival we're dressing up the girls for sure. I don't think I can convince Ben to sport the lederhosen. Maybe by the end of our three year tour.

I did a pretty good job taking these pictures on the sly, don't you think?

Of course the girls loved the low key rides. Most of them were too intense for them.

And the following sequence of pictures cracks me up. By the look on Em's face you would think she was riding the Viper roller coaster at Magic Mountain or something. Can you see the thrill on her face? It was just a little rink-a-dink carousel that was going 2 mph. But hey, what ever gets her thrills out.

On top of the world on the Ferris Wheel

And by far their favorite, the slippery slides. I went once and that was enough. Ben took the girls again and again.

And back home, nothing will put you to sleep like a bedtime story in Polish

And on days that it's NOT raining, Em rides her plasma car to preschool. She looks so hip on it.

Waiting in the stairwell for Mom.

We went to Hohenzollern Castle on Memorial Day, the one day of the four day weekend that it did NOT rain. Just an hour's drive away. The likes of Frederick the Great once lived here. He was strange though. He wouldn't let any women in his castle, including his wife. Just his 11 dogs or something.