Vacation in Borkum, Germany

We just returned from a family vacation in Borkum, Germany an island off the northern coast of Germany, where we spent parts of 10 days with Olli's parents. The island is especially known for its beaches and Olli's family has an apartment there. I had never been so this was a good time to go. Lukas loved playing in the sand and water! We also did a lot of bike riding, playing at playgrounds and Lukas rode his first pony while on the island. All in all, it was a wonderful trip!

Lukas digging in the sand for the first time off the shore of the North Sea.

He couldn't resist using his hands too--what kid can!

This is at the South Beach where we spent most of our time during the week. There was a children's playground on the beach and Lukas' favorite "toy"--a digger or "Bagger" in German. He loved it so much that he threw a fit the first time he had to get off to head back to the apartment. He yelled "Bagger!" at the top of his lungs for a good 5 minutes--Ugh!

Lukas helping his Papa and Opa dig a "ditch" in the sand.

Now Papa and Lukas have switched shovels. Although Lukas could barely lift the adult-sized shovel, he insisted on giving it a try and actually managed to lift it a few times by his sheer brute strength. :-)

The Beach Babe

Lukas' first time in the water. I think it was something like 20° C (68°F), but that didn't seem to bother him at all! Opa (on the left in the photo) is wearing Lukas' hat.

On another day we took Lukas further into the water while we were all swimming ourselves. He was up to his chest in the water and loved it! He kept saying "splash", which comes out as "plash", and smacking his hands in the water.

The Happy Digger

The beach is such a great place for kids! Lukas was occupied for 20-30 minutes at a time digging in the sand, making sand molds, pouring water from bucket to bucket etc. It was great for all of us!

Opa, Oma and Lukas sitting in one of our tent-like shelters to protect us from the wind and rain that was present on and off. Lukas would call each person in this photo: "Ah-pa, Ah-ma and La-La". He's still working on his pronunciation of certain words. :-)

We were able to see many horses from Olli's parents' apartment. We were having a debate about whether or not the horses in this photo were sleeping as they have one of their back legs lifted up and were standing perfectly still for a long time.

Opa "trained" Lukas to show us that his mouth was empty before putting another bite of food into it. Here you can see his mouth is actually empty. :-)

The ladies at the table next to us in the restaurant were astonished by how well Lukas can use a fork even though he's still under 2 years old. He returned there kind words with batting his eyes and flirting with them in a way that only Lukas can! :-)

Lukas was thrilled to be able to pet this dog in a Tea House where we had Kaffee and Kuchen. He said "Ai", which is a German children's expression for "gentle", the entire time he was petting the animal.

Lukas was "in heaven" when we went to this restaurant in order to buy some drinks and earn a free voucher for Lukas to get a pony ride. The play area was full of kid-sized diggers, dump trucks and even a miniature cement mixer. He tried each one of course!

Here is Lukas riding his very first pony--one-handed no less!

The one-handed thing made me a little nervous so I decided to hold on to him to make sure he didn't fall off. He really enjoyed the 5 minute ride/walk around the grounds.