The Höltje Family Blog: Summer Vacation in Germany--Borkum and Hannover

We returned last week from what turned out to be a three week long vacation with Olli's family. We had only planned to stay two weeks, but because Hurricane "Irene" was supposed to hit the East Coast the weekend of our scheduled return, and because Olli had business in Geneva the following week anyway, we postponed our flights and were able to enjoy another week with our family!

Here are some photos of our times together. We spent 6 days on the island of Borkum on the North Sea. We had nice weather and the kids loved playing in the sand. The water was cold, but Lukas went "swimming" a couple of times and even I braved it once. We then spent the rest of the time in Hannover. While there, we went to the zoo (the best I've ever been to) a couple of times, had an extended family reunion and played in the sandbox at Oma and Opa's as well as swung from the large tree in their backyard. Fun times were had by all!

Lauren, Opa, Oma and Baby Jonathan hanging out by the Strandkoerbe

Isabel loved the sand so much that she would literally roll in it! It made for very interesting diaper changes and a bath every night.

Another favorite activity of Isabel's while at the beach was to climb up the tall ladder that led to a large slide and slide down--over and over again! She loved it, but the adults weren't always so enthusiastic since she needed to be "spotted" on the way up and the way down.

Here she is on her way down...

Oma, Olli, Lauren, Lukas and Isabel in front of the polar bear exhibit


These polar bears were so active--we saw them swimming, diving into the water, climbing out again, and "boxing" each other. Perhaps they were excited about their new habitat since it comes complete with ocean waves, cliffs and bones to chew on.

Watching the polar bears romp around--we also went into a boat-like structure to watch them underwater too.

Olli was determined to catch the polar bears leaping into the water with the video camera--I think his persistence paid off in the end.

Oma with Isabel at the elephant exhibit

Three female elephants and their three babies put on a show for us--complete with painting a T-shirt for some lucky person to buy. It was so packed that Lukas and I had to stand on this stone ledge to see the show.

The "Papa" elephant joined the group at the end to eat some hay and someone must have pushed the "music" button by mistake because music started playing and the elephants were clearly startled. It was amazing to watch how the grown elephants immediately formed a circle and pushed the babies into the middle. They were trumpeting and rotating around until the music (and thus, the threat) was gone. It was fascinating to see and hear.

Here's a photo of the Mama elephants (the Indian variety) and one of the babies.

Lukas and Sophia reading a book together in Sophia's preschool classroom

Lukas, Julius and Isabel playing on the playset in front of Julius' house

At the family reunion: Lukas jumping over a rope. The big kids were entertained by this game for quite a long time, much to their parents' delight.

Isabel trying out her own jumping skills, which is really more like a "leaning tower" into Mommy's arms. She enjoyed counting off beforehand in her own version of eins, zwei, drei.