Favorite Memories with My Favorite Brother

It's seriously a good thing I only have one brother (hence the nickname Brother) because this guy is so great, he'd blow any competition out of the water.  Thankfully, he's the only brother among three sisters and I don't have to feel bad at all saying he's my favorite Brother in the whole wide world!  

We had many a grand adventure together.  I am super sad that he's gone back home now.  But all vacations come to an end.  Alas.

We ate a lot of bread, as per usual.  You can't come to Germany without frequenting the amazing bakeries, and you can't come to Otterberg without frequenting Barbarosa.  I love that place.  I'm going to try to pack it up and ship it home with me when we move back to the States.

We drank a ton of coffee.  Not just at the bakeries, but we seriously gave my french press a workout.  Frenchy II didn't seem to mind ;o)

We played with the kids a lot.  Alex even asked for an exclusive tea party with his little nieces.  In which they demonstrated to him how clumsy they are with pouring real tea from their little tea pot.  I tried to warn him, but some lessons are best learned as you laugh at a 3yo literally filling a tea cup to overflowing and then adding a few more drops apparently to make sure the saucer also has enough tea on it. 

We went to a wine fest.  This area of Germany is famous for it's Reislings and we had a blast going up to this cute little town on the Rhine River.  More on that soon, it was a great night sans kids so I have lots of pictures!

We cooked together.  That was a special night.  It wasn't quite what he had planned, as he was trying to cook for us but Globus let us down and didn't have fresh clams for the clam sauce he was going to make.  So I took a rain check on that recipe and we bought some shrimp and put our heads together for a simple white-wine-fresh-tomatoes-and-shallots type sauce.  And it was amazing.  One of my favorite nights, actually, because Jesse was able to join us.  I always love good food and good friends, but especially when it's homemade food that you made together!

We saw a lot of glorious sunsets.  This time of year is apparently "majestic sunset" time.  I'm so glad Brother is pretty low-key and thrives (as I do) with some much needed downtime each day.  So we'd both sit down in the living room, watch the sunset, and do our own thing (for me, starting that there photography business weeeee!) and then after that we'd head up to the "upper deck"...

The Upper Deck is the name Kirsten gave to the rustic table and chairs that sit on the patio next to Lilo's garten haus.  And it is the place Alex and I ended most nights... smoking a cigar and drinking a beer and enjoying the barn lights.  I think it goes without saying that we enjoyed many a good laugh and many a good conversation.  I miss our Upper Deck times the most.

Thanks for staying with us Uncle Brother!  We miss you already!!!