Plitvice Lakes

Zadar

Zadar was lovely but apparently I only took this one photo on our evening walk there.

We stopped at a little grocery store on the way out of town the next day and learned that Croatia is the place to be, if you're into two liter plastic bottles of beer (no actual beer was purchased during the taking of this novelty photo). 

White Fence Farm

 We continued our birthday tradition and went to White Fence Farm with the family to celebrate As 8th and Bs 2nd birthday (early).  

Island hopping

There are over a thousand islands along or near the Croatian coastline and they are a popular destination for travelers. With our whole crew, mainland hotels, and rented car, the logistics of getting to the islands made visiting them somewhat prohibitive. But we did rent a small boat with a skipper one afternoon in Dubrovnik for a trip to some of the nearby islands (Lopud, Koločep, and Daksa I think). The adventure included some swimming, (small) cliff diving, cave exploring, and some time on a sandy beach. Also ice cream (not pictured), of course. 

Dubrovnik

Parking near the old town was a bit of a challenge. At least it was for me. The very narrow, crowded, and hilly streets made things interesting and driving a manual transmission for the first time in years added to the difficulty. By the time we actually found and got into a space, I'd usually lost my bearings (which weren't that good to begin with) and I was worried we might have lose the car. So I'd take a photo of something nearby, like the Biker's Caffe here, just in case I needed to search for it with GPS to find the car later. 

Munich

Kari has already posted lots of photos from our adventure to Croatia but I've got some from my phone too so am going to subject this blog to some of my pics and memories of the trip too.

Kari packed all sorts of things in our carry-ons to entertain the boys on the long flight. B's favorite was probably one of the simplest - he loved putting little fuzzy craft balls into holes in the top of a plastic container. We flew through Munich on the way there and had a pretty long layover. We passed the time in various ways including lounging at an airport cafe, playing in the duty free area, going back and forth on the moving walkways 1000's of times, and more. B fell asleep shortly before our flight to Dubrovnik.
 

Goodbye Croatia

 We took a shot in the dark by going to Croatia, but it was a perfect place for our family.  We had the best two weeks exploring unknown territory for all of us.  Our last day was a 3 hour drive down to Dubrovnik where we returned our car and flew to Munich for the night before flying to Denver.  

Meeting up with old friends

We were so lucky to have a big group of really kind fun parents when LT was born.  Several of us had babies the same day, and many within weeks of LT.  Unfortunately one family has moved out of state, but they were in town over labor day and so a few of us got together.  Most of the kids now have one or more siblings, so the group has grown, but the big kids still get along beautifully.

Worth the hike

 On one of our last nights in Split, we drove to the base of a mountain and hiked up to the highest point in the area.  The boys all did great and the view was definitely worth the hike!