Long weekend

This was a three-day holiday weekend in Germany - 10 days after Acension. It was nice to spend time together as a family after Dave was at a conference all last week. The above picture is from a walk we took this afternoon through the woods behind our apartment. We got some fancy ice cream yesterday. All the ice cream was vanilla, but it is put through some sort of device that makes the ice cream look like spaghetti noodles. Sam was upset in this photo because he wanted plain ol' vanilla, no fancy toppings. He cheered up shortly after when he took his first bite. Here's Sam on his favorite spinner at the plaza outside the market Sunday.

We lingered by the duck pond on our way home. It's nice on the weekends, because there aren't so many bikes whizzing by. The pond is full of baby ducks trailing their mamas. The willow trees here in Germany make me think of my home in Minnesota. Ahhh.

Grace is enthralled by the ducks. Though we have discovered she has a soft spot for dogs. She always pauses extra long on the pages of her books which have pictures of dogs.

Sunday, we filmed Sam's answers to all his kindergarten classmates' questions about his trip. We compiled them into a movie and emailed them to his teacher, Ms. Hilton. His class watched it today - it's the last week of school back home in Arlington. This afternoon, we set off across the Teutoberg Wald to find the Tierpark (animal park). The tierpark is a city park (free entrance) filled with animals that are native to Germany. The trail leading into the forest is so inviting - I can't believe it is right outside our door.

The kids were in their element. (Note the dress. This is day seven. It's in the hamper tonight, as it got ice cream dribbled on it at the Tierpark. [Uncle Steve guessed Katie'd make it six days with the dress - you underestimated her!])

Grace loved the bouncing of the stroller caused by the rocky path. Her hair looks goofy in this picture because Katie "did" her hair right before we set out.

The windmill is part of an open-air farmhouse museum.

Since we didn't start our hike until after four o'clock, we only saw the very first parts of the tierpark, but it was great. We'll go back later this week to explore more. This time, we saw a beaver, but German beavers don't have the broad flat tail of North American beavers. The kids played at an elaborate spielplatz (playground) at the tierpark, and then we hiked home. There was a great breeze in the forest. And all this is in the middle of a city of 300,000 people! It is so wonderful!