Spring is finally here...

...I think. We've had a couple of really beautiful days here lately. There have also been some cloudy/rainy ones (like today) mixed in. But the temperatures are not as cold as they were on Easter so hopefully spring has finally 'sprung'. Flowers were already starting to bloom even before the cold snap on Easter, but now more and more of the little wild flowers are popping up everywhere and trees are starting to bloom. We have a flederbaum (lilac tree in English, I think) in our back yard that is starting to blossom. It is one of my favorite trees, it gets big cluster of purple flowers that have a very strong sweet smell. When it is in full bloom you smell it as soon as you open the back door. We also have a Magnolia tree that has big beautiful flowers, that are a redish-pink. I love the creativity of God in all the colors and designs of this world!

We as a Phamily have tried to take advantage of the nice weather when it is here. I don't know how it is where you live, but here in Freiburg when the sun is shining you get out there and soak it up any way you can!! So on Sunday we went for a walk and ended up at our local ice cream parlor (along with a good portion of the rest of the Rieselfelders), for a special treat. Then on Tuesday we took an afternoon outing to Mundenhof, which is an animal park near our house that is free. If you drive you pay 5euros for parking, but there is no admission cost. It takes us about 15-20 minutes to walk it with all the kids. There are a pretty good variety of animals to check out, and it has a cool playground on one side of the park. The animals are all in open enclousures, some that you can even walk through and pet the animals in there. Well right now it is only the goats that you can walk through, but they are going to make the antelope enclosure a walk through one as well, they are working on getting the animals used to being exposed to people right now.

At the end of our time at Mundenhof we got ice cream, again (I think that's a record for us twice in 3 days! Jesaiah doesn't even really like ice cream!) before heading back home. Needless to say the kids were wiped out! We were gone for about 3 hours. The kids rode their rollers (scooters) and laufrad (literally 'walkbike') all the way there and back and walked around the whole time at the park, so it was a very good (tiring out) outing.

Zachy can't wait to get a 'real' bike. Right now he is riding the laufrad, which is basically a bike with no pedals or chain. They push it with their feet and learn balance. Most kids here start on one when they are 2 or 3 years old and move to a 'real' bike within a year or so, without training wheels. They are pretty cool little things! And Zachy jams on his! He gets going really fast then picks up both feet and coasts as far as he can. He also gets very creative with the way he pushes. It is quite entertaining to watch sometimes!

Enough rambling....on with the pictures!! Enjoy! Sorry there's alot, we got a little 'snap happy'!, but if you go to the source of the album you can skim through them quicker.