We have had rain, rain and more rain, but last week for 5 days, the clouds parted, and we had sun and even some uncomfortable heat for the first time since we got here.  We took advantage and visited 5 different parks last week.  West Park, Ferber Park, Hangeweiher, An der Rast and the lil' Laurensberg Park.

We've been sleeping hard!

 There were some boys slack lining at Hangeweiher.  The boys made sure that they knew they were doing a "good job!"

 Timmy and Aaron are getting really good at taking photos.  Timmy takes photos straight!  We have our own little photographer now!  Aaron's, as you see, are a little crooked, but aren't too shabby.

THE BOYS START KINDERGARTEN TOMORROW!!  Should I cry or cheer?  We have been reading some social stories to get ready.  They are called "Timmy goes to school....Aaron too!" and "Playing at School" to get them ready for some situations they will encounter.

Timmy gets really upset sometimes when people talk to him and he doesn't understand, so we talked about what to say when that happens.  For Aaron, what to do when someone wants the toy you are playing with.  I hope that they enjoy it tomorrow!

Kletterwald

So I'm the young men's leader at church here, and we just had pretty much the coolest activity ever.  It's called a "Kletterwald" (translation: climbing forest), and it was pretty dang awesome.  So we got full-body harnesses with a few lead lines and a pulley, a few minutes instruction, and los!  

There were 12 courses, each rated for their difficulty.  There was a lead cable that you had to keep at least one of your lead lines attached to, and you had to get around all of these crazy obstacles.  There were hanging crates, logs, benches, chairs with pulleys, and a ton of zip-lines.  What made the whole thing even cooler was that the it was in this cool forest with ferns all over.  I performed a little self-analysis about why I like ferns so much, and I think it originates from Star Wars.  The forest of Endor was covered with ferns, and who didn't dream about living in those tree houses with the Ewoks.  Seriously, I love ferns.

So at the very end, when our arms were about to give out, we did the hardest course: #12.  It was pretty rigorous and pretty high off of the ground.  One of the highlights was a bicycle on a bridge that's tethered onto a cable.  I couldn't go very far without wussing out, but I'm sure someone can do it.

Anyway, if you come visit us between March and October and you have 20€ to spare, we should definitely go.  I'm still sore.  That means it was cool.

We Lived with God

I really loved this video!  This sums up so well about who our Heavenly Father is and how we can have faith that he is there.

Saarland and Luxembourg

 We took our first real vacation for 4 days this week.  Our friends, Harald and Mirjam were nice enough to let us tag along on their family vacation to Saarland.  We stayed in Tholey at a Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel).  It sounded great because it was cheap and they provided all the meals. (School-Cafeteria style)

 We explored the area in between rain storms.

It rained every single day.

 During one break, we explored the Sensory Trail across the street.  They had lots of fun little gadgets to play with and a huge park at the end.  We stayed until it started pouring.

 Every night as the kids slept, we ended up down at the Bistro for games and alcohol free-cocktails.

 One rainy day, we went out to a little museum with a water-mill, and were lucky enough to get a break in the rain to hike around.

 The next rainy day....see a pattern here?....we ended up at Bosiland at an indoor play place and exercised ourselves to death.  There were these sweet slides, where you free-fall at the beginning.  There were lots of kids hanging around the top, too chicken to actually go down.  Aaron went down with Scott once (rather reluctantly) and was so excited that they did it 7 times back to back.

Here is a video of the drop:  you can get the idea.

 Saturday, we bid the Siebke's farewell and toured Luxumburg on our way back to Aachen.

 The views in Luxumburg are absolutely fantastic, and touring the Casemates was so much fun for the boys.

Unfortunately the intermittent rain made the sky really gray and white most of the day, so it doesn't make for the best photos, but the views were amazing of the valley, river, churches and fortresses.

 As with most sightseeing....at the end of the day, we were exhausted, booked it for the car, 

and as Scott said "Stick a fork in me, because 'I'm done'.''

In der Stadt

We haven't really been doing anything special lately, just going on some walks.  Last Sunday we checked out our neighborhood, Laurensberg.  We found a little soccer field next to a school, and we saw these boys playing soccer on the pavement in their socks.  I don't know why, but it kind of looked fun.  Anyway, Aaron wanted to join in, so he went over to their shoes and put his in the pile.  This story isn't really that funny now that I'm actually telling it, but it was funny at the time.

 So I went for a big walk with the boys today.  I was looking for a place to play soccer and volleyball, but I didn't really find anything good.  I just walked around and let the kids goof around, it was nice.  I got a nice little kid crack pic and they got to sport their favorite soccer uniforms in the standard cofiguration: backwards.  I think they like to see the number and name, so they make sure to put that part in the front.  People seem to be pretty amused by it.  The highlight of the day was walking across the bridge over the train tracks.  We not only saw trains, but trains carrying cars.  Seriously, what could be cooler for a 3 year old boy than a combination of the greatest things in the world: cars and trains. 

 

 Just a few funny things that I saw around town.  I always wondered what storm troopers look like after hours!!

Finally, my children have become a plague to all pigeons in the city of Aachen.  Ever since we let Aaron go loose near the Tower of London last fall, he's been bitin at the bit to take it to the pigeons.  I've been holding him back, because I wasn't sure what the German public reaction would be to my children tormenting these flying citizens of their cities.  However, all of the people I asked consider them to be the rats of the air, so I've given them a free license to go to town with the pigeons.  They haven't actually caught one yet, but I believe that the day is not far in the future.