Our sweet little friend Lavinia was baptized last week.  She is a little angel here on earth, so Christlike and an excellent example.  Her family are from Romania are are some of the sweetest people that we know.  She was so beautiful in her white dress.  She was carried in to the water, and Bruder Egly baptized her.  When it was over, Aaron cried out "She DID it!!"

 It was a beautiful day and we are so happy for Lavinia and her family.

 Scott was gone for work this week, so the boys and I spend one late afternoon hiking.  There is a beautiful little hotel/restaurant at the top of this hill over looking Vaals in the Netherlands.  I was sad to hear that they were closing their doors on Friday, so I decided to go up and have a little something to eat to support them and enjoy the view before they closed.

They didn't have macaroni and cheese, which was a GREAT disappointment to the boys. :)  

We had a delicious Schnitzel with mushroom sauce, Fries and a Salad.

 Preceding our meal, we had had a nice hike, and the boys did great not crying until the last half!  So, I thought that it went pretty well!

In this contraption, you can lay down and listen to the woods.

 Aaron and Timmy liked crawling inside and telling each other Disney stories instead. 

 Nothing like showering, crawling into your jammies, and having a refreshing chocolate milk before bed, after a long day hiking.  Goodnight boys!!!

Freiwillige Feuerwehrdienst

How's that for a long title!!  Saturday we went to the open house of the Laurensberg (the little suburb of Aachen that we nearly live in) Volunteer Firefighter Service.  Highlights: bouncy house, face painting, and getting to push all of the buttons in some real fire trucks.  Those guys really knew what crowd they were catering to!  Lull the kids into fire-fighting fun, then sell bratwurst and cake to the slightly bored parents.  Genius!

Some odds and ends

Here's some odds and ends of our summer -a little mish-mash of random things. :)

We bought a 2004 Opel Meriva after we'd been here about 8 weeks.  It's a pretty small car, 5 seats, but has enough room for the double stroller in the back, which I felt was a "must" for a minimum storage space.
Were were therefore really surprised to find out that this car is considered a "mini-van" here.  So - I guess we are officially mini-van people!

 On a rainy Sunday I visited this little church on Lousberg for a coral concert, which our friends Tyler and Sara are a part of.  It was really beautiful a'capella music in this little old church.  The way it echoed was gorgeous, and very memorable.

After we bought our car, the boys and I were excited to try out our new found freedom from the bus.  We explored the neighboring town in the Netherlands, and found a pretty little hike.  You are always sure to see some cows.  I love it!

 There is also a really nice Labyrinth up on the hill.  It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to complete it, and the boys did it twice through.  They ran the whole time.  Pretty much ran a 10K, I would guess.

There are some fun water obstacles, bridges, statues, and things.  

Our little A-man potty trained in record time (day and night at once!) after a fantastic "choo-choo" incentive.   

 It took him several weeks to get all the pieces to his train.  He still gets wet occasionally, but for the most part, he's dry day and night, and we don't have to remind him to go....he just tells us when it's time.

 Our landlord offered us the Johannesbeeren from his yard.  Some girl friends and I picked them and made jam.  Mmmmmm.

 Timmy and Aaron are facinated with taking pictures.  We find some pretty funny shots on the camera when we download our photos.  It's fun to see the world from their perspective.

 Scott has taken up painting, since we are too cheap to buy paintings. :)  He made these fun colorful paintings to hang above the boys beds.

Another great way to save money?  Haircuts at home!  And using a "gelbe sack" to catch hair is another way to save a dime.  (They are free for recycling)

T-T

We thought Timmy was sound asleep for hours, and came into our room to see him with the light on like this.

Lately

What's going on lately?  Oh, just about everything!  Alright, maybe we're not that exciting, but at least something is going on.  Something might not be everything, but at least it's not nothing. 

So it's been mighty hot.  The general German lack of air conditioning leaves us all huddling in the shade sometimes.  But it's been so nice other than these last three very hot days, so hopefully we'll have some signature Aachen rain here in the next few days.  

We went down into the Eifel (the national park just south of us) and went swimming.  It was actually pretty chilly water.  Odd feeling: burned and crispy on top, icy cold on the bottom.  

The kids started kindergarten.  They like it so far, and even bust out a German word ab und zu (once in a while).  I'm still waiting for the day when I am having a conversation on the phone and my kids correct my grammar, but I'm sure it will come soon enough.

Here's a little picture of the church here.  We've all been spending a lot more time than we would like here because I got called as branch president a month or so ago (for those who don't understand Mormon lingo, a  "branch" is a small congregation and I guess you can guess what a "president" is).  It's been a lot of work, but  a good opportunity to learn and serve.

One day Katie took the boys here to what we call "the Dragon Bridge" before church.  It was so fun, we all went together last Sunday after church.  (That's why Tim has two different church outfits on).  There's a fantastic park on the way too.

We learned that if you want a peaceful walk on the bridge, you go at 8:30 am, and if you want to dodge bicycles every 10 feet, you go at 4:30 pm.  The views at both times are really really nice!

Our Lil' A-man

Typical Aaron phrases:
"I don't wanted you to do it!  I do it!"
This morning.  Timmy poured some cereal from a brand new huge box of cereal, and Aaron screamed "I don't wanted Timmy to eat the cereal gone!"

He is such a sweetheart and plays so well with Timmy and loves to read and snuggle.  And then, when it's time to leave the park, or go to bed, or....pretty much any transition....watch out!  :)

Stapleton Family Portraits

These were taken in January, before the big move.

Bike Race

Nothing too exciting to report this weekend, we can't do super-cool things all the time.  But, Saturday afternoon we decided to take the bus into town and get an ice cream cone.  We discovered that there was a bike race going on through the city.  Kind of fun, especially with the Olympics going on at the same time.  Aaron was pretty excited about it though, and what's good for Aaron is good for the whole family.  

FHE: Forest style

After going to the Kletterwald last Saturday, I decided that I wanted to go back to the area for family home evening.  We just followed some logging roads to the top of a hill.  Not really hardcore, but my weak-sauce desk-job legs couldn't have handled much more.

This is Katie giving the boys the all-important lesson of what is Stinging Nettle and what isn't.  The stuff is all over the place over here, so you can imagine that being able to recognize it is a pretty valuable skill.

If you notice Aaron's choice of footwear: not exactly the best for hiking.  Needless to say, he ended up on my shoulders for most of the hike.  All-in-all, it was a nice little evening.  It's good for us to get out whenever we can.