Adventure #3: Good friends and A GIANT petting Zoo!

The weekend of February 20th we received a fabulous invitation to go visit an old friend of Berkley's family in the nearby town of Bottrop. Hanna had been a visiting student in the Portland area years ago and had spent some time living with his parents. They've stayed in contact over the years and we were excited to see her and her family. 

On Saturday morning, we hopped on a train and headed to Bottrop. For some reason when heading out of town, figuring out which train to get on, on which platform, at the right time always seems to be a challenge, but this time we GOT it. Whew. OF course the kids loved the train, and the train seemed to love the kids :)

Hanna met us at the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), and from there we took a bus to a GIANT PETTING ZOO. It was like a regular zoo, except you could feed all, well, almost all of the animals. Except for all you could feed them was carrots. Luckily Hanna had chopped up two monsterous bags of carrots to share and we were amply supplied. 

From the get-go, it was fun. I mean, who doesn't like place a weird deer-antelope thing will walk right up to a fence and eat out of your hand?? 

Well, it turns out, Juniper doesn't. She was terrified.  There was no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks she was going to put her hand out and have a large beast approach her and EAT HER ARM instead of the treat. She was silently clinging to me, and I felt like the mother of a spider monkey. I guess I can't really blame her - I mean, this crazy goat was one of the first things we saw:

And then we had this fabulous hog to entertain us:

But as we walked, it wore off a bit. And then she found some baby bunnies and ducks, eager to pay attention to her. She was in heaven, and especially loved the ducks since, at the time, that was the only animal noise she would impersonate. From there it was smooth sailing and by the end, she was feeding the fabulous little deer.

Bridger, on the other hand, had nothing to hold back, and managed to feed a lot of animals, run around a lot and get very dirty (which is a fabulous sign of good fun).

After a good time at the petting zoo, we walked to a bus stop, past a rabbit that had been hit by a car, but made it to the sidewalk before it died (successfully distracting all of the children from that takes talent after visiting a petting zoo) and caught a bus that took us back to Hanna's house. 

The kids played super well together, which was just such a relief. It was the first time since we'd moved that Bridger was able to play with kids his own age that don't speak English without being hindered by a language barrier. Hanna's kids are great, and adorable of course, and made it easy and fun for him and Juniper. Ahhh...it's so nice when that happens. 

Hanna and her husband fed us an authentic German meal (Wurst with potato salad, bread and such). We talked and laughed and shared our mutual love of kettle corn while the kids played.  I've got to be honest - Hanna's English is probably better than mine, and she is stinkin' hilarious. I really, really enjoyed her and her family. 

Before we left, they walked us down to the bus stop that would take us back to the train station. We chatted, and decided to take a photo, JUST AS THE BUS appeared around the corner! This was the only group shot we got of all of us, and her husband was nice enough to be the one to take it. We laughed as we ran to get on the bus seconds after we took the photo. What a hoot! 

My take away from this trip? Past connections made are always, always valuable. Hanna is great, and we're blessed to have her nearby! And don't let the freaky goat at the beginning ruin your petting zoo experience ;) 

WE MOVED!! Without a car...and April Birthdays!

After 15 days without the internet at home, we ARE BACK. 

AND - we are also completely and officially all moved into our NEW APARTMENT. Here's Juni and I, standing in the living room, ready for church this morning.

New dresses! Yay! 

I can't believe how much of a difference it has been. Really "settling in" is totally more of a mental thing than I originally thought. In our old place, which I sincerely loved, I felt like I was starting to settle into life in Dusseldorf, but I realize now that I wasn't. I was kind of poised to settle in, on the edge of my seat, but mentally I was waiting. It was a subconscious waiting, but waiting nonetheless.

Now, finally being in the place we know we'll be for the remainder of our stay here with our own things, and having officially unpacked every-single-little thing from our suitcases which are now 100% empty feels pretty fantastic. I mean, it felt like home after only being here for just 24 hours, even though there was stuff strewn everywhere. The mental wait is OVER. Wee!

As for the move, things went well. I did some real searching on their equivalent of Craigslist here and found the exact bed AND mattress that we were planning on buying from IKEA and bought it used, less than a year old, for 120 Euros (new would have been 400 Euro). Score! We also FINALLY have a couch of our own (after not having had a real couch for about 9 months). We were able to pick up a rental van, drive 40 minutes North to pick up the new bed, come home, pack up, move everything in one trip with the van, and unload. At that point, we split up - I headed to IKEA on the tram with the kids while Berkley had a meeting at work. He then went to pick up the couch with a friend, and I stayed at IKEA for blankets, pillows, a rug, and other necessary items. I felt like I was doing pretty good until I was in IKEA and looked down to noticed that my fly was down. AND THEN also discovered that my pants were COMPLETELY unbuttoned. My belt was all that had been keeping me together...and it had been like that for like 2 hours! Not as put together as I thought, I guess!

It was a long, long IKEA trip. 3 Hours. Thanks the Lord for the free play place for Bridger, good food, and cheap ice cream cones. Whew! 

As we stood outside IKEA in the rain at 8:20 at night with an hour commute to get home by bus/tram, we were sorely tempted to smuggle the kids in the back of the rental truck. Sorely. Tempted. But you'd be proud of us, as we decided against it. The deliberation, however, followed by Bridger's protest caused me to literally miss the last bus by 1 minute. Like, I saw it pull away as I was running to meet it. When I checked the schedule,  the next bus didn't come for another hour. Oh. Man. Berkley was already gone, but when I called him he had the thought to call Martina,  our sweet,  wonderful,  funny neighbor. She came to our rescue with her minivan. I love her.

When we did finally get home,  we asked Bridger how his day was, and he replied "it was the BEST day!". The kids really were so good, and I think the ice cream cones helped too :) it was a long, good day.

Now, as for the new place: it is AMAZING. Cooler than I originally thought. Large windows, a simple genius floor plan, making it good for running around (which is always good for kids, right?!), tight fitting, fairly sound-proof doors, and a fridge that is taller than Bridger.  There's a deck facing East overlooking the street below, which gives the kids a good view of the passing "doggies - woofwoof!" and another deck facing west overlooking acres and acres of greenhouses.  We can see the Rhine from where we live and there's a beautiful foot/bike path that runs along side of it with grass and flowers and willow trees, and an occasional pebbly beach. With that on one side and fields and greenhouses on the other it gives the illusion of being out of the city, which is wonderful. We can, however, catch a tram just 3 minutes from our apartment that takes us straight to the city center in about 15 minutes or less. It's a serious dream location - insane that we have it, really! Anyways,  it just makes me excited for people to see it one of these days. Here's some photos of the inside:

The living room. Please excuse the aftermath of Bridger's birthday party (which was AWESOME). Oh! And the couch pulls out to a large bed, for anyone that wants to come visit! (Hint, hint!)

 

The bathroom. We feel so modern when we are going pee and brushing our teeth.

The kids' room.

The view off of the deck just outside of the kids' room. See that tiny strip of silver at the end of the street? That's the river.

The glorious, glorious kitchen, complete with dish washer. 

We also have an awesome bedroom for Berkley and I (I promise, we're not sleeping on the couch) but it is currently filled with boxes used to create a "space tunnel" for Bridger's birthday party this weekend, so I didn't take a photo. I will later though ;)

Overall, I can't even begin to express how blessed we were - so many people came out of the woodwork to give us stuff we needed. Our apartment is literally the way it is because of kind, generous people, kind, generous previous tenants, and IKEA. Yes. 

Aaaaand speaking of birthdays, Berkley and Bridger both celebrated birthdays over the last couple of weeks! Woohoo!! Berkley is an old and grizzly 32 years, and Bridger is now 4. FOUR. That went fast, but also slow...you know?

Bridger made Berkley a "scientist" at the local Playmobil store for his birthday gift, and Bridger enjoyed a new, giant garbage truck, some sand toys, and, my personal favorite, a lumberjack Playmobil set. It's freakin' awesome. Complete with tiny chainsaw. Genius. 

On Saturday we had a Space-Themed birthday party, complete with "Pin the Fire on the Rocket", a "Space Walk", and an "Alien Magic Show (thank you, Berkley!). The Space Walk was my favorite. We basically made a giant tunnel with boxes to Bridger's room, which we'd darkened out, and gave the 10 kids 45 glow sticks (literally) and told them to go crazy. It was pretty much a rave in there, minus the techno music. 

What a blast - this was the first real organized Birthday Party we'd ever thrown for him, and thanks to some awesome people we've met here it was a raging success. Happy Birthday!! 

I want to share more and more - about the willow tree and perfect little pebbly beach just down the street, about how the leaves are just starting to come out, a video of the kids playing on the bed, or even just their new hair cuts, but this is getting long. 

Just know that life is good. There are hard days, but who doesn't have those?? And I am getting better at laughing at the hard stuff - like when I dug the fries out of a public garbage can so Bridger could have "JUST ONE MORE!". Yep. 

But yes - My current goals are to record daily things that I am grateful for, and pay closer attention to the things my heart is telling me. Hope life is treating you well too!