Snow

We had our first snow of the season this weekend.  It started Friday around midnight.  I was still awake waiting for Jonathan to get home from his Christmas Party for work.  He finally arrived at around one in the morning.  He was lucky to make it into our neighborhood.  The wheels were spinning and it took him five minutes to get past two houses.

Kobe was the first to wake up in the morning and he was so excited that he had to come and wake Jonathan and I up (ugh!), and his brother Devon (double ugh!).  Jonathan kindly got all of the kids ready and took them out while I stayed inside the warm house and got some cleaning done.

This was really Alyssa's first time in the snow, that she remembers.  We went to Brianhead when she was about 10 months old, but she wasn't walking yet, so she didn't get to play in it.

They had some mean snowball fights.  There are a few other kids in our cul-de-sac so they were having a great time.

Kobe loves playing with his sister, so it didn't surprise me to see pictures of him pulling her around on the sled.  Here in Scotland, they call it a sledge.  The neighbors took our boys to a nearby field to go sledging a little later in the morning.

The snow wasn't sticking really well, so they had to make this tiny little snowman.  As it has continued to snow, there are now several huge snowmen, as well forts in our front yard.

Here is a solo shot of their creation.  Jonathan said that Alyssa kept telling him that the snowman needed buttons.  I think she has watched Frosty the Snowman a few too many times.

And of course, here is Kobe making the obligatory snow angel.  This is the first time our kids have lived in a place where it snows (besides Kobe living in Provo, but we moved before he was a year old).  The snow has been fun, but we're a little bummed that we can't get our car out of our neighborhood.  We ventured out to church on Sunday but only made it out of our street before getting to a hill that our car couldn't get enough traction to climb.  

Berlin Part III--The Berlin Wall

My posting of our trip is dragging out forever.  Sorry about that!  You certainly can't visit Berlin without visiting a section of the Berlin Wall.  We found a couple.

This first section is fairly long.  We found it just down the road from Checkpoint Charlie.  This is the backside and behind it there is an exhibit "Berlin 1933-1945:  Between Propaganda and Terror."  At the site of the exhibit, remnants of a cellar exist where the Gestapo was headquartered and many atrocities took place.

Near the center of the photo above, there is a brick path, two bricks wide.  This is a memorial that runs through the city of Berlin as a reminder of where the Berlin Wall stood.  It runs through the sidewalk, and at times through the streets and through grass.

I can't remember the intersection, but there are several thin sections of the wall standing and there is information about the history of the Berlin Wall between each section.

I still have more to post about Berlin and many more things happening at home.  I'll try to be a little more consistent about posting.

Berlin Part II--The Zoo

We spent one of our days in Berlin visiting their fabulous zoo.  I grew up in San Diego and my wonderful Aunt Cheryl bought us passes to the zoo every year.  We went often and I loved it.  The San Diego Zoo is amazing, but I can honestly say that our visit to the Berlin Zoo was by far the best experience we have ever had at a zoo.

It was raining quite a bit the day we went, but there were plenty of exhibits in the buildings so we could still enjoy the animals and find shelter from the rain.  Our favorite was the Big Cats exhibit.  It is similar to most zoos, where the exhibits outside are like their natural habitats, but they also have exhibits inside where you can see the animals much closer.

I've always known lions were massive, but it was incredible seeing one this close.  Their roar is so deep and loud you can feel vibrations in your chest.  At one point there were two female lions and two male lions in the internal exhibit.  One of the male lions started to roar and then the others began.  They were communicating with each other, then all of a sudden they all laid down to rest.  It was incredible.

There were two cute baby lions also.  It was fun to see them play together.  I couldn't figure out how to turn the flash off so it is difficult to see it, but I thought I'd post the picture anyway.  I finally remembered how to turn off my flash, but when we went back, they were no longer on exhibit.

We also were able to see the feeding of two panthers and a cheetah.  They tossed in some meat and they were fighting over it.  I guess you can see from the picture above who won.  The other two only got a small bit.

There were a few tigers when we went back the second time.  Tigers are one of my favorite animals.  This one looked like it was about to fall asleep.  It was just sitting there staring and occasionally it would close it's eyes.

They had a really fun primate exhibit that we visited as well.  Again, I hadn't figured out the flash so this shot was really dark.  I lightened it with Photoshop so it's grainy, but I couldn't pass up posting this cute little orangutan.

This little gorilla was hilarious.  It's kind of hard to tell, but that is his bum.  He mooned us!

Of course the kids had to take pictures with all of the statues.  Alyssa was helping this orangutan out by picking his nose.  I guess she supposed that she has such skill at picking her own, she should offer her services.

Alyssa was at the back of the hippo saying, "Look, there's a tail!"

Here is the family crossing a bridge at the zoo that goes over the river.  Of course, Alyssa didn't want to stop for the photo, and Devon is making the obligatory silly face.  

Jonathan insisted that I posted this fountain photo.  It is pretty funny with the little tail and turtle hat.  I didn't want to take a picture either, but I did, again at Jonathan's insistence.  I apologize if it offends anyone.  It was in plain sight at the zoo.

We saw these signs at the zoo and had to take pictures.  Los Angeles Zoo 9684 km.

There was a little playground at the zoo as well.  The kids had tons of fun on the tire swings, and there was a fun tree-house-like play set they could run through and climb on.

It was a fantastic day at the zoo, despite the rain.  We spent the entire day there, and the kids even wanted to go back the next day.

Our home internet is finally up!  I'll post more of our Berlin trip later this week.

Berlin Part I

The kids had a school holiday a few weeks ago, so we set off for Berlin for five days.  It was so nice to be able to travel to Germany by taking a two hour plane flight rather than a fourteen hour one!  We had to wake up at 4 am to make it to the Edinburgh Airport in time, but the kids were fantastic that morning despite their lack of sleep.

We stayed at the Hampton near the Berlin Zoo.  The Hampton just opened a few weeks ago and it was the perfect location.  We were a quick walk from the subway, train station and major bus stops.  Below is a picture of Alyssa in the hallway by our room.  She loved playing hopscotch on the squares.

After Alyssa took a shower the first night, I helped her get into her pajamas and set her on the bed.  She was delighted to find what looked like a microphone (which is really a reading lamp).  She immediately began to sing her little heart out.  She wasn't looking for attention, but she was in her own little world.

On the first day, we purchased public transportation passes.  This allowed us unlimited access to the bus, subway, and train stations.  This worked so well for us.  Jonathan would plan out our routes and we were able to easily get around the city to see whatever sights we desired.

Our internet is still a little sketchy so uploading pictures is a big pain.  I'll post some of the sights we visited tomorrow.

Annoying Internet

We are still waiting on the internet to be connected in our home.  We ordered service at the end of August and we still don't have a scheduled appointment.  We've been working off of a mobile broadband card and we've run out of usage and we aren't able to add more.  Currently, we can only browse so I won't be able to upload pictures until later this week.  Once we get our home internet working, I'll hopefully be able to post more regularly.  We have quite a few pictures to share so there should be many posts in the coming weeks.

Loch Ness

This weekend is a four day holiday for the kids, so we decided to take a little trip.  We drove to up to Inverness on Friday afternoon and spent the night in a hotel.  We woke up the next morning and headed to the famous Loch Ness.

We went to the Loch Ness Exhibit first.  It was a big waste of time and money.  We were expecting something a little different.  The exhibit was basically a movie about the history of the Loch Ness Monster separated into six or seven sections as you move through the building.  It was interesting to learn more of the history behind the legend and the research that has been done to disprove it, but I don’t think it was anything that I couldn’t have read in a book.

Our next stop was a tour of Loch Ness by boat.  We spent about 40 minutes on a small boat with about 12 other people.  The tour guide was an older Scottish gentleman and he was great.  He even let each of the kids take a turn steering the boat.  Devon was convinced that they would see Nessie, but there were no sightings.

After our tour on the boat, we made our way to Urquhart Castle.  We watched a video on the history showing that it burned down a few hundred years ago.  It really is just the ruins that are left.  It was incredible looking around.  There was one particular part that had a winding staircase and it was very narrow.  It was nice once we got to the top but I was nervous that one of the kids would take a tumble.

The castle is right on the water; we could see it from the boat on our tour.  We went down to the water to see what it was like and it was freezing!

We saw a few signs like the one in the photo below.  I'm sure Loch Ness is pretty popular with tourists so I guess they need to be reminded about the driving rules around here.

We purchased a membership to Historic Scotland so now we have free entry to many of the castles around Scotland.  We’ll probably head to Edinburgh next since it is less than an hour drive away.  It was a fun adventure and we’re looking forward to many more.

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

Last week, I think it rained every day.  It didn't just rain for a few minutes, but most of the day.  It's about a six to seven minute walk to the school and we walk everyday, rain or shine.

We each have our umbrellas and coats, and we have managed just fine.  The stroller we bought over here came with a rain cover.  I'm guessing they all do as it's a necessity here.

Alyssa usually falls asleep on the walk to pick up the boys from school.  Luckily she stays asleep in the stroller for a couple of hours when we get home.

This particular day it was raining pretty hard on our way home and she had slid down a bit so her legs were outside of the stroller cover.  She has on her pink kitty raincoat and her "Charlie and Lola" wellies.