Wildpark

So I was trying to keep the boys busy and out of the house.  So Maria and I decided to go to a wildpark in Kaiserslautern with the kids, something different a little fun!

One good thing about this park is you could feed the animals.  The boys are carrying their snacks for the animals.

Julie and Michael found more bugs to hold.  Thankfully this one didn't stay with them as long.

It was really interesting, as soon as the animals heard the bags they came running, not walking.

Michael feeding the deer!!!  He was a little afraid of them biting his fingers.

This big one came charging!!!  AJ was feeding him and then he wanted to feed the other deer, but this guy always chased them off.

AJ finally stayed back a little from us and was able to feed the smaller deer.

While we were there, it ended up being feeding time.  The deer knew it and went off running for the truck, they surrounded it.  The big guy was scaring off the smaller ones again, bully.

Cute little baby warthog!

We found the smaller, nicer deer a little ways down the road.  The boys like feeding these better!

Aren't they cute?!?  The deer too!!!

They were like the bigger deer, when they heard food, they came running!!!

AJ decided to take a peak at the bulls!!!

Maria enjoyed feeding the bulls as well!!!!

There were many different sizes and colors.

The boys found some great trees to do some climbing on!

I just LOVE his smile!!!!

Julie and Michael found some more bugs to play with!

They even had buffalo there, though we couldn't feed them.

This was really fun, the lynx was playing with the kids.  When Michael started running along the fence, the lynx ran too!!  Then all the kids got into it and the lynx joined them for quite a few laps up and down the fence.

And what do the boys always find in the woods?!?  Yep, sticks and some sword fighting went along with our day!

I really liked the looks of the tunnel!!

At the end of the hike we found this little water thing - not sure what it is for and we wouldn't let the kids drink anything from it.  We had a wonderful time and it was free to go there which is even better!!  The weather was great and so was the company!!!!

Hiking

We arrived back in Germany safely, if not a lot tired!!  It was a long trip especially with a four hour layover in Amsterdam, but we made it home!!!  We all had a hard time getting our time zone changed back, but slowly we were getting back into the swing of things.  On Monday August 17th we hooked up with Maria and Julie to go for a hike in the woods!!

The boys decided before we heading into the woods to feed the ducks and swans.  They were having a great time!!!

I thought at this point Michael might  be heading into the small lake, but thankfully he was just feeding the swans and wanted to stay back because they can be mean.

AJ and Julie walking through the woods, Michael is a little ways in front of them!

And of course what does he find - a stick.  Who would have thought that!!!  LOL

Then with his stick, off the beaten path into the woods he goes!

AJ decided that he needed a stick too.  He found the biggest stick he could!!!

All three kids looking for a four leaf clover!

This was a little of the path, but I thought it was beautiful and left alone, which I like!

At first look I thought this was a tree stump.  Then with further investigation I found out that it was some sort of well.

The kids decided that they wanted to make a fort in the woods, so they spent a lot of time collecting sticks and covering to hide their fort!!

Jule and AJ decided that the sticks they were finding on the ground weren't big enough, so they decided to try and pull a small tree out of the ground.  It didn't quite work out as well as they wanted.

Michael and Julie found a bug that became their friend for a little while.  Unfortunately that poor beetle fell more times than I could count!!  LOL

The kids were checking out this big stick trying to figure out if they wanted to take it or not.

They decided they wanted to take it with them.  You can see how big it is because Julie is at the end of it!!  I told them that was not going in my van!

We arrived back to the small lake and they wanted to feed the birds again.  Those birds followed them all around the lake trying to get the food.  The swans were bullies though stealing the food from the  ducks.  It was a great day and nice to get out of the house!!!

Heading back to Germany

On Sunday, my mom and dad took the boys and I over to Sea-Tac airport.  We were going to take the boys to downtown Seattle, but when we stopped for a break I saw the news and there was a HUGE two day bicycle race that was finishing in downtown Seattle this morning.  So we decided to see what else we could find to do because it was going to be a mess with roads closed and all those extra people downtown.  So I found a place called the Fun Center and boy was it fun!!!!

The boys wanted to play laser tag.  None of us have ever played it before so we said why not.  Grandma and the boys!

Mom and I ready to take on the boys!!!  It was actually a lot of fun!!!  We did end beating the boys, but it was a tough fight!!!

The boys ran down the stairs to tell Grandpa all about it!!!  Grandpa was having his own fun playing some of the games down there.

Next came water bumper boats!!!  The boys were excited about this, they hadn't done it before.

Michael taking on the big boys!!!!  I am not sure who was winning.  lol

AJ coming to defend his brother!!!  He did a great job coming to his aid!!!!

The boys happy after cooling down in the water fight.

The boys wanted to do the trampoline next.  AJ was finally brave enough to start doing flips!!  He did a great job!!!

Michael jumping really high!!  He also was able to do flips for the first time!!  They were both so excited!!!

The boys really, really wanted to go to laser tag again and they wanted their Grandpa to do it with them.  So Grandpa reluctantly said yes, almost anything for his boys!!!  In the end he said he had lots of fun!!!!  The boys challenged Grandma and Grandpa in the arena!

The boys wanted to play a few of the games on the floor!!  Michael pulling hard to get lots of tickets!!!

AJ working on his shooting!!

Grandma even got in on the fun!!!  We had a great time and it was active for the boys before we sat for 10 hours on our first flight back to Germany!!  It was a great trip back to the states.  We all had a blast in everything we did!!!  We love being in Germany, but we also LOVE being with family!!!