K-town Zoo!

After the trip to L&D on Saturday evening, I found myself granting myself a little more freedom. If those contractions weren't causing labor, what would? During the nearly three weeks I have spent here in Germany, I have limited my walking/exercising in fear that labor might result. But now, at 33 weeks, I felt a bit of release. I was going to take the boys to the zoo with Veronica on Monday, but the weather indicated Monday would be a rainy day. So, I woke up on Sunday, and decided to head out solo with the boys as Veronica had slept very poorly and wasn't feeling up to adventure. (On a sidenote, I have been debating finding a church here to attend on Sunday mornings. I am not sure I want to introduce the boys to a new nursery during such a short time away.)

Our stroller fits into our "new" rental car which is why we had put off the zoo during the last few weeks. The only difficulty was the fact that our GPS is only speaking in German. I need to get back to the rental car place and talk to them as it says we need a CD to get it to English, but the said-CD (in the glove compartment) won't go into the CD player. Anyways. A tangent. But I say all that to say that I had to try to gather where I needed to go based on the line on the screen, not the voice talking to me.

A short fifteen minutes later though, I arrived, and the boys and I had a wonderful morning. It only cost $6.50 (Euroes) for me to get in. The boys were free. It was a very small zoo, but we still had a wonderful day -- just the three of us. Since I was by myself, I didn't take a lot of photos, but here are a few that I managed with my small, more compact camera. They aren't Veronica-level, but I was happy with my effort.

Can you believe I managed a photo of them together, holding hands (which I asked them to do) and both "sorta" looking at the camera. No small feat. I did try to get them onto the bridge behind them in this photo, but we finally compromised on the rock they are standing on here.

Elijah showing off his treasures. He walked around with that yellow flower during the second half of the day. He also got very attached to these pine cones on one branch as well.

I don't think they really know how to "put your arm around each other." This was the result. We'll have to work on that.

We fed the goats (and I got my foot majorly stepped on!), saw the zebras, chased the birds (and laughed as Elijah started crying and running in fear when the bird decided to turn around and chase him), ooohed at the peacocks, played on the playground, and enjoyed a snack of choice on the way out. (Isaac chose ice cream. Elijah chose a lollipop. Quite a usual selection.) (We also visited the restroom with Elijah about a half dozen times. Man that kid has to go a lot!

I had such a fantastic time with both of my boys that morning. But I was nagged by two separate emotions. The first was that I missed JB terribly. He would have loved to be there with us. So many times I said, "I don't know what that is called. Daddy would be able to tell us."

The second emotion was that this baby, while incredibly welcome to our family, will change us. We will not be who we are now anymore. There will be another child in the family. I won't be able to just say, "the boys" anymore. I'll have to say "the kids." I am excited for her to get here but really wanting to enjoy the last few weeks with just me and the boys.