So much to do in Deutchland

This place is in Germany-and I REALLLLY want to go there! We went to the HALLe, Zoo this past weekend while Matt was gone. There is a family in our ward and they aRE American! They're dad is from Germany, but they have been living in Utah for the past 10 years, and are in Germany for a few years for school. They have 4 adorable kids, and they all speak perfect English, and I think perfect German (I can't understand so I wouldn't really know) Anyway, they invited me to go to the zoo with them, and then I spent the night at their house so I didn't have the long drive to church in the morning. Colton LOVED them! They were all soo nice with him, and shared some of their stuffed animals with him (Even though he slobbered all over them)
I was also realllly proud of myself for driving everywhere, in my stick shift car (to Halle and back twice), with the crazy German signs, in the rain one time! I felt Really brave! Another great moment is when I finally got my IPOD to work in the car-- and I got to listen to some of my favorite songs (they play a lot of American music on the radio, just not really any country music) I sang the ENTIRE way to Halle (40 minutes) and was sooo happy. Colton seemed to like it because he didn't even play with his toys, just listened to me (not that it sounded good)
Here is a view from the zoo. It was probably the most beautiful zoo I have seen because of alll of the trees. We had a lot of fun

Here is another shot, I love this because the leaves are started to change colors a little bit. This is something I missed from living in Georgia!

Do the Tigers normally sit this close?? It was funny because all of the animals seemed really active, and I don't remember it ever being this way. Jodi said she noticed the same thing when they came to this zoo...they must give something special to their animals??

Colton peeking over the edge at the penguins. There was one penguin who swam back and forth in front of us for 20 minutes, and Colton would not keep his eyes off of him! Jodi is standing to the right with her cute little 2 year old girl, Heidi.

Another shot of Colton with the penguins

We went into the zoo store afterwards, and Colton was playing with this giraffe...I didn't notice but he must have put his mouth on it, because the store owner came over and grabbed it from him, and moved away and was saying stuff in German. After she left, I asked one of the boys we were with what she said, and he said, "She said you can't eat the animals, or you have to buy them!" I couldn't help but laugh.

After Matt returned from his long trip- 3 game weekend, he got 2 days off!!! Wahooo. We woke up Monday morning, and his back was hurting him really bad (he felt like he couldn't move). Talk about ruining our fun day!! It was nice though because Colton and I had a busy weekend, so we relaxed all day and Colton took two 2 hour naps!! Heaven!! That night we went and had a "game night" at our friends Sylke and Christian's house. They made us a yummy Mexican dinner..and then showed us a few of their games, and we showed them ours. I think the 2 hit games of the night were, Spoons (Laffels) and SORRY (i can't remember what the game was called in German) Anyway- we had soo much fun, and Colton sat in his high chair loving watching us play.

Matt's 2nd day off he got to go have a Wonderful massage on his back from his trainer, who also went to massage therapy school (I want my own trainer) Anyway, so he was feeling a little better, so we went to see the Mall in Leipzig (a little outside of Leipzig, only 15 minutes away from our house) Here is Matt and Colton ready to go

We found a TOYS R US in the mall...wahhoo! Colton got his first horse ride!!

So, my mother who is coming in a month showed us the Halloween costume she bought for Colton (a tiger), so Matt insisted that we take a picture of Colton with the tiger because he was going to be a tiger. It is so funny, because at the TOYS R US, they had a big row of Stuffed animals, called Animal Alley (all of them might have this, I don't remember) But Colton got SO excited when he saw it, so we walked by every animal and let Colton touch them (but not eat incase we got yelled at again). I think his favorite toys are stuffed animals!

Anyway, it has been another fun week! I can't believe we have been here over a month!! It has gone by fast some days, and slow other days. Hopefully we don't get too settled in, or I don't know if we'll be able to leave in 8 more months..hehe!

The people in our ward continue to be soo nice. Colton and I were invited to go have lunch after church this past Sunday with a family who has twin boys who are 1 1/2 years old. They spoke very good English, which is always a plus. We just continue to be so blessed since we got here and are sooo grateful for all of the people we have met here! The experience wouldn't be the same without all of them, and without eachother!! I LOVE and Treasure the time we can spend with the 3 of us right now! I don't think we will ever have this opportunity again in our lives.

ANyway-here is my little nerd playing on the couch (it's his mini-playground)