It's a ZOO out there!

We spent our first official day of summer at the local Germany tierpark (zoo). Even the cold, windy and rainy weather conditions couldn't put a damper on the high spirits of the children celebrating their freedom from the classroom for the next 3 months.

Normally when you go to the zoo you expect to see lots of animals and then hold that slight hope that they will do something extraordinary to entertain you and let you see them in true form. Today the lion did not let us down. He tickled our ears throughout the morning with his roar. Even when we were on the other side of the zoo we could hear him! I tried to capture video of his noble voice but it is not the best, you can barely hear him. But listen closely and you will hear his deep grumblings over the excited chatter of the children.

After hearing the lion this is how McKenna spent the rest of the day:

What a funny child, by the end of the day her arms were hurting. The children enjoyed the animals, the playground and the picnic lunch and then the rain came and we called it a day. What a great start to the many adventures awaiting us this summer!




So do you want to know how Mark spent his first official week of summer?! He spent Tuesday night at a KISS concert with our previous bishop. Our bishop won tickets and thought Mark would be a good companion to view the spectacle that is KISS. I told Mark that it would probably be more of a comedy than a rock and roll concert but upon his return he was pleasantly surprised with a true entertaining rock n roll show. Now they can both say, "Ya, I saw KISS live in concert once!". Then the second half of the week he was presented with the news that he will be spending 60 days deployed to Iraq next spring. Yes, it is official, although we expect the details to change about 100 times before he really heads down. I have mixed feelings about this, thankful that it is only 60 days but still it is unnerving thinking about the fact that my husband will spend any amount of his time in the war zone. I'm proud of what his is doing and he finds great satisfaction playing for the troops. SO, if anyone would like to come keep me company during March and April of 09, come on over! I'll be needing a good distraction.