Labor Day weekend in Switzerland

For our labor day weekend we traveled to Switzerland. Eric has a friend from Colorado who now lives there. The traveling there was a bit stressful as our first plane was late taking off and landed in Prague at the same time our connecting flight was scheduled to take off. We decided to run through the airport, with our fingers crossed that this plane was also late. After having to go through customs and security yet again we finally made it to our gate and slipped in before the doors closed. Yeah!!

Our friend Carolann met us at the airport and drove us to her and her husband, Thomas's home in Staafa not to far away. Keenan immediately spotted her cat as well as a wooden train set and managed to keep himself busy anytime we were in her apartment.

The next morning we set out for the zoo. With admission everyone got a bag of plain unsalted popcorn to feed the animals with the exception of a few, or to snack on...

Keenan thought the viewing deck for the giraffes was pretty darn neat but was bummed that he wasn't supposed to feed them.

Posing with the bears.
And Keenan's favorite part of the zoo... feeding the elephants! We happened to be looking at the elephants when one of the workers brought out a huge tub of carrots and apples. Since everyone else started to grab as many as they could I figured I better elbow my way through and get our share.
Keenan absolutely loved this and kept saying "one more time!"
Feeding more animals

There were also lots of little shetland pony's, pot bellied pigs, a few cows, rabbits... that all loved popcorn. Keenan had a great time feeding the animals.

More of Switzerland to follow

Frankfurt Zoo

On our second day in Germany Eric had to go to work so in the morning I took Keenan back to the same park so he could play. We grabbed a quick bite to eat for lunch and returned to the hotel room for Keenan's nap. Our room was way to hot and stuffy so I thought we would go back to the park, Keenan could sleep on a blanket in the shade while I read a book. Sounds nice but not the way things happened... he fell asleep on the way to the park and immediately woke up when I tried to pull him out of the stroller and refused to lay down and nap. On to plan B: Keenan went back to the stroller and I set out towards the zoo. I figured he would fall back asleep, which he did so when we arrived at the zoo I parked his stroller in the shade, read and enjoyed gelato while Keenan napped.

After Keenan woke up and had some gelato of his own we walked around the zoo. It was so hot and humid that much to Keenan's delight we had to stop and get icee's and other cold food/beverages often.

Keenan's favorite exhibits seemed to be the tigers and the monkeys. Here Keenan is watching the two tigers pacing back and forth... of course I couldn't get them in the picture.

The monkeys were feeling frisky and were all playing
Camels
There was a petting zoo but most of the animals had retreated back to their pens so they couldn't get mauled by little kids anymore.
And one trip around the merry-go-round.
When we finally made it back to our hotel I inquired about fans and lucky me, they had one left which made our room a lot more comforatable.

That night we went to dinner with a group Eric's co-workers to a nice German restaurant. Keenan must have been feeling hot and grumpy as he was being monster toddler, throwing tantrums and just wanting to whine and cry. Sooooo... we fixed that by ordering him a big bowl of ice-cream ASAP and wa-la Keenan was back to being happy energetic toddler. Sometimes you just have to go with the bribery...

To the zoo

Last week Keenan and I headed to the zoo with our neighbor and her kids. After navigating through the subway with three kids, two bags packed full of snacks and diapers and one stroller we made it. We made it to the zoo just in time for Keenan to fall asleep.

We met up with a few other moms and kids from the embassy. Far as I could tell the kids were way more interested in the playground then anything else. We stopped at a petting zoo that mostly contained potbellied pigs and chickens. By then Keenan had woken up and I figured I should take him in there. They sold cups of lettuce and cabbage to feed the animals. I wasn't too impressed, it stunk horribly in there. I stayed long enough to point out all the animals to Keenan then escaped.

Keenan really like looking at the big fish tanks, I had to pry him away. The standards of cleanliness in the zoo lacked a bit... quite a bit actually. I think the hippo was submerged into a square pool of green sludge that was about twice his size.

Overall Keenan wasn't too impressed by the whole exerience. He was much more interested in walking around in circles, picking up whatever garbage he could find on the ground and dodging me whenever I tried shoving him back into his stroller.
We managed to get a few pictures of most of the kids.

As my neighbor Teri and I walked out with our tired, cranky, starving and screaming children I had to chuckle a little bit. Ahhh, so this is why my parents didn't take me and my siblings to very many public outings. Man, with four of us we must have been a nightmare!