Stuttgart Zoo, the hunt for elephants and polar bears

Bedtime was so late last night, that the girls took a bath this morning.

Miss Tia and Miss Pia on the metro.

(look how nice and clean it is! its quiet too! we live a mile away from our metro & can hear it loud and clear! the Andersons live 500 feet away & we didnt even know the metro passed nearby!)

The girls hover over the fish. I was sure someone was going to fall in!

Max and Pia check out birds in the fogelhaus.

Look, it's a sloth.

Kevin and Tia

March of the penguins.

Our fearless tour guide!

We had front rows seats of Animal Planet on HDTV. Okay not really, but we saw live and up close the monkeys humping and it was weird. I mean, I know that birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, but... it was really strange. because im just that type of girl, im gonna share the scene with you...there were 2 monkeys on a log and they would go at it. all the other monkeys watched, one tried to get in on the action, the girl monkey tried to run away and get with another monkey (who she was watching during the whole time she was copulating with the first monkey), and a 4th monkey tried to poke his head into the middle and see what was going on down there. and yet we all stood there and watched. ps i didnt wanna be too voyeuristic, the monkeys in the pic are just watching, not bumping nasties).

Tiger compoud.

Apparently you cant sue the zoo if you tease the tiger, it stalks you and then mangles you.

Tia's favorites were the elepants.

Tia found the donkey so adorable she kissed him. Germy, but cute.

The girls loved the petting zoo.

I know that pictures are worth a thousand words, but I always have an army of my own to add ... The Andersons choose not to use baby words to communicate going to the bathroom with their daughter. She is very adult in her vernacular. I'm sure it took lots of hard work and repetition to build up and understand and use the correct terminology. And in one visit to the zoo, the Parisi Family ruined EVERYTHING! Sorry Andersons! Just as the above picture was taken, little pellets shoot out and I shout shout 'EWWWW, watch out! it's making raisins!' and so of course Tia and Pia, point, laugh and repeat it over and over again. Which probably wouldnt be so bad, if not compounded by the story at the end of this entry.

When I told Pia that we were going to Germany she was so excited. For some reason we got on the subject of how it was colder there than in Italy and after that she was fixated that there were polar bears at Miss Tia's house.

The girls stood fascinated in front of the polar bears.

Grrrr! Wild Animals!

This is a picture of a beaver taking a dive. The zoo is set up in a way that most of the animals have their simulated natural environment outside. If they go in the water too, there is a glass area underneath where you can watch the animals swim and play. Or if they live underground in a cave, you can see that section too. The zoo was very thought out. (Altho there is the fact that there was very little seperating the people from the big cats - if you were stupid enough and wanted to dangle your arm in front of the jaguar, you could have. if you wanted to hop the fence and tease the tigers, you could do that too, very very easily. but remember you cant sue if something happens to you, so i guess people tend not to).

big pond with giant lily pads.

there was a picture of a toddler sitting on one of these and it stayed afloat!

Pink Flamingos

Miss Tia and Pia loved to run and chase each other.

Parisis and Andersons take on the Zoo.apologies in advanced to the protagonist of tonights bedtime story. it was the weekend and therefore fewer trains come and go. we had 3 trains to catch. we caught the first one, but there was a long wait for the second one (and kevin and michelle saw that there we would have very little time to catch the 3rd one). waiting in the train station wasnt so bad, it was all so clean and tidy. no beggars or stinky people. everyone respects personal space. we were all pretty pooped out. the girls especially, they had run around the zoo all day. by now, they sat in there strollers very quietly and were so good. little miss tia with her finger in her mouth was so adorable. finally, the 2nd train came. we got on, it was fairly empty, but having 2 strollers we stood near the empty space in front of the doors in towards back. (here is a bit of useless info...on the german metro, there is a little section in some trains for 'first class,' but there really isnt a difference between 1st and 2nd class. the seats the same but there is a piece of glass that seperates them. basically we were standing in front of that 1st class because no one was using it). we were all kind of quiet and staring of into space because we were so tired. then quiet and calmly, kevin starts pulling out jackets from under the stroller. a few seconds pass before he looks up, starts laughing and says "She said, 'Daddy, I went shi-shi.'" We were all cracking up. As for me, I dont know which was funnier the stream trickling towards our feet and down to first class or the fact that the Japanese word for pee has gone so international. Sorry Tia, I couldnt help it, I had to take a picture!

Weiner Schnizel, Apparently Has Nothing To Do With Hot Dogs

Blurry picture of the brewery and band.
Too bad we werent able to get a picture of the guy dancing in lederhosen

tiki tiki tiki, hoy hoy hoy.
(the German version of when i say 'hey', you say 'ho')

The kids jump on the tables and sing and dance to their favorite songs. As the night goes on more and more people get up on the tables. This picture was taken early on. (to be honest, all the other tables that had little kids had already left and they were probably in bed. instead we forced the andersons into our italian habits of eating late and Tia and Pia were the only little ones left). I told Kevin if he and I were legally able to drink at 16, we'd probably be passed out under the tables, not on top of them!

Michelle and Tia lower their heads in prayer,
as they realize that Kevin has been possessed by Beer Demons.

...yet another family foto where Sophia looks at something in the distance.
(and from the looks of it, the demons were possessing Max too!)

Prost! (what a great picture of the people underneath the glasses, too bad we dont know them).

This is the real weiner schnizel. It is a breaded and fried veal cutlet and some french fries, typical pub grub. It was darn good! We joked that the lemon, sprig of parsley and ketchup must be considered veggies.

Okay here is tonight's bedtime story. As everyone knows, I don't like to drive in Italy! But being as how we were in Germany and max drank a beer the size of Sophia, I got handed the keys. Hooray! Except...the car is new, we got it just before Sophia and I went back to Cali and I couldn't figure out to how to adjust the seat. Apparently Max has long legs and short arms, the chair was pushed back as far as possible and the seat back was leaning forward as much as possible. I pulled up the seat as close to the steering wheel as possible, - apparently I have short legs and long arms, so I needed lean the seat back a little (which is the part i couldn't figure out how to do). There was a dial at the bottom of the seat, which i turned and turned , but it just made my butt go down and the legs tilt up towards the knees. As I pull out of the brewery drive way, Max has the brilliant idea to 'help' me, and he YANKS the handle which pulls the whole seat forward and backward. my feet no longer touch the pedals. I grunt, swear and mutter a very sarcastic thanks. Since the car is stick, the momentum of the car is going forward, it is all i can do to get the seat just barely close enough to touch the pedals again. We are in Germany, where there are only round-abouts and no stop signs -I'm trying to follow the Andersons and there are cars behind me. I never got the chance to correctly adjust the seat again. So I drove home with the seat pushing my back forward (my nose touching the steering wheel), my butt sunk low to the ground, my knees up to my chest and stretching my toes to touch the pedals...can we not have a normal experience?? even a short and simple drive always has to turn into a series of follies!

The Next Day....

Our Heroes, the Andersons, woke up early, took our daughter downstairs, got her to use the potty and made breakfast for everyone! We were thinking about going to the Zoo or the Botanical Gardens in Stuttgart center, but it was raining. Instead the girls got on the golashes and raincoats and we took a stroll in downtown Holzgerlingen, where the Andersons live.

Max enjoys his American breakfast in Germany!

Not one puddle was left unsplashed after Tia and Pia were done!

Kevin, leans casually against the owl.
Tia looks cautiously to see if they owl will hold them up, she doesnt look convinced!

It's hard to believe the girls just met that morning, they acted as if they had been BFFs forever!

what? no more puddles to splash? thats okay, we'll just chase each other instead!

ps what is the story about the gigantic owls and ravens everywhere? i think kevin said that, in order to celebrate the city's 100th(?) anniversary- people, businesses, stores, etc each commissioned the city's symbol to be decorated in a way that represented itself. the symbols being the raven and owl. the electronics store had an owl with plugs painted all over it, the pharmacy hand one painted with millions of pills, but i have no idea what the ones with the mouths is all about (maybe that one was for the dentist).