Tag: zoo

Party at the Zoo

We enjoyed an incredible day today at the zoo with our friends, celebrating both Titus’s 5th birthday along with Gabe and Alex (twins) who turned 4. The weather couldn’t have been better and I’ve even got a little redness on my arms and neck to prove the sun was out. The day started at 10:00 at the zoo and we stayed until a little after 2:00. We brought cupcakes and met a bunch of other families “near the goats” inside the zoo. Everyone joined in singing happy birthday to Titus and then we did another round of singing for Gabe and Alex. After cupcakes and singing everyone headed in to the park and we mostly lost the other groups because we grabbed lunch with our kids, but we still had a great time with Steve and Judy and just walking around enjoying the animals. I got a ton of photos, so here they are!

Let’s pause here a moment for a little story. Above is a photo of Titus eating a hot dog during lunch. Shortly after he was playing on the playground behind him. He had brought a toy car with him that he got for his birthday and was taking it up and down the slide. But then he started crying and came over to use saying he lost his car. I asked him what happened and he said, “That big boy took it.” I asked him which kid and he pointed, so I walked up to the kid and said, “Kde je auto?” or “Where is the car?” He immediately said, “Nevim! Nevim” or “I don’t know. I don’t know.” We walked around and looked for a while, but were unable to find the car. I consider it a lost cause and even if the boy had it, I wasn’t going to dig through his pockets to get it. But that didn’t sit well with Bethany so she walked over and asked the same questions, except she found another little girl to help her talk to the boy. Finally, after a few minutes the boy went to his backpack and gave back the car. I joked that Bethany was in “mom mode” there for a minute and no language barrier was going to get in the way of her getting that car back!

Ok… back to the photos

Titus’ friends Beni and Caleb got him gifts that we opened in the parking lot just before we left. Beni had been talking about it all day and was so excited to give Titus a present. It was really sweet and both Caleb and Beni were asking Titus, “Is this the best day ever?!” It was fun to see them all so excited about Legos and Spiderman and Titus was really blessed. Thanks everyone for making it such a special time for Titus and our family!

Tags birthday, friends, fun, kids, party, Titus, zoo

365 Czech Republic

Sunday Grab Bag

On my fifth birthday my mom brought my kindergarten class “grab bags.” They were brown paper bags filled with stuff from a little convenience story, maybe even a dollar store. I remember it being pretty fun to reach in and not know what was in there. Today was a bit like this. It was pretty normal Sunday, but it came with a few surprises.

This morning we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the church here Český Těšín and Dave Patty was asked to preach. Bethany didn’t feel great this morning and the kids still had coughs so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go or need to stay home and help. I ended up going, but I was a little late and got there while they were singing. Even though we don’t live far, I drove, but that proved to be a poor decision because with so many visitors it took me a while to find a place to park. The same was true when I got inside…no place to sit. It was absolutely packed inside! A nice man spoke to me in Czech, offering me a seat in the front row, but I really didn’t want to be a distraction on such a big day so I just stayed in the foyer area and listened through the speakers. Dave preached in Czech so just like last night, I didn’t really know what was going on and since I wasn’t sitting next to anyone I couldn’t really get the gist so I basically just tried to see if I recognize any of the words. I trust Dave preached a great message and that the body was edified.

After church…we went to the zoo? This is why I say it was a grab bag. We had originally planned on going to the zoo yesterday, but everyone just wasn’t feeling good so we canceled that plan. Bethany asked me today if we could go because she felt like we’re going to run out of good weather like we’ve been having and that made sense to me so we went for it. We have annual passes, so it doesn’t cost us anything and the weather was so nice it really turned out to be a great time outside. Our kids love the zoo here and I’ve mentioned before, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that there’s like fifteen parks in it! There was still one thing scheduled tonight so around 3:30pm we left the zoo and headed home.

We’ve been trying for a few weeks now to schedule some time to take photos of our new friends Romi and Pichal, with their new baby Ondra. Today seemed like a great time for that and with the sun shining it’s great light for family photos. I had a great time photographing them. They are such an easy-going family which makes it nice to take photos of them and just enjoy the time together. Here’s a few shots:

It’s fun to open up a grab bag once in a while.

Tags church, friends, photos, zoo

365 Czech Republic

The Zoo Part Two

Bethany and the kids hit the zoo today for the second time since we got here. Last time (aka: Zoo Part One) we went it was really fun, but also really hot. But today they had great weather and since we have annual passes it’s just really the cost to drive and park. The family dropped me off at the J.V. offices and half way there we realized we forgot the stroller. Thankfully our friends John and Erin let us borrow there’s for the day so that was a huge blessing.

In lieu of a normal blog with the full story, we’re just going to post the photos from today’s adventure to the zoo, part two (some descriptions are below the photos):

Go baby elephant, go!

If you look closely at the above photo you’ll realize just how close our kids are to the lions.

And this (above) is a shot that Titus got of the lion as he was walking away.

I love that Bethany took photos the pretty things the zoo has.

Remember these? You put the coin in and watch going round and round. So fun.

Avery loves the flamingos! She kept telling me that she was going to show Titus how to stand like one.

The kids zonked out on the drive home. Great day and I’m glad the family had so much fun!

Tags animals, family, kids, zoo

365 Czech Republic

Church and the Zoo

Another Sunday in Czech and another great day with God’s people. Our church here in Czech has long been partnering with an American church and Welsh church to put on an English camp near our town. Today those two churches (the American and Welsh churches) came to our church to share about this past week’s camp and what God had done. In the above video, the whole camp sang “10,000 Reasons” and our friends said it was the first time they had ever heard an English song in this church since they came here three years ago. What’s neat too is that Bethany said she had prayed this morning that they would sing a song she knew the melody too. Obviously, the Lord provided the melody and the language. Amazingly, they also sang “How Great Thou Art” in Czech later in the service!

Today our friends Casey and Kristin (along with their two boys) took us to the zoo in Ostrava! We had talked about it earlier in the week and we thought this Sunday would be a good time to go and it definitely was. Although it was a little hot outside, we had a great time. The funny thing about the zoo here is it’s a whole lot more than a zoo. It’s very kid friendly and there must be a dozen little parks as well as water play areas. The kids loved it! We probably spent 70% of our time playing and the other 30% looking at animals. The Ostrava zoo is very nice and the prices of food and drinks is super reasonable so we enjoyed a lunch together as well. It was a really fun day enjoying the weather, friends, and the amazing animals that God created. Here’s a bunch of photos from our day.

Tags animals, church, kids, zoo