What we did today:

Today, I was a guest on the traditional boys Saturday out. You may have been told before that Kevin and Bremen usually spend Saturdays together, leaving me at home to sleep in or do...whatever. Today I had the privilage to join them on their trek to Aupark (a big mall with a playground and park behind it).

We began by parking by the river and walking across the UFO bridge to downtown, where the boys had a race through the pedestrian zone. We had lunch at McDonald's (a sin, I know) and learned a bit of trivia about bees (did you know it takes 2 million bees to make enough honey to fill one jar?).

Then we walked back across the bridge to the park. Passing the lounging police officers, we proceeded to kick everything in view, rocks, signs, statues, etc... walked on a bunch of displaced cooblestones, a bench, and eventually the path.

As you can see by the other dad and kid in the photo, it's not uncommon for dads to take their kids out by themselves in Slovakia. My friend Sharon and I used to wonder what kind of jobs these dads had, since we often saw them out with their kids in the middle of the week in the middle of the day quite often.

I made Kevin pose with this building. If you ask Bremen what this building is, he will tell you: It's Daddy's new work when they're done building it. That's right, folks, AT&T will be moving into this nice new shiny building in the new year (they're getting kicked out of their old building-mafia problems-not really, but the landlord did threaten to baricade the doors on them-Life is never simple for the AT&T Slovakia Country Manager).

Next we had to stop and let Bremen have a laughing fit, because when he crouched down (waiting for us to take the picture with the building), he farted. BOYS!

Then I saw this little advert for keeping Slovakia beautiful and thought I would share it with you all (okay, so I'm not such a girlie girl).

Next stop: Playground. We first came to this playground not long after we moved here. Bremen hadn't turned 2 years old yet and he was still in diapers.

He used to be so scared of the climbing equiptment that he couldn't walk on it on his own, and some points he wouldn't even attempt with help.

As you can see his play confidence has improved slightly as the years have passed.

Kevin, tired (can't imagine why, he actually took a 2 hour nap after we got back home-Kevin did-not Bremen), tried to take a break, but...

Bremen came over and said: Daddy play with me! So, he chased him around the playground, earning bewildered looks from all the other dads and their kids. Slovaks don't play like Kevin (actually, I'm not sure any nationality does).

Bremen's training for his future career as a pole dancer:

Actually, if you ask him what job he wants when he grows up, lately his response will be: I want to work at the CARWASH! That's due to his favorite CD: Bob and Larry sing the 70's (VeggieTales). After a minor shopping trip (they have a grocery store in the mall-we needed Pepsi light), he headed back through the park to our car.

Kevin found a weeping willow stick and wisely handed it to Bremen, who instantly began whipping him with it. OK New Rule: No whipping people. He got very good at using the whip-he said it was for horses.

Next he started running with his eyes closed saying: I can't see, I'm blind. We finally made it back to our car (no police to give us a parking ticket (I received my first parking ticket from a Slovak cop this week. Very embarrassing as I had the missionaries there to witness it. But at least they were able to translate for me.))

Well, I'm just one of the guys now.

Home Sweet Home!

Not looking forward to spending 14 hours on an airplane, and Although he will probably say he won't miss Kevin (he said that last time we went to the US) I know Bremen will miss his Daddy tremendously for the next 2 weeks.