German Colony and The Monster

I have taken on most of the driving since we've been here. First I would like to say I am grateful they don't drive on the other side of the road. It is a bit crazy. The stop lights turn yellow before they turn green and the car behind you starts honking when the yellow light goes on before you can even go. I am testing my driving skills and feeling a bit more confident. But I am still terribly lost here. I get lost at least once each time we go out. We didn't rent the GPS because it was super expensive and we figured we could buy one for the same price. And our phones aren't working, so we left with our maps skills and they are only average at best. So we will decided it was best for our marriage if we bought a GPS. :)

For example, we decided to go over to the German colony in Jerusalem. Seth and I had visited there last fall and we new it was a fun place to walk around and have lunch. We headed out and what would normally take us a 15-20 minute drive, took over an hour. We got serious lost. I think we might have circled the German colony twice. Not really, but it took us a long time and we had one kid get car sick (Jayne, the only one that gets car sick) and another fall asleep(Jake). But we finally made it. The kids saw the Waffle Factory and begged to eat there. It ended up having fantastic salads, and honestly all I wanted was for my little kids to eat something. Jayne and Jake aren't eating very well and they look so scrawny. So I thought for sure waffles served with whip cream, syrup, and a scoop of ice cream on top would do the trick. Nope. They barely ate the ice cream. But the big kids enjoyed their food and the adults had awesome food. Ellie said she was sure Papa Hale would love this place.

 After our delicious meal, we walked up to a park called Liberty Park. It was made for the U.S. Centennial and there we found a replica of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. Who knew? Not us, we just found the park by accident.

It had beautiful green arch ways that went up the center of the park. 

We even found this blue dragon structure to play on. 

At the top of the park was an amphitheater. I think it was called the Train Theater. It was really lovely and it was open, so we went inside and the kids took stage. 

Ellie and Jayne tested out the acoustics of the theater with a couple Taylor Swift songs.

Jake gave a fire knife performance  (thanks to Hawaii) with a plastic tube he found.

  The Monster

We have been to a couple parks since we have been here and we are really impressed with extreme playgrounds. Sam came home from one and said the US would not allow the extreme slide that they just went on because someone would sue when they got hurt. But we are game for some black diamond playgrounds. Here is what they call the Monster. We see it daily. In fact we live in the neighborhood right behind the Monster. It is a landmark. The slide is kind of extreme. I even took a ride just to say I did it. There is a review online telling which slide is the fastest.  

After they hesitated to go down the first time, they quickly ran back up again.

Grandma Jannie was a rock-star and took Jake for his first and only ride down the super slide.

 While sitting and watching the kids slide, we started a conversation with this nice lady, Noa. She brought her 6 children to slide the Monster as well. She has 5 boys and 1 girl just like Jannie. She was so cute and we spoke with her until we left.