Four Kids and a Candy Store

Yesterday was another beautiful fall day and we decided to head to the Rynek (the Market Square in downtown Krakow) for a visit to a candy store called Ciuciu (pronounced choo-choo). We had heard about this candy store from a few different people. This store makes hand-crafted candies, and they do demonstrations in the store where you can watch the candy-making process. As you can imagine, the boys were pretty excited about a field trip to a candy store. Here they are outside the store before the demonstration started:


We arrived at the store a little early, and had twenty minutes before the show started. So we decided to walk around the Rynek for a few minutes while we waited. The Rynek is such a beautiful area, and there's always something entertaining to do there. Like climb inside a giant head.....
...or watch clowns walk on stilts and make balloon animals.

After our stroll through the square, we headed back to Ciucui to check out the demonstration. (Isaac gives candy store field trip a big thumbs-up.)
Naomi had a great view of the demonstration from Luke's shoulders, but she was so upset by not getting to immediately eat all the candy she saw that she got a little fussy. I ended up taking her to the back of the store where she continually said "Bey!" (translation: Please!) at every bag of candy she saw.
Luke and the boys stayed up front and watched the demonstration. Luke took a bunch of pictures of the process:

After the show, we let the boys pick out some flavors to take home. They were very excited.

Ciuciu was a very fun place to visit, and I'm sure we'll be back!

Fall Fun

We've done a lot of fun things over the last few weeks. We had this guy come visit for a few days...

(Clayton is a friend of ours from our church back home. We LOVED having him stay with us.)

We spent three days in Vienna. Very fun weekend!

(I put an entire album of pictures from Vienna on Facebook. After loading them all on Facebook I didn't have the energy to do it all over again on the blog. I'm kind of a lazy blogger, but since most of our blog readers are also friends on Facebook I didn't figure it was too big of a deal.)

And we have been LOVING this amazing fall weather we have been having. Fall is beautiful here! There are so many trees in Krakow, and the leaves are so colorful. Our favorite trail is lined with huge trees and now that the leaves are falling, the paths are covered with leaves. The boys had a lot of fun playing in them on our walk today. Here's some of my favorite shots:

Horseback Riding

Last weekend we went to a nearby horse stable so Isaac and Caleb could each have a horseback riding lesson. We learned from another home-school family that this particular stable has an instructor that speaks great English and is good with kids. We were amazed at how affordable private lessons are and decided to give it a try. They loved it and have already asked when we can go back. The stable has an heated arena where you can take lessons in the winter, so this is something we can do year-round. We might try to do it once a month. Here's some pictures from their lessons....

The Krakow Zoo

Last weekend we decided to check out the Krakow Zoo. We'd heard good things about it, and it was a beautiful fall day that seemed just right for a zoo outing. The zoo here is in the middle of Wolski Forest which is BEAUTIFUL. Hiking through the forest to get to the zoo was definitely my favorite part. We learned after we left the zoo that we didn't have to hike through the forest to get to the zoo. There is a bus stop down by the parking lot where you can catch a ride to the entrance. Luke and I were glad we hiked it though, because it was a beautiful trail and really good exercise. I would guess we hiked at least a mile, maybe two, and it was almost all uphill. Isaac and Caleb were not as excited about the hike and decided partway through they needed to take a rest.

Once we got to the top, there were a few outdoor restaurants and places to walk around.

Here are the boys waiting to get inside the zoo. They were skeptical that this zoo was going to be worth the hike they endured to get up there.
We had heard that European zoos were very different than zoos in America. American zoos build these huge, lush habitats for the animals. This is great for the animals, but sometimes makes it hard for the visitors to get close-up looks. In Europe (at least in Poland) this is different. The animals are in much smaller habitats (some are actually just in large cages) and you get very close to them. I could practically reach out and touch these pink flamingoes...
And if you look in the water, you'll see the backs of three hippos. All that was separating us from these hippos was a deep ditch and a single wired electrical fence.

This guy did not seem happy to be there.

One of our favorite animals was this condor. He was HUGE!

And then when he showed up his wingspan we were really impressed.

The camels were pretty neat to see.

Andrew checking out some animals.

Naomi enjoyed riding around in her stroller.

A fun time was had by all!

Our Trail

One of the great things about this city is there are an abundance of trails that are great for hiking. The weather has been beautiful here, so we have been trying to take advantage of the fall sunshine while we can. Here's some shots from our walk today....this path is one of my favorite places in the city.