Our first German Easter

 Robin and Lanis (Nahlia's cousins), practicing throwing their boomerangs.

 Lanis on a go-cart, while Nahlia gets out of the way!

 Robin, Lanis, and Oma.

 Another trip to the zoo - oh yes!  And this time she got the royal treatment he he!

 A polar bear - brown bear cross.... poor thing looked bored in there.  :(

 Nahlia loves 'brellas' :)

...and shopping!

 Making shapes with 'zopf' dough (plaited bread).

 And our creations for breakfast the next morning :)

 Nahlia's first Easter egg hunt!!

 First she found the real eggs....

 Then we went looking for the chocolate eggs .... she caught on fast!  The first shiny wrapped chocolate egg that we found, she said was a beetle... which is fair enough because no-one would expect to find chocolate under shiny green foil lying in the grass.

And that was Easter.... a very busy week and a half with Ulf's oldest brother Bjoern and his family and his youngest brother Gunnar, as well as the three of us and his parents, all in the one house!  On Easter Sunday Emma nicked off after the Easter egg hunt and got a few bargains at a local flea market.  Nahlia loved having her cousins around and still talks about them now....   For now we're happily enjoying a quiet household, once again.

Nahlia's 2nd Birthday!!

 Unwrapping her present.... the fabric butterfly 'wrapping paper' later became her birthday dress! :)

 A special treat - Nahlia's been asking for strawberries a lot lately, so we had strawberries and creme fraiche in the park for her.  (Strawberries are acidic, so we normally avoid them as they cause reflux for Nahlia.)

 Climbing climbing climbing.... having fun at the playground...

 Her birthday party!!  With her cousin Elisabeth, and a new friend Kawika.... and their parents of course.

 Nahlia received a family annual pass to the local zoo, so we had a fun day out with the animals!

Adding something beautiful to our 'family canvas', a birthday tradition.

D-Day came... flying to Germany!

 Nahlia slept through the changeover at Singapore.... lucky girl, I wish I could have slept through it too!

 Nahlia discovered a forgotten pair of slippers on the plane when we departed at Dubai... it made for a good distraction.

 We made it!  Tired in all senses of the word, we excitedly made our way through Amsterdam airport to meet Ulf"s parents and Gunnar in the carpark!

 Exploring our new 'town'... several of the playgrounds in Bad Essen... not bad at all!

 We discovered an organic farm nearby that sells raw milk, meat, eggs and other goodies direct to the public.  To our delight, it was feeding time for this little lamb and Nahlia had a turn!

 Spring is here!  It's still very cold, but the flowers and new leaves on the trees are beautiful to see right now.... Perfect for a little explorer....who has to pick the pretty flowers!

 Ulf and Opa working in the vege garden, to get it ready for spring planting.... exciting!  I even got three holes for planting out pumpkins, which went in a week later!  So exciting!!!  I really miss pumpkins here... they're only available when in season. :(

Our new 'kitchenette'.... which used to be Ulf's bedroom before he left home... complete with a single induction cooktop, a small fridge, a wardrobe as our kitchen cupboard, and a desk as our table.

By looking at these photos, you would think that we're having a holiday here, but we're totally not!  Since we arrived we've been busy like crazy!!  All of the upstairs bedrooms were still full of books, clothes, memorabilia and just stuff from Ulf and his brothers.  So before we could 'move in', we had to empty all the cupboards and take the boxes of stuff to the attic; dust everything; rearrange the furniture; and then we could empty our suitcases [after ten months on the road!], unpack our shipped boxes that had been waiting for us; put things in order; empty the boxes in the attic and our trunk; put things in order again.... and somehow things needed to be 'ordered' a few more times and still now it feels like things are not quite in place, but that will come in time.

And then we had to celebrate Nahlia's 2nd birthday!!!  Yay!!  I'll post photos of that separately.

And after that it was back to work!!  As we were starting our kitchen and pantry almost from scratch, we needed to stock up a bit, so we're slowly finding all of our necessary kitchen and pantry items.  We are borrowing some things from Ulf's parents until we find suitable and desirable kitchen stuff (our choice of a dinner set and stuff like that)... things here are also quite expensive to buy new, so we're taking our time to find affordable things, or kind of waiting for them to find us!  We also rely on having a few meals in the freezer for lazy days and busy days when we have no time or energy to cook.  So over the last week or so, I've managed to stock the freezer with frittata, vegetable soup, and lamb casserole.  It feels so good to have something in there to fall back on! 

And then there's the paperwork.... only two days ago we managed to register at the local council that we live here (a bit like changing the address on your driver's licence in Aust.).... which is something that you're supposed to do as soon as you get here.... but oh well, we said we were on holiday in the beginning. :)  Now we have loads of admin tasks ahead of us.... applying for family benefits here, getting medical insurance (there's no free medical benefits here), finding a new bank account (as our current one is way too expensive), getting my visa, and much much more!

In general we love it here... we know we're in the right place and we're enjoying a new relationship with Ulf's parents and watching Nahlia warm to them.  She's also starting to speak German already!!!  She says hot, good morning and thank you very much to Ulf's parents.  I've been feeling a bit homesick already, partly because I know that we'll be here for the long term - it's a serious commitment - partly I miss my Australian girlfriends, most of whom I haven't seen for the last ten months [it's been hard to let them go :( ], and partly because of all the differences I'm experiencing here.  It will take time to let go of Australia as my home, but I know that I will 'find my feet' here again.

Alice Springs - unbelievable!!

So it might seem like a strange time to do it, but better late than never!!  I've been wanting to visit my dear friend Kristin Gounder in the NT for some time now, but as flights to that part of Australia are quite expensive, I put the idea out of my mind.  But it didn't leave my heart... I had a few dreams about my friend during our Wwoofing trip and when we got to Atherton I was going to burst!  But God was already a few steps ahead of me... when I checked for flights again they were almost half price!!  So Nahlia and I set off on an Alice Springs adventure!!

 Nahlia's first time on an aeroplane!!

 Holding up a dead cicada... the sand is a dry riverbed, apparently which has been dry for many years.

 Simpson's Gap, one of the many gaps in the McDonalds Ranges, which run 400kms east and 400kms west of Alice Springs, in several ridges.

 Kristin with Ellia, her youngest, and Nahlia.  It actually rained on this day and the rain was cold!

 The McDonald Ranges, from the bottom of a slide.

 Galahs, who were grazing on the school grounds.  The only green areas in Alice are those that are regularly watered.

 Hand-feeding Rock Wallabies!!!  That was a definite highlight!

 Ellia, Avishai, and Nahlia.

 A tiny joey pokes it's head out!

 Sunset at Anzac Hill.

The three again... they had fun running around the monument.

Wow, what can I say??!!  Our week in Alice Springs was exactly what I needed, when I needed it.... refreshing, yet intense (Nahlia continued to have reflux issues), a time-out from my daily routine (it was such a treat to not have to cook three meals a day, everyday!!), and it gave me the time I needed to dig deeper with God again and let go of some emotional tension which had been building up during our long journey.  So thank you to dear Kristin, Shalvin, Avashai and Ellia for having us in your home and giving me the space and time that I needed!