Quick Boys Update

It seems like it's been a bit since I've given an update on my guys!

School continues to go well for Nate, so well in fact that he was chosen Student of the Month for this month, yay!

The theme for this month was Respect - which means, in other words, he does a good job listening to adults at school and getting along with others, showing good behavior, etc. All of which we want to raise him to do so super! We're on track :) He was just saying how he plans to get it every year. It makes me happy that he strives and wants to be a good guy.

Nate also just started Cub Scouts a few weeks ago, and other than meetings he just had his first event - camping!

Hiked, made s'mores, made marshmallow shooters, soap carved...they had a blast!

Everything they do seems to be right up Nate's alley -all the outdoor stuff of course, building rockets, derby cars, etc. It's an added bonus that Aaron can tag along and that hubby spends this extra quality time with them (that was also a goal with starting this). For now this is the only outside school activity, we might think about soccer or something else again after the holidays. I had a desire not too be too crazy busy this time of year!

Aaron definitely loves school now. Conveniently, Nate starts his fall break this week and will get to go on Aaron's class field trip to the pumpkin patch. Then, both boys will be on break next week.  We're excited for the break from routine a bit!

EA : Wengen, Switzerland!

This picture describes Switzerland and the differences between this place and the other two. After hustling and bustling the first week, it was the grandest idea to save Switzerland for last - and have it be the place where we spent the majority of our time, in the peace and quiet, lazy, go with the flow kind of life. We arrived in Geneva (via train again) and then quickly boarded a few more to get to where our "chalet" was (mountain retreat!) in the Alps area in a "village" (as I would like to call it) called Wengen. This time it was time for older sis's German to kick in :)

We stayed up a hill, in a "chalet/house" yet, we had other guests in it as well - we each had our own floor. Everything is IKEA and modern. So, some pictures of our chalet and floor!

Sort of the main room/dining room/kitchen

My room! Boy did I win the grandest room I think. Windows everywhere, book nook, a place to do makeup,my own little patio...

How would you like to wake up to this view?!

And now the surrounding views!

No I didn't mess with any artwork to color those mountains...that is how white they are! So majestic.

Moon coming out

So when we weren't laying around, playing games and drinking hot chocolate, we did venture to some neighboring mountain cities. We usually began our day walking down the hill (about twenty minutes) back down to the "main part" of town, which had a small grocery store and our favorite....a Swiss chocolate shop! Not only did they have chocolate but they were a bakery too, so they had bread and delicious pretzels and sandwiches.

Yay, I'm bringing home six packages with me! No joke.

And a slab of one of those...

Our first full day started with rain (Europe must have totally known we were coming, because we saw a lot of rain!) Then we went to our first city, Grindelwald, one of the major "shopping" and hotel areas. We love how Switzerland chalets had such cute shutters and flower planters, and everyone has gardens! So super envious :( They're beautiful.

Okay so back to the food...one of the staples there too is cheese fondue. O-M-G. The cheese fondue. We're shaking and sweating going through those withdrawls, let me tell you! SO good. Apparently it's more of a "winter" food for them we heard, but heck the weather there was like winter for us, haha!

How many times do I need to ask for the "eat this picture" button?!

Our next full day, we saw that the weather report showed a day full of sun so we took advantage of it and headed up to Jungfrau, otherwise known as the Top of Europe mountain. It took almost two hours to reach that point, so it took most of the day. Our timing was perfect - we arrived right around lunchtime/early afternoon. Once the sun shifted later, it became cloudy.

Dude, what's this white stuff?

And because we were feeling adventureous...ziplining!

All fun and games until you do rolls landing in the snow

Swissters!

Ice sculptures

Now really at the "Top of Europe"

Then we hit the mountain city called Interlaken. Another good shopping place. But perhaps most importantly, it was the site of our next adventure...

Paragliding!

Seriously, whose idea was this?! Someone must have slipped me a paper signing my life away when I was drunk off the heavy white wine'd cheese fondue :) No but seriously...I thought..."WTH, you live once, how many times will I be able to do this, yatta yatta".  Totally the idea of running,jumping and flying off a perfectly good, not collapsing mountain freaked me out. But I'm here, alive and uninjured (thank the heavens) to tell you about it!

Pre-takeoff. Kinda scary because once we started running, you couldn't see at which point you jumped off. It was all downhill like. Not that I know, I closed my eyes, ran, and the next thing I knew we were up in the air. Couldn't even witness my feet leaving the ground!

So my guide announced that we were the highest ones. Yikes! I held onto those ropes for dear life. But on the other hand, when I wasn't scared crapless for my life, the views were amazing. Like I knew they would be! 

We were up in the air for about 15-20 minutes. Towards our landing spot my guide asked about doing tricks, so then he started to spin us and dip us...oh that was not good. I quickly tried to get his attention to stop so I didn't puke on someone's head down below. Our landing was very good...he nailed it head on and we even stopped right in place - a perfect 10.0 by Olympic standards!

Happy landers! Brother-in-law did it...

Young sis too...

Thank goodness the ground and I have reunited!

Perhaps someday I'll be ready for it again, but for now I'm good with ground activities :)

Generally we walked around, visited Grindelwald once again to shop some more, and on our last full day we journeyed to another city called First.

Loved the roaming cows (and creamy ice cream they provided!)

Betsy photobombed all our pictures

Don't want to leave the poor goats out...poor sissy fed some and found out she was allergic to whatever grass/leaves she was handling

After five glorious nights, we traveled to Zurich to catch our flight home the following day. Nothing exciting about Zurich - city life. We're all just experiencing the blues after waking up to such wonderful, take your breath away views for a week and coming home...to view our dull walls. No comparison.

Switzerland, until we meet again....and we WILL meet again....

EA: Paris, France!

We were so excited to take little sis to one of our favorite places. She, of course, was excited to see the Eiffel Tower (who isn't?) Let me start off by saying - we had an awesome apartment - directly across the street from both a bakery and supermarket, so we were there on a daily basis for breakfast and to grab sandwiches to stash for our lunch while we were out. And, best of all, the apartment was only a five minute walk from the Eiffel Tower! Location,location,location! With six of us traveling together, it made way more sense to have an apartment than to rent three hotel rooms. We also all agreed that we like that better - to have more room, cook some of our own meals, etc. In London we stayed in a hotel, only because as I mentioned, London is expensive! Hotel was better there.

Apartment view

Looking out at Paris road/people walking by - it wasn't really all that noisy, surprisingly!

(Sidenote : we arrived to Paris via high speed train from London, and since I've gone through now both planes and trains traveling from country to country in Europe, I would say I like the train way better! Easier to get to and around in)

As soon as we arrived at our apartment and dumped our stuff, first thing we did was take off to the bakery for croissants! Oh how I love European food. Definately some indulging going on.

Croissants, how I love thee...

And again...the produce! Our little store.

I spoke a lot more French this time around. I did find that they appreciate when you at least attempt to speak the language, though I still found that there were a handful that knew at least some English. Between the bits of French and bits of English, we got our points across :) One evening, after this delicious meal below, our waiter came back with lollipops for me. He had given me kudos on my French. Highlight of my trip right there, haha! Although somehow I accidently ordered a bunch of beers...yikes!

Scrumptious "boeuf et pomme frites" (steak and fries!) Again, where's the "eat this picture" button?!

First attraction we hit was the Arc de Triomphe - my younger sister and brother-in-law climbed all serveral hundred steps to the top to get the view of a bunch of streets that align together (me, on the other hand, remembered those several hundred steps that I did years ago and sat on the sideline!)

People on the very tip top

Following that we went down a nice street, called the Champs Elysees, that has a bunch of shops and nice outdoor cafes (that is definately the thing with Paris - all outside dining pretty much!)

Champs Elysees - love the trees that line the street

Starting our first full day in Paris, we began with a lunch river cruise down the Seine. Here is where I ran into my first rude Frenchman (according to a new French friend of mine, the fact I haven't run into more rude people is a surprise). He wasn't really all that bad, I was asking for directions to our boat and he was just calling them names, since they're competitors. So not necessarily rude at me per se :) But it was humorous.

Appetizer

Older sister, brother-in-law, younger sister

Mommy and daddy :)

Dessert

 

After lunch we explored Notre Dame - excited because I was allowed pictures inside!

I didn't know that you were allowed up the bell tower...so I did that along with my mom, younger sister and brother-in-law...that was a few spiral steps too! But a nice view at the top.

So tired from Notre Dame's steps that we cafe'd it for water and dessert!

Then we went to both the Lock Bridge and Princess Diana's memorial, two things in particular I wanted to go to that I somehow missed the time I've been to Paris before.

A few locks? It's no wonder the bridges collapse!

My lock. Can't wait to go back in a few years and see if it still remains!

Freeway overpass in which Diana was killed

Picked up some flowers along the way

That evening we bought some vino and headed to the Eiffel Tower. Ready for the light show!

Another fantastic food we enjoyed - crepes! Especially by the Eiffel Tower with all the vendors we got these babies. Yum-o.

Our last full day in Paris (sniff, sniff) we headed out to the Palace of Versailles - it was a bit of a trek, so it did take us most of the day. Plus, as you'll see, the gardens are amazing! We spent just as long (if not more) taking different mazes through the garden paths than being inside the palace.

 

Dessert our last night...

Amazing fruit tarts!

We did make it back to the Eiffel Tower to climb it to the 2nd level (a few more steps...) our last night. A little saddened we didn't get the chance to show my young sis some/a museum (no Louvre), but that's what repeat trips are for! ;)