Days like these.

Blue sky, 50-60 degrees, snow in the mountains, beautiful green grass in the valley... You just can't beat it! I wish everyday could be like today. Today John and I split our time with Hannah so we could each go and enjoy an outdoors activity. So, at 7:30 this morning I headed off to Engelberg to try skate skiing.

I love cross country skiing, but have only done classic style. Let's just say I need to work on my coordination, skate skiing is a little harder! But it was fun, a great workout, and a beautiful day.

The cappuccino in town awfrerwards was also quite nice :) Now let's just hope John stays safe and survives his mountain biking ride.

Vacation Day

We love the random (to us) holidays that our Canton of Nidwalden has. This past Wednesday was Joseph's Day (Zeppi Tag). The weather was absolutely beautiful, so we decided to drive to Canton Bern, near Lauterbrunnen for a hike/snowshoe adventure. We invited our friends Izak and Tammy, who moved here from South Africa, to join us on our adventure!

Tammy and Izak hiking up towards Muerren

I think that is Jungfrau, could be Eiger, I am not a mountain expert!

We started off in a gondola from Stechelberg. Which by the way if you want to experience great hiking and cheaper gondola rides, it seems Canton Bern is quite a bit cheaper. It was only 6 CHF for our round trip ride. We planned to hike up the valley a bit to find some snow and snow we did find. But after a steep stretch in quite wet snow we decided A. bear was going to get tired very quickly and B. there could be an Avalanche risk with the amount of wet snow. So, we ended up turning around and hiking up to the town of Muerren. In total we walked about 3 hours and enjoyed the amazing views of Jungfrau, Eiger, and Moench.

There were all of these cute little wooden houses that you could rent, and we were thinking that it would be great for visitors that want to get a fill of hiking and great views. The drive from our house to this area of Switzerland is 1 hour 20 min, so staying in the area for a night or two would make the drive even more worth it (we are starting to think like the Swiss in terms of distance... if it's over an hour away that is quite far!).

Live shot of the lovely poo sprayer... 

On the terrace in Muerren, enjoying a coffee!

Hi Daddy :)

Cheers!

It's a beautiful day

Well actually tomorrow will be an even more beautiful day, because John returns from America tomorrow! Yeah!
In all reality I don't have much to share from the past week, except that Hannah, Bear and I are all ready for John to come home. 2 weeks away is a long time!
Today, and supposedly for the next whole week, we were/are going to be blessed with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. This was much appreciated after 3 days of rain. I took this picture on my run today and it has always been one of my favorite views. The green, white, blue color contrasts is very lovely and I could look at it all day long.

Winter Wonderland

Village of Engelberg in the distance

This winter has been unusually warm and as a result most of the snow is only higher up in the mountains. This weekend it has been a bit rainy here in Stans, but that means fresh snowfall in the mountains, and at a lower altitude due to cooler temperatures. I really feel sorry for all of our family and friends in the Midwest where it has been so cold for so long, and even Pennsylvania has been very cold. We have really appreciated being able to actually enjoy the snow without FREEZING!

John is in the good ole USA for work for two weeks. One more week to go! I am thankful Hannah is fairly easy, but it gets lonely with John gone. Thankfully, I got to get out and enjoy the fresh snow for a bit on my cross country skis yesterday. I have said it before, and I am sure I will say it again, but it is so nice to drive 20 min and be in the mountains on a nicely groomed cross country loop that is about 15 km long. 

Gugga music, basically groups of marching bands playing songs

This time of year in Switzerland also means Fasnacht/Carnival. If you remember, when we arrived last year we were greeted by constant marching band music, people of all ages dressed up in costumes, and lots of people drinking quite a lot (so it seemed). This year we don't live so close to the center of town, so we haven't noticed quite as much of the chaos. But, yesterday in Engelberg I did enjoy a little of the Gugga music as there was a small Kinderfasnacht band marching through the town. It was just the right amount of Fasnacht for me :)

First time watching a little show on the Ipad, engaged!

Hitting the Slopes

Today we arranged a babysitter from 8-5 so we could enjoy skiing in the Swiss Alps! We are so thankful for the girls/families that we have made connections with here to babysit Hannah, and that she is usually a good girl for her babysitters. Many ski areas have daycare areas, but it was just SO nice to have the babysitter come to our apartment so Hannah was in her own environment.

The hospital that I am working at currently, has 2 season passes to a local mountain, Klewenalp, available to employees. I arranged to take them, for FREE, this Saturday so we could enjoy a day of skiing within 15 minutes of our house. A good friend here, Mirjam went with us, and showed us how real Swiss people ski. She learned to ski when she was 3 I think and basically lived on her skis every winter! It is so cool to see all the little kids learning ski with their parents or in a ski school, it truly is part of Swiss culture.

From the top, off Piste skiing in fresh powder. Lake Lucerne in the distance.

We were blessed with fresh powder and I was even brave enough for some off Piste skiing! I am sure we will be feeling it in the morning, but it was worth it. The views were truly AMAZING!

Catching some rays at lunch. 

It was especially nice to have a day away together as John is leaving for the USA for work on Tuesday for 12 days. I am not looking forward to being a working single mother :)

Tired

Kussnacht am Rigi with Mt. Pilatus in the background

Right now as I type this I feel SO tired. It is mostly due to a sinus infection that has been plaguing me for over a week. I don't enjoy being sick, but I especially don't like it in a different country where you don't know the names of the medicines you would usually take. I am thankful that the Swiss health care system is very good, actually really good, but I just really don't like making phone calls in German. I was feeling rather terrible on Thursday and decided to call the doctor, but they had no appointments. So then I went to the pharmacy and got all the natural sinus products they had to offer, the Swiss are rather fond of Homeopathic alternatives to medicine. Then I did research, really just on the Mayo website and felt better after reading that most sinus infections get better on their own....it just takes a long time!  I am feeling like I might have turned a slow corner in getting better, but I am still SO tired, boo!

Sweet playground in Kussnacht am Rigi

Yesterday I also had little energy, but it was SO nice out. I mean sunny and 50 degrees. We went on a slow walk by the lake and then drove to a town about 30 minutes away Kussnacht am Rigi. We were surprised to find a nice little cafe (no still not a good ole American coffee shop) with a little play corner for kids. The funniest thing we saw, which I didn't get a picture of, was they had set up a man made sledding hill down the main street. And people were dressed up in costumes and went sledding down this "hill". They all had numbers on like they were getting judged on something, needless to say we couldn't quite figure it out!!
I will leave you with a picture of Hannah. She loves her new Lego table, and is really quite talented at the tower building!

 

 

3 weeks ago

Playground at a little zoo in PA

I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks since we returned from our month long trip to America. It was a good time spent with family and friends in both Pennsylvania and Iowa. The first 2 weeks were spent with John's family in Pennsylvania, and then Hannah and I flew alone to Iowa for 2 weeks. Before leaving for the USA this time I was a little anxious because traveling with a small child 16 months old, isn't the easiest age to fly with, on a 9 hour flight, during the day. BUT, Hannah did good, falling asleep in a carrier, the Ergo, for 2.5 hours,(meaning I was standing up for 2.5 hours but whatever she was quiet and asleep) which was such a blessing.


Playing with Sydney, my sister's daughter.

The day we flew to Iowa was terrible weather, I mean I think our flight was the only one that made it! Too bad our luggage did not :(  Then the flight home... It was during the night which I thought she would sleep most of the way. Well I was wrong. She finally fell asleep at like 10 pm but only for 3 hours when she woke up, scared and crying. Thankfully she was happy/delirious for the hours she was awake on the overnight flight, but I definitely didn't get to rest. But, it did help her transition back to Swiss time as she only woke up one night!!! That was awesome, because time change stinks with little ones!!

Anyways, enjoy the pictures and comments!

 

More from the zoo playground, it was a morning out with John's family and the youngest cousins.

 "I want to go back to America"

 

 Goofy girl! 

 

Hannah with my cousin April's children

All bundled up because it was very cold in America.

 Ring around the Rosie

 

 "We all fall down"

 

Not in America, but here in Switzerland at a birthday party for her friend Abigail.