Isn't everyday supposed to be sunny?

We have been blessed with a week of great weather here in Switzerland, but unfortunately today was rainy.  I never thought I really minded the rain and I suppose I still don't mind it. But, when we are in Switzerland and we want to get out and be active I seem to get sad when the rain comes- I'd much rather be hiking!! 

On the upside, we got to go on a few family bike rides last week now that John has all 5 bikes assembled. At first Hannah was a little unsure of the burley, but she quickly realized that she can see more scenery faster! She is not fond of the helmet though, or anything on her head really, so we keep it in the back end of the burley just to make us feel better! 

 

Last night we had dinner at a Swiss couples home. Because of this we got to test out how it would be to put Hannah to bed for the night somewhere, wake her up, put her in the burley, ride 2 miles (of which she stayed awake for), and then put her in her crib.... thankfully it went perfectly and she stayed quiet in her crib past 7 am!  We have put her to sleep in the car seat several times when were were out and then transferred her to the crib and it always worked, but I was rather nervous of her not wanting to sleep after a bike ride home.

 

Needless to say I can see a lot of family bike rides in the future although Bear isn't too excited about it!  He really hopes tomorrow is sunny so we can go on a family hike! Hope you all are having a great week!

Getting Settled

This week was a busy one for us and with the busyness we have begun to feel more settled.

One thing that happened this week was that our shipment from America finally arrived after 4 months!  It was like Christmas as we had forgotten about many of the little things we had packed. The highlights have been receiving: Hannah's high chair, Hannah's nursery furniture, our bikes, and my new pair of running shoes! It was good to live with a lot less "stuff" for a few months, but some things like your baby's crib is just really nice to have!

Also this week I took an intensive German course, meeting a total of 17 hours!  Thankfully we have been blessed with meeting some great people (another reason we are starting to feel settled) who were willing to watch Hannah. I can tell that the intensive courses are definitely beneficial when wanting to learn a language. I normally go to 4 hours of class a week, which means that I must study a lot at home to really improve my Deutsch! 

Enjoying a banana in her newly arrived high chair.

 

On Saturday I also ran my first race here in Switzerland. It was a local 10k around a lake, which was quite a hilly course. It turns out that this race draws a competitive and international crowd and the winner of the 10 was less than 30 minutes- which seems really fast for the hills. I was happy with my 7:15 pace, especially since after having Hannah I feel less competitive and just want to enjoy my exercise time (which isn't too hard with the mountain scenery).  John forgot to take pictures of me, so pictures of Hannah will have to do.

70 and Sunny.... Hallelujah

This past week the weather has been fantastic. Which is much appreciated after having about 1.5 weeks of cloudy/foggy days. I never knew how much cloudy weather could affect my mood, but I found myself a little depressed with the lack of sunshine. Thankfully that has passed and the sun has been shining for about a week.

 

This past weekend we took advantage of the good weather, and the fact that we still have a car that a friend lent us, and drove to Giswil, Switzerland to go hiking. We had found this great website in which you can pick a location and basically customize a route to hike or bike ect. Next time we will definitely have to print better maps, because we definitely never found the right trail! Lucky for us there are trails everywhere and we had ourselves a great 3 hour hike.

 

John has also enjoyed a few great mountain bike rides, using his bosses bike. He even gets to go mountain biking over lunch once a week or so. It is common to have the big meal over lunch and so many employers allow up to a 2 hour lunch break- just enough time to ride up the "hill" that is a 5 minute walk from us, the Burgenstock. I don't think I have the nerve for mountain biking here, but I love that we can go hiking right out our doorstep.

Bear was a little tired after the hike!

 

This week is also German overload for me as I am taking an intensive German (Deutsch) course. This class runs 3 hours every day and on Monday I have an already scheduled 2 hour class, my brain already hurts.

I typically also attend a class on Tuesday nights, but I might skip this week to join a running group made up of mostly Pilatus employees. I think my brain could use the rest and my legs could use the activity!
Hope you all have a great week!

Is bear swiss?

Today bear Hannah and I went to the Vet to get him all official! Now he just needs to learn how to act Swiss. Seriously the dogs here are so well behaved- no barking, no pulling on the leash, ect. But because of that they get to go everywhere. On the trains, in restaurants, up the mountains! We hope our training pays off, then his life will be great here because he can do whatever we do!

Our family is complete

Bear has arrived! He survived his long plane journey and it seems Lufthansa does a great job with animals! He has already enjoyed some hikes, but needs to learn to pace himself. Swiss dogs are all very well behaved.... Bear has a little learning to do! He has already figured out who to sit by at dinner time :)

Stresa, Italy

This past weekend, for the 4 day Easter holiday, we traveled about 2.5 hours to Stresa, Italy. It is a cute little touristy town on Lake Maggiore. We were looking for some good Italian food, some quality family time, warmer weather, and sun.  We got all of them.

The food it Italy, even a little touristy town, is super cheap compared to Switzerland. You can get a pizza for about 6-10 dollars and a glass of house red wine for about $1. I forget the price of the other items but the gelato, tiramisu, and tomato/mozzarella, cappuccino salad were all Amazing! 

Thankfully along with all of this good but not so healthy food we also went on a 8 mile family run along the lake and walked about the whole time.  John was happy to get lots of cheers from the MANY road bikers we saw and I think it helped him run faster and longer! 

Hannah's favorite part was the boat ride back from the Bella Island. She slept for about 3 hours prior to this in her stroller so I think she was quite surprised that she somehow ended up on a boat coming back from an island. She also really enjoyed the slide, swing, teeter totter at the park by the lake.

We were happy to be able to go to Italy, and will be a good destination for visitors, but we are very glad we live in Switzerland. I am sure some would disagree but the it is so much cleaner, punctual, orderly, and in my opinion the people seem nicer here.

Hannah 8 months

 

I had high hopes of taking pictures of Hannah is the same outfit each month for the first year.  Unfortunately that only lasted about 4 months, sorry Hannah! Hannah celebrated her 8th month of life in Italy this past weekend.
It is always fun to think back on the past month and note changes.
Eight month highlights:




* Sleeping close to 12 hours in a row again after moving into our new apartment!! She loves the pack and play that we are borrowing, but I think she will be excited when her crib arrives.
* This month she started to want more Mommy time vs. Daddy time, which is fine by me except when I am trying to get dinner ready.
* Thankfully still fairly content playing with her toys independent for about 20 minutes at a time which allows me to get some things done when it isn't nap time.

* Has two teeth! She was a bit more fussy prior to the teeth breaking through, but thankfully slept good for naps and during the night even while she was teething.
* Loves to eat!!  She always wants to be eating food it seems, but I try to keep some sort of schedule for her. We also got her a sippy cup and she enjoys drinking out of it, but tends to spit quite a bit of it out still.  I also have to help her drink out of it otherwise it will end up everywhere.
* Still hasn't gotten the hang of forward movement, which makes her frustrated when wanting to get somewhere. She spins around on her belly and loves to pull to stand. Just this week she has started to walk behind her wagon with support from me- her core strength and balance still aren't too good!

We are excited to see the changes that happen in the next month!