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!