Elliott is 3.

Our little Elliott turned 3 last week!  I think the saying, "The days are long, but the years are fast", is true for this past year. Actually in the last 6 months even the days aren't so long. I always feel like before I know it another week is gone (minus the weeks that John is gone for work!).  I wanted to recap Elliott's last year with pictures, one picture for each month.  

This last week we had our visit to the Pediatrician. Elliott continues to be a big boy: 37.4 lbs (95%) and 39 inches (75%) and did very well with all of the tests at the doctors. Here in Switzerland each years check up is about 20-30 minutes (depending on the age) with the doctor and they do several different tests to look at eye sight, fine and gross motor skills, color recognition ect. Elliott could use a little work more work with holding the pencil and drawing... The doctor said right away that boys are always worse than girls at this. That is definitely true in our house, Hannah could draw quite well by this age. We are just mostly happy that he is a healthy happy little boy. 

January: One year ago, an airplane cake for Elliott's 2nd birthday.

February: Sledding fun up in Engelberg!

March: A family hike when Marmie and Papa came to visit. Elliott still prefers to ride on Daddy's shoulders.

April: Watching the cows up in Engelberg.

May: A trip to Legoland Germany (actually in June), fun was had by all.

June: The start to a beautiful summer of 2017. The nicest we have had here.

July: Robinson park up in Engelberg...just floating around.

August: Ice cream season!! This was a treat after a bike ride.

September: School started and Hannah started a  sports class Monday afternoon, which gives Elliott and time to play at the playground!

October: Carving turnips for the local turnip parade! Much bigger deal than Halloween here.

November: This picture is actually from January... having fun with Marmie and Papa in Chicago  before we flew back to Switzerland.

December: Elliott putting out the fire with his new fire truck from his cousins for Christmas!

Berlin trip

Hannah has her first 2 week break from school right now and so we had decided it would be a good time to take a week vacation. We have started to try to plan our vacations a bit more in advance, we still are not up to Swiss standard of having them planned a year in advance, but we are trying. 

This year we decided to go to Berlin. We wanted to see most of the main historical sights, eat some good food, gets some yummy treats, and do a little shopping. I would say despite a rainy two last days we accomplished our basic goals. 

The first night we arrived we headed downtown for Mexican. We just happened to see a chocolate store on the way.  We all got a truffle to try. Elliott was impressed by all of the chocolate sculptures.

The yellow trains and this public transportation map were our friends during our stay. Thankfully the German trains run so frequently we didn't have to pay attention to train times, just routes.

We rented bikes with a tag a long bike for Hannah and a kid seat for Elliott to ride during our first two days in Berlin. We did this in Amsterdam last year. It is a great way to see the city with kids. We were also quite impressed with the bike lanes in the city and the drivers awareness watching out for bikers. 

The Brandenburg Gate. We went there on the German Reunification Holiday. There was a big festival going on making it difficult to get too close to the gate.

Cruising through the Tiergarten on our bikes with the German parliament in the background. 

A family selfie at the East Side Gallery. The largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall is in the background.

The park and river area at the East Side Gallery. 

Hamburgers! We found a window seat in the very crowded Burgermeisters and at a wonderfully greasy Bacon Cheeseburger.

Berlin is very family friendly. This is one of the  many specific Parent child coffee shops. There were 3 play rooms and an open play space for the kids. Switzerland needs to get some of these!

Another very cute cafe that specializes in waffles- sweet and savoury. They also have ice cream, crepes, and a few shops with clothes... It was called Kauf Dich Glucklich.

This year is the 500th year since the reformation. We decided to take a train ride to the town of Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed his thesis to the church door. 

Inside the church

And finally a beautiful path leading into a park Gleisdreieck. It was where I did some exercise while the kids were napping or "resting". It is just one example of the many green spaces with trails inside the city of Berlin.

Overall we really enjoyed our time in Berlin. It had a great mixture of Culture, History, great Restaurants, and a family friendly atmosphere.  Next up, a long flight to America at Christmas time.

Our little Hannah turned 5 on July 30th and is starting her first year of Kindergarten tomorrow (here they have 2 years of kindergarten). She is so ready and excited to go to Kindergarten and I am excited for her. She only has 3 hours of school a day, and it rotates between mornings and afternoons. We are excited to see her grow this year, watch her Swiss German language improve, and look forward to meeting some of her new school friends that she will make. We pray she will make wise decisions, listen to her teachers, and to continue to be a kind little girl this year.

 Hannah's 5th Birthday Interview

What is your name?  Hannah

How old are you? 5

What is your favorite thing to do? Go outside when it is sunny.

What to you want to be when you grow up? I want to stay home with Mommy and Daddy.

What is your favorite food? Tacos.

Who do you like to spend time with? Elliott, he's my favorite boy.

What do you do really well?  Coloring.

What makes you laugh?  Silly things and tickles.

What is the best time of day? When Daddy comes home.

Who is your best friend? Aron, Abigail, Juliette, I guess I like all of my friends.

What do you like to do with your family? Walks on the mountain with Bear.

What do you love to learn about? Riding my bike.

Where do you like to go? Up the Stanserhorn and to the park.

What is your favorite book? The Balloon Chase.

If you had one wish what would be? To get a Frozen Lego set.

3 day hiking trip Mürren to Oeschinensee

Trini and me

Last year I was supposed to do a three day hike with my good Swiss friend Trini. Sadly she tore her ACL (2/3 of it) and meniscus playing in the teacher vs. student soccer game during the last week of school. She was lucky enough to recover with Physical Therapy and no surgery! Since her knee was healthy we decided to schedule the trip for this summer. It happened to be right before her and her husband left this area of Switzerland (very sad for us, her and her husband are very good friends of ours).   Trini invited a few other friends for this years hike, none of us knew one another, but we all thankfully had a really nice time together.  Although it was almost all Swiss German!! I think my head was more tired than my legs!!

Fog/drizzle on the first day at the Rotstockhütte

Our trip took us from Mürren to the Rotstockhütte (night one) to Blumisalphütte (night two) to the Oeschinensee. The first day was supposed to be longer and spending the night in the Gspalthornhütte but the weather forecast was questionable and it isn't wise to be up at 2800m in storms!! The weather forecast was actually not too favourable for the whole weekend, but thankfully the other two days we had wonderful weather. The Rotstockhütte was quite small, but us five ladies had our own little room, and the spaghetti and meatballs were amazing (also the coffee cream dessert)!

Rotstockhütte the next morning

The big mountains. Pretty sure you see Eiger and Mönch in this one.

Our little hut.

Since the first day we shortened, the second day ended up being a long one. We hiked for about 8 hours and the last 2 km had about 800m of elevation gain up to the Blumisalphütte. The views from this hut were spectacular, so it was well worth the effort. The dinner here was also very tasty: broccoli cream soup, mixed salad, roast beef and spatzli, and a vanilla cream dessert ended with a traditional swiss coffee schnapps (you have to once or twice while you live in Switzerland). In this hut we were just in a dorm room with about 20 people... it was actully ok until someone closed the window in the middle of the night. I have never been so hot while trying to sleep!

We headed up this green field to a pass.

On our way... and so Sunny!!

Looking down into Kiental and our Swiss mountain markers

The flowers, so many of them!

A glacier, sadly which have been melting away. It is quite crazy to see it in person.

A little bridge of Glacier melt.

Heading up the steep section to Blumlisalphütte

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Blumlisalphütte

The last day we hiked down to Oeschinensee, via the unmarked and a bit exposed Fründschnur route. Not recommended for those with a fear of heights, there was a cable to hold onto the whole way and some even used a climbing harness and clips. Once we made it down to the lake, which is almost too beautiful for words with the rock walls of the mountains surrounding it, we decided to go for a swim in the teal blue COLD mountain water. It was SO refreshing. Finally before catching the gondola, train, train, and car ride home we had ice cream and  Panache beer (half lemonade half beer) which was also very refreshing! I would recommend this breathtaking  3 day hike to everyone. If you don't take the optional Fründschur route it is all a normal red white (not alpine) hiking trail which is physically challenging but not scary.

Ready to go... day 3

Around and bend and there was the gorgeous Oeschinensee.

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The start of the narrow exposed section.

Water splitting the rocks. 

 I am hoping to get out on at least a 2 day hike next summer (hopefully with John as a part of our 10 year anniversary) as it is such a great experience to sleep in the Swiss Alpine Club huts and to hike through the Alps. Who wants to come join us on a hike :-).