Strasbourg for Easter

Last month we traveled to Strasbourg for Easter.  Most everyone in Switzerland (maybe even Europe) has a four day week for the Easter holiday.  We decided to take advantage of the free time to take a short trip. Strasbourg is only about 2.5 hours away, so it made for an easy destination. We rented a vacation apartment just outside of the city center. I can be honest and say the location of the apartment was great and the apartment itself was ok, but the floors were SO creaky!! After the kids were sleeping I felt like every step would wake them up! But besides that it was great, very close to a tram stop and 5 minutes to the city center with the tram.
We mostly went there to see a new town, see the very large (maybe the largest in Europe) Gothic Cathedral and attend Easter service there, eat some good food, and do a little shopping. Despite the weather being a bit rainy the last two days we accomplished everything we wanted.

There are canals everywhere in the town, so pretty.

One of the many squares in the town.

There were several little carnivals set up around Strasbourg.

Of course, Ice cream.

German style houses on the canal.

Mexican food!! So yummy.

The huge Cathedral

Family selfie outside the Cathedral.

One of the large open squares in the town.

EU parliament is located in Strasbourg.

Our next trip will be to Legoland in Germany and Stuttgart. The kids have been looking forward to Legoland for quite some time... hopefully the weather cooperates!

Marmie and Papa came to visit again

A few months ago John found out about a Theological conference that would be held here in Switzerland.  The key note speaker was from America, thus much of the weekend conference would be held in English. He thought his Dad would be interested in the speaker and the topic so he asked if he would be able to get off work to join. Sure enough he was and his mom was interested in coming as well. So in the end John's Dad was here one week and his mom for 2 weeks.  This visit was a nice surprise, they had just been to Switzerland in June, so we weren't expecting that the next time we would see them would be in Switzerland.

Beside John and his Dad going to the conference we didn't have too much planned. The weather turned out to seasonably warm and sunny... It rains a lot in Switzerland and it barely rained the whole two weeks! Because of the weather we were all able to enjoy a dinner out, on the patio of a restaurant overlooking Lake Lucerne. John and I were also able to do a few trail runs (trying to prepare at least a little bit for our Eiger 35 km mountain run) and a bike ride. As a group we did several easy hikes, Hannah is proving to be quite the walker when she sets her mind to it. Or when she is motivated by snacks, particularly ice cream at the end.

Of  course the kids were just happy to play with Marmie and Papa and to soak up all of the attention they could get. They get quite attached when visitors come and always get sad when it is time to say goodbye. The goodbyes are always hard for us all, but we are always thankful for the visits and time together. 

Elliott is 2

We celebrated Elliott turning two, last month! One one hand he seems like such a big boy, but on the other hand he is still the baby of the family. I will just share some bullet point highlights from the last few months.







* Elliott is a big boy, at 90% for height and weight. He weighs in at 32.2 pounds... no wonder my back started to hurt while carrying him in the Ergo. We have retired the Ergo and use only the hiking backpack now.

* Elliott continues to be a good sleeper. I think it helps that he sleeps with Hannah, he likes to be close to his sister! He still takes a good afternoon nap and sleeps 11.5 ish hours at night.

Airplane birthday cake

* Elliott has been gaining lots of new words and saying longer (mostly 3 words) sentences. He knows a lot of Swiss German words and seems to understand the Swiss German (the kids are with a swiss nanny when I work 2 days a week). It is quite amazing how kids can learn multiple languages at once!

Silly boy

* Elliott was quite unsure about snow/sledding at first this winter, but now he seems to like it. He is so adventurous at the park that we thought he'd love the snow, but it has taken him awhile to enjoy it.

Not so sure about this snow stuff

*Elliott loves to eat....certain things. He has become a bit more picky with his food recently but in general he eats pretty well.  He doesn't love meat or vegetables, but cheese he loves... a real swiss boy.

Everyone loves homemade pancakes

*Elliott still loves hugs and seems to love it when we all are doing activities together. He is like his daddy... loves "togetherness".

Pony ride at a Christmas market

*Elliott has recently had his second stomach flu (first one was last winter) followed by a cold... he seems to get sick easier than Hannah.

In general he is a happy boy who is always up for an adventure!

Ready to hike with his new hiking sticks.

Christmas in Switzerland

This year we decided to stay in Switzerland for our Christmas break (most all companies have the week between Christmas and New Year off).  We were actually excited to do some day trips to new places in Switzerland, have Christmas dinner with good friends, and get a few To-Do items done at home that have been on our list.

The kids also enjoyed a few special activities that were planned just for them. Below is a picture of them watching Mikey's Christmas on something bigger than the iPad. We don't have a TV so they thought using the computer monitor to watch a movie on was pretty cool.

We went on several hikes on our staycation. This picture is from our favorite sunny Engelberg.

 For our Christmas breakfast John made us Cinnamon Pull Bread, it was very tasty. We added the clementines in order to make the breakfast at least a little bit healthy.

 After breakfast was present time. It was fun to watch them both get excited about gifts this year. We try to keep Christmas centered around Jesus's birth, but watching little kids open presents is pretty cute!

 Since Christmas fell on a Sunday we went to a Christmas morning church service and got all dressed up for the occasion.

Bear enjoying the many christmas walks.

Staying home for Christmas meant more time for playing. We got the kids some basic Duplo Legos so they could build big houses/castles.

We went to some friends house for Christmas dinner and fun was had by all. It was so nice to celebrate with friends since we couldn't be home with family this year.

A few days after Christmas we surprised the kids with their last Christmas present, a surprise dogsled ride. We drove to Glacier 3,000 where we met the dogs and when on a short ride. It was quite windy there that day so the chair lifts weren't running. Since that was the case we got to ride in a big snow plow to get to where the dog sled ride was. It was quite the adventure. 

Long and High suspension bridge at Glacier 3,000

 The other day trip that we did was to go to Basel. It is one of the bigger cities in Switzerland that borders France and Germany. It is a more international city than Lucerne and has a beautiful old town right on the Rhine River. We knew there was a Dunkin Donuts there and couldn't pass up the opportunity for a good ole American donut! I was mostly excited about the To Go coffee!

Church in the center of Basel

 The last day of our staycation we decided to take Hannah ice skating in Lucerne. She was able to use double blade skates that we could strap on to her snow boots. Then as seen below she skated while using the penguin around. She enjoyed it and even did a lap all by herself.

 We really enjoyed our week of just staying in Switzerland around Christmas this year. Switzerland is very quaint in the winter and is so beautiful with all the white light decorations in each town. We missed seeing family, but had a very special Christmas here in Switzerland.