We have arrived!

I am writing this post nestled inside the country of Switzerland. Amazing. I still cant reallz believe it.

And first off, the German keyboard is different from the American, so from now on all the y and zs will be mixed up, and there probablz wonät be anz apostraphes. Okaz.

So, Swityerland is beautiful. (ä=apostophe, I donät know where it is). I mean, absolutelz breathtakinglz gorgeous. Absolutelz everzthing looks like a postcard. The houses are all so cute and quaint'looking. And everyone we have met has been soooooo nice to us. We are staying with a family in our ward. They have been so kind, and everyone weve met have been the same - eager to help us with anything we need.

Traveling is hard, at least it is with kids. Mainly because zour sleep schedule is so messed up. On Christmas Eve Hazel and Ethne were both throwing up all night, in fact at one point had to share the same bucket for a minute. I kindof wanted to take a picture and label it 'true sisterly sharing'. And all I could do was to pray and pray that Talmage and I would get it the next day, and not on the plane. That would be horrible. And the next night, in Vernal, Brett and Jethro were throwing up all night. All I could do was pray and pray that Talmage and I would get it the next day and not on the plane. That would be horrible. The next day Brettäs wonderful brother Blake drove us to Salt Lake so he could drop us off at the airport, and he threw up on the way. But a miracle was granted and we somehow managed to avoid it altogether.

The flights were okay. Talmage screamed for a major portion of the trip to Chicago. Then in Chicago (to Washington D.C.) we got to the terminal a tad late, and they had alreadz given half our seats awaz, but thez fitted us in and I got to sit in the first class which was prettz sweet. Then we had our flight over the ocean to Zurich. It was long, but Talmage screamed less and did sleep finallz.

When we got to Zurich we were supposed to have a van that we rented, but somehow it had not actuallz been rented. So we were stuck in the airport for a little while trzing to figure that out and we were all verz tired. Luckilz, our hotel had a shuttle that we took. And let me just saz that that daz does not bear remembering. Jet lag is the worst form of torture ever invented, at least it is when coupled with a screaming baby boy who will NOT sleep! (And I had to search the kezboard for that exclamation point for a long time just to show how much I mean it.) Okay, mazbe Iäm exaggerating a tad, but it was certainlz not pleasant.

Anyhow somehow we got through it and then some WONDERFUL ward members came with their cars adn picked us up. Then we crashed at the house weäre at now, the Burris. But before we had contacted them, thez had alreadz made plans for guests to come for New Years Eve, so we had to find other lodgings the next night. Brettäs boss graciouslz invited us, and we had a wonderful Arabic dinner with them, and went out to shoot off firecrackers and listened to the bells ringing and watched the firecrackers in all the little villages around them (thez live on the side of a mountain). It was very nice. Ringing in our New Year in Switzerland.

Then we came back to the Burris, where we have slept, gone sledding, slept some more, ate several delicious traditional Swiss meals, visited and had a very nice time.

Todaz was our first daz of church, and it is verz small. There are hardlz anz children, so everyone was very excited to see ours. Everyone was, again, very very very kind and we have had more offers of help with anzthing we might need than we can count. Almost everzone speaks English, but they had people translating for me in all of the meetings, which makes it so I pay better attention. smile.

And tomorrow we are renting a van so we can go do all our errands, and move into our apartment. And now I had better go because my kids are being nuisances for my hosts. I will write more later and when my mom mails me my camera cord which I forgot, will even post pictures.

Tschuss!!!!!!