Bells and Whistles

Angel wings

2012-02-14T13:41:00.001-08:00

Hazel

In old days there were angels who came and took men by the hand and led them away from the city of destruction. We see no white-winged angels now. But yet men are led away from threatening destruction: a hand is put into theirs, which leads them forth gently towards a calm and bright land, so that they look no more backward; and the hand may be a little child's.

-George Eliot (Silas Marner)

Ethne

Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.
~Richard Purdy Wilbur

Ooooh, effects!

And then, a little slap-happy with effects. :)

Bubbles

2012-02-13T14:25:00.001-08:00

Bubbles are pretty awesome. Mainly because little babies and toddlers and kids love them, and so will be kept occupied by them for fairly long periods of time.

So I took some pictures of some. Which was not as easy as you might expect since I was the one blowing the bubbles and taking the pictures, and the camera wouldn’t automatically focus on the bubbles very well. But, it was fun. Yep.

And, I have much better pictures to show- like of my kids and stuff, but haven’t gotten around to going through them yet.

And, I’m ill. I went to the doctor this a.m. and got a strep-test done (he even showed me the test with it’s pink plus-sign for positive, which looked disconcertingly like a pregnancy test), and it came out positive so I got some antibiotics.

Yay for antibiotics so that I’ll be well for my trip which is in T minus 6 days!!!

And Happy Valentine’s Day. They don’t have Valentine’s Day here (or Halloween or Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving) but Hazel and Ethne colored some valentines to give to their classmates anyway.

This week.

2012-02-02T05:08:00.001-08:00

I’m pretty glad January is over. January is a pretty worthless month. Actually I shouldn’t complain- I was busy planning our trip. Which is in only 18 days!!! Sometimes my stomach actually tingles I am so excited.

On Monday I took Orrin in (late) for his 1-year shots. They call them vaccinations here instead of immunizations, which makes me feel like we’re going to the vet instead of the doctor. He didn’t appreciate his shots or the finger-poke, but he was almost just as traumatized having the doctor check his height and weight and poke him a bit. The poor boy does NOT like strangers.

Yesterday we had to go into Bern to get our pictures and fingerprints taken to get a new card to live in Switzerland. I was not prepared for how cold it was outside, and so our walk from the parking area up 3 or 4 blocks to where we were going was a pretty distressing one. Orrin didn’t have a hat, so he borrowed Hazel’s since she had a hood on her coat. Neither Jethro nor I had a hood or hat, so our ears were freezing off, and even though Talmage did have a hat, he started crying almost as soon as he got out of the van. The wind was just icy. Brett met us there, and on the way back to the van, he chivalrously gave me his hat. :) I guess it’s finally winter here?

You know, it’s one thing for one of my children to be hard on clothes, but it’s entirely different to have to plead with her not to CHEW holes in her clothes. grrr.

So last night Brett and Jethro went to Jethro’s parent-teacher(-student) conference. They were gone quite a while, and when they got home I heard Brett say in a really upset, angry voice, “Get your pajamas on right now, Jethro!” and then he came in and shook his head and muttered, “I am so ticked off with that kid. I can’t believe it." I was wondering what in the world? Then I saw Jethro walk down the hallway and he was crying and Brett started to say something else, and I said, “We can talk about it later,” (as in, not in front of all the kids), and I was seriously thinking ‘what is going on?!” and I was getting so worried. And THEN, they said, “JUST KIDDING!” Apparently, they schemed together to trick me, and I was totally taken! Jethro even put water on his eyes and his face was red just from being out in the cold. Rascals!!!

Jethro’s teachers only had good things to say- they said his German (BOTH Germans, they pointed out- Hochdeutsch and Schwyzerdütsch –High German and Swiss German) is just soaring. Brett and Jethro took sleds on their way to the school, and on their way back they sledded down the hill several times. Jethro said, “I wish parent-teacher conferences were every night.

Last night Talmage whacked his head on something and started crying and he said, “Now one of my superpowers is dead! But just one. I have lots of superpowers in my room.”

Jethro has been into jets lately. He has written a couple different ‘reports’ on different jets, complete with pictures, like the F-14 Tomcat, and the F-22 Raptor. He even made versions in English AND German so he could show them to different friends who speak one or the other.

I should be doing the dishes or cleaning the bathroom.

On Tuesday Ethne’s class went to the forest, and apparently she got really cold and so the teacher called Brett, who called me, to go pick her up. Her feet were wet and she also wet her pants, and Brett said she was throwing a fit when her teacher called. It’s true that her boots are a bit too small, but I kindof don’t want to buy new ones just for the last bit of this winter, when we could possibly be moving this year. Does that make me a bad mom?

Migros (one of the main grocery stores here) started a new promotion-thingee (remember Nanos?) called Animanca. Every time you spend 20 francs, they give you one of the little stone-thingees that you can collect or put on a string around your neck and you can get special ones only on certain days. So yesterday was one of those special days, so Jethro begged and begged me to go to Migros to buy groceries and get the ‘joker.’ There were sticky notes all over the house reminding me that Feb. 1 was the day for jokers at Migros. I kindof love the ads they have. I can only find one online, but if I can get a picture of the other ads sometime I will- it has more wild children/animals :

Seriously, if you run a business, you should start some little collection gimmick targeted to kids. It works!

short

2012-01-31T13:27:00.001-08:00

I love kids right when they wake up from their naps. Orrin wasn’t so happy this time.

But then he warmed up a bit. Oh, this face! I love.

This was our fort. It was pretty good-sized.

Jethro and Hazel reading Calvin and Hobbes.

Orrin did this when I pointed the camera at him. HA HAH HA!!! What a smart kid!!

And this is from today- we got some more snow.

Quick post.

2012-01-28T13:48:00.001-08:00

1. There are these chocolate-mint things that we get at Aldi that taste JUST like junior mints and I LOOOOVE them. I can’t stop eating them.

2. This is Hazel and her bff Jamina.

3. Yesterday we built a blanket fort in the front room and the kids slept in it. Talmage kept saying, “This is the best bort ebba!”

4. Today I was punching Brett, okay, just his palms (I used to do that a lot when I was in high school/college), and I looked down at my fist and thought, ‘wow- I am awesome enough that I split my knuckle punching so hard!’ Then I remembered that I cut my finger when I was cutting Talmage’s hair. Then Brett picked up a couch cushion and I was punching that, and it was all fun and games until Hazel accidentally got whammo-ed on the head by my elbow. But it reminded me of the fun times Kami, Andrea, and I had in our kick-boxing class that we took together at USU, and how we were the only ones who actually kicked/punched really hard because it was our SISTER holding the cushion-thingee. Good times.

5. I love love LOVE Jethro’s face in the picture below. And Brett is so hot. And all my children are cute. And we have fun.

6. This was the day Ethne’s kindergarten class went in the wald on a rainy, muddy day (as I’m sure you can guess).

7. I went to a second-hand store the other day that was having it’s season-end 50% off sale, and I got FOUR Calvin and Hobbes' books for 2 francs each. Awesome!! (What were English Calvin and Hobbes books doing there? I don’t know but AWESOME!) Jethro and Hazel have been reading them a bunch, which is funny because I don’t think Hazel really understands too much of them. And Talmage likes to look at the pictures too.

8. I am getting so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so SOOOOOOO excited for February 20th!!!!!!

More pictures of Orrin, and Funny Stories.

2012-01-25T13:50:00.001-08:00

This is my adorable son. Sheesh he’s cute. And he was in a really good mood when he woke up from his nap the other day.

Talmage makes Orrin laugh.

He’s a happy-maker.

So, here are a few funny things.

1- So, Hazel has this really good friend Jamina, and earlier this month Jamina’s parents invited us over to have dinner with them. We had fondue and it was a very nice time. While we were there they asked me what job I had before I had kids, and I told them that I studied to become a speech pathologist, though I didn’t finish the program. They exclaimed, “Oh we knew you weren’t what Hazel told us!” and I said, “What did Hazel tell you I did?” and they said, “Sold icecream.” (It’s a bit funny because here in Switzerland not everyone just assumes you went to college since a lot of people here have apprenticeships for many jobs, so I guess when they asked Hazel what job I had, she just remembered what she considered the most exciting one- working at Dairy Queen, which, I must admit, was a pretty sweet deal.)

2- On Sunday Hazel and I went to my bed so I could read to her without being interrupted, but gradually everyone came in and Brett laid down by me and I was hugging him and then some kids hopped on and then Talmage came over and jumped on top and yelled, “GOOP HUG!”

3- There are people that Brett works with who thought for quite a long time (over a year) that we had lived in India. One time for some reason it came up, and they asked Brett, “Wasn’t it hard living in India with all your kids?” And Brett was confused for a while, since after all, we have never even been to India, let alone lived there, and figured out that they had heard INDIANA as India. Ha ha, just a bit different.

4- Tonight we went to visit an elderly woman in our ward. She is very nice and her name is Hedwig. …That’s the whole story.

5. Tonight, after visiting Hedwig (yes, we told her about Harry’s owl), Brett was helping to get Talmage buckled into his car seat, except Talmage and Ethne had switched seats for the night and so Talmage was in the backseat and as Brett was trying to reach around the front seat to buckle him, Brett said, “If you had just sat in your normal seat this would be a lot easier.” And Talmage replied, “Well, it would be a lot easier if you weren’t mad at me.” (Brett wasn’t really mad. Talmage is sure getting the hang of arguing now that he can speak.)

And the following (except number 14) are status updates from Facebook of late, so you can skip over them if you’ve already seen them.

6- Tokens of love from a 3-year-old boy: Lego creations left on your pillow.

7- Talmage looked out the window this morning and saw snow and said, “Look ebbybody! [S]No! It’s Chimis!”

8- I took a little afternoon ‘nap’ on the floor the other day, in a beautiful, delicious stream of sunshine coming in through the window, and Talmage covered me up with his blanket, and came and laid down by me and sang a song with lyrics like, “Jesus guides me to play legos ebby day.”

9- The other night I actually woke up screaming, which to my remembrance I have never done before. The dream was about… snakes. Of course. I wasn’t even getting attacked, it was someone else’s little boy getting attacked and his mother and I were trying to beat off the snake. I hate snakes.

10- You know it’s time to do laundry when Talmage has to borrow underwear from Ethne.

11- So I was showing something to Talmage on the computer, but then it froze. I said, “Sorry bud, but it’s frozen.” And Talmage said, “I warm it up,” and proceeded to rub the sides of the computer monitor and breathe on it.

12- Dora (the Explorer): Will you help me sing the right words?

Talmage: No.

Dora: GREAT! Thank you for helping sing the right words.

Talmage: I said "No!"

13- Whenever Talmage gets a hold of the flashlight, he turns off the light in his room and tells the other kids to "come to Halloween!"

14- (This story is from my sister Amy- the one who’s beautiful wedding I just went to.)

This is a funny story about shaving.   On my wedding day I got my hair and makeup done
in the morning but I had a shower cap and wanted to shower and shave right before I
left to go to the wedding.   So I am in the shower and started freaking out because NO
RAZOR!!! And then I realized that I had given it to Ethan because he "forgot his and
really needed one."   So on my wedding day I had hairy legs......... but the good news is
my 21 year old brother had nice clean shaven ones. just in case anyone was
wondering.   and I dont know if anyone finds that as crazy and super funny as me. ;)

The end.

Super cute Orrin.

2012-01-22T13:25:00.001-08:00

I love this boy!!

He learned to do a killer cheese grin. LOVE it!

And here he is with the bestest sisters who were the ones that were getting such great smiles from him.

Today we went outside for a little walk to get out of the house (it’s been dreary, wet, gray weather, yuck!), and Talmage and Ethne got their bikes and as we turned the corner out of tree-lined little driveway, the wind started hitting Talmage (who had just gotten up from a nap) and he got really cross and said, “It’s too windy!” And Brett said something like, “It’s refreshing.” And Talmage said, in the growliest voice, “You want our bamily to blow away?!” Ha ha ha. Brett and I were cracking up.

Later we had stopped for a couple minutes at the tree and bench, and then when we started walking back, Talmage asked if I would get his bike for him. His bike is a PUKY, and it says PUKY right on the handlebars, so I said, “Is your bike’s name PUKY?” And he said, “No.” (He was still kind of grumpy.) So I said, “Well, should we give your bike a name?” And he said in this funny, low, cranky voice that was so funny, “No! Bikes don’t talk you know what.” Ha ha ha. He has this hilarious thing- I don’t know where he picked it up- where he says whatever he wants to say followed by “you know what.”

Then I started pushing Brett, trying to get him to go off the road into the wet grass, but he’s bigger and heavier and stronger than me, so then he was beating me, and so I had to resort to more devious shenanigans, so then he went ahead of me a ways. So I started running really fast up to him, and he of course saw me coming, so he turned his hat around and started sprinting down the hill, pumping his arms really good and lifting his legs kinda high. It was so funny I couldn’t run because I was laughing so hard. Good times.

And, finally, Gigi was wondering what I got for Christmas. Well, I got a trip to the States and I got another trip which you will hear all about in about a month and a week when I get back. My flights and hotels are all booked and I AM SOOOOO EXCITED!!!! I will not say to where, but if you follow me on pinterest, you should probably have a pretty good guess. :)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-21T13:29:00.001-08:00

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve in their new Christmas p.j.’s from Grandma and Grandpa Bell.

Jethro got an RC helicopter for Christmas. And then, Brett kindof took it over. I kept yelling at him to give it to Jethro and let him have a turn since it was HIS- but he kept saying “just one more minute,” for the next however long it was until the batteries ran out. Silly.

Ethne was overjoyed with her makeup. Orrin liked his puppy.

More helicopter flying. This time Brett at least let Jethro have his hands on the controller. :)

Talmage was PRETTY impressed with his Batman dress-up costume. It’s amazing how good he is at striking awesome super-hero poses.

Hazel got some easy-bake stuff and a toaster oven… and a raccoon, because that’s what she asked for. Ethne also liked her water bottle.

After church we went to the look-out and the old monastery place. There were tons of people out – it being sunny and Christmas Day means that everyone goes outside I guess.

Even though the heli was indoor-only, they took it outside with us. Notice who’s doing the flying…

And notice Brett’s hat. I made it for him since he lost the one I made him last year. I think it looks perty cool.

Talmage had to wear his Batman costume.

Here, Brett is holding his Swiss Army knife that I bought him for Christmas. We went to the knife store together, he looked through all of the knives, told me “I pick the Trailmaster,” so I turned to the store guy who was standing right by us and said, “I want the Trailmaster.” He was like, uhh, yeah. :)

Oh, and the helicopter got broken when it crashed. Probably because it got extra brittle from how cold it was outside. Brett fixed it while I was in Arizona.

And that was Christmas 2011. The end.

Bowling in Arizona.

2012-01-04T13:59:00.001-08:00

So, I am home again. It was a great trip. I always always have so so much fun with my family, but I was very sad my own little family was not there. Mostly all the other cousins were there, so I kept thinking ‘If only Jethro and Hazel and Ethne could be playing and having so much fun with everyone!’ And of course, ‘If only Brett were here to dance/kiss/hang out/play with me.’

By the way, a flight from Switzerland to the U.S. is a long, long, flight. And the one back is just as long. And when I got home (after pulling my luggage up the hill from the bus stop through the rain to my house), Orrin cried when I picked him up and hugged him. Then he wanted to go to Brett, and every time he looked at me he would sniffle and cry again. It was a sad, sad thing. But, he liked me again after a few minutes.

One of my favorite quotes from the trip was when I was saying that I was going to go shopping instead of go to the zoo, and Ethan (my little brother) asked me what I was going to get. I said, “All the things I can’t get in Switzerland.” and he said, “Like what?” and I said, “Well, like brown sugar for instance.” And he said, “How do you cook without brown sugar?” and I said, “Well, they have white sugar, just not brown.” and he said, “Oh, so they’re racist.” ha ha haa!

So anyway, I helped do a few things for my sister Amy who was the one getting married, and we went to the temple lights, and we swam and chatted and ate chocolates and other good food, and I bought a football and played a bit with my brother and brother-in-law and nieces, and we had a wedding and danced.

If you can believe it though, I only took my camera out ONCE. So, I will have to share some pictures when my brothers and sisters get some posted hopefully. BUT, for now, here are (way too many) pictures of the awesome time we had bowling after the wedding reception. (Sadly, Tim and Andrea couldn’t come as they had no available babysitters, and my mom and dad weren’t there, and Amy and Kam were on their honeymoon, which probably was not as cool as bowling with us would have been.)

Megan likes to give wet willies. She also likes to snap bras. Which she did, numerous times, to me while I was there.

I did not tell these people to smooch- apparently, according to Sterling, after you go to a wedding you’re in a LOVE mood. By the way, that is a new wedding ring on Lindsay’s finger. Wyatt finally bought her a new one after losing her old one years ago.

Me and Lindsay and Wyatt.

Me and Megsie.

Me posing.

Cute picture of Brooke and Karlee, and classic picture of Lindsay.

Me and Kam. Which I probably shouldn’t say anymore, since now there is a brother-in-law named Kam (short for Kameron), but I think we can all figure it out. Good, I’m glad we agree on that.

Wyatt and Lindsay Ann. Like Freedom. And they’re having a baby. Probably tomorrow. And apparently also a bowling ball.

Leo the man.

Lindsay the …weirdo?

And… Kami.

Me, getting ready to bowl. Feel the anticipation….

and…

Stee-rike!!!

Oh yeah.

By the way, I am terrible at bowling. I think I was better years and years ago.

Scary dudes.

This is what I got from Leo when I said “now smile normal.” hmmm.

Major kissing and making out going on over in that corner. But, like Sterling said, weddings make for a lovey feeling.

Lindsay Ann didn’t bowl. But she did make suspicious faces, which is just as useful.

Derek is very good at bowling.

We had some wings, the most delicious onion rings I’ve had in forever, some chocolates from Mom, and a chocolate milk shake later on. I don’t see how the night could have been anything but tremendous.

Lindsay trying to look like a punk. hmmm.

Why, hello… Wyatt.

Umm, Wyatt. There are no words.

When Leo had a good bowl he would do this awesome Latin-esque dance thingee. It was awesome. I should have video-d it.

‘Twas fun.

Next time in Switzerland, k guys?

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T13:08:00.001-08:00

In honor of our two-year mark, here are two movies I made that cover our time here in Switzerland.

I hope you all have a wonderful, merry, jolly and peaceful Christmas.

Dreizehn am Montag.

2011-12-19T13:24:00.001-08:00

So. Long time no see. Pretty much because not much has happened, but there are some little things I did finally want to write. So here goes.

1. The other day I was messing around with Brett’s phone (it’s an android?) and I really have no idea how to work it at all, but anyway I was looking at his calendar and I thought I’d be funny so I posted ‘Make love with Kayli’ to one of the days. Then today he comes home and said, “Did you post something on my calendar?” and I said, “yeah.” and he said, “You know that all the people at work see all my calendar items?” …oops. (Then he said, “Actually they didn’t, but if you had been on my other calendar they would have.”)

2. I love love LOOOVE how Talmage talks. Everything everything sounds adorable. He sings, “Oh Chimis dee, oh Chimis dee.” (‘Oh Christmas tree’ if you didn’t catch it.) Jethro is no longer Lello, however; now he is now Jethlo, and Ethne is no longer Henny, and that makes me sad.

3. Today Ethne and Talmage were throwing up. That’s never very fun. I wonder how quickly it will go through the rest of us.

4. The other day Brett was telling all of us about a movie he watched on the plane when he went to the States, and then we were talking about the movie ‘Arachnophobia’ and telling the kids a bit about it, and Brett and I agreed it was a fairly scary movie, but I said, “It’s not too scary though, because it’s about spiders and I don’t mind spiders. If it had been about SNAKES, then I probably would have been sobbing in the corner.” And Brett said, “If they made a movie about writing grant proposals then I would be sobbing in the corner.” ha ha.

5. It finally snowed here! It is very lovely.

6. When Brett was in the States (it was only a few days, he left Wed. morning and got home Sat. morning) I stopped nursing Orrin. He had only been nursing at night, but usually two or three times at least. (Which is silly because it’s not like he was getting any milk after the first time.) So anyway, when I went to bed I would roll his crib out into the front room and the first night I heard him crying a bit, and I rolled over and went back to sleep. The second night I heard him crying and I gave him soother and went back to sleep, and the third night nothing. Awesome. And now we’ve moved his crib into the girls’ room. It doesn’t really fit very well in there, but it’s better than him being in our room.

7. I love Christmas tree lights and I love the shadows on the walls.

8. The morning that Brett was leaving to go to the States he had to leave really early and catch his train to Zurich, and I was still sleeping but then he came in and woke me up and said “You have to take me to the Bahnhof fast!” So I had taken the Post card (which is like our debit card) from his wallet the day before to get groceries (why we don’t have two cards I do not know) and neglected to put it back, so when he walked down to the train station and opened his wallet to buy his ticket, he had no money with which to buy it. Anyway, we ran out the door and Brett drove REALLLY fast into Bern (completely running a red light that he always yells at because it’s stupid) and I thought for sure he wouldn’t make it because his train left at 6:32 or something and it was probably 6:30 when I dropped him off and he still had to get his ticket and run to his platform. LUCKILY he made it or he would have been perty ticked. Phew.

9. Yesterday was a fun fun day. Sundays are my favorite. We had fun making clementine candles and dancing to music (Jethro loves the Trans-Siberian orchestra. Talmage asked me if it was Halloween music and I said that it was Christmas music and he said that it sounded like Halloween music). After I made the first clementine candle, Brett made one without cutting it in half first, so it had no cut line. I told him that he always has to one up me, and he laughed.

10. Brett gave me a really good scare today when he called and told me that my (all of our) visa(s) expire(s) on the 28th, and it hasn’t been renewed yet because his new work contract hasn’t been officially documented, so if I went to the States they might not let me back into Switzerland. So we went to some government place and asked them if we could get a temporary visa so I can get back in the country. The guy there thought about it for awhile, and then he said that he thinks I shouldn’t have a problem coming in simply with my American passport. He went and talked with someone else and they agreed that it should be fine. I sure hope they’re right.

11. So as soon as I booked my tickets to go to the States I began exercising every day (Jillian Michaels, I hate you) and tried to cut back on sweets. I was talking to my sister on the phone and I was telling her how I wasn’t feeling very much in the Christmasy mood, and we decided that it really does do a lot for your spirits (though admittedly not your waist) to eat good, traditional Christmas treats. My mom always makes DELICIOUS candy of all sorts- fudge, chocolates – rolled and dipped by hand- vanilla, mint, raspberry, maple, coconut- they’re indescribably delicious, English toffee, glass candy, chex mix, almond joys, nanimo bars, caramels. This is intense, time-consuming, muscle-growing candy making. I mean, walk into our house at Christmas time and it always smelled like some divine mix of wintergreen or bubbly creamy fudge or something. Take that away and of course I was feeling a bit Grinchish. I did finally cave in and make some English toffee and sugared almonds, and I felt a lot better about life.

12. We went into Bern on Saturday and walked around the Christmas market a bit, then to a bookstore for which Brett had a gift certificate (where I read the kids some stories in English- fun!), then a Swiss army knife store (where I bought Brett his Christmas present that he picked out), then the grocery store where we lost Talmage (which was a bit alarming since it was INCREDIBLY packed with people, but someone found him for us- he was lying down somewhere a bit hidden because he was tired), and a couple other stops, and after all that we were exhausted. Brett and I agreed that hiking up a mountain with 5 kids is ten times easier than taking them around in the city.

13. I can’t believe I’ll be going to the States in one week. It was almost EXACTLY two years ago that we got here. I remember being soooo tired and a little overwhelmed. Crazy. Really crazy. I think when I get back I’ll start posting about some of the little things that are different from the States.

Birthday boy.

2011-12-07T13:04:00.001-08:00

Orrin, it was your birthday on Monday. How old are you now??

That’s right! You’re so smart. And how does your mommy feel about you getting so grown-up?

Right again. But at least you got a cute cake. And a crown.

Which you were a little bit excited about.

But you didn’t really smile until Hazel started blowing bubbles for you. You thought they were pretty cool.

Happy first birthday to my cutie cute cute Orrin!!

Wald Weinacht

2011-12-04T13:49:00.001-08:00

So on Saturday night me and the older kids left Daddy with Baby and walked up past their school a little way to meet with the rest of our little village for Wald Weinacht. That means ‘Most Awesome Christmas Celebration in the World’ in German. Okay, it literally means Forest Christmas, but just look—it was totally the awesomest thing I’ve ever seen.

We bundled up and went up at met at the firehouse at 5:00 and were told to bring lanterns, so we brought along the lantern that Ethne had made in Kindergarten, and got the candle lit. Jethro looks ornery, but really he was happy. :)

Here’s a picture of some kids I don’t know, just to show some other lanterns, because I think a lantern parade is awesome.

Then we went down the road a ways, then across this field, which was marked by burning torches every little bit.

Sorry, it was dark and everyone (including me) was moving, and all of my pictures are blurry. But here’s a shot of the first of the procession.

There were quite a lot of us. It was a good showing for our tiny village.

As we got to the edge of the forest there was a little band playing Christmas music.

When we got into the woods, the trail was lit with plenty of candles.

After a while we came to the little area where there was a bigger band playing Christmas music and the lit tree.

Once everyone got there, we sang two Christmas songs.

Talmage smiling/grimacing for me. :)

Then they announced that they had seen Samichlaus, so all the kids had to yell to him so that he would come. They all yelled, “Samichlaus!! Samichlaus! Samichlaus!” And out from the woods in the other direction came Samichlaus, his donkeys, and two Schmutzlis. Schmutzli is Samichlaus’ helper who wears dark clothes and has a black beard. (Sometimes there’s only one, sometimes there are more.)

They walked around the circle, shaking hands and greeting the children.

Then Samichlaus stood in the middle, and let all the children gather around him while he read a story.

It was magical.

After the story, Samichlaus and the Schmutzlis went to different spots, and the children stood in line for their turn to recite a poem or song or verse to him. Then he gave them a bag of treats (peanuts, an orange, a pear, a chocolate candy, and a little lebkuchen –a dry gingerbread cookie thing).

Here’s Jethro and Talmage and Jethro’s friend Elias talking with Schmutzli. Hazel said the little poem

“Advent, advent, the little light burns.

First one, then two, then three, then four.

And next, the Christ child at the door.”

And Jethro said it in German, which he learned last year at school.

And some pictures of my kids + Elias in front of the tree.

Talmage didn’t want to be in the picture, unfortunately.

Then, for those who wanted, there was a bonfire and they were serving hot tea. We would have stayed if it was hot chocolate, but it was okay, because we needed to get on our way anyway, as it had started to drizzle and Talmage was ready to go home.

Back through the candle-lit trail.

Can I just say I just ADORED and LOVED everything about this??? It was sooooo wonderful in every way. And really, it just beats the crying pants of off going and sitting on Santa Clause’s knee in the mall (and I’m totally not against sitting on Santa’s knee in the mall).

Incidentally, I was talking to my friend Karin today, and she said that where she lives, they have something like this, but you have to RSVP and then pay 20 franks per kid. But I’ve heard other places just ask for donations. Ours was completely free. We totally live in the right place.

Now, I know you all want to hear more about Samichlaus and Schmutzli. Well, Samichlaus lives in the woods and doesn’t have reindeer, but donkeys. He comes on Dec. 6th and fills boots that children have left outside their door with peanuts and oranges and treats. But he doesn’t come on Christmas Eve/Day to leave presents, that’s Christkind (Christ child).

And here’s more info about Schmutzli from this site (you should definitely check it out):

Known as Schmutzli in the German part of the country and Père Fouettard (from "whip") in French, Samichlaus's alter ego usually carries a broom of twigs for administering punishment to children whose behaviour throughout the year has not been up to scratch.

Kurt Lussi, the curator of religious folklore at Lucerne's History Museum, says that the St Nicholas custom in Switzerland became interwoven with a festival of noise and masks dating back to pre-Christian times. Schmutzli, he says, was a symbol of the evil spirits which these ancient festivals sought to drive out with a combination of noise and light. Winter processions involving loud noise and lanterns continue to this day in many parts of Switzerland.

"Schmutzli means an ugly character with a concealed face, and this figure appeared with a black face, red eyes and a black cap." He gives the example of an illustration from 1486 that depicts a demon who abducts children. "This child-stealing motif returns again in Schmutzli," he said. "There's also the Sträggele, another child-stealing figure which I would call a native Swiss demon. Birch brooms are associated with it and that's also what Schmutzli carries."

A demon-looking guy to scare kids into being good? AWESOME. :) (More info about different cultures’ Christmas demons/scary-dudes here-check it out.)

Some other pictures:

As a parting tidbit, my friend Karin (and her family) was at our house today for dinner, and saw all the peanuts we had from Samichlaus on the counter, and she said, “Did you know there’s a Samichlaus in every peanut?” And we did not, so she showed us (and this picture came up when I searched for images of Samichlaus and Schmuzli, so I thought I’d share). See in that bit of ‘sprout’ up on the top, there’s the hat on top, the nose (and face), and the beard on the bottom? Awesome.

I hope you’re having fun doing Christmasy things and have Christmas songs in your head and Christmas tastes on your tongue!

Pictures in a hat.

2011-11-29T13:23:00.001-08:00

Just some (yeah, many- I’m his mother) pictures of a cute cute baby in a hat.

I absolutely looove the light and bokeh in the background. It is so pretty.

I love this face.

Cutest expression!

Other than that, all I have to say is that my husband is so wonderful and I love him so much. I will miss him while he goes to America. And he’s fun to kiss and cuddle with.

The ned. (ha ha. That was funny to me, so I didn’t fix it.)

Primary Program

2011-11-28T12:29:00.001-08:00

Today in my church we had the primary program (which means that the kids in our church congregation ages 12 and under did a presentation for the main hour-long church service in front of everyone). As a counselor in the primary presidency, and mom to 1/3 of the primary, I was really really proud of how well they did!

Jethro wrote his own talk about temples which was really great and he also translated another boy’s talk into German and read it, and Hazel and Ethne both memorized their parts (Ethne’s in English), and we worked and worked with them almost every night so they knew all the words to all the songs.

Our primary has nine kids in it, three of whom speak no English, two of whom speak almost no German, and four who speak both. So though our numbers are few compared to many wards I’ve lived in, the challenges are a bit different. (And next month when our two nursery kids come in (one of whom is Talmage), there will be another one who knows no German and one who speaks only Swiss German, and no High German. Sheesh.)

So we have a lady in our ward who plays the harp, so we were lucky to have her accompany two of the songs. It was really nice, but she had never made it to practice with us, so we were winging it. And then I had kindof gotten a piano solo together just to play while the kids were going up to the stand in case the harpist wasn’t there- but in the end we had extra time so I ended up playing it, and luckily it went really well even though I had not practiced much at all. (It’s a very nice arrangement of Praise to the Man, found here. Although I’m listening to the version on the website right now and realizing I play it about ten times faster. Maybe not quite ten times, but a lot faster. And I like it faster.)

Anyway, we put in some extra songs since we have very few kids and needed to take a bit more time, plus songs are always good. So I found an arrangement for ‘I Am A Child of God’ at freewardchoirmusic.com and I personally think it was the highlight. When we sang it I looked up and saw a few people with teary eyes. Brett said he loved it, and had teary eyes himself. So, I recorded our kids singing it at the practice on Saturday, and while it’s not anywhere near as nice as hearing it for REAL, you can take a listen if you’d like.

Oh yeah, one funny thing was at the beginning the primary president was introducing each of the kids and they each stood up as she said their name. She said Ethne’s name, realized no one could see her behind the stand, and lifted her up in the air for a second, then set her back down. Maybe you just had to see it, but it was cute.

Brett invited some of his coworkers to come, and they did, so that was pretty awesome. All in all, it was a really really nice program.

While I’m on the topic of church, can I just say that I love my ward (congregation)? It’s really great—I love that on any given Sunday, the opening prayer might be said in English, a talk in Spanish, translated to German (which is then always translated to English by headset), a blessing on the sacrament in French… it’s pretty cool. I usually don’t get to listen to anything, because it’s pretty difficult to wrestle a baby and four kids (remember, Brett’s on the stand) and keep your headset on. But hey, who am I kidding, it’s pretty much impossible to listen when you have little kids even when you aren’t relying on a headset.

In other news, Brett’s leaving to the United States of AMERICA on Wednesday. He and two coworkers are going to Vanderbilt University in Nashville to spy on their competition. I keep saying that because I think it’s funny and he keeps shaking his head at me and saying they’re collaborating. Anyway, he’ll be gone for a few days and he’ll get to be in the U.S. for the first time in about two years.

And guess what. I’M going to be in the US for the first time in two years (almost exactly) when I fly to Arizona for my sister’s wedding on the day after Christmas!!! And, get this… I’ll be ALL BY MYSELF. It’s going to be totally outrageous to be without children. Outrageous and AWESOME. Think about it—two 20 hour plane rides to read, sleep, look out the window, or do whatever the heck I want because I’m not trying to help any kids go to the bathroom or eat their snacks, or pick up their snacks from all over the seats and floor, or get them to stop crying and go to sleep, etc. etc. I’m pretty pumped. Pray for Brett—he’s never really done much time by himself with all the kids. :)

More about Jethro.

2011-11-22T12:53:00.001-08:00

So Jethro has exciting news---

Yep, the guy has glasses! Thanks to Kristi and Margot, who told me about Zennioptical I bought my last pair of glasses from them and now Jethro’s, and they’re great. Glasses for around $20?? AWESOME!

The FedEx man delivered them the night of Jethro’s birthday party, so he had an extra present to unwrap.

Oh yeah.

And look at this picture… he’s sitting back against the couch instead of hunched 2 cm from the computer screen! (And doesn’t he look so cute in them?! What a good-looking boy.)

That was actually how we figured out that he needed glasses- he was always so close to the computer screen when we watched movies, and we were always saying “Jethro! Sit back!” And one day I said, “What’s the matter, do you need glasses or something?!” and suddenly ding ding, it occurred to me that maybe he DID need them. I don’t know how long he couldn’t see the board at school, or the clock, but now he’s all fixed up and again can see. And sight, as we all know, is a beautiful thing.

At night, Talmage says "Come in my woom." And then he says, "King kong." So I sing him a song and he rolls over and gets all cuddled down in his blankets. It's really cute. Then he says, "King more kong."

In other news, I cracked my rib. It hurts a lot. I had a cough for the last few weeks, and one morning I woke up with a sore sore side, and it really killed when I coughed. It started feeling a tiny bit better, but then a few days later (yesterday, in fact), I again woke up with it as sore as ever. No fun. Apparently you can crack your rib from coughing. I don’t recommend it.

Then today Brett gave me a hug and I was like, “owww my rib!” and I said he’d be sorry if I ended up in the hospital because he had broken off my rib, and then they'd ask me what happened, and I’d tell them that my husband did it, and then they’d come have a little chat with him, and then he’d go to jail. And then he’d be bored. And he said, “And then you’d starve.” Now that we’ve got that settled.

In other news, my baby is soooo soooo soooo cute and gets cuter every day and it’s practically unbearable. Because you know, my other children were once his age, and then they did this awful thing to me, where they got bigger.

See, Jethro used to look like this:

Hazel once looked like this:

Ethne was this little birdie:

And Talmage was this little too:

You can see why I’m getting a little upset. Because now they look like this--- giants!

Okay, okay, you’re right, my kids just keep getting cuter as they get older, but STILL – I looooooove this age. Just turning one. They’re so very adorable and the perfect delicious size for hugging and kissing and generally eating up. (And yes, I realize I already posted this picture. I am posting it again.)

Okay, the end.

Jethro’s Party

2011-11-20T14:20:00.001-08:00

So on Friday, Jethro finally got a birthday party. Emphasis on the finally. His birthday is July 14, so we were a bit late. In fact, I had Brett help me write the invitation, and this is what he wrote:

For those of you who (like me) don’t speak German, it says, “Jethro is 9! Actually that happened a long time ago, but he has a lot a patience, and didn’t forget that we promised him a party.”

It’s true. I did want him to have a party with friends from school, I felt like it was important, but for whatever reason it kept getting put off. So anyhow it finally worked out.

When the boys were arriving, they watched a couple videos on youtube. Jethro picked this one, and his friend Lamin picked this one.

Then we all went to the park and the boys played games. They played flag tag and keep-away and things like that.

Then we sang Happy Birthday (in English, German, and supposedly Chinese, but I’m doubtful it’s even very close to Chinese).

And Jethro opened his presents.

Then when the fire was roaring, we all roasted our wursts, and some marshmallows, and ate cake. It was a good time. I think all the boys enjoyed it. I’m sooo glad that Brett came home early and pretty much ran the show while I (feel like I) ran back and forth between the house and the park.

Happy –late- birthday Jethro!

And here are some pictures I took of Jethro the other day. I love this kid!

Stuff.

2011-11-18T13:48:00.001-08:00

Look at this cute, sweet, cute cute CUTE little boy! Sheesh he’s so cute. I just love him.

Hazel loves him too.

On a tangent, Hazel has been wearing that shirt for the past 3 years. See—here she is at 4 years old. (And I ADORE that face on the right. Well, I adore her face always, but you know what I mean.) But yeah, I think I had her sleeves rolled up 2 or 3 times back then. It’s a good shirt. I think I got it at a garage sale. I often did that with clothes that I bought at garage sales for the kids to grow into—get too excited to wait any longer and had them wear it before it really fit them. I miss garage sales. And our kitchen walls were green. I picked that color, then I regretted it. But oh well, the green walls are no longer mine. Though I’d rather have green kitchen walls than 70’s lime green tile on my kitchen walls. Such is life.

That was more of a tangent than I had intended.

On Wednesday I made the kids sit down and I taught them about the first Thanksgiving. Cause hey, they’re not going to learn it in school here. :) If you feel like doing a little history time with your kids, you should check this site out- it’s amazing with all kinds of different things, some interactive slideshows, interviews with some pilgrims and Indians, and just a TON of stuff. And I bookmarked this site because I want to read it for my own personal enlightenment. It’s pretty thorough.

Then we did Thanksgiving-themed crafts. Jethro chose to make a Mayflower with a walnut shell. (Idea from pinterest, if you feel like checking out my pins, here you go.) And sometimes I do say to Jethro that he should let me do his hair, and he always declines. And usually I let it be.

Hazel and Ethne made leaf-feathered turkeys. Ethne declined a picture, however.

We had a fun night tonight, but I’ll tell you about that in a different post.

And here’s a cute boy to end the post with.

Hazel pictures.

2011-11-15T12:32:00.001-08:00

It’s an entirely different story getting pictures of Hazel as compared to Ethne. Hazel promised me we could go out and take pictures, so I did her hair, we went out, she smiled when I said smile, moved where I said to move, and all of these were taken in a matter of minutes. It’s fun with Ethne, it’s just more… aerobic. :)

Anyway, here’s Hazel. I sometimes think about narrowing down my pictures and just posting a few great shots, maybe thus creating a bigger impact, but you know, I just can’t. :)

I was showing Brett these pictures and he asked me if I take pictures of the kids like this every other week. Silly man. These were her official 7-year-old pictures. Not very close to her birthday, but she’s still 7.

Six things for today.

2011-11-14T13:50:00.001-08:00

1. So on Thursday there was no school. I think all the teachers had a meeting- not sure about that, but it was also a day for kids to go to work with their dads (or moms? I don’t know, the details about all this are a little sketchy). Anyway, it happened to work out pretty nicely for Jethro to go to work with Brett since he had an appointment in Bern anyway that day, and I really don’t like taking all the kids into Bern if I can help it. Sooo, when they got to work Brett had Jethro go through a tutorial for CAD on one of the computers (CAD –Computer Aided Design) and then Jethro went to work and designed WallE’s head. Isn’t that amazing?! I think it is. He didn’t have any help. Okay, so the picture doesn’t look all THAT impressive, but click on it, and you should go to the pdf, and that’s a 3-D image, so you have to click it and drag it around and see it move.

I told Jethro he doesn’t even need to go to college- he’s already set to be an engineer, and Brett said, “Well, being an engineer isn’t just using CAD, you know.” hee hee.

2. Speaking of Brett’s work, lately he’s had the pleasure of skinning a sheep’s head. I don’t know why he always ends up with these kinds of projects—at Purdue he scraped skin from a pig’s hide to collect cells. Now he’s skinning a sheep’s head to get the skull for use in experiments (sheep’s head being less expensive than humans). He says it’s actually much weirder to do this kind of thing at work, where there are all kinds of rules and regulations and you have to wear gloves and disinfect everything so carefully. I know, you’d think doing something with gloves on would make it LESS gross, but apparently to Brett, it’s more natural to do it with your hands.

3. On Sunday Hazel asked me what she should write, and I said “Ten things you love about me.” So she did, because she is awesome.

Her note says: Dear Mother hear are ten Resens wy I Love You. 1- You Teach me wat I need to do. 2- You kook for me. 3- You Buy Clothse for me. 4- You Read to me. 5- You play with me. 6- You Sing with me. 7- You listen to me. 8- You love me. 9- You help me. 10- You buy Toy’s for me.

4. The other day at the dinner table I told everyone to say Orrin on the count of three, so we did, and he looked at us, surprised, then after a few seconds, his face crumpled and he started crying, and he laid his head down on his arm and whenever he looked up at me, he would get sad again and start crying again. It was so sad, like, “Mom, how could you do that to me? I trusted you.” So sad. Pretty funny.

5. So, I just looooove that Talmage talks now because it is the cutest thing ever and he’s always saying things in funny ways. He is fairly good with pronunciation, but of course there are still little things he does wrong. He backs a lot, like when he says ‘get’ it’s ‘gek.’ I know I’ve said this before, but I absolutely ADORE that Jethro and Ethne are Lello and Henny.

The other day the girls were a little late coming in from playing outside, and I said, “I wonder where those girls are. I hope they’re not lost… and living with a mother bear.” (We found a children’s book at the second-hand-store about a little girl who goes into the deep, dark forest and ends up living with a mother bear.) And Talmage said, “Let’s go gek them.” And I said, “But I don’t know where they are.” And he said, “In deep woods. Dawk woods. Wiweee WIWEEEEE scawy woods. But don’t worry, I bite (fight) the bad guy.” HA ha.

One afternoon when Jethro and Hazel were at school, he had a stick or something and kept trying to get Ethne to fight with him. He kept saying, “Bite, Henny! You bite me! I bite you!”

The other day I asked him what he was going to be when he grows up, and he said, “BATMAN!” (Thanks to a friend of his who was Batman for Halloween and then seeing a costume in the store.)

Another time he was trying to get me to do something on the computer, and for so long I couldn’t figure out what it was. It sounded like, “yoobdoob” and I finally realized he was saying to go to youtube. Ha. Smart kid.

On Sunday we were talking about Christmas presents and I told him that once I got Brett a gun for Christmas and he said, “I… I… I… Me too want dat.”

Of course, talking also comes with its drawbacks. He has told me “You meanie Mom!” and, heartbreakingly, “You make me ty (cry) all time!” So sad! And in church one time, I told him to sit up or be quiet, or something equally offensive and he got reallllly mad and pulled the maddest face EVER and said, “You make me MAD now!” At least he’s good at recognizing his feelings?

It’s also really funny how he’ll come up and ask for something that he really wants and give the biggest, cheesiest, smile with his eyebrows raised high. He’s way too cute for his own good.

6. It’s foggy every morning nowadays. But I’m glad there’s no snow.

The end.

Confusion

2011-11-12T11:57:00.001-08:00

Do you want to see something very confusing (as well as very cute)?

I know, it’s crazy. Because they actually look fairly similar when you look at pictures of them both at 11 months. Talmage had a rounder face, and of course, the hair color is different, although in the picture of Talmage below, it actually looks kindof red. Fun stuff. (Does any mom get tired at looking at the similarities/dissimilarities of her children? I think not.)

But anyhoo, it’s not exactly the smartest thing to put Orrin in a shirt that says Talmage, because really, I call him Talmage 75% of the time anyway. But I surrrrrre love him!

Ethne pictures.

2011-11-10T14:07:00.001-08:00

So I took Ethne out for some pictures, and she was so cute.

Unfortunately, I was really frustrated with my pictures. Either the color is off (I was messing with the white balance, but sometimes it seemed like what should have helped just made it worse), or the focus is not very sharp, or stuff like that. Now, before anyone says anything, I know they’re okay, and cute pictures of a cute girl, but sometimes it annoys me that I see problems but don’t have the technical know-how to do better.

I love these pictures below, but at the same time, they seem just a bit… drab? I wish I could play with some photoshop actions, but I don’t have photoshop, and all the other things I try with these don’t do much for me. Still, cute.

I love this one below, but had to go black and white with it because it was where I had turned my white balance to shade and it totally got crazy-colored, beyond what I could repair. Grr.

The color on the ones below is also weird. I don’t know what was up. It makes me think I should just go back to my old camera on auto. Not really.

Oh well. Sorry for all the lame talk about photography woes. I sure do have a cute little five-year-old.

Around my home.

2011-11-09T13:54:00.001-08:00

I love where we live. It’s so beautiful no matter what the season or weather or what. How lucky to have this for our ‘walk around the block.’

There are lots of cows in Switzerland. (I think I may have pointed this out before.)

Isn’t that the most idyllic scene?

And Orrin loves it.

Some more autumny images (on a cloudier day).

I call this next series of pictures ‘Orrin at the Window.’ They really deserve their own post, but I’m too lazy. But give them a good look because they’re soooo cute!

This is the cutest face ever made. Right here.

This is a my home (kindof a different perspective than how I usually see it). The farm house and buildings to the left, and on the right is the apartment building that I live in (top farthest right-hand apartment to be exact). You can come visit.

The end.

:)

2011-11-07T13:43:00.001-08:00

A couple days after I took Tell’s stitches out, he was riding his bike and whacked his head on the exact same spot- so he had a nice goose egg under his scar and it got all purple. Kids these days man.

The other day he wanted to watch a show on the computer, so he pushed the chair out of the way and started pushing the couch up, and I told him, “Wow, you’re tough!” And he said, “Yeah. At home I tough. Not hiking.” Ha ha, apparently he heard my pep-talks when we’re hiking about how incredibly tough he is, but he doesn’t appreciate them except by his own distinctions.

Ethne’s birthday celebrations.

2011-11-06T13:44:00.001-08:00

Yes, this girl turned FIVE YEARS OLD on the first of November. Yes, five years ago I had the most easy and pain free labor I’ve ever had the pleasure of …enduring? It makes me wonder what’s wrong with my head that I didn’t have an epidural for the following two children. Anyway. Now this sweet little baby

looks like this.

She lucked out with having 3 celebrations this year. I figure I’d post all of them in one fell swoop.

The first was on her actual birthday with her family. We had brownies. Yum.

Before I handed her her three presents, I said, “This one is from Daddy and me, this one is from Jethro and Hazel, and this one is from Talmage and Orrin.” Which was kindof untrue since those people had had no hand in picking out the presents nor did they even know what the presents were, but Talmage raised his fists in the air and yelled, “Yeah!!” and laughed because he was so proud that one present was from him. It was so funny.

(Yes, I know that Brett looks weird with a naked, beardless face, but he had to shave after he did his funny Halloween facial hair.) We love Ethne!

Then, on Thursday she didn’t walk to school at the usual time because her kindergarten class all walked to our house to pick her up in the little birthday wagon and take her back to school. That’s just the cutest thing ever. What a special thing for the little birthday kid!

Orrin and I followed along and Talmage rode his bike, and I had to keep yelling at him not to get too far ahead. (p.s. My mom was talking to me the other day and mentioned how her neighbor drives her son from their house to the road where the bus stop is every morning. They do not live very far from the road at all. I was like- oh my gosh, move to Switzerland where I don’t know a single person who drives their child to school no matter what the weather, AND then when they get there they go out in the forest once a week. And they just say dress warm.)

Then she got to sit on the special chair in front of the special floating birthday candles while they sang to her and then she picked out a little gem/rock thingee from in the water.

Then she walked around showing everyone in the class the one that she picked out.

Then they all went and did their normal kindergarten things.

And Orrin fit right in. I’m thinking of sending him every day.

I love kindergarten classrooms. All their fun decorations and awesome toys.

I loved this little table for kids to play at where there were trees and a few forest animals made from wood, and then some painted boxes and then leaves and nuts and acorns and rocks brought in from outside.

And I loved this Swiss farmhouse with little wooden dolls and animals and furniture and tractor.

And lots and lots of cows.

Orrin liked it too.

Oh, and I took a picture of this because I want Brett to make one for us. So, one kids sits on the chair part, and then another kid puts on a little harness and lifts up the two handles and pulls the other kid. I wish I would have got a picture of some kids playing on it, but I didn’t. Anyway, it was totally awesome.

And finally, on Friday afternoon Ethne had her first official “friend” party. (She had one with cousins before which mostly counts.) It was a Fancy Nancy party and she invited all the girls from her class, which was seven, which was too many. But luckily I asked a girl in our ward, Alyna, to come help me out since you know, I don’t speak the same language as all these kids, and that was a GREAT idea. I would have really gone crazy without her.

Anyway, some balloons were hung up by strings all over the ceiling (and by the way, I’m totally doing this for Orrin’s birthday because he was IN LOOOOVE with them. Every time he saw them he was overcome.), and Alyna brought some of her old dress-up clothes, so Ethne and Hazel dressed up in them.

(I had to post this picture just for Jethro.)

They played Pin the Jewel on the Tiara, and we read Fancy Nancy to them (Alyna translated it), and then they decorated cupcakes with some sprinkles and things. Then Ethne opened presents and then it was time to go home and let me tell you I was so glad. They were crazy.

But I think Ethne had a good time and felt pretty special. So all’s good. Happy birthday to my girl!

The Lookout in November.

2011-11-06T12:53:00.001-08:00

It was very nice weather today, so we decided to go to the lookout. But we got there a little too late because the sun was already pretty much gone and we couldn’t see the Alps very well at all. But the lookout is always a nice place anyway. And Orrin had a great time. I love how he really has FUN now. We got to be outside, go for a walk, and even saw a dog! Which made him squawk with glee. :)

Look at those teeth!! Sooooooooooooo cute!!

The kids had fun walking in the dirt and throwing a few dirt clods at each other.

And this will probably be the closest we get to family pictures this year.

And edited just for fun.

Bygone era.

2011-11-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

(* So I wrote this post last year and never posted it (I think because I had a baby and that kindof threw a monkey wrench in my post writing and editing) so I don’t feel quite so sentimental-ish now as I did then, but I thought I’d post it anyway.)

So, often around this time of year (and especially if I also read a book set in such a time period) I get all wistful-feeling about how wonderful it must have been to live in the good old days. Though not really an exact time period, it’s just the whole idea of when life was a bit slower, people worked harder and rejoiced more in the simple things. I know in my brain that we have a lot of conveniences now to make our lives pleasant and comfortable and that in the old days it would be soooo much tougher, but somehow that part gets a bit fuzzy, and I mostly see the lovely Norman Rockwell-ish images.

I think about how people had such great parties. They had a lot of work to do, so they did it together, and they helped each other, and it became a party! Like barn raisings, or husking bees. (I can’t give credit for the following paragraph because I no longer remember where I got it from. Bad me.)

The purpose of the husking bee was to not only make the work of harvesting and husking the corn easier, but also to allow the community to get together and have fun chatting, singing songs, telling jokes and just being with their friends and family. In order to make the husking more exciting, they seperated the party into two groups and raced to see which group would finish husking their pile of corn first. Sometimes the colonists would find an ear of red corn, also known as Indian corn, and according to tradition, whoever found an ear of red corn would receive a kiss from their sweetheart. Of course, some young men would then hide the red corn and pretend they husked it when the time was right.

Doesn’t that sound like so much fun? It’s like the fun of going to the pumpkin patch or corn maze along with a dance and competition and staying out in the autumn evening. Just fun.

"It was a cold, frosty day in late fall. For several days, Father and we boys had been busy moving the shocks of corn from the field to the big barn floor.
Our little black dog waited eagerly everytime we tipped a shock of corn over to catch the big, fat rats who thought they had it made for the entrire winter by living under the shelter of the cornshocks and eating the eared corn.
While we were working with corn, Mother was busy in the house getting ready for a big feast for the neighbors who would come in the evening to help husk the corn, eat the food which Mother had provided, and drink quantities of sweet cider.
After the corn was husked, the barn floor was cleared, old Dan tuned up his fiddle, and the young folks danced in the light of the lanterns until midnight. If, during the husking, a girl was so lucky or unlucky, according to her point of view, as to find an ear of red corn, then she got kissed by most of the young men present. She always squeeled a lot, but the squeeling was for effect, for her resistance never was too strong."
-E.R. Eastman from his autobiographical book entitled: "Journey to Day Before Yesterday"

Another example of making work fun is quilting bees. Doesn’t the following two pictures make it look so fun? I could imagine a day of chit-chatting with my mom, sisters, and friends pretty darn fun.

Maple sugaring. If you have not ever read Little House in The Big Woods, you should do it now, along with the rest of the Little House series, but anyway, you’ll find out about how fun it is to make maple syrup, have a dance, make snow candy, etc.

And I have always always wanted to go sleigh riding. I mean, doesn’t every Christmas card/song that brings to mind sleigh bells make you want to jump back in time and ride around the neighborhood next to your man, all bundled up together? Dad, please train a pair of your horses to pull a sleigh, stat.

And then, a taffy pull. I always thought that sounded fun too. In fact, I remember our family making taffy once for FHE and it was good (and harder than you’d think). I always wanted to do it again, but it never happened.

So anyway, I’m kindof a sucker for all this stuff, in case you couldn’t tell. But really, when I live in a quaint little house in a lovely little field next to a nice wood, I’m going to have husking bees and quilting bees, and taffy pulls and sleigh rides. Who’s coming?

p.s. Here are some of the books that get me in this reminiscent mood:

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (husking bee)

Little House on the Prairie series (maple sugaring, as previously mentioned, and sleigh rides, and buggy rides, etc. etc.)

Apple Valley Series – The Dare, The Proposal, The Journey, Destiny (sleigh rides)

almost anything by Richard Peck (seriously, you cannot go wrong with Richard Peck. I love him. Plus, he adds some of the more mischievous activities of the good old days, like outhouse tipping. If you read any of these recommendations, make it this one.)

Movies: Meet Me in St. Lous, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers

I know there are more out there that I’m not thinking of, but that’s what I’ve got for now.

The end.

Saut du Daubs

2011-11-02T14:50:00.001-07:00

This is where we went on the 16th of Oct. It’s in the French part of Switzerland. The waterfall was a disappointment, but the walk/hike was really nice.

We decided to walk to France. It was a long way. All the way across this bridge:

We even made Orrin walk for a while. (Hazel didn’t come with us because she was at a birthday party and it made me sad. It also made me glad that my kids are still young enough that they seldom have other things or interests to keep them away from hanging out with me.)

I demand… something.

He’s so cute!!

On the way back Talmage was so whiny and wanted to be carried all the time, so Brett strapped him onto my backpack. Ha ha.

I took this picture because I LOOOVE the windows and want my house to have windows all across it someday. When I have a house.

And I’ve got to go to bed, so The End.

Fire in the woods.

2011-10-31T14:20:00.001-07:00

There are a whole lot of different kinds of mushrooms in the woods here. Here are four kinds that I found on a walk of about 2.5 minutes. (Okay, actually I think the second picture might be the same kind as the third picture, just older, but I don’t know.)

Is that a mushroom, or is it a little Child of the Forest?

(My kids and I both love that book – Children of the Forest, by Elsa Beskow, and my kids love that there are two boys and two girls and in the end she has a baby boy, so it’s just like our family! And look, when I see this picture:

It reminds me of these ones from a year ago:

End of tangent.

Anyway, so way back when, when the kids were still out of school, Jethro convinced me to go have a fire in the woods. Usually I wait for Brett to do fires, but Jethro and I got the fire going just fine, and everyone was good and careful, and it helps that Orrin is still immobile so he was content to just sit and eat leaves and dirt and rocks and bug. Love that. :)

Love love this picture of Hazel.

We ate lots of marshmallows. Because hot sticky gooey marshmallows are good.

Talmage soon tired of trying to roast, and he just manned the bag of marshmallows and ate them raw, and gave them out when we wanted another one.

Fires in the fall are the best.

Halloweenies

2011-10-31T13:07:00.001-07:00

I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on, I almost don’t know where to start. But, I’d better show off our pretty impressive- if I do say so myself- Halloween costumes. Mine was the best.

And Brett was a good partner. (Although he’s wearing Jethro’s hat, so it’s just perched on the very top of his head which is kindof funny.)

Some cool photo-editing effects. I really like how it works with this picture.

Brett did my makeup, and he did a very excellent job, I think. Unfortunately, the pictures don’t show how cool my sparkly, sequined black shirt was, nor my long black gloves. This was a pretty easy costume to pull together, with pretty impressive results, in my opinion. I found the black sequin shirt at the second-hand store (pulled it tight with safety pins since it was several sizes too big), wore my black skirt, bought flowers for my hair, necklaces, black gloves, and the little fringed shawl-thing at the second hand store and added a necklace and earrings of my own, and the makeup and voila! Dead Skeleton Person a la Dia de Los Muertos.

We were invited to a party by our friends Karin and Josh, so that’s why we all dressed up (no one trick-or-treats here). My kids wore their costumes from last year (which there are many wonderful pictures of here, so I didn’t take more (that and we didn’t have any time)) which luckily are so awesome that I wasn’t TOO sad that we didn’t get different ones (because I love love love costumes and dressing up) :

Except of course, Orrin had to be part of the Merry Men since he wasn’t around last year, so we scrambled around and came up with brown tights, his green sweatshirt put on inside out, and I quick-quick crocheted a little cowl-thingee to go around his shoulders. I would have LOVED to make him a Robin-Hood style hat, but alas, we had no felt or anything at all to make one with (yes, I left it to the last day, so there was no time to go to the store), so we put on his brown one just for good measure. The pictures are awful (taken at the party in a dark house with a tiny little lamp), but here he is, so you can get the idea.

Little John:

He’s soooo cute!

And a few more scary pictures.

Muppet:

Happy Halloween!!

Friday Night Excitement.

2011-10-25T13:01:00.001-07:00

So on Friday night we had a bit of fun. The kids were downstairs playing in the basement and Jethro and Hazel came up escorting a bleeding, crying Talmage. He had been riding his bike and crashed into Jethro who was riding a scooter and hit the wall or the floor with his cute little head.

So I hugged him and got a rag and cleaned him up a bit and took a picture. Then I fed him some dinner because I thought he probably needed stitches so he should have some dinner in him before he had to be gone all evening, and I called Brett and told him to come home to look and see what he thought.

So we decided he should go get stitches and I decided I wanted to take him, so off to the hospital we went. As soon as the nurse took a glance at it she said, “Yep, it needs stitches.” So we waited for the doctor and I told Talmage if he was brave I would let him have a ride on the carousel that’s outside our grocery store at the moment.

So he lies down, and I sit besides him on the bed and hold both of his hands, the doctor and nurse come in and wash his cut, he says in the saddest little voice, “That hurt!” And then they give him the shot to make him numb, and he cries, but only a bit and he’s really good. Then she takes a couple syringes full of probably saline and spray it into his cut to wash it really well, and then she says, “Now I’ll just check to make sure the bone is okay,” and starts pulling open the cut to look inside. And I think, egh. Just a bit, but then I feel a little warm so I take off my sweater. And both the doctor and nurse immediately say, “Are you okay? Do you want to lie down? Once we get started stitching we won’t have any hands to help you if you faint, so you should lie down!”

And I think, no, no, I’m just fine. This is okay—I wanted to watch. That’s why I came instead of Brett. But then I decide to pull over the chair and sit on it instead of stand. And then I’m still not feeling entirely right, so I just lay my head down for a second, sure that I’ll feel just fine in a moment. And then I really start to feel woozy and light-headed and although my head is still down, and I’m just sure that I’ll be fine, it still gets worse and things are going a bit dark and I figure I’d rather lie down than fall down. So I lie down on the floor and poor little Talmage says, “Hold my hands Mommy!” Ahhhh- worst mom ever! Just kidding.

So anyway, then they had someone bring me some orange juice, which I drank, they finished stitching him, and by the time they were done I was fine again. And Talmage got some stickers and we went home. The end.

p.s. I was going to post the above pictures sooner, but then I thought it wasn’t right to post them without some pictures of him looking not quite so ghastly. So here he is. It still looks worse than it really is, since there’s some blood along the top that is just dried where the bandage was, but anyway he’s a cute stitches-head.

Pictures in the backyard.

2011-10-20T12:59:00.001-07:00

Golly gee I think I have two of the cutest little boys ever to exist.

Orrin’s face. Hilarious.

Oh!!!!!! The sweetness of that baby kills me!!!

Again, Orrin’s face!! Oh my gosh! Looooove it.

This kid’s getting way too big.

Another cutie-head.

My favorite picture of Ethne for the day:

My favorite picture of Orrin for the day:

Or maybe this one:

Another awesome Orrin face. The kid’s a facial contortion genius. (Plus, he has pretty good reason to be scared when Talmage is too near.)

Orrin has a cowlick in the back of his hair that makes his hair always stick up and to the side like this. Always. Like he’s a cartoon. It’s funny.

Talmage and Ethne. They need a little help with the whole NATURAL expression idea. A little better on the bike, though.

And the following pictures, well, these pictures are just proof that these kids genetically stem from their Grandpa Rasmussen.

News and pictures.

2011-10-17T13:14:00.001-07:00

So today is the first day of school after Herbstferien, or Fall Break. It really felt like it was a forever-long break, what with going on a road trip the first week of it. Also yesterday we also got to be lazy and stay home from church (except for Brett, because he had to lead the meeting) because with the 8-hour time difference between here and Salt Lake City, they have to broadcast the sessions of conference at different times, so the Sunday afternoon session isn’t ever broadcasted on the correct day, so instead, they broadcast it in place of church on a later week in October. We don’t go because the first time we tried going once and it was a disaster. The main room is of course broadcasted in German, but they do have a smaller room that they turn it on in English, but our little wiggly kids in a small room (and by small I do mean small) also housing bookshelves and other people who are actually trying to listen was a no go. So we stay home and listen on the internet.

So anyway, I thought I’d give an update of life besides trips. Because life is not just beaches and cow-parades, even for those of us living in Switzerland.

So here’s how the last couple weeks went. After we got back from Croatia Brett really needed a haircut, so I was all set to give him one, but then we got in an argument about how it was to be done (see number 12 on this list), and then he said, “I’ll just do it myself then.” So I left, and he buzzed his head. Then the next day when he came home from work and I saw him we both just started laughing.

Then when I was driving down to the bottom of the parking garage at the grocery store I accidentally got too close to the wall and scraped and dented the van. Brett got mad. I got mad. I got estimates on how much it would cost to fix it. Brett said we couldn’t go on our trip we’ve been planning. I cried. And stayed mad. It was a pretty miserable week. But now we don’t think we’ll have someone fix it, we’ll just have Brett fix it the best he can with the resources he has available, and then leave it, because we probably wouldn’t even get back the money we’d put into fixing it when we sell it. I don’t know if the trip is on or not. I kept telling Brett a long time ago, “It just keeps getting put off. If we don’t book our tickets now, something’s going to come up.” And he said, “Nothing’s going to come up.” Famous last words.

Yesterday I had to go get the winter stuff out of the attic because it’s cold enough to merit hats and big coats. I’m hoping it will warm up again, but right now it’s pretty chilly and most mornings it’s foggy and gray.

Orrin has just barely cut his top two teeth, with the two next to them almost here as well. He has NOT been sleeping well at all. Lately, but also ever. All of my other babies would at this point be waking up once a night to nurse and that’s it. Which is so easy. But this kid gets up 3 or 4 or 5 times. Grrr. But he’s sooooo adorable and he says dadada and I love him to pieces.

Talmage has started speaking!!! It’s awesome. It’s really cute too, because he will say full sentences, each word very carefully, so it sounds something like this-- “You. come. here. and. get. me. down. now. Mom.” :) Also, I love how he says the kids names. Orrin is ‘On (like own) Baby.’ Ethne is ‘Henny’ and Jethro is ‘Lello.’ Unfortunately, he never says Hazel because he still thinks it’s too hard. Also, and this is the cutest thing ever!- he says ‘Achtung!’ ha ha!! He must have picked it up at nursery, because he said it without any prompting from any of us- when Brett was lifting him into the tub and Hazel was in the way of where he was going to sit. He also says ‘danke’ instead of ‘thank-you.’ Thank-you is too hard so we told him to say danke.

Ethne is almost 5!! I can’t believe it. It’s really weird to me to think that Talmage is 3 now, which is the age Ethne had just turned when we moved here. So strange. Also, I bought fly swatters the other day, and Ethne said, “Oh, you got fly swappers!” It was soo funny. Now we all say that we have to swap the flies.

Hazel is very sweet and cute but I have no stories to relate about her at this time. :)

Jethro is very very into an online game called Howrse. You get to choose and take care of a horse or pony, and you can race them or buy/sell them, breed them, etc. etc. It gets intense. Jethro has been playing for almost two months now, and every day he’s always asking me, “Can I go feed my horses now?” He convinced me, Hazel, and Ethne to get a horse too (I did like picking my horse’s breed, color, and name, but then I lost interest and Jethro keeps berating me for letting my horse go uncared for).

Brett, however, once he began, caught the fever just as badly, or WORSE, than Jethro. Now he’s always taking care of his horses and he’s concerned about their genetic potential and skill numbers and whatnot. It’s a bit silly, but it’s a lot cheaper than my dad’s horse addiction. :)

And. My sister Amy is officially engaged. I would post a picture but she said I may as well wait until the invites get sent out (just know that all of my sisters and sisters-in-law are some kind of gorgeous models). Will I be going? I hope so. My brother Ethan who plays football for Snow College got his knee blown out and is out of the game. (Sounds familiar, right? Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be football players.) My sister-in-law Kris is in a relationship. It’s official, because Facebook said so. Will there be yet another wedding while I’m out of the country??

Now pictures.

My cute boys.

Look how excited Orrin is to get his picture taken. :)

And, to round out this post, here is a link to maybe the funniest youtube video I have ever watched:

http://youtu.be/v5Lmkm5EF5E

Rovinj.

2011-10-15T13:41:00.001-07:00

So after we left Brela Beach we had no set plans. I thought we could stop somewhere along the way, maybe in Italy. But the problem with that was that if we have no set plans then we tend to not do anything, so I remembered that our friends Nathan and Michaela had driven to Croatia last summer and said they really liked a city on the way. So I looked up the pictures on Facebook, and we were off to Rovinj.

We drove around a bit and looked for signs that said Rooms (actually Zimmer- a lot of people spoke German there), and the first couple places we asked were full, then we drove just a bit farther away from the sea and saw a place. Brett went and asked and they said they had rooms and told him the price, and then when we all started getting out of the van to go in, the lady was like, “Wait, you have FIVE kids?” And Brett said, “Yeah, I told your husband that,” and she was like, “Well, he doesn’t speak German very well.” And proceeded to charge us more money because she thought we only had two. I told Brett we’d just pay the extra, but still it made me quite annoyed. I mean, for crying out loud we’re renting the same amount of space—who cares how many kids? The whole being discriminated against for our family size was getting old. And the lady was really hyper-sensitive about the safety of the kids, and wouldn’t put us in the sane rooms she was going to at first, because it had stairs that she didn’t want the kids to have to go up. Crazy lady. Anyway. And the place was really dirty. At first I was trying to think of it in a positive light, and then when Brett was looking for a pot to cook some dinner in, he found one that had gross burned-on yet gooey gunk all in it, and I was like, umm this place is nasty. Good thing I’m not OCD. I just made myself not think about it too much and then I enjoyed coming home to our clean house even more. :)

Our Croatia book says that it is one of the last of the true Mediterranean fishing ports. Although now it’s getting to be more and more touristy. But anyway, the first thing we saw (and smelled) were the fishing boats. Very cool.

Then we walked around town.

Here’s a painting of Rovinj. Originally it was an island, but in 1763 was connected to the mainland and became a peninsula.

Octopus in the oven for dinner, anyone? (You can see me and Brett and maybe Hazel reflected.)

Then we went to the grocery store and got food, went home and ate, slept in our nasty apartment, and came back the next day.

Lots of paintings for sale, along with a lot of other stuff- shells and knick-knacks and jewelry and whatnot.

This is the only picture I sneaked at the Cathedral of St. Euphemia.

I just loved wandering around the narrow alleys with colorful walls, flowers, cobblestone streets, and hanging laundry.

Couldn’t leave without a classic squinting-in-the-sun Here-we-are-in-front-of-{insert whatever site you’re at, in this case, Rovinj, of couse} picture. :)

On the way back we saw a car with a NEVADA license place!!! Holy cow that was amazing. And definitely picture-worthy. Look, you can see me. :)

Back to our home.

Okay, that wasn’t our apartment. This was.

After lunch we headed to the beach. We were definitely spoiled in Brela. The water here was nowhere NEAR as clear as at Brela. In fact, it was a bit yucky comparatively.

I just love Ethne’s swimming suit. It is so adorable on her!

Jump.

Another crab Jethro caught.

I loved this spot for pictures. I wished I could get a family picture there, but that would definitely have been too involved. That’s okay, the girls are sure cute!

And guess what! When you go to Croatia you can get Pringles like these (a little too peppery for me though):

These pictures are the two postcards I bought in Rovinj. I really like them. So I’m sharing.

Rovinj was cool. And that was our amazing, wonderful, beautiful trip to Croatia. The end.

The last day at the beach.

2011-10-14T12:58:00.001-07:00

Our last day at Brela Beach. Sniff.

Jethro snorkeled around, as usual.

Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.

-Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I decided I would take the (tremendous) risk of taking my camera out on the mattress to get some pictures from on the water. Alyna helped me and thankfully we didn’t sink the camera, or any children, and we even got some good pictures.

Like these ones of Alyna diving.

Alyna took this one of Ethne.

More jumping pictures. Here’s Brett:

Here’s Alyna:

And Jethro:

Oh, what a wonderful place this was!! That evening after I swam for awhile, I just layed on the beach for a long time. Kathrin came out went for a swim and then was talking with me, and then Beat came out and he said, “Are you sure you’re not getting a sunburn?” And I said, “I have to soak up enough of this sun to last me all winter,” and he said, “Well, maybe you’ll have to get a sunburn.” :)

"I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought."
- Helen Keller

Brett took these pictures the morning we left, before I was up. When I saw this face on the camera I instantly looooooved it. This kid is soooooooooooo cute!!!

From the east to the west sped the angels of the Dawn, from sea to sea, from mountain-top to mountain-top, scattering light with both their hands.

-H. Ryder Haggard, She

And driving away—our last glimpses of our beautiful temporary home.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.
~e.e. Cummings

Our hike near Gstaad.

2011-10-11T13:27:00.001-07:00

So this was the hike we did after we watched the cow parade. It was very nice, but it was not very nice that Talmage whined pretty much the whole way. Now that he’s suddenly talking more, he sounds like this. “Me go home.” “Me lay down.” “You hold me.” Every. Five. Seconds. Kids these days. And it’s so silly because as soon as he sees something that interests him, he’ll run off and play around with energy to spare. Such is hiking with little children.

Chocolate and vanilla house.

Talmage with a stick, and Ethne with a linch pin.

Ahoy thar, baby-matey.

I love that baby!!

Then we got to the lake. So we sat down for a rest.

This was our view. All that yellowy mowed grass in front of us was really really spongy, and we couldn’t get very close to the lake before it was too muddy to go on.

There was a little rivulet running through to the lake. The kids liked playing in it.

Hazel loves Daddy, Orrin loves chewing on an apple, and I love my husband’s muscles.

I really like this picture of the boys. It’s so boyish.

Then I wanted to continue around the lake, but no one else wanted to, so I went by myself. But I didn’t even go all the way. The sky was getting darker and darker, so I figured we’d better get going. But here are some pictures from around the lake. (I can’t remember the name of the lake.)

I came back and found this. And he was so handsome I had to take yet another picture of him. And Orrin was still having fun with his (now completely dirty) apple half.

Warmer stuff on and ready to go.

It rained on us on the way back, but only a little. You can actually see it in this picture if you look really close.

And then, a rainbow. :) Talmage said, “I like.”

Cow parade.

2011-10-10T13:48:00.001-07:00

So there are yet many more pictures of the beach and Croatia, but I thought I’d shake things up a bit by showing where we went on Wednesday. A traditional Swiss cow parade. Otherwise known as Alpabfahrt, among other things. It’s when the cows are brought down from their mountain pastures, and they are all fancied up in flower headresses and great big bells. I really really wanted to go to one of these (there being many in all different places throughout the fall) but we somehow missed them last year and most of them were over already this year. There were a few on Saturday, but Saturday was supposed to be rainy and cold, so instead I convinced Brett to take work off on Wednesday to go to a smaller one in Gstaad. Gstaad is a very touristy town in the Simmental region that we’ve never visited before. It was very picturesque, with many very expensive shops for rich tourists. In fact, it was so fancy that the sign for the womens/mens bathroom at the parking lot looked like this:

We got there a bit early, so we walked around a little bit until we found Coop (the grocery store) and got stuff for sandwiches.

We even saw REAL LIVE edelweiss for the first time! They were selling them for something like 6 franks each or something, but we decided not to buy one, because we don’t always have the best luck with plants and we thought we might get thrown in jail or something if we killed an edelweiss flower, however unintentionally.

When we were in the store and I was looking at the cheese, I asked Brett which kind to get and he said, “Gstaader, natürlich.” :) It’s some yummy cheese.

Eating our food and waiting for the cows.

It started out with a little horse-drawn buggy.

Here they come! It is LOUD! Talmage was pretty scared. :)

They all congregated around the water trough for a drink.

And then they continued.

Check out the bell straps—they’re really cool and ornate.

Here’s a crazy, short little video so you can get an idea of how it sounds.

Okay, the cow parade was probably the shortest one in all of Switzerland. I got this many pictures by taking some, running in front of the parade, taking more pictures as they went by again, running to the front again, etc. In a lot of places they’re really big (long) and they also have yodelling or alphorn playing or whatnot, and it’s a big festival, but I decided I’d rather have nice weather than more hoopla. And actually, I’m glad we did go on Wednesday because this weekend WAS really nasty weather.

Hazel wanted her hair like Heidi.

Fun fun fun watching the cow parade. I hope we get to go to another one sometime.