First day of Switzerland trip - Rigi

So the day after my kid's first day of school, Brett and I dropped Wyatt off at a friend's house and then headed to D.C. to fly to Switzerland!  Brett's old boss had invited him to come to the first live human surgery using the robot they had developed, and so we went!  (Actually, to be honest, we couldn't go the date of the first surgery, so we went for the second one.)  

We had our bishop's daughter, who had just returned from a mission, watch the kids for the first few days, and then Brett's mom and Jan came out (with cousins for extra fun! Paisley and Sophie and Sabree).  It was pretty rough for them because of Orrin and Jethro getting pneumonia, but otherwise I think a good time?

 

Anyway, we arrived in the Zurich airport and got pulled aside at customs because of an outstanding speeding ticket.  Luckily we had brought Jethro's Swiss money with us so we could pay it right then and there and continue on our way!  Crazy.

 

Anyway, we got our rental car and drove to a mountain!!  I can't remember now for sure which mountain, which is lame, and Brett is asleep so I can't ask him.  I want to say Rigi?  Anyway, first we drove to the ticket place for riding the cablecars and it was of course, extremely expensive.  So then we just kept driving (we had put in the mountain in the GPS) and it basically took us up the back-door route where there were no tourists, just a teeny-tiny little village that we drove through until we could drive no longer.  Then we parked at the bottom of a perfect little trail and started hiking.

 

I LOOOOVED the views!!  And we loved that we had them for $free --I mean, was that not the most awesome tourist-hack ever? 

In the below picture, you can see our rental car on the bottom left of the picture.

Everything looked soooooo Switzerlandy!

We had to take a picture of a motorcycle on the trail.

We were very tired, so once we reached this little guest-house with gardens, a viewing area, and open-air snack cafe, we rested for a bit and then walked back down.

We drove to our neighbor Kathi and Rolf's house where we were going to be staying, but they weren't home quite yet, so we drove to our old apartment building to say hello to many of our old neighbors.  It was SOOOOO WILD driving back up to our apartment.  It was absolutely normal-feeling, which was seriously trippy.  I mean, it had been almost exactly two years since I had moved back to the States, but before that, it was our home for FIVE YEARS!  That is a long time!  And it was just crazy how much it felt like we had just been gone for a couple-week vacation or something.    I can't even describe it, it was just wack.

We visited our old apartment-neighbors, Sidi and Renate and Lamin (who grew HUGE, just like Jethro), and Rosa, and Liselotte, and Nadja and Katrin and her new husband (whose name I don't think I ever remembered), Noemi (Ethne's friend) and her family, including Rahel, her mom who was Talmage's Waldspielgruppe teacher (she was so surprised to see us, it was awesome!), and a couple other people.  Then we went to Kathi and Rolf's house and went to bed and I don't think Navy did too bad at sleeping that night.  (Not that she slept all through the night, that would have been too much to ask, but she was not as bad as I had feared.)

First Day of School and Hazel's New Bedroom

The kids were lucky last year and school only started Sept. 6 because they were installing air-conditioning in the junior high.  I love having a long summer!  But the big day arrived and I was so happy/sad that my cutie-head little Obi was going off to Kindergarten!

Look at his adorable face!!

Holding up his 0 for Kindergarten.

These two.  I love.

Second-grader!

Hooray for the kindergartener!!

(Reminiscent of these pictures 2 years earlier, in Switzerland with the then-kindergartener.)

(And these pictures another 3 years earlier.  Oh, my heart--it hurts a little when I look at pictures when my kids were so little.  Why do they have to grow?? sob)

Fourth grade.  Her hair was so much shorter then (seven months ago).

Gotta walk all the way to the bus stop.

Navy went to the bus-stop too that day.

Sadly I did not get any pictures of Jethro and Hazel on the first day of school, not even after they came home.  (I was a little busy, as you'll find out in the next post.)

Also, Hazel's room was completed!!

Finishing up painting the last trim, and Hazel vacuuming it.

I really, really REALLY love it.  Thanks to my sister Amy who helped me pick the wall color which is GORGEOUS and to Brett, who, you know, built the entire thing---even sawing the hole in the wall for the window.  He made the sweetest shelves built into the wall too, since I asked him nicely.  Amy also picked out the bedding and mailed it to me.

It's a little more full now, which is sad, because I loved it all open and airy, but a girl does need a dresser.  :)  I'm glad I went with light carpet, here's hoping it remains stain-less.  Anyway, I love this room.  Brett did an awesome job.

And, I'll end with a picture of Wyatt and Navy.