From the Top of the Europe...Almost

(Brian writing.) We finally had our first Alpine experience. For those of you who have never experienced the Alps, I highly recommend that you consider putting it on your list of things to do in life. The geography is so serene and majestic, and at the same time daunting and menacing. We took a little weekend trip to a town called Murren, in the German speaking part of Switzerland. It is in an area called the Berner Oberland or in the Interlaken/Junfrau region for those of you quasi-familiar with Swiss geography.
We had two mains goals while there: have fun and try two meals that we typically would not order. The town is closed to vehicles so the only real way there is to go by train. So our itinerary started with three trains, then a gondola, then another train and we arrived.The town is about 5400 feet high, and is literally built on the side of the mountain. You can move laterally in the city, but to go up or down is literally a steep climb. This is how it looked on Saturday morning. This is the Jungfrau mountain. The tallest in the region at over 14,000 feet. From Murren, we were able to take a funiculaire that took us up to 6,250 ft, where we enjoyed a nice Swiss meal and some major snow. James and me on the Funiculaire ride.Becky and James at the top. It was totally snowing. It had a great hill for sledding which we will have to take advantage of when James is a bit older. James really liked the snow. He thought it was super fun.Becky enjoyed a plate of Raclette, which for cheese fanatics should be a piece of heaven. I enjoyed a nice bowl of Alpermakaroni. This met our second goal. I should mention that it snowed Friday night and half the day on Saturday. You couldn't see any of the mountains, even though they were right there.
(Becky writing now.) Saturday afternoon we decided to walk to the nearby town of Gimmelwald. These are from the road going down. Notice how Brian refuses to wear a coat. It totally snowed that day. Where else can you have flowers in bloom and snow on the ground? It was so lush. I just love the greeness here.See how the clouds are covering the mountains? It was so pretty the way they were all misty. You can get an idea of how steep the verticle is. This is Brian and Bimmy standing on the road and you can see just how steep it is if you were to go straight up. Crazy steep. It is such a classic Swiss mountain village. Here is Brian and Bimmy outside the cheeze hut where we bought some locally made cheese. That was our souvenier from the trip. Sunday morning was crips and clear; emphasis on crisp. It was 3 degrees Celcius, which is 37.4 F. Given that you could see everything, we took a gondola (it is actually 2 gondolas) up to the Schilthorn, which is at 10,000 feet. The view from the top. Have you ever seen anything more amazing? It was awesome! Looking back the way we came. You can't even see the town of Murren. The first gondola station is on that rock cliff at the right of the picture. You can barely see it.We could see as far as the Black Forest in Germany. The black forest is that line of black in the background of the picture and the city by the lake is Bern, the capitol of Switzerland. It is a 1.5 hour train ride from Murren to Bern so you can imagine how clear it was to see that far. It was one of the clearest days they have had in a long time. (According to the guy opperating the gondola). This is a view from the gondola as we are going back down. See at the top of that mountain is where we took all of those amazing pictures. It took 17 minuts and 2 gondola rides to get from Murren at 5400 feet to the top of the Schilthorn at 10,000 feet. Totally recommend it to anyone in the area. We would be glad to take you there when you come to visit. Here is Brian and Bimmy on the ride down. James was such a good sport being dragged around all weekend. Here we are right before we got on the train to go home. We finally asked someone to take our picture so that we had one with all 3 of us. It was so amazingly beautiful. This is the tiny train that we took from Murren to the gondola that takes us back to Lauterbrunnen. It was literally one car. That was it. I guess it really isn't a train then is it? Technically, doesn't it need to be more than one car long to be considered a train? I don't know.

We ended the trip with James finally giving up and going to sleep on Brian's sholder about 10 minutes before our train pulled into Geneva. Typical. Isn't he so darn cute? I love that he sucks his little fingers when he is tired. It make the cutest little sound.

Still Waiting

On our internet to be set up at our new appartment. That is why we haven't been posting lately. As soon as it is up, I will do some catch up posting. Until then? Well, no promises. I am only posting now cuz I have internet at the hotel we are staying at in Murren, Switzerland. We are just waiting for Bimmy to finish his nap before we get on 3 trains and a gondola to take us back to Geneva. I will post about our first official trip when I get internet at home. I hope it will be early this week. Hope you all are doing great!

Our first official visitor!

Last weekend we had our first official visitor. Brian's brother Geoff just happened to have a business trip scheduled to Milan, Italy so he decided to fly out a bit early and rented a car and drove 3.5 hours to Geneva for a couple days. It was fun to have someone to "entertain". I can't wait for more of y'all to come and visit. The only bad thing is that we are still in the hotel so Geoff got the couch to sleep on. (We are moving into our appartment today and tomorrow but that is for another post later.) We took Geoff to a couple of local areas in interest but we didn't even scratch the surface. We drove about 10 min. and crossed into France and rode the gondola up Mount Saleve (also the name of our ward here). This is the view looking down from the top of right where the gondola comes up. See how steep it is? It was really nice cuz we had a great view of all of the Geneva are and even more. It was a bit chilly at the top but it was fun anyway. Poor Geoff kept saying that he was so excited for cooler weather here but when came right down to it, he was cold here. He has truly become a Texan. Brian, of course, got a popsicle while we were up at the top. Here he is with James, as James tries to take th popsicle stick out of his mouth. The next day, after church, we went to Annecy, France and walked around the lake. It was beautiful and not even an hour drive from Geneva. The lake was amazing looking and I can't wait to go back in the Summer. James even got to ride the carousel with Brian. He kept having a hard time figuring out where I was as I called to him while he zipped by. It was funny. On Monday, we headed out to the U.N. so Geoff could check it out. Then we walked the 2 blocks to the Geneva Botanical Garden where we walked around in the sun so Geoff could stay warm. James really liked "drinking" out of the water fountain. (It is drinkable water). After that we went downtown and got sandwitches and headed to the lake to eat. I took James home to nap but Brian and Geoff went walking around the lake and even walked all the way out to the Jet d'eau (Jet of water) that, unfortunately, was not working at all while Geoff was here. He will just have to see it next time he comes to visit. Hint, hint! Geoff was also kind enough to stuff his suitcase full of stuff for us from home. Mostly things that I forgot to get. And a few treats too! Thanks, Geoff! So, as y'all can see we are super-fun to visit. When you come we will pack your days full of fun and sights and whatever you want. So, don't be strangers! Hope to see you soon. Right after Geoff left, James decided to have a "Who can open their mouth the widest?" contest. I think he won. What do you think?

10 Months.

Can you belive it? James has officially been out longer than he was in. It took long enough. Unfortunately, I do not have any official stats this month. I didn't want to try to find a pediatritian until I knew where we were going to live and I could ask around for some recommendations. He looks healthy enough to me. I was actually expecting James to get sick pretty quick when we got here because of all the new germs that he has been exposed to (the plane ride, a new continent, public transportation and lots of people touching him all the time) but fortunately he has stayed his normal, healthy, happy self. He really likes to brush his teath like his "Edpa". (My dad is a dentist who refuses to be called "Grandpa". Instead, he insists that all the grandkids call him "Edpa". His name is Ed. I'm sure he will be happy to know that James brushes his teeth with a smile.)But that doesn't mean he hasn't tried to get himself into some trouble. He has learned a few naughty little tricks since we got here. First, he loves, loves, loves to climb on things. He has learned how to climb onto the super low coffee table here and from there he climbes onto the couch which he uses as a steping stool to get onto the table. He likes to play with the coins that we keep in the ash tray (gotta put it to some good use).I can't even turn around for 2 minutes without him getting himself into some precarious situation. Yes, he has fallen a few times (I haven't been able to get there every time). Mostly off the bed and couch but he is learning that the edge can mean pain so he is being a lot more careful now. But that doesn't stop him from trying new ways to get hurt. He also has learned how to climb up his stroller. This he cannot get down from on his own and so he just starts yelling for help. Mostly it is an urgent grunt that he makes. This usually happens when I am trying to get the dishes done and so I just turn around and help him down at which time he immediately starts trying to climb up again. Silly Bimmy.He has also pinched his little fingers in various cupboards and such here in the hotel. It is very hard for him to understand that if he wants to get his hand out he needs to stop pushing the door closed with this other hand. That makes him particularly mad. Don't worry, he hasn't lost any blood but he has had a few little bumps on the head that last a couple of hours.He has also decided that he hates the hotel as much as I do. When we come back from any sort of outing he starts to whine as soon as we walk in the door. See picture below for proof.I would too if I were a baby (Brian would say that I do whine about the hotel). Hopefully the situation will be remedied soon. James is growing and learning like crazy and he is happy as ever. Every day it seems he is learning new things. It is so fun when he discovers a new skill. It will be fun to see where he is next month....

Geneva Botanical Garden

Yesterday, James and I went to the Jardin Botanique de Geneve. It was the most amazingly beautiful day ever. This reminds me of the grass that Emily has growing in front of her house only it is gigantic. It must have been like 12 feet tall, at least. We left the hotel after James nap and made it to the garden by about 2:15 pm. We met Harmony and kids and had a blast. We rode the Carousel (we were on the second level in a lion). James just squealed with delight when the ride started and he could see everything moving around him. After the ride he made friends with a group of older people visiting from a home. He was really a charmer and was just giving out lots of smiles and laughs. He truly loves, loves, loves attention. And that may be an understatement. We always like to spread a little cheer when we can.Then we walked around the garden a bit. It is way huge and we hardly made a dent in it but it is open year round so we will totally have to go back again and again. Oh, and did I mention that it is totally free? Super! Anyway, we saw some birds and then we went walking to see the rest of the animals and found a tiny little fountain that has driking water.As soon as Harmony took a drink James just started laughing like crazy. For some reason it was totally hilarious to him when people played with or drank the water. He laughed for like 10 minutes straight. It was great. This picture is right by the fountain. James with Harmony's kids, Cado & Paisley.Then we did finally make it to see the animals. They have a huge area with more birds (like Flamingos and Peacocks) and deer and goats. James thought it was quite nice to sit in his stroller and watch them. This is looking back from the animals toward the carousel in the background. Beautiful!Then we went and sat in the shade of a big tree for a while and let the kids play. James, I hope, is starting to understand that grass is not for eating. He even crawled some more. Oh, and crawling is mostly reserved to grass at this point. He resorts to army crawling in most other situations. All in all it was a great day!James had lots of fun and was totally kept entertained by Harmony's kids. It was very relaxing, except for dragging the stroller up and down stairs on the bus there and back. If you are ever in Geneva, I totally recommend the Jardin Botanique de Geneve. We were also there on Monday and that day was fun too but James choked on a leaf, ate lots of dirt and grass. See him trying the dirt? Silly Bimmy.It was still fun. Oh, and he "accidentally" bit my friend Jennie's little boy. Oops. Now I am extra careful to make sure kids keep their fingers to themselves. It was a bit funny only cuz it reminded me of the Charlie clip from YouTube. If you haven't seen it then search for Charlie and you should find the clip. Quite amusing.