D.E.A.R. day at Payton's school

Today was D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) day at Payton's school. The kids got to wear their jammies to school. Each student brought a favorite book to share with their class.

Saturday morning nap

Hey, sleep all night and you still need a nap on Saturday morning.

Payton and Parker - First bath together

Unobtainable sodas... almost

One of the items on my "Things I miss from America" list is Diet Dr. Pepper. It was a mainstay beverage of mine in the US. Part of my morning routine at work was to purchase a Starbucks coffee along with a Diet Dr. Pepper. Oh how I enjoyed the slightly bitter coffee chased by the sweet taste of the Dr. Pepper.

I had resolved myself to having to forgo this pleasure while in Switzerland, but now thanks to my husband I have a cherished can sitting in my refrigerator! He found it in a candy store! Why just one can? Well at 4.50 CHF (~4 USD) it is a bit pricey. That explains why I haven't had the heart to drink it yet. I am thinking I will save it for Sunday morning. Maybe getting up before everyone else, brewing myself the strongest cup of coffee I can (using my European coffee press) and enjoying my alternating pleasure of coffee and sweetness while working through a crossword puzzle I print out from USA Today on the computer.

Then I can ponder what I miss about the US while enjoying one of the things I love most about Switzerland - absolutely nothing to do on Sundays but relax............

P.S. the diet root beer is mine.

Cover boys

Walgreens.com is where I order prints of the kids for family and friends. The other day while doing so I splurged and ordered a couple of special pictures for Kathleen. Give each a click to see them larger.

Payton discovers a new slide

Last Friday I took Payton to a park near his school. I have driven by it many times and to me it looked like an pretty cool little park. Well the park turned out to be very little indeed, but for what we went there for it was big. Its main attraction - and nearly the only attraction - is a long slide. I would guess it to be about 25'-30' long. Payton had a great time playing on this new slide. Little Parker just sat in the buggy.

Our new way to carry Parker

Kathleen was back in the U.S. last week for business. Taking advantage of her trip we ordered a backpack style kid carrier for her to bring back. We gave it a try out yesterday with a walk along side the lake. Our stroll was about 2 miles. I was quite surprised that my should didn't hurt at all, but I certainly felt the extra weight in my legs. The bad news, if any, is that Parker is only going to get heavier. Parker slept a good part of the walk, but he seemed to enjoy his ride. He has nearly as good as view as I do.

Parker's funny habit

We don't know how or why Parker started spitting, but we think it is funny. He really gives it his all.

Payton picked up his room tonight

Payton's chore for this evening was to pick up and straighten up his room. He worked steadily at it, but not for too long. He did a nice job.

Federal Palace in Bern

Today I needed to go to the U.S. Embassy in Bern. I needed to get a replacement S.S. card for Parker. It was a bit nippy outside and the line into the embassy was long. Fortunately that long line was for non-U.S. citizens. My line was empty and I went right in. My business didn't take long and in short order Parker and I were free to walk around Bern.

We didn't do anything and or go see anything in particular - we just walked around. I took a few pictures here and there. The following pictures are of the Federal Palace in Bern. This is where Switzerland's Federal Assembly, well ah, assembles. It consists of two Chambers: the National Council and the Council of States with each being on a equal level. The first two pictures are from the north, while the third is from the south. The palace has been recently renovated and looks quite impressive. Click here to take a virtual tour of the place. In the upper right will be language choices - click on EN for English.
To get the picture from the south Parker and I had to walk down hill quite a ways. I would say way more than the palace is tall - all the way down to the river. On the way down something interesting caught my eye. Check out this cat walk.
Whatever cat(s) uses this thing is a very daring cat!

From down below the palace we walked east along the river. On our way we passed what I believe was a painter's shop. I thought their building was cool so I snapped a picture of it.
The river makes a big u-turn to run back west on the north side of the old city center. Somewhere in the middle of this turn we headed back uphill to the city. We walked out onto a bridge going north across the river and took one last picture. You can see just how high we were. This will give you an idea how far we walked down to the river and back up!

Carnival

Click on the picture to see it full size.

Sledding in the Backcountry

Today we met the Marciondo's in the backcountry to do some sledding. We found a great hill. Plenty steep and plenty long. It is a great hill to sled down. It is likely one of the last good days to go sledding. The weather is warming and the snow is melting. Yes the snow will hang around in the mountains where we were, but it will be a wet snow. Wet snow is slow. Dry, cold snow is best for sledding.

Update: This is a new video of the same footage. The other video was an 'instant movie' created by my software. It was nice, but I like this one I did myself a little better.

Want to see the older version? Click on this link to jump over to YouTube. Tip: right-click on the link and choose open in a new tab. Doing this will leave this window open in its own tab. Just close the new 'YouTube' tab when you're done and you are right back here.