We're packed and ready to go

It's Thursday morning. Yesterday the truck was packed with our belongings. We won't be seeing those things until mid July. You can stick a fork in us. We're on vacation now. We'll be boarding a train to Venice, Italy soon. We'll spend a couple of days there and then board the cruise ship.

Day three of packing

It is mid-day and the last day of packing. Everything is nearly boxed up. Tomorrow the truck comes to haul our belongings away. Thursday morning - aarrggghhh! My eyes are burning. Parker just squeezed out a whole tube of Bengay on the floor. The stuff is potent in large quantities. Anyway, Thursday morning we board the train for Venice and our 7-night cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

One last hike in Switzerland

We have been in Switzerland nearly 2½ years and have yet to go see Creux du Van. Kathleen could see it each day driving to and from work. We could see it from various place around town. Cruex du Van is a natural rocky amphitheater-shaped cliff approximately 4,600 feet in width and 500 feet in depth. It's a well known natural attraction of the area.

Instead of hiking up to the area from the river below, we drove up this 1,000 feet in elevation. We parked at a place called Ferme Robert. Referencing the map we hiked up into the cirque on the magenta trail, then up the blue trail to and along the rim, and down the red trail back to the car. In all it us about 4 hours.

Up top along the rim we found snow. I don't understand how it is still there, but it is. There were some guys flying model glider planes. These things were pretty cool. No engines needed, just the up draft alongside the cliff. Since this is a holiday weekend here there were really a lot of people doing exactly what we were doing. We were surprised.

First day of packing is over

One day of packing down with two to go. Yesterday the garage, storage room and patio stuff was packed. All of it was placed into the garage. Today the packers begin inside the house. Last night was our last night in the house. Tonight me and boys are checking into a downtown hotel.

All boys, no Mama

Kathleen is out of town and us boys are foraging for ourselves. Both Payton and Parker do their little things to help me out. Payton will shower Parker. I put Parker in with Payton and he will wash his little brother head to toe. No mess no fuss for me.
Parker helps out too. Just today after getting home from the store, Parker just grabbed groceries and helped carry them in. He also helped me empty the sandbox. Yes, both boys can be a lot of help.

Parker found Payton's Bumble helmet last night. The thing is huge and heavy on him. It almost makes him topple over.

New banner

I put up a new banner for our blog today. I didn't take this picture. Our friends the Marciondo's did while visiting the Bavaria region in Germany this past weekend. They visited the Neuschwantstein Castle among other things. It is the very castle Walt Disney used to model his logo after.

If you are ever in Europe you should go see it. We didn't, but you should. We wanted to and were going to, but decided on a Morocco/Canary Island cruise instead.

Parker in timeout

Parker is learning what timeout is. Grandpa Taylor gave this stool to Payton when he was little. We immediately saw its potential as a timeout stool. Payton has spent plenty of minutes sitting on it. Little Parker is just beginning to test the stool's comfort himself.

One last toboggan run

This morning we drove up to Vue de Alps to ride the toboggan run one last time. We were joined by Payton's school mate and his Dad. It's a holiday weekend, but business for the attraction was way off due to the cold drizzly weather. It was about 37° and getting foggier and wetter as the minutes ticked by. Even so it was still fun to ride!The air was thick with moisture. My eyebrows actually collected beads of water in them. I guess I need to trim 'em! The track felt like it was getting slick. The last couple of runs I braked going into the last two turns. The sled just felt like it wanted to slide up out of the track.
Kathleen and I both gave Parker a ride down the track. The guy that runs the place has always been nice to us. He let Kathleen and Parker go down for free.
Payton will surely miss his best school mate Hirad. I have explained to Payton what a pen pal is. Maybe they can stay in touch. Maybe one day they will meet again.

Homemade cake tonight

We're getting down to our final days before heading back to the world. We starting going through our stuff today in preparation for our move. We had one cake mix left so Kathleen and the boys made us a cake for dessert tonight. I liked it,but the boys mostly just liked the icing.

The boys and the neighbor kids

We walked to the park above our house and found our neighbor's kids were there with their Grandparents. Lilly (on the left) is almost 5 and little Enya (on the right) is just a month or so younger than Parker. Payton and Parker pretty much dwarf them.

Lilly has a Like-a-Bike too. She can speed around with Payton in the drive way. Parker isn't quite up to using his walking bike, but it won't be long. Little Enya cruises real well on her little 4-wheel car.In other news, we're definitely short timers now. Just 19 more days, then a week's R&R (vacation) and we're heading back home. Yippee!!