Switzerland: Montreux, Chateau de Chillon, and Lausanne

September 30

Ty and I headed out early without the kids. We took a couple trains to get to the small, lakeside French speaking town of Montreux and spent a little time there eating and walking along the lakefront where we discovered the statue of Freddie Mercury.

We then caught a boat to the Chateau de Chillon where we took a tour. I loved it and I am glad it was the first castle we saw because it was interesting and after a while all the castles in Switzerland started to blend together.

After a thorough tour of the castle, we caught another boat to make our way back to Lausanne. It ended up being a much longer boat ride than we anticipated (because I didn't read the signs right), but it was peaceful and we weren’t in a hurry. We eventually made it to Lausanne where we did Rick Steve’s walking tour and got to see a bunch of things. Lausanne is a really cool city with tons of hills and little winding streets. We got to see the sights and then we grabbed a baguette and brie and ate it on the train home. It was a really fun day and everything went pretty smoothly. I loved being able to speak the language and it helped a lot.

That evening we came home to a new James. The moment we left that morning, my mom took scissors to his way-too-long but oh-so-cute hair. He looks like such a nice boy now and it totally doesn’t fit his personality like his long crazy hair did.

The jet lag started to get a little better Friday night. James spent about 2 ½ hours in the middle of the night screaming his head off, but besides that we did ok.

Switzerland: Bern

Thursday, September 29

My mom, Kelly, and Josh took us on the royal tour of Bern.

It started with seeing the bears and the “bern show” (the highlights were James getting to see some sheep close up and then watching Josh, James, and Thatcher ride on a little kiddie toy).

...then we went to the Gurten which is the highest hill/mountain in Bern and took a funicular to the top. On top of the Gurten the boys went on a train ride with Josh, then played on a great playground with Kelly and Josh where they played and drove cars around. They also followed the example of some other kids and stripped down to play in the water. Thatcher reasoned with us and just took off his pants, but James usually insists on everything coming off.

We climbed a very tall tower and looked over the entire city of Bern (it was a little foggy, but we could still see a pretty spectacular view).

We then went back into town and went to the Munster cathedral and Eintstein’s house. It seemed like every where we went there was something kid-friendly for the kids to do. It made it so nice to be able to see Bern, but also to know that the kids were having fun too.

Went back to mom’s house. Kelly watched the boys while Josh, my mom, Ty, and I went on a bike ride along the Aare river. We passed the Bern zoo, lots of sunbathers, a guy surfing, the pool where my family swims, and other beautiful views. We had a great time. We came home, had dinner, then headed back into town with the whole family to hear the street performers. There ended up not being that many performers, but we walked around to a bunch of different vendors and then ended the evening with mom treating everyone to ice cream.

Switzerland, day 1

Tuesday/Wednesday, September 27/28

Probably one of the longest 24-hour stretches of my life (and I know the ride home is going to be most definitely the longest 24 hours of my life). We had to wake the kids up super early to drive down to Phoenix so I could have a doctor’s appointment before our trip. We got to see the baby’s heart beat and got some ultrasound pictures. Everything looks good and my due date is May 5^th like I had guessed. Then we went to hang out at Kristi’s where I let Thatcher strip down and swim naked for a little bit, then Syd drove us to the airport where our real journey began as we…

- Frantically rearranged items to various bags to end up with the right weights

- Realized we left the car seat in the car and figured we would just survive without it

- Got covered in James’s blow out on the first flight which made us smell the rest of the trip (funny that James hasn’t had anything like that happen to him since he was a new born)

- Realized (after our first flight) that I packed a butter knife and got through security with it once (but not the second time in the international terminal)

- Almost didn’t sit together on the long flight after not sitting together from Pheonix to LAX, but got super lucky and ended up with an extra seat that saved us

- Somehow survived the 12-hour plane flight where the boys slept most of the time.

- Met my family at customs and then went to the train station and got our very expensive (but oh so worth it) swiss passes, then got on a train headed for Bern (we were quite the spectacle with Thatcher and James in a pretty tired/hyper state and all of our luggage, most of which was stuff we were bringing to my mom)

- Got off the train, walked to the tram, then took a tram 10 minutes, then walked to my mom’s house

It was pretty crazy to say the least, but at least I had Ty…I can’t even think about the nightmare that is ahead of me in a couple weeks when I fly home. We spent the afternoon/evening getting settled and eating dinner, then we took a walk to see a little of the neighborhood and came home exhausted and ready for bed. We all slept for a few hours, then James and both woke up around midnight and couldn’t get back to sleep. We ended up hanging out for probably 4 hours just talking and eating snacks. He was an angel the entire time and it made my jet lag seem less painful having him hang out with me.

Family Pics

My amazing friend Carol offered to take some pictures of my family before we left for Switzerland. Despite what we gave her to work with (I was already chubby from being pregnant, James looked like a little girl his hair was so long, and James was his impossible self the entire time)...she did a great job. I can't wait for her to to do them again when the baby is born and hopefully James can sit still for a milisecond.

before switzerland pics

I forgot these pictures were on my camera, and they made me laugh so I didn't want to forget them. Here are some prime examples of how my boys play. One day Ty and Thatcher turned the couch into a pirate ship,

another day the boys emptied their entire toy box on the couch after removing all the cushions and played there for the longest time.

We decided that Thatcher's haircut couldn't wait so Ty gave in right be fore we left and cut Thatcher's hair.

Here is James in his favorite outfit. He will find this shirt and these pants anywhere, beg to wear them, then scream if I need to take them off. I intentionally didn't bring them to Switzerland, but sure enough he found them and begged to wear them as soon as we got home. He cracks me up.

Thatcher's sleeping habits have struggled for quite some time and he ends up on the floor in our room some nights. I tried to take a picture this morning when Thatcher's head was off his mattress and underneath our bed...poor kid.