Weekend Fun with the Bothagers

Our good friends Josh and Katerine came to visit us from Geneva this past weekend. I had my fingers crossed the entire week prior that the weather would cooperate so that they could see Zurich in it's prettiest. And it did, yeah!

Before Josh and Katherine arrived, Chance decided to set up his "work"....it was so cute. He laid out paper, pens, his "computer", calculators and his "work clothes" and then proceeded to make himself addition math problems and type them in to the calculator.


We set out for the routine Zurich tour, first taking the train up to Uetliberg, the tallest point in Zurich, so they could see Zurich from the top. It was such a clear day that we were very fortunate to get such good clear pictures of the Alps. I hadn't see the Alps for months!

Afterwards we ventured down towards the lake where we ate at a beer garden on the water and soaked in the evening sun. The next day we went to see the Zurich marathon and trompsed around old town, eating lunch at a kebap place. Ryan was able to snap lots of great pics of Zurich while we were out and about, which I've posted to our photos. Chance was quite the poser that day, which luckily kept him occupied. He was such a good sport about getting dragged about all weekend!

Josh snapped a family photo of us while we were down strolling the lake, and the first thing that came to mind as I was looking at these pictures, was HOLY BELLY BATMAN. Perhaps these Euro moms that keep telling me how BIG I am, actually have some truth to what they are saying. Maybe I should wear a sign that says, "no, I am not due tomorrow".

At lunch in the old town, we looked up to see an advertisement for a hotel, and I just had to take a picture to prove that yes, there are cheap hotel rooms in Zurich, but if you stay there you might just get a little stinky.


Click HERE to see Josh and Katherine's pictures.

Thumbs Up, Mom and Dad

Today we went for our 21 week check up....only 132 more days to go. At the rate that my belly is growing I am hoping that we can cut that number down just a little bit! These very frank Euro moms keep telling me how "BIG" I look already... I've grown to appreciate the American superficiality of "oh you look so great", it's just so much nicer even if it isn't true!

So on for the more important info. We had the very thorough sonogram today, which I don't remember having with Chance. First order of business.....The baby is DEFINITELY a boy! We can rule out any previous question, guess we better start thinking of names!

The technology was amazing. First he measured the head, which everything was right on target, good shape, already very brainy. The doc checked out what he called "the small brain" which was somehow lost in translation as to what it is really medically called, but he was meaning the part of the brain that attaches to the neck...to rule out any spinal deformities. Then we saw the 4 chambers of the heart pumping, and the shape of the aorta. Then the kidneys, the stomach, bladder (it was full of water!), and spine all looked great. We saw each bone of the legs and arms and each of the little fingers and toes. They're all there!

It was hard seeing much on the 3D imaging this time. I guess to really see the face the baby has to be face out with lots of fluid in front of him. He was face down so all we could see was his little shoulder and back, and part of the back of his head. His backside sure was cute even though he was a little camera shy! At the beginning of the appointment he was head down on my right side, and then by the end, he was head up on my left side. I didn't realize he moves SO much.

So all in all it was a great appointment! Can't wait to meet the little guy.

Yeah For a Fast Approaching Summer

It's time yet again for the Burning of the Boog. Sometimes you just have to wonder about these strange Swiss traditions and the trauma it inflicts on the kids. First you have Schmutzli, Santa's evil helper that takes bad kids in to the forest in his napsack and beats them with his stick. And then there's the burning of the boog, kinda like our groundhog day. At least our groundhog day features a cute little groundhog that peeks his head out. Well here in Zurich it's a different story.

We ventured down to the lake yesterday with Chance, Ava and Gabriella and moms to see the Sechselauten parade and there at the head of the lake was the giant snowman atop a huge bondfire, ready to be burned at the stake. Chance just didnt seem to understand why anyone would want to burn Frosty the Snowman. But they do, and the faster his head explodes, the quicker summer will come. The moment the Swiss are looking for happens in the video at 2:54. It took under 13 minutes this year.......bring on summer baby, I am done with this drab winter stuff!

Chance Quote of the Day

"Mommy, why does the calendar say GOOD FRIDAY on it? Every Friday is a really good one. There's not any BAD FRIDAY's"

Happy Easter

We spent Easter day traveling home from Ireland, so the celebration got postponed a day. Monday was a holiday for Ryan and so we ventured to Jucker Farms to have an Easter Brunch and egg hunt for the kids. We met our friends Kim and Hans there, with their two girls. The kids had a blast playing in the hay barn, petting goats, jumping on trampolines, hiding eggs for eachother amongst the cherry trees, playing on the playground, and of course having ice cream. The sun was shining and we were finally able to strip off our coats and sweaters and enjoy the sun actually touching our skin. At the end of the day we brought home fresh pressed apple juice straight from the farm, and we've been enjoying the juice "tap" (literally a box with a tap!) in the fridge!

Ireland

You know the song by Robert Earl Keen "You Keep a Swervin in My Lane"? It goes a little like this (listen to it):

You keep a swervin' in my lane and it's causing' lots of danger
I'm a honkin' on my horn, I'm a shooting you the finger
I keep a switchin' on my bright lights, but your just too dim to know
When your swervin' on life's highway, your running someone off the road

Ya, well that's us driving along the road in Ireland, causing lots of danger. It took two of us to drive around this country, Ryan as driver and me as the constant reminder to STAY LEFT, but not SO FAR left as to scrape the wall! Needless to say, "we" did improve greatly over the course of the week, driving many hundred of kilometers around the south and western parts of this green lush wet island. Of course, Ryan gets most of the credit as he was the one actually driving the thing. At least, once again, our trusty TomTom was there for us....


Ireland is just beautiful. It's a really charming country full of green rolling hills dotted with black and white cows, and herds of sheep. The people are sweet and unassuming. It's efficient and clean, and they love their round-abouts, almost too much. It reminded me a bit of Texas. I kept telling Ryan that if the countryside of Texas were a little greener, a little colder, and a little rainier......and if you dotted it with tumble-down castles every 10 miles or so, it'd be just like Ireland. Even the towns we passed through reminded me of small town Texas....well with much more charm and pubs, but you get the point. We felt so much at home. The farmhouses were gorgeous and huge, and it really made me want to buy a piece of land and run a B&B!

We got a very late start out of the Dublin airport and arrived to our cute little farmhouse apartment at about 10 p.m. We awoke to a beautiful piece of property situated just outside of Fermoy, north of Cork. It was an 18th century farm house smack dab in the middle of a working cow farm... the black and white spotted cows dotted the fields by the hundreds. Our apartment was located in the basement floor of the main house, super cute and cozy and perfect for relaxing evenings playing monopoly with Chance. He's really taken to that game.

SUNDAY APRIL 5
Kinsale was first on our list, a sleepy little town on the coast south of Cork. I didn't think it had much to offer but that could have been cause we were there on a Sunday and most things were closed. We did have some great fish and chips though. Just outside of the town was one of the best preserved 17th century star shaped forts, called Charles Fort. It had really nice views of the harbor dotted with sailboats and Chance had lots of fun running around the ruins as usual.


MONDAY APRIL 6
We awoke to rain and had doubts about how it would effect our day but we waited patiently enough and then sun eventually came out. We first went in to town and bought some steaks from the local meat guy, excited to purchase meat that didn't cost the price of a days salary for a family of 2.5. We'd be eating that for dinner later in our cute little apartment. Later after the sun started to poke through, Cork was our town of the day, about 30 minutes south of our place. It is supposed to be the Little Dublin, very modern nice little town located along a riverway. There wasn't too many touristy things to do there except walk around and look at all the variety of stores that we dont have in Zurich. As soon as I think I am getting used to the lack of shopping and lack of decent food in Zurich, I am then reminded of how the rest of the world is when I step out in to it. We had lunch overlooking the English Food Market of Cork, in a cute little restaurant. We were shocked when we were seated to a pitcher of ICE water on the table and bread and BUTTER.

WOAH. I forgot that these kind of things even happened in restaurants. In Zurich you can't get tap water, you pay $10 for a liter of it and butter is just unheard of, much less bread on the table before your meal. It was a small taste of home hospitality and it was great. Ryan decided to order some oysters fresh from the market below, luckily just 3 of them, cause the look on his face before eating them was not so great. Personally I've never tried one, and actually never plan to (unless large sums of money are involved). I just don't get the point of eating something that tastes so gross you dont want to keep it in your mouth, but instead you want to swallow it whole without chewing it.....point here is??? not to mention it looks like intestines. Chance tried it and the thing ended back up on his plate.

After lunch we ventured over to the Cork City Gaol "Jail" where we toured an 19th century jail to indulge in my intrigue of jails. I just love visiting jails but this one would have been much cooler had it a dungeon. Chance got to see what it would be like if he was really naughty!

In the evening we knocked on the door of the owner and asked if he'd take us to see his baby cows. Chance loved the little brave cow that came up to him and licked his hand.

TUESDAY
Another year older, ain't it great? I told Ryan for my birthday I got to choose where the next wrinkle should go...then I changed my mind and fantasized instead about choosing which wrinkles I would eventually botox off once I no longer have something living inside me. Skies were clear and we set off to drive the famous "Ring of Kerry" along the southwest coast. It was about 100 km to get to the starting town, then about 150 km more of winding skinny roads taking you along the coast line for sweeping views along the Atlantic. I pictured cliff lines flattened with lush green pastures like you see in the movies. I was strangely met with and arid climate, mostly brown and not as lush as I had imagined.

It started raining as soon as we made it to the starting point, so my hopes of getting out at every town to do exciting little sightseeing things was squelched, and we were forced to spend the entire day driving in the rain and not seeing much cause of the low visibility. Ryan's driving did improve drastically this day.....unfortunately for him we were too cheap to add me as an additional driver so he had to push on all day long, winding thru the raods and avoiding being hit by the oncoming tour buses. We were very amused by the 100km per hour speed limit signs on the tiny windy roads, usually posted right next to a big warning sign for a super sharp turn ahead.......we could barely go 50 km/hour without feeling like we'd run off the road. No wonder there are so many deaths on these roads! We made it back home in one piece with only one driving incident.....we had pulled out on to the road and Ryan subconsciously pulls in to the right lane as I am screaming LEFT LEFT LEFT....LINKS FAHREN LINKS FAHREN....LARGE BUS ONCOMING.......we were almost taken out by the bus. Phew! That night we went out for birthday dinner at a hotel restaurant, the small town of Fermoy didn't have too many choices but it was really nice and made for rounding out a great day.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 8
Chance informed us that driving all day was "Miserable" and that he wanted a "Chance Day", and so it was. We awoke to blue skies again and decided to take a break from driving and sightseeing and do as the locals do. We visited the local playground and later went to see Aliens vs Monsters on the big screen in 3D. All a kid could hope for and more! For lunch we found a place that was just like Bennigans and indulged in the real American type burgers I have been craving for so long! In the evening we finished our game of monopoly.....I've gotta say I took the boys to the bank and boy did they get cranky about it!
Chance enjoyed taking pictures with his new camera, I love getting in a few of just me and Ryan here and there!


THURSDAY APRIL 9
I guess it wouldn't be Ireland without buckets of RAIN, and more RAIN. Today "rain" doesn't really describe the down pour and high winds we experienced as we trompsed through the town of Kilkenny and it's grand castle there. Too bad that it was pouring so much Ryan couldn't get out the camera to take any pictures of the castle. We did eat at a very cool place, an old Inn from the 1400's in which the owner was accused of being a witch.

FRIDAY APRIL 10
Ireland redeems itself (the weather that is!) and the sun shined the whole day! My dreams of boating up to the Cliffs of Moher were realized. We headed out early in the morning to drive through the Burren National Park, where limestone blankets the countryside. I'd heard of the Poulnabrone Dolmen as one of the most touristed places in Ireland, and seen great pictures of it....we drove and drove to it to see that the pictures make it look so much bigger than it really is! Ryan said that if that wa Ireland's "stone henge", he doesnt want to see the real thing.....perhaps Ireland hypes up its tourist sites a little much!

Nonetheless it was beautiful countryside....the only place in the world where Artic, Alpine and Mediterranean flora grow in one place together.

Then we took a 3 p.m. boat ride out to the Cliffs of Moher, they were amazing and I am glad we took the day to explore this region.

Chance loved the boat ride, but was so tired by the end he passed out right on board!

The beautiful day was rounded out with 2 amazingly huge rainbows on our way home. This was Chance's first time to see a rainbow and he said "God really DOES put rainbows in the sky. We must have done something to make him really happy to put a rainbow in the sky".


SATURDAY APRIL 10
Onward to Dublin, goodbye little Fermoy farmhouse. After we got jacked around and screwed over by Budget Rental Car, "claiming" we chipped the window and punctured the tire.....which NEVER happened, we were in less than great moods to venture on in to Dublin. But we did anyways, had a nice lunch at a pub to finish off our week of eating great food. I had a HUGE juicy Irish beef burger......ah, so great. We walked around, took in the culture of Dublin and then called it quits a couple hours later to retire exhausted from a weeks worth of fun and sightseeing. We relaxed in the hotel lobby, playing Farkle, drinking a last pint of beer and prepared to go home!
See lots more pictures in the right hand column!!

Yay!

I'm finally feeling flutters, always a welcome reminder of the little life growing inside.

You say Too-mato, I say Toe-mato

Yesterday when we went to the doctors office, Chance and Ryan were sitting around the table I was laying on and we all were watching the sonogram of the baby. The doctors scanning around not saying much and we are anxiously awaiting him to tell us boy or girl. I hear the doctor say in his Swiss accent "I'm not hearing any gasses from you", and I am thinking, why is he listening for gasses? Is it a good thing I am not gassy? What in the world does this have to do with anything? So I ask, "Is this a bad thing?" and he says....."well dont you want to guess?".....clearly I hear "gas" and he has said "guess".

"Trashion" Show

Last week the parents were asked to come up to the "Clothes Atelier" and help the kids make their own costumes out of recycled materials for a fashion show to be held today. This kind of creative stuff haunts me, as I think I was born without the creative genes. But nonetheless we came up with something basic and Chance was happy, so that was all that mattered. Today he made his grand performance down the run way:

Weekend Update....Start of the Birthday Celebration.

We layed low again this weekend. I had high hopes all week of going somewhere, jetting down to Milan for a 24 hour whirlwind to indulge in Italian coffee, warm weather and sunshine. Then the Europe forecast really put a damper on my dreams.....rain and more rain EVERYWHERE. So my hopes of a warm quick get away were squelched. Ryan asked on Friday if I had prayed to the rain gods, and I said that instead I prayed to the babysitter gods and got us one lined up for Sunday afternoon so we could partake in a movie, a very rare experience around here. We went to see Slumdog Millionaire, one of the best movies I have seen in quite awhile! Highly recommend!

Friday night we decided to make Easter cookies. We are really getting in to the Easter spirit around here this year. Here's the little chef in action:


In hind sight making cookies isn't such a good idea......somehow 90% of them managed to make it in to my mouth. Houston we have a problem as the baby still weighs less than a pound but the scale is not showing such slight weight gain.

Sunday morning Ryan had to work before we met for our movie, so Chance and I milled around the house for awhile. I asked him to clean his room and he really got in to it! I was told not to come in his room until it was clean! Amazing! And look at the finished project.

I was so proud and so was he. He told me, "I am going to clean my room everyday mom!" I am glad to be writing this down in the blog as proof!

Later in the morning we headed off to the store. We get off the tram near a fountain that had been entirely frozen over this winter and he tells me, "You know mom, it's not frozen anymore cause it's spring time. Isn't it just lovely in the spring time?" I am wondering, "LOVELY"? It's 40 degrees outside, not a green leaf in sight and clouds so thick in the sky you'd think it was night. It is so cute the child's perception, it keeps things so light and happy!

As I am sure I've mentioned before, I love dragging out my birthday celebration over weeks.....so it started this past weekend. Ryan and Chance got haircuts Saturday morning and then out shopping for some presents for me. We decided to celebrate on Sunday night cause of Ryan's hectic work schedule this coming week and then we head to Ireland. I had thrown out a couple of measly ideas but come Sunday night, the boys really wowed me!

I managed to rake in some serious goods.....a fantastic necklace, a salad spinner (that I had been wanting) and a gorgeous Swiss fondue pot and holder......it has been on my list of "must buys" before we move home and I am so glad to finally have it. We are looking forward to making queso in it once we move back to Texas.

Of course I had lots of help blowing out the candles on my cake!

Chance really liked it!

Chance made me the cutest card.....he really puts so much time in to the cards he makes.


More pics from the birthday celebration are to the right in the photos column.