{This must be catch up week around here! Sorry to bombard you with so many post but I don’t want to fall behind!}

Switzerland has no doubt given us a wonderful place to host family and friends. I never could have imagined how many people we would have and it has been such a fun season. Tiring no doubt, but fun.

Our last visitors at Swiss Chalet Kolb were my cousin, Josh, Jordan and Justin Strong. They were on their way back from living in Thailand and wanted to do a bike tour around Switzerland. They spent  a couple of days with us here visiting Bern and it was fun to get to know them better since I haven’t seen them since they were my boys ages! Made me feel quite old!

notice  the metal table and fancy chairs! Temp furniture makes for fine dining with guests!

After they ate granola bars for their 4 bike riding days we made sure they made one last stop at a Swiss restaurant…

at the beginning of their fondue

by the end!

Our house was overflowing with boys. I for sure was outnumbered. My boys got ramped up in an attempt to get the big boys to give them attention…which was tough to do with soccer games on tv. By the last evening Seth was busy doing something so Owen asked Josh to help him with his ice cream. He then wanted to hold his hand. It was too funny!  Owen knows how to lessen the generational gap

Well I have started a couple of posts since the last one but the life has continued to happen and here we are. It’s been a while! This will be a quick catch up post! I will try not to bore you!

Last Sunday we took a drive to Thun with Nana. It was quite chilly and a bit cloudy but she enjoyed seeing the castle and getting out along the lake. In the afternoon we came home and made rootbeer floats…I had saved a couple of root beers in the secret stash and knew it was one of Nana’s favorite treats. The boys had never had a float so they loved it too! (turns out we can now get root beer in our store…only it’s sold in the beer section!)

Our other big outing of last week, pre-Thanksgiving was Ikea! I needed a few things and thought it might be a bit nutty with my trio but everyone was antsy to get out and I needed to get it done. We got some of the things we needed.  And following someone banging on the car door to tell us to turn the car off while it warmed Nana while I ran in for bread, an EPIC tantrum from Owen and my blood pressure being dangerously high we headed home…and I cried. I promised myself I will never go to Ikea with my toddlers..and grandmother. Ikea is meant to be savored!

On Tuesday of last week my cousin Nathan arrived with these…

Nathan was taking an R&R from his work in South Sudan. He was visiting France and decided to pop on over. We loved having him here and hated to see him go!  He was able to stay for Thanksgiving which was so fun! He is a great cook so I lucked out and had a chef in the kitchen for the holiday….did I mention he was craving Thai food so made a feast for us on the night before Thanksgiving. I contributed spring rolls but he did the rest! We were happy to offer him something other than boiled goat.  Thanks for sharing your R&R with us Nathan!

Two posts in one day folks, here comes Thanksgiving!!!

All of you know by now that my Nana came a little over a week ago to have a Swiss adventure…read here if you missed the whole story! Don’t get confused by the title of the post linked….Nana isn’t a spider. You’ll have to read to catch up! 

Slowly we are getting into a new routine and trying to balance her desire to get out of the house with the need to also rest and lay low. It makes life more than interesting. I often find myself pushing the stroller with Owen bucking in the stroller seat, Jackson on one side hoping to speed up and Nana on the other struggling to hold tight enough. We are quite a spectacle for the Swiss to behold!

Last week Nana got to experience play dough time with the boys, lots of book reading, an outing to the river, raclette, dinner at a beautiful lookout restaurant and then after church on Sunday night we walked her downtown to see the Rendevous Bundeshaus light show! Here are some pictures from her first week in Switzerland!

playdough time!

Owen sticks closer than a brother! He is Nana’s watchdog!

rock throwing demo for Nana…don’t worry dad he looks closer to the edge than he is!

raclette night

looking innocent…she tends to get them riled up and gets Owen wrestling her!

evidence!

and this is just tiny sneak peak at the light show!! More to come on this…maybe tomorrow!

So that catches you up on our week! I will try to stay up with uploading pictures because I know many of you that know and love Nana would love to see what she’s up to!

In early September our friends Dan and Margo along with their twin boys, Seth and Bryce came to visit us for a week! Seth and Dan have known each other since their awkward teenage yrs! Dan and Margo were so brave to face the jetlag with 3 yr olds and amazingly jumped in and saw so many things!! We did our best with 4 little ones to get them around Switzerland and make sure they had yummy meals and warm beds! Jackson and Owen loved having brothers around and my Seth *may* or *may not* have said at the end of the week that he will let me adopt twins! I will keep you posted on that one. For now here are a few pictures from their visit!

The Saturday they arrived was the Sharing of the Cheese Festival in Magisalp

this doesn’t look so yummy but apparently it was so good Seth had to take off his glasses to eat it. toasted bread, sauteed onions and melted cheese poured on top.  not part of our weekly diet…more like once a yr!

i love this one because it looks like I photoshopped Owen in.

little boys gathered around a little frog

lots of bike riding and outside time!

fountains downtown

Cow Festival downtown

I don’t have pictures here but they also went down to the Aare for walks, Zermatt, Gruyere, Callier Chocolate factory and Old Towne Bern.