Last Saturday we took a short day trip to take Jenny to Ballenberg. It is a giant farm museum with farm buildings representing the regions of Switzerland. We barely got through a 4th of it because it was so big. They have bread-making, farm animals, old homes, displays of traditional Swiss farm fashion…they most certainly did not call it farm fashion but you get the idea, carpentry, pottery and on and on. If you are interested in learning more about it here is the site.

Here are some pictures from our day….

The highlight of the day for Owen was playing with the cowbells

(this picture is for my sister-in-law Claire….if I am remembering right she loves poppy’s)

On Father’s Day we took a little day trip to Adelboden. The weather was iffy. It rained the whole time we drove, stopped while we were out and about and drizzled the whole way home. So, we got pretty lucky weather wise. We went up in a gondola and had some amazing views of the mountains and waterfalls in surrounding areas! Adelboden is about an hour and 20 mins from where we live so it was a perfect distance with the little men.

After Adelboden we stopped for a nice lunch on the way home. We had spotted a Steakhouse on our way to Adelboden and decided to give it a try. We pulled up hungry and may I say a bit cranky…when we got to the door they greeted us by telling us that they wouldn’t be serving until 2 pm. Ummm, okay. So we drove around the village and found a river to explore. We headed back to the restaurant and had a great lunch! They even had American BBQ sauce!

The boys have the best dad ever, I must say. He has what seems to be endless patience even on really tough days and invests SO much time and energy in them. They sure do love their dad!!!  Happy Father’s Day, Seth! I appreciate all you do for our boys! Glad we got to celebrate you!!

In addition to it being Father’s Day we also got to have Jenny along! We are enjoying her month with us! We are over halfway through and don’t know if we will let her go back!!

I promise I will get back into the swing of things with blogging again! Jenny and I took an Indian cooking class on Saturday night and the house has been smelling of peaches, strawberries and cherries so more on jamming and yummy stuff to come!! Oh, and a baby shower that I did! Lots of backlog to catch up on!

When Seth and I decided we would wait to go back to the US until December we decided to make plans for a family getaway for a change of scenery. Seth’s office is having lots of officer changes this summer with people leaving and arriving so we were limited on when we could take leave. So, we ended up needing to go in early June. Which turns out is off season in Europe and MUCH cheaper but it is also not as hot or sunny as we would have liked. But all in all our weather was better than expected and just getting out of our routine was refreshing.

Seth’s mom commented to him a few weeks ago something about after traveling so much with Jackson that it must seem easier with 2. Ummm, nope.  Just like for anyone else no matter how much we travel, traveling with kids is a TRIP and traveling with one is easier than 2. Each time we travel gets easier with packing and being organized quickly but kids are still kids and it’s not always fun to throw them in a car and take them to places unknown. With this in mind we decided we would take as long as we needed to get to and from Southern France. We stopped as much as the boys needed and gave them some run time. They actually both did really well on the trip. And once we arrived they both soaked up the family time and amazingly, they both slept really well!! Owen took the vacation as a sign that he should take long naps and sleep in a bit. We were shocked! And we took Jackson’s bunny alarm along which he actually checked and waited in his bed until bunny got up! Vacation miracle if I have ever known of one.

We were in France from Monday to Friday. When the clouds moved in we would take mini day trips and get away long enough to return when the sun came out over the pool again. The pool was a bit chilly but the boys didn’t seem to mind! On our last afternoon the lifeguard opened a water slide that Seth and Jackson got to tube down.  This was a major highlight for Jackson (and Seth)!

Here are some picture highlights…

(for those of you who don’t know what this is it’s a Magnum bar…we used to eat these as kids in Thailand!)

this was the look on Owen’s face as he watched Seth and Jackson try to get a kite in the air..he was very concerned!

this picture was taken just after the O man picked up a wine bottle in a restaurant and dropped it on the floor!  Not a proud mama moment. To his credit the wine display was next to a kids play area so it was all a bit confusing.

it was here at the crocodile farm that I realized with little boys my future vacations will include all things boy! I am going to have to borrow nieces to have girl time! the boys LOVED the crocodile farm.

jackson ate a macaroon for his Mia who *may* be a bit obsessed with them

It was a fun time of ice cream cones (with mint chocolate chip which we can’t get in Switzerland!), kite flying, swimming, a crocodile farm, French markets and time with just the four of us!

Some of you may or may not know that every few months we take a trek to Heidelburg, Germany to buy groceries at the commissary there. The reasoning isn’t that we miss Ranch dressing or salsa but that we can’t afford to buy groceries  solely on the Swiss market. And the Embassy knows that and provides us with a base pass in Germany. I about died when we arrived and I did our first grocery shopping trip. Our social sponsor took me to the big grocery store to stock up. I got a cart full of basics and it cost over $400. No joke.  This lasted us about a week and I was almost in tears to return to the store the following week! If I hadn’t been in so much shock I would have taken a picture of the receipt.  In the future maybe I will do a blog on how much basics cost here like bread, milk, etc. Just for fun! I remember telling my friend Katie when we arrived that we would have to drive to Germany or France in order to buy full out groceries. She gave me such a hard time and teased how “bad” she felt that I would have to pop over to France for groceries. In all honesty, it isn’t a luxury to drive to another country for groceries. France being closeby is so nice, having to go there for food, not so nice.  It isn’t a given that post will have a commissary. We had a small one in Bogota with “necessities” so it is really nice to have a full store in our part of Europe.  We know our access is a luxury. Can we live without American products? Absolutely. Can we afford to buy only locally? Ummm, not so much.

Okay, back to Heidelburg. So basically in  addition to a few treats we buy nearly all of the meat, paper goods,  canned goods and bread we will need for 3-4 months. If we are having guests during those times we buy extra to make sure we can have plenty of meals to offer. It is a bigger job than I ever imagined to attempt to anticipate our grocery needs that far in advance. And an even bigger job to get there, buy that much food, pack it into coolers of ice in the trunk and make the trek back. My friend Leigh has been a trooper on 2 occasions and has made part of the trip with me. She has the benefit of getting a few American goodies but I score the bigger reward of getting a day with her, kid-free!!

A week or so ago Seth and I decided we needed to do a trip but I didn’t want to do the trip alone, and I really didn’t want him to do it alone. SO, in a moment of insanity we decided to make the trip again with both boys! In all reality the day went much better than I would have expected. We had moments of laughter and lots of moments when the boys were reaching to peel off the seal around the windows to make an escape from the car!

We left home at 8 AM and arrived home after 9 PM. Because it was a Friday and lots of people are Spring-breaking we ran into lots of traffic and slowdowns. We made the most of it and enjoyed some family time. We took a few videos and pictures throughout the day to document a typical Heidelburg grocery journey for you!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/SreddNWmBNg]

about 10 mins into the drive. We stopped for gas, trunk full of igloo coolers, and the boys already a bit edgy!

using his sleep sack to attempt a nap…trying to block us out

Blues skies and lots of fields of yellow goldenrod- looking flowers

miles and miles of cars…or kilometers and kilometers of cars, whichever you feel more comfortable with! For us it was miles and miles! We sang lots and lots of silly songs and attempted to lighten the mood. Sometimes our listeners welcomed our singing at other times it caused eruptions of whining and other potentially obnoxious behaviors. The good news is that our kids tend to take turns “having a moment”…well, it could be good news but really what it means it that when they each take a turn you potentially have many minutes occupied by someone’s turn.

3 1/2+ hours and we were finally getting close!! Hang in there boys!

As we approached the gate and sat in a line waiting for our passports to be checked Jackson made up a rap song…Seth did backup

[youtube=http://youtu.be/m0nG3y-6ivo]

After a quick lunch at the base food court the boys and Seth went to the park on base while I did the shopping.

Jackson immediately recognized the park as being just like the ones in the US that he went to with his cousins. It was padded ground, child-size climbing gear and there was even a safe section for Owen!

after the boys got refreshed and I had the majority of the shopping done they came to offer moral support on the final lap around the store. By the second cart, I was getting weary and wishing that Leigh was there to help me hunt for the final items on the list!  Checkout took a good while. But can I just tell you how amazing it was that cheerful employees bagged my groceries for me. You bag your own groceries in Switzerland which is fine but with 2 carts full I may have melted on the floor in tears. It was so nice to have their help!

We loaded the car, buckled the boys in, refreshed their drinks and snacks and headed on our way.

(oh wait, don’t forget the potty. We strategically held Jackson’s potty out so that it wouldn’t get buried in the massive load of stuff….you are probably thinking for sanitary reasons, however it was for very practical potty emergency on roadtrip reasons. always thinking.)

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by 4 pm when we pulled out of the parking lot Jackson crashed! And we jumped right into a huge traffic jam!

We pulled over when we saw a family-friendly place called Schnitzel Huber. Turns out it really was family friendly and the boys were even able to play in a play corner. The food wasn’t as delicious as these boys in the sign make it looks but it was a perfect stop for weary travelers.

We got the boys in their pj’s after dinner, Jackson tried out the new hoola-hoop from the commissary to get the final energy out and we hopped back in the car for the final leg of the trip.

When we arrived home we got the boys in their beds and began to unload the groceries. I meant to count the bags and show you all of the organization of the giant freezer but by then I was a tad bit worn out and had to focus on unloading the slightly defrosted items.

above is one of the loads…this doesn’t include the freezer or fridge stuff. And I meant to take a picture of the receipt. It was as tall as me! After previously budgeting more on a weekly basis it can be frightening to buy for a few months!

In the end we forgot Dr. Pepper for Seth. So sad. That is one of the treats I always bring back for him. Poor guy!  If that is the only thing we forgot though in our 14 hour journey I would say we did pretty well!