I am playing a bit of catch up today. We have been enjoying Spring so much that we are using most waking moments on the weekends to be outside.  A couple of weekends ago we decided to head to Emmental for their hot air balloon festival. We asked our friends Nick and Kima (South African friends…we met in Bogota..living in Zug, Switzerland now) if they wanted to join us. The weather was amazing.  After arriving to the location where we saw signs for the festival we learned that the balloons had landed early in the morning and that there would in fact be no balloons to see. OOOOKKKAAAy. Now that our little boy has been deflated. We decided to take a walk down to the cheese factory. We of course hit up a bakery on our way and stopped for a little snack. Followed by a nice picnic in the grass. Basically we were together for a couple of hours and ate most of the time! It was so fun to see the kids playing together and to catch up a bit. Thanks Nick and Kima for being good sports about the non-festival of balloons. Most friends would have been pretty annoyed to have driven so far.

pretending there is a big, beautiful balloon attached to the basket

sweet Erin

the boys were rewarded after being good travelers with popsicles on the porch.

The next day, Sunday, we were invited to a picnic to celebrate one of Jackson’s buddies birthdays. The picnic was at the Bern Rosengarten that overlooks Old Town. It was another beautiful day. The kids enjoyed running freely while the adults enjoyed picnicking and chatting. A highlight for Jackson was that the big fountain had a bunch of frogs swimming in it.

Paris was fabulous!!!! In the beginning of January Seth and I went away to Paris for 3 1/2 days while Seth’s mom stayed with the boys.  When Jackson was 18 months old we went to Aruba for a couple of days (it was only an hour flight from Bogota so we couldn’t pass up the chance) and as hard as it was to leave him I promised myself I would make it a priority to have time with just Seth! It doesn’t happen often but when it does it is so worth it!

When we bid on Bern back in 2009  we talked about maybe getting to celebrate our 5 yr wedding Anniversary in a fun city like Paris. We never thought it would really work out! I think until the day we left it didn’t really feel like we were getting to go to Paris, just the two of us!!!

We ate our way through Paris. The meals were wonderful! We let Rick Steve’s guide us to the places the locals like so we didn’t have any particularly fru fru fancy meals but all were in unique little places that were jammed packed.  We had our first tastes of macaroons and enjoyed every chance to share a hot crepe with nutella and bananas.

We toured museums, walked the quaint streets, took an evening boat tour, went up the Eiffel Tower,  toured Notre Dame, shopped in Galleries Lafayette and just enjoyed being together.  Here are some of my favorite pictures. I am including some of the yummy food pictures for all of you foodies out there!

our hotel

macaroons

this is just to give you a laugh…we were waiting for a bus and I looked over and saw our shadows in the tree trunk. SO I told Seth to give me a kiss and snapped a shot! goofy I know!

Angelina’s

we didn’t get too many great shots of both of us because one of us was always taking it but here you can see us together with the Eiffel Tower in the background

on the train headed home after a great getaway!

Seth is gone this week for the Davos economic conference. It’s a big deal and huge honor for him to be in the posse. He is assigned to Geithner (sp?), the US Secretary of Treasury. He will be rubbing shoulders with some pretty impressive people. He is enjoying the work so far (he left at the crack of dawn Sunday) and will be there until sometime Friday or Saturday. I am so glad for him but really missing him too!

I got spoiled for the last couple of days because my friend Leigh came in from Germany to keep me company! She and Jackson baked a cake for me for my birthday today. Now that she is gone I am trying so hard to keep my mood in check and stay on top of these boys. I am worn out because Seth helps with SO much.

This morning Jackson came in well before wake up time and told me he was having a hard time sleeping. I went in and tried to get him back to bed. He laid on the floor and began a fit. None of my reasoning helped so finally I blurted out “it’s my birthday, I need you to wait in bed until your bunny clock says it is time to get up and then I need you to come find me and sing to me.” Silence, then he quietly climbed back into bed and whispered excitedly, “okay mom, goodnight”. When his clock went off he busted out his door and met me in the hallway. He broke out into a boisterous “Happy Birthday” tune. Made my day!

On Saturday we took parents to get a glimpse of some sun and the mountains. A cloud seemed to have settled into Bern and was having a hard time lifting. Since we arrived everyone tells us that on cloudy weeks the key to sanity is getting a little weekend time above the clouds. They were right. We drove from cloudy Bern with zero mountain views and arrived about an hour later at a mountain paradise.

We rode a gondola (not my favorite) up the mountain and first got off to check out Gimmelwald. Seth loves to follow Rick Steve’s lead. There wasn’t a whole lot going on in Gimmelwald besides chalets and a mini me cheese cottage. We bought some snacks there and walked around the tiny village. Then we got on the gondola again and rode up to the ski town of Murren. It was so much fun to see everyone getting around using sleds, skis, etc. We were the smart ones that tried to push Owen in a stroller. Next time we are renting a baby sled all the way!

We had lunch at a little restaurant. Most of us ordered hot ham and cheese sandwiches. When they arrived it was more like a hot ham and cheese sandwich covered with an entire plate of rachlette-type cheese. It was so yummy but my oh my it’s a good thing we got some walking in that day!

We took in amazing views, watching parasailers brave the cliff-side air space and watched the skiers fly down the mountain! It was truly above  the clouds.

our trusty guide

cheese shop

Owen took cues from the Swiss babies. when it was approaching naptime he threw his chubby arms out and passed out! Next time he will be in the sled!

Loved this cute vintagy looking poster for a boutique in town