It’s Friday and I couldn’t be happier that it is. School starts next week and I am craving new routine. But before the new routine sets in we are heading to Ramstein base this weekend to do our huge stock up trip. We were supposed to go in June or July but I just could not muster up the strength. We normally go to Heidelburg and do a marathon 14 hour day but this time we are going up Sat morning and coming home Sunday afternoon. We will stay at Ramstein and hopefully enjoy a few American meals and maybe have a chance to take Jackson bowling or to a movie.  I’m thankful for the time with my boys.  Starting on the 22nd of August we will have solid visitors or one of us traveling until the end of September. Although this trip requires 4 months of meal planning and a roadtrip with 2 tots I am hopeful it will still be some much needed family time and a mini R&R.

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!