Laowai

Okay – one last chapter. Jenna surpised us with a loose tooth at dinner one night and the tooth fell out the next day. Jennifer had to do the whole tooth fairy thing for the first time. She was feeling sentimental about her Jenna growing up so fast – maybe it caught her off guard because it seems like a big milestone for a little girl. It was sweet that we all got to watch Jenna’s excitement. And then we had another big surprise – when we were in Tawas – Bea got a loose tooth too (say that fast three times). So I got to experience all those feelings that Jennifer was hit with. Wow are we already here – to the age of loose teeth. I sqirm when I think about it just like I squirmed every time Jenna or Bea would come up and show me their wiggly tooth. So Bea’s tooth came out after one night and we made a little envelope to go under her pillow with a message for the tooth fairy: “Swiss Francs please”. 

Jennifer stopped by the house along the lake so we got a picture of our two toothless cousins.

This chapter is all about up north Michigan. Grandma and Grandpa C. rented a house right on Lake Huron near Tawas. When we arrived a big storm was brewing, but Bea still insisted on going for a swim in the big waves. And it did feel really good being out there in the warm water and cold air. 

The storm lasted for a good two or three days but really I didn’t mind. The sound of the wind and the waves at night was wonderful – I slept like a happy log. We had a bit of a break in the rain one morning so we went out and enjoyed a walk along the beach.

Here’s one of the sweet, soft, old quilts that were on the beds in the room that Claire and Bea shared.

The rain continued… we had to go to this cute playground even if it was very wet.

Ah – finally the sun came out and we had to put sun block on.

We went for a walk in the woods – I was loving that familiar fern filled forest smell. 

The girls were enjoying finding toads. 

Time to enjoy some Americana at the Ice Cream place in Tawas. Bea had Superman ice cream – you can’t find that in Switzerland. 

On our last day the girls ate their pancakes outside. The night before we had a fire on the beach and made s’mores. I think the girls were in heaven. Bea kept saying that she didn’t want to leave – I didn’t either. 

Our week with Grandma and Grandpa J. passed quickly and then we were off to visit with Grandma and Grandpa C. We had a day and a night there before Brian joined us. The girls really got into picking vegetables in Grandpa’s garden. They were so excited about cucumbers and broccoli – if only they were as excited to see those green things at the dinner table. Hmmmm.

The next day Grandpa took us to the farmers market and then we took a walk through Whiting Forest. The fruits and veggies at the farmers market looked so good and so colorful. I’m always raving about the markets over here but Midland’s stuff looked really beautiful too.

We did some fun things with Grandpa J. We put up the tent in the backyard. Jenna and Bea slept in the tent all night – what a surprise.

Tying flies is always popular with Bea and of course Claire can’t be left out.

We went rafting down the Pine River one day. After the warm summer the water was unbelievably warm – like a bathtub. The girls had fun swimming and fishing and looking at aquatic bugs with Grandpa.

Time to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Dice.

And we got to go out to Grandma’s garden.

Grandma loaded us up with green beans, swiss chard, rhubarb, green peppers and tomatoes. Yum.

I had to sneek downstairs and take a picture of Grandma’s canning shelves.

Time to pick blueberries:

Our flight back to The States started out great – I had meticulously packed the girls’ backpacks with all sorts of little diversions. And they were great! Then we got to Newark and everything went downhill – in fact it turned into a nighmare. Our flight to Detroit was delayed about 4 hours – except the airline told us every half hour that it would go in the next half hour. We were stuck like refugees in an over crowded terminal and the girls were dead tired. Finally they cancelled the flight and I had a really hard time arranging a hotel, getting out of the airport and getting us all in a taxi because at that point it was around 3:00 a.m. Switzerland time and girls were so tired they could barely stand. 

We did finally make it to Detroit the next day. Mom had waited for us all those hours in Detroit and so she ended up in a hotel for the night too. Uhg. I’ve never been so happy to see Mom – my eyes sprung a leak. After a few days we did finally come out of our jetlag travel drama haze and then it was all fun and laughing with Mom and Dad and Jenna and Jennifer.

The girls picked flowers and had a flower shop. We played at a spray park and got to see Aunt Garlene and Zoe. There was biking and hugging and two cousins off on their own playing in their own little world. We stayed up late watching the Olympics and oooooh yeah I got to spend a lot of time with Jennifer at the fabric store.

You can buy colorful boiled eggs at the grocery store all year round but you can only get these Swiss flag style eggs around the time of Swiss National Day.

We’re off on our adventure to Michigan. Looking forward to more good times like these:

Brian took a couple days off and we headed south to sunny Locarno. Locarno has palm trees and pretty old narrow streets. It’s located along Lake Maggiore right next to Italy. It feels like everyone is on vacation there.