Laowai

Bea and Brian went on a big hike yesterday. Brian ends up carrying Bea on his shoulders a lot and he comes home complaining about how heavy she is. My sympathy is conflicted – he doesn’t have to carry her up the mountain (she is a pretty good walker). And he doesn’t have to run to catch the boat with her on his shoulders (he could leave on time). But on the other hand he wouldn’t be able to go as far and see such beautiful sights if he was going at her pace and he is so sweetly indulgent with her. She eats up all the undivided attention she gets from him on these trips. It’s hard to blame him really.

This is the same lake where we went ice skating last winter.

I suppose I should go now and rub Brian’s shoulders.

I love that Bea is into drawing and painting and all kinds of crafts. The only problem is that her projects accumulate so fast and I’m never sure what to do with them. We put a few up around the house and the rest end up in a pile on the kitchen table. When the pile starts toppling over I sneak a few into the recycling bin but it breaks my heart because I love every one of her pictures. 

Here are a few – I love how her people drawing method is changing so fast. 

That’s a Christmas tree below.

Brian took Bea for a hike and they roasted some sausages on a fire. Bea was all smiles when she got home.

When you buy marshmallows here they have directions in English for how to barbeque them. Not roast  – barbeque. Ha.

There are fire pits along many of the forest trails here and the really cool part is that, in a neat nearby pile, there is free firewood. Free!

Here we are roasting marshmallows and playing in the forest last weekend.

Claire, my love, will you please start walking so that I can dress you in cute dresses with cozy tights.

Like this one – the Puppet Show Tunic from Oliver + S.

I’ve not been posting much lately. Feeling a bit down because Bea has struggled with school after her Fall break. I think you could track my mood by the frequency of my posts. If I’m up I post a bunch, if life feels like a bit of a struggle I don’t post much. Luckily, I think you’d never guess we are dealing with stuff from our photos. We have been having great times too.

We went ice skating at a new-to-us place in Zurich. So much fun, and Bea really got better on her skates by the end. 

This is our ride back from skating – on a funicular. The trees were just glowing in the late afternoon sun.

These are some pictures from our Halloween festivities. We did a little treasure hunt for Bea with clues that lead her to the park along the lake and a pile of candy.

Here she is in her penguin costume. She liked it but the mask was uncomfortable. Thanks, Mom, for bringing the fabric!

Today we went down to the lake to play in leaves. I wanted to lay there in the leaves and bask in the sun but Claire kept trying to crawl into the lake. 

There she is climbing a tree. She’s driving me mad but I love her.

I gaze out the window and see the forest that is right across the lake from us all the time. But I’ve never visited – until this weekend. We had a nice walk through the town and then the forest and we ended up at some ruins of an old fortress on a hill. I’ve been pining for a nap on the couch lately, I guess I always feel like that at this time of year, but Brian convinced me to go out. I’m glad he did. The cool air and the bright fall colors beaming down on us felt so good.  

Bea was a real trooper. She walked and walked and walked and when she got tired she still has the privilege of riding on Brian’s shoulders.

Oh Claire and her busy pointing finger. So cute. When she sees a cat or a dog lately she says something like ditty! 

My Brian looking strong, resting his shoulders. He’s going to run a marathon on Sunday.

We felt like locals – this is what the Swiss do on a Sunday afternoon. They get out and soak up all the sun and scenery that they can. They go for a long walk and end up on the top of a hill like this. They grill some sausages and take in the view, while the kids climb all over castle ruins.

We went to get our pumpkins on Saturday. They don’t really carve pumpkins here, but this farm market feels just like what we would call a pumpkin farm in the US. They have big squash sculptures to look at. You can hang out with some cute goats or climb in and around a big hay maze. They also have several hammocks hanging in a grove of fruit trees. The warm sun made me just want to get into a hammock and doze off, but the girls had other ideas. 

After we chose our pumpkins we went inside for some delicious pumpkin soup. A great day.