Laowai

I can’t wait to see these two in a couple weeks. Jennifer sent these great photos from their quick trip to Fort Michilimackinac.

The grapes are getting bigger.

She can now high five.

The rain has made the moss and the slugs happy.

Some of the grapes are starting to turn red.

Ewww – the thought of stepping on a slug grosses me out!

It is very rare that I wish I had a car – but today I wished I had a car. I needed to get some shopping done and so we headed out towards the train station. It started to pour and even though we had our rain gear on it was just too much rain. When we were about half way there I decided to bag it. We were wet through and dragging the girls around while I tried to get the shopping done did not sound appealing. So we’ve been having a lazy day inside – watching the Tour de France and cartoons mostly. I can’t wait for some warm sunny weather again.

Bea has been having her breakfast on this sweet plate that she colored at her playgroup. During her last day at playgroup her teacher gave it to her with a little jar of the jam that the kids made. What a trial playgroup was – but she survived and we learned over that past year. The teachers were great. I’ll remember it as a sweet little place.

The back of the plate says Bea you are valuable… or useful or precious – something like that.

It has been very chilly and rainy here the last few days. We could use some of that heat wave that the US is getting. So yesterday we spent the entire day inside until about 5:00 when the sky cleared up and the sun came out a bit. I opened the kitchen door to let some fresh air in and of course Claire climbed right outside.

Bea enjoyed the sun on her face too.

Oh we’re a bit messy around here. Both girls have scruffy hair right now. Bea hardly every lets me put it back out of her face. She often wants to put her own barrette in – great – but it ends up on the back of her head. And then there’s Claire – she has learned to pull out barrettes and put them directly into her mouth. I should probably cut her hair because I can’t stand it in her face – but oh that baby hair – do I really want to take the scissors to it already? And yes, for Bea zipping up is a work in progress.

It was obviously a bath night last night. Here they are clean, sweet and pretty.

We’ve just returned from a little weekend trip to the Italian part of Switzerland. It really did feel like we were in Italy – we had to get used to saying grazie instead of danke shon. The good parts were seeing Bea laugh when she was splashing water on Daddy, seeing her explore a playground with confidence and watching her get really excited and urge us on at the Swiss Miniature park. I’m sad to say that there were also a lot of times when traveling with two little kids just felt like work. Plus the weather was not sunny and warm – we spent much of our time in raincoats. 

Enough complaining – here are some of our photos:

The funny thing about staying at a hotel with my kids is just how very, very excited they get about a modest hotel room. We walk in for the first time and Bea is just in awe – checking out all the lights and the bathroom – it’s like she’s never seen indoor plumbing before. She said to me Mom, I’ve never tried a hotel with a TV! (she has). And then the beds – oh for goodness sakes – every time we came back to the hotel they both just want to roll around on the beds. Bea was very protective of her bed and Claire just giggled and squealed. Here they are after waking up on our last morning – still not tired of goofing around on a big hotel bed.

A Chilbi is a lot like a fair in the US except there are no animals. Just cheesy rides and games and Switzerland style fair food. So we decided to take an old friend of Brian’s to our local Chilbi on Friday night. Chris was in europe for his Dow Corning job and he stayed with us for a night before heading home. It’s always so nice to have people from back home visiting us. He pushed Claire around in the stroller (we seem to make all our guests do that). And Brian stayed up late with him chatting and sharing some wine out on the patio. Thanks for stopping by Chris.

One last photo: Chris liked this little fire engine on one of the kiddie rides – he grew up in Kansas.

Last year we surprised Daddy with a bunch of balloons. This year we surprised him by throwing confetti at him when he stepped off the elevator. Bea gets a really big kick out of this. And I’m not afraid of a mess. I don’t mind sweeping up pink confetti – kind of like sweeping up fairy dust compared to the usual mix of crumbs and dirt that I find on the floor. 

Someday I’m going to surprise Brian with something big that is really for him. Something that can almost equal all that he deserves. But for now, this is what you get. We love you.

My kids are more familiar with riding trains than riding in cars.