Celebrating Ava

It seems as if life is just passing me by somedays...errr, some weeks. We have barely caught up on sleep and unpacking, and Jeff is leaving again in less than a week. Man, we've not gotten a lot of sleep lately, and that is really taking a toll. But even in the middle of tired-as-I-can-be, I choose joy. It's hard, and I'm not always good at it, or consistent, but it's definitely a choice. I want my life to be joy-full.

We celebrated Ava's birthday last weekend, and it was such a fun time to catch up with friends and family. We didn't get many pictures (only of the cake/singing part), but we made good memories :) But, we do have some fantastic pictures from amyharbinphotography.com from Ava's 1 year session. We are thankful our path crossed with Amy's some time ago and that she is such a good photographer for our family.

I want this blog to be a place where I am sharing memories, documenting life, and sometimes dipping into future dreams. I don't know that I'm doing that effectively yet, or that I even want an audience reading my thoughts. But I want to try (and I'm still evaluating the audience). We'll see.

A note to Ava:

Ava, you are strong and independent, more than we could have ever expected. I pray that I can help you find your path to be a great leader. You will do great things in life, and I will be your biggest, loudest fan. You are tender and sweet, loving to snuggle up (sometimes) and willing to share whatever you have (sometimes). You are silly, keeping us laughing often, sometimes with just your smile. 

I don't know what I expected before you arrived. But in so many ways, you've exceeded any expectations we could have had. You have stolen our hearts, even amidst the long nights and loud days, you are loved. Beyond measure. This much (arms outstretched). 

Thank you for being a blessing to us. Thank you for bringing your giggly, tooth-filled grin to our lives. Happy Birthday, sweet girl. We love you.

-Mama (Dada and brother too!)

That time we went to Switzerland twice in one day...

Day 15 -

I thought we'd be home by now. Nope.

We were on the plane, after a two hour delay, and it was delayed again, and again. Then we were asked to de-board. That's the short version. Of course Ava was sleeping by the time they wanted us to get off the plane.

We realized pretty quickly that we were not going to make our flights from Philadelphia to GSO, so I waited in line (for over an hour) to get rebooked. They put us in a hotel tonight at the airport, and gave us lunch, dinner, & breakfast vouchers. The best part was having to re-enter Switzerland through passport control, since we had already technically left the country.

Lots of crazy things happened today, but all in all, we're happy to have a warm place to sleep, food in our bellies, and each other. Despite spending 7 hours in the airport, today was a good 'last day' do over.

Oh, and the airport has a family space (aka playroom)...amazing!!!

Looking forward to being home tomorrow. Not so much looking forward to the flights, but that's a package deal, and I'll take it if it means I can have my bed to sleep in.

Thankful for the blessing of spending time with my family.

Our last day...

Day 14 -

It has been two weeks of little sleep, lots of new food, and exploring new cities. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Except today.

Jeff and I were not on the same page today, and it made for a very frustrating day trying to pack up, steal one last day of family time together, and make it to another city.

I packed in the morning while Jeff took the kids down to the lake. When he got back, we took the train to Lausanne (a 30 min ride :/) and had lunch. It was a delicious lunch, but we were all in bad moods. No good. We took the train back to Montreux, loaded up with all of our luggage, and boarded the train again...to Zurich via Lausanne (yep, the same path we had taken there and back already was the start of our trip...poor planning on our part!).

We made it 3 stops past Lausanne, and the train "went caput" as someone loosely translated for me when I tried to find out what was going on. Apparently this just doesn't happen here, so many passengers were mad and upset with the train workers. We had McDonalds and waited for the next train. We had an extra hour of train travel. Not the best thing when we were already stressed and not being so nice.

We made it to Zurich and our hotel. It had curtains! And a big bed (well, two twin beds pushed together, but I could roll over without touching Jeff...lol). We had a short dinner in the restaurant of the hotel and headed to bed, since we had an 8 am airport shuttle.

Coughing and screaming...

More or less, that's what today consisted of. Ava has been coughing on and off pretty severely this trip, but nothing too alarming until today. A few times the cough has been lasting for a while and she can't get ahead of it. This morning, she screamed for what seemed like forever when she couldn't turn the kid stroller around. Each time she would go as far forward as she could, and when it would stop, she would scream. Then she continued screaming on and off through what would be nap time. But, alas, she was a perfect angel when Daddy got home. LOL. Not.

Day 13 -

With the threat of rain all day, I was leery to go to far from the apartment on foot. We took the train this morning to La Maison Ou Verte and the kiddos were able to play for a couple of hours. We picked up some croissants for lunch and made our way back to the apartment. We had a quick, disorganized lunch and attempted nap time. Key word: attempted. Ava slept for a few minutes. Cole and I laid down. Ava woke up. Cole still was not asleep. Ava screamed. Cole fell asleep. Ava woke up for real. Cole woke up for real. Crappy naptime right there :(

So, we thought Jeff would be done with work early, but alas, he had to work until after 5, so we ran a few errands on our own. We bought chocolate (LOTS of it!) and began to prep for the travel tomorrow and the flight home. We stopped at the park near the water in Montreux and let Cole play and slide while Ava snacked in the stroller. I was fully convinced it was going to pour down rain any minute. Nope.

We took the train to meet Jeff and rode it again back to the apartment. We had a little down time before dinner, in which both kiddos were relatively well behaved children. Dinner was at the "Oriental" restaurant (translation: Persian/Iranian/Turkish). It was a delicious, but long meal. Both Cole and Ava were exhausted by the time we were done with dinner at 9:30 (wait, I was exhausted too!). Brian was a good sport to put up with us for this trip and especially on our nights out to dinner.

It's hard to believe we are starting our trip home tomorrow (heading to Zurich to stay closer to the airport for our Sunday morning flights). It has been an exhausting two weeks, but such a blessing to have this time to travel and spend lots of one on one time with both Cole and Ava. Praying for an uneventful flight home and lots of smiles and laughs (as opposed to screams and cries!).

The homestretch...

We are enjoying our last few days here, as we also begin to look forward to some of the comforts of home (a bigger bed, air conditioning, and a clothes dryer - okay, so that last one is just me, but it's been rough hanging our clothes each day!). It's hard to believe we've been here almost two weeks, but we have kept busy and seen many new places. Such a wonderful reprieve :)

Day 11 -

We went to the park in Vevey Wednesday morning (aka a train ride for Cole). The kiddos had fun in the nice weather. On the way back to the apartment, we went to the grocery story to pick up a couple of things. Turns out, our 'usual' escalator was not working, and I didn't think to walk back the other direction to the elevator. So, I walked several extra blocks and up quite a hill to get back to the apartment. Just glad I didn't have anything perishable. It was stinkin' hot. But maybe that's because I was grocery-toting, baby-wearing, and stroller-pushing uphill. LOL.

After a three-way nap, we geared up to head out to La Maison Ou Verte (my saving grace most of the days we have been here). The kiddos played until Jeff met us after work, and we took the train back to Montreux for dinner. A series of we-were-gonnas happened next. We were gonna eat at the oriental restaurant (Middle Eastern food), but Brian didn't join us and we couldn't make out what was on the menu. We were gonna go to McDonald's, but we had just had that the day before. We decided on a food truck type meal because we were gonna let Cole play on the bounce house slides that were set up (though he decided not to after all). It was gross. So we agreed on McFlurries to end the night :)

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Day 12 -

On Thursdays (and Fridays), La Maison Ou Verte is open from 9-11 in the morning, so the fact that the kiddos were both up early worked out. We had breakfast and took the train to Vevey (noticing a trend here?). After we played, we found a place to buy stamps, picked up some croissants for lunch and headed back to the apartment. We finished up the postcards we were writing (one to themselves with their handprint drawn on it, and one to each of the grandparents), and stamped them so they were ready to go out this afternoon.

After nap, we took the train to La Tour De Pielz. First stop was the mailbox. Cole dropped in our postcards excitedly. Then we went to the Swiss Museum of Games. It was a neat museum of the history of many games (though in French/German, so I couldn't read it!). It was cool to see all of the collections of old games, from Mancala to Roulette tables.

There were several outside games set up, like the oversized chess board and pieces. But Cole wanted to play on the playground :) One thing I've noticed here is that the playgrounds are not 'safe' like ours at home. They have merry-go-round-ish things, and tire swings, and slides that are tall. It's so much fun to see Cole challenged and he really enjoys it too. While we were trying out the merry-go-round, I told Cole to hold on, but he let go and fell off the first time. He got right back up and tried it again, this time, holding on for dear life ;)

We ended up leaving the playground when some kids were throwing dirt. I know kids will be kids, but other kids were crying because it was in their eyes and the last straw for me was when the kid threw it on Cole's back. I think I might have actually yelled at him (all I said was "Enough!", which he probably didn't understand, but he knew I meant stop). As we were walking away (and Cole wanted to stay), I tried to explain that the kids were being mean and that's why we were leaving. He insisted that "they were not being mean, they were being polite!" Ha. We had a little talk on our walk about mean, nice, polite, rude, etc.

We stopped at the park near the lake in Vevey to play while we waited on Jeff for dinner. Ran into someone who has been at La Maison Ou Verte most of the days and was able to chat with her for a little bit in English. Theresa is an au pair for a family with three kids. It was cool to hear a little about her experiences (she is from Germany and will go back there after she is done with this job, until she decides where she wants to go to college).

Dinner was a crap-shoot. All we wanted was something quick and local, and I wanted crepes. I couldn't read the crepe menu well enough to decide that we wanted dinner there, so we planned that for dessert. We went to a burger place by the train station, sat down, got the kids settled, ordered a water and a coke and waited for the menu. Nope. They don't serve dinner till 7. It was only 6:30. So we loaded up our stuff, and the kids and walked around a little before settling on McDonalds. Honestly, it was delicious. The crepes were delicious too!

Jeff took care of the kiddos for a few tonight so I could have a little much-needed break. And somehow it's already time for bed. Where does time go?!

(a 'selfie' of the three of us...not an easy feat!)

One more day here in Montreux...

And of course there's McDonalds...

Day 10 -

It's Tuesday. We're finally figuring out our way around, and beginning to wrap up our visit at the same time. Jeff would really love to live here part time, and I think I could manage that! It's just beautiful, all the time.

This morning, we took the train to Vevey and played at a few parks. At the first park we were at, the streetsweeper came by, and seemed to be chasing us. It was like the scene from Snow Day where the snow scraper is chasing the kids. LOL. Cole and I agreed that we'd try a different park. At the park by the lake, he was able to play with some other kids, and I think he really has needed that. We are looking forward to preschool next week, so that he has time with other kids (that speak our language).

We met Jeff for lunch, at McDonalds, none the less. It was delicious and greasy and a taste of home...all at the same time. I'm glad we've been eating really healthy for the most part (minus all the chocolate), but the splurge for lunch was nice. It also gave us some extra time to talk at lunch, since it cut out the walking time to another restaurant.

After lunch, we took the bus back to Montreux and all of us napped. We napped long and well, since there was a good breeze that cooled off the apartment. I think we've all been having trouble sleeping because it is warm and stuffy. By the time Ava woke up (Cole and I had already been stirring a while), it was time to go meet Jeff for dinner. Jeff heard that City Burger had good kabobs, so we gave it a try. Not quite what I expected, but not bad either. They had a delicious profiterole desert, with lots of chocolate.

We decided to see how far we could walk back toward Montreux, knowing that the bus was an option at any point. We stopped at the fork in the lake and had someone offer to take our picture (Yes, please!), and then at a few parks along the walk. Both Cole and Ava enjoyed the time to play and relax with Daddy (I did too!). About 2/3 of the way there, we hopped on the bus since it was dark and getting late.

What a nice night, just strolling around (literally) and enjoying the view and each other. <3

Monday...

Day 9 -

Well, it's Monday. That about says it all. Monday in Switzerland is still Monday...

We had a good day overall, just feeling like Monday had it out for us :P This morning, we didn't have any plans, so I knocked out a couple of loads of laundry. A couple of loads here equals less than one load at home. And, we can't figure out how to work the drying portion of the all-in-one washer/dryer, so I dried the clothes on the balcony. Thankfully, I don't think any of our underwear went flying over to the train station.

Jeff had forgotten his headphones today, so I loaded up the kiddos to get out of the apartment and take them to him. He gave me shotty directions to get to the place he was, so I used the Find My iPhone app. Though it took me to a Nestle building, he was in a different Nestle building, so when I left his headphones there, he was not able to go get them :(

(The wrong Nestle building!)

While we were out in Vevey, we found a neat little park and I let the kids (mainly Cole) play on the playset. I was so proud of Cole for going up a wood and chain stairway. It took a lot of balance and coordination and he did it! We had chocolate croissants from a corner bakery for lunch, and headed back to Montreux for a nap. Two trains in one morning (and two more to come)...Cole was loving it!

After nap, we took the train back to Vevey and visited La Maison Ou Verte for the kiddos to play, after picking up the headphones from the wrong building (ha!). Jeff met us there after work and we let the kids play again at the park area until Brian could join us. 

All of us went to dinner at Chez John. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. The meat is served seared on a marble slab that has been heated to 500 degrees. So it literally cooks on the marble, bite by bite, right in front of you. Ava was a little loud through dinner, but all in all, it was a great dinner and a good end to the day :)