Huismans in Helvetica: July 2012

July so far

I'm almost caught up on my blog. So I'm going to cheat a bit and just give a brief overview of our July since my parents left. Our activities have been:

1) Playdates and hanging out with Kai, Vanessa, and Eleanor as much as possible because they're awesome. So here's a photo of Carsten and Eleanor at our house being goofy, and here's a couple photos of a hike we took with them at Flumserberg (top of a mountain near here). Highlights of the hike included lunch under a covered awning, having it clear up while we were hiking so we could enjoy the view and take off our rain gear, and Vanessa and I got to go down the Floomzer, which is a sled on a rail track (yay!). Andy and Kai had gone skiing here in February, so I think it was fun for them to see it without snow as well. Here are photos:

They were having a ton of fun doing this :).

The group!

Not the best weather.

But we still had some pretty views :).

The Wallenzee. Zurich is just beyond what you can see here.

The Floomzer! SO FUN!

2) Playing outside our house. We do this almost every day, and Carsten loves playing in the sandbox and with the trucks.

He likes our playground!

Looking for airplanes!

3) Playing at parks in Zurich. We found this by accident, and despite it being a rather cold morning, Carsten still had a lot of fun on the splash pad. We went back today and it was a much nicer day :). The best part is that it's free! Not a lot seems free here... :).

I love his face here. I think he accidentally ran through it :).

He got VERY wet :).

Today was much nicer.

Carsten didn't want to play much in the splash pad. I think he didn't like going barefoot because it was slippery.

4) Going to the zoo! Our membership runs out at the end of July, so we've been trying to go there a bunch because we are not renewing our yearly membership. Carsten has a really good sense of where the animals are (I don't have to tell him where we are), and lately, he always asks to see the tigers. When the tigers are sleeping, he says 'AWAKE!'. Surprisingly, they usually do wake up :). He also loves the aquarium at the zoo, especially the fish we call the 'digger fish' because he digs himself into a hole and disappears. He also really likes riding the tractor down by the petting zoo.

At the tigers.

Where did the digger fish go?

The tractor!

5) Going to the tram museum. Andy took Carsten to the tram museum on Saturday afternoon while I stayed home and cooked. We all had fun! Well, except the boys got stuck in a torrential downpour when they came home... Poor guys. Here's a few photos of their tram museum time. Carsten loves the number 9. And he knows what it looks like (we didn't teach him).

Carsten the tram driver.

Playing trains.

This kid loves the number 9.

6) Going to the gym. Carsten and I go here about 3-4 times per week. They have daycare in the morning so I can workout while Carsten plays. He loves going there and playing with different trucks and diggers. :) We usually hit the grocery store on our way home to reduce the number of errands. No photos here :).

7) This weekend we went on a brief walk near the Greifensee (down in the valley by Uster). We normally don't go there even though it's close because there's not an easy way to get there by public transit. However, our friends let us borrow their car (thanks!) so it was super easy and close to go take a quick walk.

We went sans stroller.

Just walking!

8) When we're home, we play trucks, trains, and watch Bob the Builder. Carsten loves ALL of these activities :). Carsten also likes to help sweep. In fact, he asks to sweep several times per day. He's a clean kid. We also play 'hide' when we're home. Which mostly involves Carsten hiding in the same spot and then yelling 'ready!' However, this particular day he found a great spot! We also enjoy eating at home, and chasing Carsten around the house. Here's a lot of photos: :)

trains!

Big Wheel Loader (from Grandma and Grandpa Hoogie!).

He loves his tractors.

Love.

Bubbles on the deck!

What a goof. :)

Ready!

The cuteness. Oh the cuteness.

Watermelon!

He loves to wear our shoes.

This kid loves bacon.

Babyface.

Cleaning with Mommy!

Ok, so this post was supposed to be brief, but it wasn't. I guess we just do a lot of things!

Interlaken and Emmental

The last few days with my parents were pretty restful compared to our Germany trip :). On Sunday, we went to church. On Monday, we took a boat tour in Zurich because the weather really wasn't nice so that's all we wanted to do. Tuesday, we went to Interlaken. Wednesday was packing up, and on Thursday we had to bid them farewell at the airport.

Here's a photo of our cold, rainy boat ride:

I should also mention that Monday night my parents took car of Carsten while Andy and I went into Zurich for a date night. Andy and I got supper, and ate it by the lake. Then we joined up with Kai and Vanessa for a free trombone choir concert at our church. The trombones were very good (from Texas), but it was a bit loud and long for my taste :). Afterwards, we went out for a drink, and then had to leave earlier than we would have liked to get home a reasonable hour :). It was a great night. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Our day in Interlaken was very nice. It took us a while to drive there, but Dad did great on the mountain roads and Carsten loved the amazing number of tunnels. The weather wasn't terrific, but we didn't get rained on and we even managed to glimpse a mountain :). Mostly we just wandered around Interlaken and went into a few shops. I think my favorite part was when we were eating our lunch on a bench (we picnic a lot :) ) the clouds opened and we got to see a mountain! It was lovely and very unexpected. The day was very relaxed and Carsten got to spend a lot of time running around. Here's some photos of Interlaken:

Interlaken!

We had fun playing :).

I tried a few photos of Carsten. This is the biggest smile I got.

This is an amazing face.

Interlaken!

Cute.

Mom and Dad in Interlaken!

Beautiful church.

Gorgeous. I bet it's stunning here when it's clear.

We headed out on the road around 2 pm. Carsten was cranky and very hot, but thankfully he took a short nap in the car. We decided to head back via Emmental, where we could get a tour of how they make Emmental cheese (what we think of as Swiss cheese). The road our GPS took us on to get there was a bit dodgy, but Dad did great! Once we got there, Mom and Dad checked out the free video tour of the cheesemaking process and Carsten and I played outside on the playground. The best part of the playground was that it had a 'DIGGER!' that Carsten could sit on. He loved it :). Mom played with Carsten while I learned about cheese, and then we headed out. The GPS doesn't seem to always pick the best route in Switzerland, which was the case again, but we did eventually make it home. Carsten had been warm to the touch (not unusual because it was hot) all afternoon, but we started realizing that he had a rather nasty fever while we were headed home. At home, I tried giving him a bath, but he screamed bloody murder, so my Mom rocked him to sleep, and the next morning when he woke up (he slept ALL NIGHT!), it was gone. She has the touch :). Here's photos of Emmental:

The cheese tour place.

Little hut where they made old fashioned cheese in a huge kettle over a fire. We bought some. It was good :).

Carsten and his digger!

Wednesday was spent packing and getting in some quality play time with Carsten. And then on Thursday, we took the car back to the airport and saw Mom and Dad off. Carsten still says: "Grandpa. Grandma. Airplane!" Which is his way of telling me that they are gone. When we came home from the airport, Carsten got his trucks and said "Grandpa. Play?!" You are missed! Thanks sooooo much for coming Mom and Dad!

Germany Road Trip - Day 9

Sadly, our vacation was mostly at an end, but we managed to sneak in one more German town, Lindau, on the Bodensee, which is a large lake between Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Lindau is an island and has been important since Roman times. It was a nice stop for us because it broke up the drive in half (only 1.5 hr each leg then). The town was really cute and we very much enjoyed being right next to the lake. They have some pretty good lake swimming there (no beach, just concrete steps down to the lake!), so it'd be fun to go back there to go swimming. The town has a very old and cute lighthouse, and Mom and Dad braved the heat and steps to go up to the top. After exploring the lighthouse area a bit, we found a bench where we could eat the lunch that we had packed at the hotel that morning. It was very peaceful, and it was nice to eat our lunch right on the lake. We took a long walk around the other side of the island, and eventually made it back to our car. Carsten fell asleep immediately in his car seat, but unfortunately, he still only took a short nap. Oh well :). Well, that's the end of our Germany road trip! Here's some photos of Lindau: