Vacation in Utah

It has been a long while since my last post. The flight to Utah was actually a breeze. The kids were great, and they even slept for a few hours. We arrived on June 12th, and have been busy playing and relaxing. Here are some of the pictures (there are many more). We head back to Switzerland on July 6th, so I will post again after we get back.

Sitting on the back porch with Grandpa Berg
Eating cake and ice cream with the cousins
Playing and playing with the cousins. Every morning Abram asks, "Are my cousins coming to play?"
We enrolled Abram in beginning swim lessons. His class is floating on the teacher's arms.
Swimming and splashing outside.
Visiting Great Grandma Petty in Brigham City
The dinosaur park in Ogden
Playing with the Knudsen cousins Chloé is discovering everything now...even dirt in Grandma Berg's plants.
We also were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. The temple is beautiful, and we had a great time showing the children all the different rooms.

Ten months old. . . next week

Since Jacob left for work this morning, Chloé has been strutting her stuff. Until today, she would panic when she was standing and did not have a hand to guide her. Today, she is taking steps as she stands by herself and usually I see it happen out of the corner of my eye. Why such an early walker? We attribute a lot of it to her door bouncer/jumper that she loved when she was younger as well as her lightning speed crawling. So yes, she will be walking when we visit the U.S. next week. I caught it on video. You will also hear her say "hi" - one of her first words and that is my white manicure nail polish that she is holding. Just wish me luck with two little ones (both walkers now) on the airplane. . . all by myself.

Garmisch, Germany with Petty Family

Last weekend, we had a fabulous 3 day weekend getaway with Jessi's family (except Anthon who we missed the whole time - yes, he is off his mission, but now, sadly, the Atlantic Ocean now separates him from the rest of us most of the time). We forgot our big camera for this trip, so we were glad that Frank and Emily captured so many beautiful pics of all of us on their new Nikon D40.

When we arrived on Friday, we met up with Frank and family and hit an "alpine slide" at the base of a mountain and ski jump originally built for the 1936 Winter Olympics.
Abram got to go on this ride several times with any daddy or uncle who was willing to have him along.
On Saturday morning, we headed back to the "alpine slide" area and took a ski lift up the mountain to hike around. Some how Jessi ended up jumping on a lift without baby, so Chloé got to ride with Grandma and Grandpa instead.
Here we are at the top of the Eckbauer Mountain.
Grandma Petty and Abram on the descent down the mountain.Jacob, Abram, and Grandma Petty got to enjoy a horse and buggy ride as they returned back to the base of the mountain.
Saturday evening we ventured to downtown Garmisch where we strolled through a German park and sat to enjoy a traditional German brass band in an outdoor amphitheater park. Abram and Mama even got up to dance for one song.For all of the time that we were not out and about in Garmisch, we were back at the hotel swimming, getting massages, eating American buffet breakfasts and dinners, sleeping and tickling Grandpa Petty's toes. In the rowboat with Grandma and Grandpa.Paddle boating with babies.Sister and brother with babies in hiking packs.We all decided that the weekend was just too short. Thanks for such a great time, Grandpa and Grandma Petty! We look forward to all of these times as a family.

More of May

May has been a wonderful month around our place. Filled with European holidays, my birthday, Mother's Day, weekend trips and time as a family, and it continues. The second weekend in May was spent touring with Jacob's high school friend, Dale Smith, around our local Switzerland as well as driving with our little family to Lyon, France. Yes, Abram puked in the car on the way there (probably to blame - the combination of a full stomach, winding back roads and eyes glued to the portable DVD player), but as soon as we arrived we were able to get Abram a fresh set of clothes and were on our way to a nice biking afternoon around the city. We especially liked the city parks to play in and the biking trails lining the sides of the river. And yes, that is Abram wearing his new, clean set of clothes we bought for him in Lyon. A few minutes after this picture was taken, Abram fell completely into the wading water and he had to wear his birthday suit as we drove back home in the car. We should have seen that one coming as well.
We have been enjoying the warmth and sunshine of May. I continue to love walking most places with the children including the many local playgrounds as well as the beloved Migros grocery store. Being able to walk (3 minutes away) to the grocery store is one of the luxuries I find about being a young mother living in Switzerland.
Two of Abram's shots below.
Chloé is just shy of taking off and walking. She stands and even requests assistance from my pant leg or my finger in order to walk wherever she wants to go. A stationary climb - reminded me of a treadmill when she kept trying to climb up the slide.

Things I am loving about motherhood this week

My 9 month old:
1) being clever enough to pick every piece of food off the table that she doesn't want to eat and dropping it on the floor.

2) crawling from room to room in search of her mommy. Whimpering until she finds me. Me getting back from a church meeting last night to hear that she did the same thing when I was gone to my meeting.

3) unknowingly taking her first steps when she was on a frantic chase after a cat at the park.

4) getting sad (pouty face, delayed reaction and all) when I am teaching her not to put grass and flowers in her mouth.
My 2 and 3/4 year old:
1) asking me to skip past the part where Mac and Lightning McQueen are being chased by the street racing cars at night. When I ask him why, he says, "Because it is a scary part."

2) wanting to independently dress himself and doing a pretty good job of it. Still needing a little help from me, which makes me happy :)

3) starting to respond more positively to mealtime eating (although we still have a ways to go). Perhaps I am being more realistic as well has firm/consistent with expectations of what he finishes on his plate. He even self-selected bananas to buy at the store so that he could eat one as we left. . . he must have been really hungry! Way to pick out and eat a fruit, Abram!

4) showing sweet kindnesses to his sister including sharing a toy or singing to her.