The Land of Cheese and Chocolate

It's kind of a long story, but Chris and I ended up taking a trip to Switzerland at the beginning of the month. Traveling internationally was new for me. Seeing other countries is great, but I missed being in the U.S. where they don't charge you for a glass of water or to use the restroom. That aside, we had a great trip with perfect weather and fun memories! Thanks a million to Aunt Jocey and Uncle David for taking care of the boys for 11 days!! I won't bore you with lots of historic details because you won't know what I'm talking about anyway. But here's some picture highlights: 

View from the first house we stayed at.

We did a lot of hiking.

Rhein Falls

Some very Swiss architecture

Narrow cobblestone streets

Cheese fondue - I had my heart set on it and I'll be honest...not my favorite. Not enough variety!

We took a cable car up a tall mountain - Mt. Santis. Very pretty views from the top!

Famous cheese factory - I love stinky cheese now.

We hiked around some old castles. They were awesome!

We hiked around these old stone villages. Some houses are still used today and some are abandoned.  I really felt like trolls were going to come out and a dragon was going to come around the corner.  Pretty crazy people live/lived in these!

Obviously someone lives here - check out the satellite.

We had one of our hosts prepare a special dinner for us. She set it up in our room because it was too cold outside. It was literally 8 courses of local, organic food - all homemade, down to the crackers infused with parsley and rosemary. She served us each coarse over 3 hours!! We were stuffed and it was a definite highlight of our trip.

Eating bread and cheese on the trail. I swear that's all people eat here.

We popped into Italy for an afternoon because it was only 20 minutes from where we were staying. Might as well be able to say, "I've been to Italy!"

Italian Pizza - Ok, so it was good. But California Pizza Kitchen still wins. Then we ate gelato 2 times within 5 minutes. I had to try both gelato places!

And no matter what country you visit, you can (almost) always find a temple.  And people who speak English. :)

 

 

 

 

 

Dental Woes

This post is to make all parents out there feel better about themselves.  Chris is a pediatric dentist and discovered that Clark needs 4 crowns, despite brushing and flossing. Most kids need to be put to sleep to get all of that work done but we decided to give it a try without putting him to sleep.  He did quite well.  Laughing gas and a movie on the ceiling did the trick for Clark! He got one "silver tooth" and needs 3 more. He's excited to go back!

Technically we aren't supposed to take pictures, but Isaac did it.  I'm innocent.

There's the shiner!

Chris only gave him half of the numbing medicine but he got SO NUMB!

Yep, that's right.  Reward your children for cavities!

Winter Continues

Are you getting tired of seeing "snow" pictures yet??  Here's some of our latest adventures: 

Reflection Lake

 Matanuska Lake Trail - It starts at a University of Fairbanks satellite location farm. Random - but the boys loved the cows.  Isaac talked about the "moos" for days.

He kept dipping his sandwich in the snow to make it a "snow sandwich".

He was crying about 3/4ths of our walk until I taught him to knock the snow off of the trees.

After so much snow, we are ready for our trip to Texas! 80 degrees there!