Daron, Melanie, Stephen, Kassie, and Kenny

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Switzerland is WONDERFUL!

We’ve been here 10 days now and we’re having a wonderful time! The kids are liking school a lot – Kassie’s first day was apparently great – she felt like a ‘superstar’ with the other students like ‘puppy dogs following her around’ – luckily she’s found several cute English-speaking kids that help translate, and she loves to listen to the French teacher speak French. She says the Rosetta stone has helped her understand quite a bit – that was a good investment. Some of her cute friends…
Kenny also loved his first day – he ran right in and started playing with the toys – the other kids all gathered around him in a circle and silently watched him – it was so funny. Then the sweet teacher kindly told him ‘we start our day on the rug over here’ – so he followed her over and showed all the other kids his ‘softies’ – the nice ColeHaan slippers Greg and Jamie gave him – it was hilarious! (Kenny and Kassie’s classes both have them take off their street shoes when they enter the class and put on slippers, so those thoughtful gifts from our friends came in so handy!) He loves trotting into all the stores – they’ve got neat new things to look at and fun playthings to ride on…
We’re loving the food here – LOTS of cheese, ofcourse! We’re still getting the knack of which ones we like – some are so strong smelling that it’s overwhelming to open the package – so I just cook those into my meal ~ unless, ofcourse, it’s homemade spaghetti that I spent HOURS on today, simmering fresh veggies, only to discover when we ate the first bite that the sauce was on sale because it was RED PEPPER spaghetti sauce! I know that word now, thank you – won’t repeat that mistake since the whole batch had to get tossed – the kids’ eyes were watering. Uncle Michael or Aunt Lori probably would’ve loved it… 8-)  Here’s a pic of one morning meal of green eggs (broccoli) and potatoes – their new favorite carb!
They are getting very good at trying new foods – I think they figure it’s a new country and they have no choice. Well that’s pretty much what I tell them – so they’ve been good little eaters. Learning to compromise – they’ve only ever liked Ranch, which there’s none of here, so they now eat French which is very tangy but they eat it. And we had our 6-1-1-1’s today for breakfast with no syrup and it was just great – we used jelly and honey instead. It’s all good. We especially love our new toaster….
We had fun decorating the rooms in the house - - thanks to IKEA! The kids’ room is colorful – especially with their new bunkbeds and fun rug, which they enjoy laying out all their legos on ~
Today we walked over to the nearby horse-riding school and found out about taking classes – only for 7yrs and up – it’s about $330 for 10 classes. We watched some kids riding and Kas and Stephen are excited to try it. Stephen mostly wants to do skiing classes though – there hasn’t been enough snow! I can’t believe we leave Texas and THEY get all the cold weather now! But this weekend we’ll take the kids to ski in Crozet, France ~ in the Jura mountains – that will be fun. We told Bishop Kimball we’d be gone, so maybe they’ll wait a week before they announce our new callings – Daron is a ward missionary and I’m the Sacrament Meeting accompanist and Primary Teacher. Very fun! Our first day at church Sunday was great – the ward is filled with wonderful people, so humble and kind and welcoming – here we are before church…
Here are some fun videos we’ve been taking – the kids really enjoy taking little videos of themselves playing in the house.

We LOVE the house – it’s a perfect size for us. And SO easy to clean – only 15 minutes to mop, vacuum and wipe down all the windows!  Today Stephen and Kenny (Stephen’s school is in the process of putting his schedule together, and Kenny has no school on Wednesdays; Kas has a half-day Wednesday) hung out here while I exercised out in the hallway of our apartment – I used the 4 flights of stairs outside our door as a stairmaster for 30 minutes – it was a great workout! I kept poking my head in the door every couple of trips up or down and the boys were happily playing bookworm. I really like the slower, quieter pace here. Everyone said it would feel more safe – it definitely does… but don’t worry Mom – I still won’t let the kids out of my sight. 8-) Well, I did let Stephen go back to the house today to get the football while we were playing with the kids, but the park is practically connected to the house, so it’s all good. Plus how cute – Stephen came back and said – “Mom, I really liked that you trusted me to go do that alone!” We’re at the park ALL the time – before and after school, and during the long lunch break (Kassie’s bus brings her home for about an hour then takes her back again, and Kenny’s school is a 20 second walk from our house and he gets 2 hours at lunch – so great!) so we zip-line at the park at lunch too.  The kids have met so many cute new friends – just by playing at the park and walking around the lovely little village of Crassier. It’s routine now for us to stop at each little family we see walking, and for Kassie to drop to the ground and ask in French to pet their dog (“je pu caresse doh chien?”) then we meet new little friends… some of whom have already heard about us! One cute lady we met, we figured out that her daughter and Kenny are in classes next to each other at the same school, and she said – “oh yes, so Kenny must be the new English-speaking student that Jessica said just joined the other class!”  We luckily didn’t need many supplies for the kids’ classes – Kenny just needed Kleenex, daily snacks, gym clothes (they take a bus on Tuesdays to a gymnasium down the road!) and he still needs a plastic painting frock that I’ve checked 5 stores for and no one has it. So he’ll have to use a big shirt. Here we are together at the park with the fun zipline --
Happy February to everyone… lots of birthdays (Shelley, Emma, Carmel, Aunt Margaret, and Lori!) and Anniversaries (Jen and Gordon and Steven and April!)  We love you all and can’t wait for you to come over and visit us!

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