We Are...

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We Are…

Settling back into our routines after a two-week break.

Grateful for having the opportunity to see a beautiful new city with people who are simply gorgeous with their welcoming spirit.

Happy to have watched 180 Degrees South and smitten with Yvon Chouinard. It has been a long time since I deeply admire someone in the public eye, but he is a true gem.  A quote I love from him.  “The more you know, the less you need.”  Yvon Chouinard

Listening to Ugly Casanova and enjoying the song Here’s to Now.

  

Realizing that we need more vacations with a rejuvenating spirit…this lady needs to spend more time in the Alps.  This summer sounds perfect when the snow has melted and the trails are open!

Eating more whole foods and seeing how happy our bodies are to consume more greens and veggies.  Oh, you are delightful in so many ways.

Watching Tessa’s vocabulary expand each day.

 Smiling each time Noah speaks more German.  

Santiago de Compostela

 Tessa loves Kindermusik

 Tessa reading..OK, so she needs to learn orientation

 Noah in the school Fasnacht Parade

 Noah getting his One Billion Rising On

 The local children's parade

 We are all loving Friday playgroup

 Crazy Fasnacht Guys

We Are...

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We Are...

Spending time outside in the snow sledding and rambling about.

Enjoying having a break from the regular routine for the Fasnacht holidays.

Happy to have run into a dear friend while among tons of people in Marktplatz this week.  Welcome back Anne!

Grateful to hear some delightful music at the music museum this past weekend with my littlest man.  Thought very much about Oma and Opa that day!

Enjoying saying "yes" this week to things I do not typically do.  GRIT training course on Monday and a Flashmob...yep, gulp, a massive coming together of people to bring peace to everyone on the planet...especially women.  An important message to send to my children on so many levels.

Listening to The Weepies - so sweet and so wonderful!

Setting the goal to close Walden down by the end of the month and happy to start a new book, Me Before You.

Preparing for our next trip and hoping the weather is kind to us.

Bracing ourselves for another year of carnival and happy to have enjoyed the children's parade this weekend.

Grateful Robert found sometime for himself this weekend.

Looking forward to a walk in a new area with a new friend on Monday.

Wishing you a beautiful start to a new week!

Loving the quote...

"The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life.  

It is so easy to make it complex."  

180 Degrees South

We Are...

We Are…

Still enjoying the cold, the snow and rain.

Grateful for revived health.

Looking forward to having a break from school for the Fasnacht holidays.

Listening to some Celtic music and reliving those Irish days of beaches, castles, pubs and the creation of beautiful memories.

Feeling thrilled that our surprise weekend for Noah was not a total failure.  Oh, that tricky weather – hard rains followed by insane amounts of snow, finally gave way to blue skies and no precipitation.  The 35^th annual hot air balloon festival in the Alps was a success!

Loving coming home from the gym and greeted by two happy, warm hugging babes.  Oh, it fills the heart.

Still not sure why the tears fell so freely last week, but embracing the fact that they did indeed fall, even at the most awkward of settings.

Looking forward to a little downtime this weekend.

Wanting to hug my best friend and kiss her babes.

 The Priest's home in Chateau D'Oex

 Noah just sitting around in the snow

 This one is for you Jacques.  More will come, but enjoy!

 These guys made us smile even though the balloons didn't fly on Saturday.  

We love you funky chickens.

 Loving those shades

 Ahh...they flew, they finally flew!

 I love the simplicity of this picture.

 Noah admiring the hot air balloons. 

 Sledding and hot air ballooning...does it get any better than this?

 Tessa admiring the balloons too!

Thank you!

A full write - up and more photos will come soon on our other blog!

We Are...

 

We Are...

• Still embracing the cold temperatures and making the most of the winter.
• Greatly enjoying the morning cup of coffee.
• Enjoying our museum pass and looking forward to seeing some great art at the Kuntsmuseum this weekend.
• Grateful for our healthy family.
• Listening to Ryan Adams and loving Come Pick Me Up and Wonderwall.
• Building forts with old sheets and watching how my children adore such simple fun.
• Listening to Tessa say just about everything and smiling at her ability to communicate.
• Enjoying Robert’s winter soups that keep us warm!
• Looking forward to a date morning on Saturday and so sad to see our dear babysitter move on to a new career path. She was a true gift to our family!
• Thoroughly enjoying my nighttime ritual of reading with Robert.  We are learning so much about our home country.
• Unable to believe how quickly our children are growing...please slow down our precious ones!

 This looks like a little scene out of a storybook.  Hiking in Muttenz.

 Weekend hike.

 Noah stealing Robert's glasses.

 My little gal squeezed into a box.  Love it!

 Noah and Geo

 Friday morning hike by the river with the kiddos.

 Noah loves the snow!

Robert and Noah enjoying a snowy nap!

We Are...

 We Are...

• Enjoying our new supply of Smart Wool socks as the temperatures plunge
• Happy that reviews are almost over and pleased that Robert made it through the stressful time
• Trying to ease into the fact that our son will be in Kindergarten in August and trying to sift through the Swiss school system and the language…this is when living abroad gets a bit tricky.
• Watching Noah embrace the cold and his time in the snow at forest school
• Enjoying new chapter books with Noah…thank you Michelle and Matthew
• Listening to Kindermusik CD's and looking forward to watching Tessa embrace all that the class has to offer starting at the end of the month
• Slowly put surely cleaning out, giving away and truly trying to embrace the simpler life…in all aspects from clearing clutter to what we eat
• Baking fresh batches of granola bars weekly because they seem to be the perfect winter breakfast and snack
• Starting a new German class and hoping that more of this tricky language sinks in
• Appreciating gorgeous sunrises as we race off to school and realizing the need to slow down
• Looking forward to our first ever Museum Night with Robert on Friday
• Eagerly anticipating our long weekend away in the beginning of February...that is all I will say for now...it is even a surprise for Noah!
• Grateful the weekend is upon us and looking forward to the gym, a long overdue pancake breakfast and possibly a ramble in the woods

We Are...

We Are…

• Enjoying long hikes in the forest and proud of Noah for walking the distance.

• Witnessing first hand the power of nature on the psyche, the soul and the brain.  There are gifts that await us in the incredible outdoors.

• Happy to have discovered Nicole Reynolds – impressed by her insightful and well crafted lyrics and her ever so sweet voice.   I am particularly enjoying her songs: Wonderin', Like a Movie and Juliana. 

• Reading and slow making progress with a few good books.

• Happy to have watched Bella – a great little movie about the complexity of life.

• Greatly enjoying tiny movie wonders by ARC’TERYX and their great film Roger Strong.  A nice little piece of inspiration for the New Year!

• My smiling heart so enjoys watching my beautiful babes playing peacefully with one another. 

• Adoring my nighttime ritual with Tessa – a feed, a cuddle and three songs that we sing together – Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday to Leo and ABC’s.  If I could hold those moments tight in a locket that opened on demand I would forever be a smiling lady.

• Happy to pick Noah up from forest playgroup unable to identify the color of the clothes I sent him to school in and a smile from ear to ear.  My precious boy is eating up that forest (in more ways than one) and this Mama is ever so happy for him!

Beautiful little chalet at the base of an impressive peak...hmm...future dreams in the making!

We Are...

 We Are...

• All settling back into our routines after a wonderful holiday.
• Grateful this was a short week.
• Dreaming and planning for where we will travel this year before our little gal turns 2 and needs her own ticket on airlines and before Noah starts Kindergarten.
• Greatly enjoying my new museum pass experience from Robert.  So far, we have visited 2 museums and the pass just arrived in the mail yesterday!
• Enjoying our new nightly read - The American Patriot's Almanac and slowly but surely making progress with Walden.
• Working on our resolutions.
• Looking forward to a relaxing weekend and wishing you every happiness in the New Year!

 

 Our gal and her smiling face.

 Noah all smiles with Geo.

 Beautiful winter sunsets at the zoo.

And a kiss goodnight!