Van Essen Adventures

Weekend in Switzerland - Part 2 - Lauterbrunnen

After our time in Lucern, we headed into the mountains up to Brunig pass and then down towards Interlaken. We then headed into the Lauterbrunnen Valley where we had rented an apartment for 2 nights. We checked in and the kids spent the next hour exploring our apartment. They looked in every nook and cranny, and ran from room to room. I even gave them the camera and they took pictures of everything! (I'll only post a few)

The kitchen and one of the kid's rooms with bunk beds.

Syd checking out what is behind this door on the balcony and a great photo of Becki and Shannon in their room.

The view from our apartment...we were on the top floor and had balconies off of both sides, and windows with views on the other sides.

View to the North down the main street of Lauterbrunnen and to the South into the valley (due to the clouds we never did see the mountains above the valley....we did see fresh SNOW though up on the cliffs - it is JUNE isn't it??)

The Staubbach waterfall and a glimpse of Swiss countryside.

The little church in the heart of town was right next to us. We heard the church bells several times chime throughout the day...the church steeple was under construction otherwise it would have made a great photo (our Christmas picture was taken with that church in the background last year). Here we are in front of the place where we stayed.

Due to the rainy weather - we were glad we had rented the apartment and had so much space -since we spent a good amount of our time for the next 2 days inside!! Fortunately we had a living room with a TV and so hung out watching World Cup soccer and playing cards!

I seem to have quite a few pictures of us hanging out and holding Shelby...

If anything we had plenty of quality family time!!!!

Silas playing around with dad!

One story that I really need to tell is about the kids (Sydney, Shaylee, and Silas) locking themselves in one of the rooms. When they were exploring the apartment they discovered that each of the rooms had skeleton keys in the doors. At one point (shortly after our arrival) the kids were running and chasing eachother from room to room. Sydney and Shaylee and Silas were sharing a room and didn't want Shane in their room - so they went inside, shut the door, and locked it to keep Shane out. Well the skeleton key didn't fit in the door the best and it was a bit tricky to turn, Sydney locked it - but then couldn't unlock it. She of course started to panic...we spent the next 1/2 hour trying to calm her down and have her try to turn the key and unstick the lock. We ended up having her hand the key out the window to us (fortunately the windows on one side of the building were pretty close together) and we were able to unlock the door from the hall side. We then took the keys out of the locks and made them off limits! We had no futher issues and do believe Sydney will think twice before locking a door again!

Weekend in Switzerland Part 1 - Lucern

One of the places Shannon and Becki wanted to visit while in Europe was Switzerland. Jer and I love Switzerland - and so we decided that we would plan a long weekend and go with them to show them some of our favorite places. We planned the trip months in advance and booked (and paid for) an apartment in the Lauterbrunnen Valley for 2 nights. So when this weekend finally arrived and the forcast was for RAIN, RAIN, RAIN it was too late to back out and plan something else. Therefore, we packed up the van and the car (so many of us we have to take 2 vehicles), made sure we had umbrellas and rain jackets, and sort of hoped the weatherman was wrong....unfortunately he was not. It rained and rained and rained some more!

We started out Friday morning around 6:30am (wanting to get an early start - but not too early). We were fortunate and avoided any staus!!! In order to drive into Switzerland you have to get a vignette sticker to put on your vehicle. Since we were taking two vehicles I picked up two stickers on Wednesday at our local ADAC. You can also purchase them at the gas station before the border - or at the border - but they are more expensive there, and if you have one ahead of time you can usually just cruise right on through the border. Well on Thursday night we were getting some things in order and I had both the stickers in my wallet. I pulled out one and stated to Jer that I was putting it in his wallet so that he would have it with him come tomorrow and I wouldn't forget to give it to him (I should have put it on his car window right then and there). Becki remembers me stating this to Jeremy "Jer - look, I'm sticking the vignette sticker into your wallet so that you have it - ok" Well the next morning we were loading up the vehicles and I decided to put my sticker on my windshield. Jer saw me do this and so he assumed I had put his sticker on his windshield as well (I assumed he saw me put mine on and so he'd put his on his own windshield). We started out and I thought nothing more of Jer's sticker besides a thought of I hope he put his sticker on his windshield. We headed off towards Switzerland. I was leading in the van and Jer was following. We both had cell phones in case we needed to contact eachother - however mine just happened to be in my purse and I couldn't hear it ringing...oops. I went through the border just fine, but shortly thereafter did notice that Jer wasn't right behind me anymore. A little while later they finally catch up to us, pass us, and Shane waves Jer's cell phone at me...so I find my cell and sure enough there was a missed call. So I call him up and asked what's up??....only to find out that apparently Jer was trying to call me 500 meters from the border frantically wanting to know where his vignette sticker was!!! WHAT!!! I couldn't believe it.

Our cell phone conversation went something like this....

Jer asks: "WHERE IS MY STICKER?"

I state: "IN YOUR WALLET WHERE I TOLD YOU IT WAS LAST NIGHT!" breath "DIDN'T YOU PUT IT ON YOUR WINDSHIELD?"

His reply: "NO, I THOUGHT YOU HAD PUT IT ON MY WINDSHIELD"

My reply: "DID YOU SEE IT ON YOUR WINDSHIELD???"

Him: "NOT UNTIL I WAS AT THE BORDER DID I REALIZE IT WASN'T THERE."

Me: "So what happened?"

Jer: "I had to purchase another one at the border"

Me: "WHAT!!!!" "DIDN'T YOU SEE IT IN YOUR WALLET WHEN YOU PAID FOR THE NEW ONE??

Jer: "NO, but fortunately I had 50 Swiss Francs in my wallet"

Me: "It cost you 50 Swiss Francs - ARGH!!!"

I was SOO MAD...I couldn't believe it...I hung up on him. I looked over and asked Becki -"do you remember me telling Jer where his sticker was?" She stated "YES, you told him you were putting it in his wallet". ARGH!!! I was mad at him and mad at myself - because I should have just put his sticker on for him since apparently he couldn't do it on his own!!!!

There wasn't anything we could do about it now...so we both just had to get over it. We have now referred to the vignette sticker as the "vendetta" and it has come up as a joke more than once!

So on we drove to Lucern - our first destination in Switzerland. It took a bit for us to find parking since the 1st parking garage we plugged into our navigation system was full and we had to reroute by driving aimlessly about the city(that is another whole story in itself - but I won't go into details). But we finally did manage to find a garage and get both vehicles parked! Oh the adventures of traveling with the Van Essens!

First order of business - Starbucks, for some coffee, bathrooms, and to feed Shelby. Then we started off on our tour of Lucern in the rain.

Shannon and Becki by the covered bridge - and our family.

Jer and Silas with the covered bridge and tower in the background. Flowers along the bridge.

Shannon has a really nice camera - and he took this one of Jer and I (no more hard feelings)!

He also took these...

Shaylee by the swans - and our family of umbrellas....

Lucern is such a beautiful city. Too bad we couldn't see much of the mountains as the backdrop to the lake due to the clouds...

Shannon and Becki come to visit

Jeremy's cousin Shannon, and his wife Becki are here visiting. They arrived on Wednesday, June 16th. I didn't waste any time -took them to Heidelberg right away that afternoon (good way to ward off that impending jetlag!) It was a pretty nice day - and rain was predicted for Thursday and into the weekend - so we wanted to make the most of it!

We walked around the Altstadt and then took the Bergbahn up to the castle. After touring the castle grounds and courtyard we headed back down to the Hauptstrasse and did a little shopping. Jer met up with us for supper and we enjoyed some traditional German food.

Shannon and Becki at the Heidelberg Schloss. Becki with Shaylee posing with the Monkey by the Old Bridge.

Silas and Shaylee in a little nook at the castle. They found a big spider in there and wanted me to come in and look at it...I said "no thanks." Shannon went in and took a picture of the spider for me to see instead (good idea). Becki and Shannon posing with Silas and Shaylee (Shane was at the castle with us too - but for some reason he avoided being in any of the photos).

World Cup Soccer

We have been enjoying watching the World Cup lately. We of course are cheering on the USA - but we are also Deutschland fans. We got all decked out for Deutschland's first game against Australia - and they did not dissapoint with a 4:0 score. What a game!!!

GOAL!!!!!

Our local supermarket, REWE, has been handing out fussball trading cards (team Deutschland) for the past few weeks. The kids stated that I was only allowed to shop at REWE so that I could get more cards for them. With a little trading we did end up with all the cards (and plenty extras) to fill our team roster book. Here Silas is looking at the cards during the game.

Shelby Update

I took Shelby in for her 5-6 week check up on Friday, June 11. She now weighs 3,860 grams (8.5 lbs) and is 52 centimeters long (20 inches). She is growing and changing so much. She has chubby cheeks and some "rolls" in places too! Shelby continues to be such a good baby. She usually is only up once at night somewhere between 2-3am. I feed her and then she goes right back to sleep. She eats about every three hours during the day. Sleeps on and off (no set nap schedule yet) throughout the day. Seems to be awake more in the evenings - she likes to get in on all the family action!! The other kids still love to hold her - and it is sweet to see them interact with her...talking to her in their sweet little voices (just like mommy does to her).

Here are just a few pictures of Shelby taken recently.

It is amazing how she changes from day to day!!

It's Raining It's Pouring!!!!

Last weekend we went for a bike ride with our friends Sergey and Lilianna and their kids Gosha and Yura. We stopped off for some supper at the little vineyard restaurant. While we were there a thunderstorm rolled in. It started raining, then the wind picked up, and of course there was thunder and lightning. We had been sitting outside under a tent, however that didn't last too long and we headed indoors. (We have one child in particular who does not like thunderstorms lately - she was quite upset and scared.) We sat indoors for quite some time - but then thought it was letting up enough that we could try and head home (about 5km). It was getting a bit late - and we didn't want to end up having to bike in the dark if we continued to wait it out. Well - just as we were all on our bikes and down the road a bit it DOWNPOURED!!!! We got SOAKED! But at that point there was no use in turning around - so we just peddled away. At the top of one hill it had finally let up - and we were all (okay not all) laughing about the craziness of biking in the pouring rain -we had to stop for a photo! MEMORIES!!!! Shane was loving it! Sydney - not so much! Silas was behind me on the bike and got soaked as well (you can't see him in the picture). Shaylee and Shelby were safe and dry in the bike trailer - but wanted their picture taken too. What a ride!!!!

One Month Old

Shelby is one month old already - I can hardly believe it - the time has gone by so quickly. She is growing and gaining weight - however I haven't had her in for her check-up yet so I don't know exactly how much. Here is a picture of her next to her doll. Each month I will be taking a picture of her with it to measure how she is growing...I've done this with all the kids and it is fun to compare the pictures from month to month.

Shelby just 3 days old....and now at one month.

Bike Ride

Thursday - June 3, 2010 - another holiday in Germany!!! Jer had off of work and the kids were off of school so we were all together as a family. We had looked into traveling this weekend - but where we wanted to go had rain predicted for the entire weekend...so we scratched that and decided to stay home where the weather was suppose to be nice (FINALLY!) Thursday morning started out cool and cloudy - but by afternoon it was mostly sunny and perfect weather for a bike ride. We headed out toward the vineyards...it was a uphill and a lot of work for this out of shape momma!!! I was glad when we were going downhill! We stopped off at the local vineyard restaurant for some refreshments! The kids played on the playground there and we just enjoyed relaxing!

The crew....and the start of the grapes on the vines.

Seen around the house

This past week we've taken a bunch of photos of everyday life around the house - hope you enjoy a glimpse into the everyday...

Silas - he fell asleep while we were watching Britain's Got Talent - it is the live semi-finals all this week and so we've been letting the kids stay up late to watch them.