16 Days in Europe

Day 1 in Europe - Switzerland - The Alps and a night in Grindewald

Michelle will be shocked to see me post to the blog, but there's a first time for everything. I always wake up early my first night overseas. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. today and decided to try to figure out how to post to the blog. I'll try to post each day, but we'll see how that goes.

Yesterday was great. We arrived in Zurich at about 7:00 a.m. and got on a bus and drove to the Swiss LDS Temple in Bern. It's the one in the movie "How Rare a Possession". Here's short video of our stop at the temple.




We then got back on the bus and drove about an hour and half to the Swiss Alps. The Alps are amazing! We drove through a beautiful village called Interloken and then arrived at the base of Mt. Eiger. From here we caught a cog-wheel train that took us up the mountain. Here are a few pictures from the top:

The Brot cooked in saurkraut and hashed potatoes were tasty!

We then got back on the train and headed down the other side. This was my favorite part. The view was incredible.

The view as we started our way down the other side

Notice the cliffs on the right side of the pic. You'll see a few waterfalls coming off the top of the cliff. The next pics will show us getting closer. I couldn't believe how steep those mountains are.

Getting closer to the base. What a view!

Nearing the bottom

Remember the waterfall in the distance from the first picture.
Here it is from the base. This village was so cool. Everything is so clean.

We then drove to Grindelwald where we spent our first night. This is a really quaint village. So peaceful and beautiful.

Here is a panoramic view from the balcony of my room at the Hotel Eiger.

The view as you cross the street in front of the hotel is also spectacular. Check this out.......

Day 1 was great. I've got to run to get ready to go to Church. We're off to Lucern, Switzerland after church. Michelle will be meeting me next week in Vienna. I can't wait for her to get here. I really wish you were here to see the Alps babe! We'll definitely come back here together.

Days 2 and 3 - From Grindelwald to Lucern, Switzerland

We woke up in one of my favorite places in the world, Grindlewald and had a delicious buffett breakfast. We then had a great sacrament meeting. I took the next video that morning. Everything there was so peaceful. Check this out........









After leaving Grindlewald we drove down to Interloken, which is a nice city. We stayed there for an hour or so, and then drove to Lucern, where we've now spent two days. Today we visited two businesses ZAI ski company, and the Partners group. Zai makes high end handmade skis. We watched them make part of one. They range in price from $3,000 to about $9,000. We then visited a private equity company called the partner group. Both were interesting visits.

To get to Zai we had to drive through some very windy mountains. I'll post a few pictures, but need to get to bed. I haven't slept well since arriving, but need to get to bed soon. I have to be up early to leave for Munich in the morning. 5:30 wake up call!

Here are a few pics from the last day or so: My internet is out of time. This is all I'll post for now

1. Wood walking bridge. I'ts been around since the 1500's.

It's outta here!

This weekend Nate has been playing in the memorial day tournament. Justin is disappointed that he has had to miss it, but he is happy that he is in Switzerland staying in the "too beautiful for this world" Swiss Alps. We are missing him already, but I think that he is having a great time. Yesterday Nate's team lost the first game and won the second. Nate had two great hits to the fence yesterday and pitched pretty well. Today they won both games and Nate pitched great. I hear about the pitching from the other parents because I was late and missed the first two innings. :(. Anyway, during the second game Nate hit one over the center field fence. It was so much fun! He completed his run around the bases with a summersault over home plate. Unexpected, but funny. He has been on cloud nine ever since. It is so fun to see your kids do something that is so exciting to them because they feel so great about it. Compared to last week when he got pulled from pitching and he was so down on himself. We also went to Nicks game in Lehi. We are about all baseballed out, but it has been fun to watch.
Now on to preparing the sharing time that I just remembered I have last night. Nothing like procrastination. Thank you sugardoodle!

ER Sundays

Our children have had several trips to the ER over the years. Nathan and Mikaela have broken their arms, we have had several stitches, etc. For some reason, they ALL have happened on Sunday. It has been a joke in our family for awhile. It will be Sunday afternoon when I finally let my kids out of the house and I will say "don't do anything crazy...it's Sunday." They know what I mean.
Well this Sunday was a nice day. We went to Grantsville for mothers day and we had nice visits with our mothers. It was fun to see family. It was also a little crazy that morning and I hadn't even had time to take a shower. I went to church looking and feeling a little frazzled. So I had told Justin that I would really like to get home by a decent hour so that I could take a relaxing bath. We actually got out on time and we got home and started unloading everything. We had literally been home five minutes, at most, when I hear what I thought was my kids fighting because there was so much screaming. Mikaela walks in holding Ella who has blood running profusely down her face. I had just seen Ella walking upstairs. I had no idea that she had gone out front and was riding her bike. She apparently fell on her face because her lip was cut badly, her front tooth was pushed back, and some of her gums had been scraped off. (I know OUCH!). I always have to mentally calm myself when I see one of my kids in a state like this because what I really want to do is run around screaming myself. It just turns your stomach into knots that don't leave until it is all fixed.
We ended up spending the rest of mothers day in the ER. Thank you to Tiffany who came and sat with our kids until after midnight. Ella was so brave. On the way to the hospital she kept saying "call the doctor to see if it's going to hurt" because she asked me if it was going to hurt, and I didn't want to lie to her. I knew that best case she was at least going to have to have a shot or IV, so I told her that it might hurt we were just going to have to see what the doctor needed to do. She didn't cry at all. Not one tear. She watched them put the needle into her leg and was fine. They used a consious sedation which are never fun to watch. It also makes my stomach turn to see my little girl laying on the table while the doctor stitches her lip and her eyes are wide open with her body jerking. Oh I hate the whole thing. I am glad that we have that help available though.
So, another Sunday in the ER. What are the odds, really?
Oh, and then on Monday at Nates baseball game, Ella gets hit in the back of the head with a foul ball. Poor thing got hit hard. She seems to be a magnet for pain right now.