The Smithereens

Today is Rachel's 3rd birthday. We can't believe our little girl is turning 3. We started off by going out to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner last night. We went to dinner with some friends that are moving back home. Arrangements were made for Rachel and I to get sung to. Rachel didn't quite know what to think about all the singing and clapping, but she enjoyed the free dessert! :) We definitely have a tradition with Hard Rock Cafe and birthdays.

This morning after having blueberry muffins for breakfast (thanks Mom!) we gave Rachel one of her first presents. Her uncle Jeff got her scooter. She has figured it out pretty good and enjoys riding it around the house.

We then decided to head to a local public indoor swimming pool. It was our first time there, but we really enjoyed it. Audrey slept for a good 45 minutes in her car seat, so we were able to have some fun with just Rachel. I think her favorite part was when the waves would start - she enjoyed riding the waves with her daddy. Audrey joined us in the water for about 30 minutes after her nap. It was Audrey's first swim and she enjoyed it.

After lunch and naps Rachel was busy, busy busy. She got lots of phone calls and she was actually really good about talking on the phone. Rachel was able to open her present from Papa and Grandma Michaelson while they were watching on Skype. She had fun talking on Skype with them, but once the present was open she had a one-track mind.

After one of Rachel's favorite things for dinner - rice and meatballs - she opened up the rest of her presents. She was definitely spoiled and was excited about each and every one of her presents.

We then had one of Rachel's friends over for cake and ice cream. Rachel had a pink heart-shaped cake, which she picked out herself. And for a Dutch cake, it was actually pretty good. For some reason Rachel was a bit shy about blowing out her candles, so she blew out 2 and I had to blow out the 3rd.

Rachel was definitely spoiled on her special day. She says thank you for all the presents, cards, and phone calls. From here on out, there's no turning back. Rachel definitely understands what a birthday is all about and is already looking forward to her 4th! :)

For our 8th wedding anniversary we decided to take a trip to Switzerland. Our anniversary is right by a holiday here in Holland and Andy had his Easter holidays to use as well. So, we were able to take a 6-day trip to Switzerland. For me this trip was really neat. Beforehand I was able to talk with my dad and find out about his experience as he explored Switzerland almost 29 years ago. The Kunz side of my family is from Switzerland. When my dad visited Switzerland years ago he was able to go around with a relative and see some historical family spots - where their dairies had been located and where my great-great grandmother was baptized. My dad was able to tell me where these places were and so we also included a bit of family history in our trip. The trip turned out great. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if I would have been able to share it with my parents and my brothers. It would have been really neat to have all been there as a family.

The girls did a great job traveling. It was roughly an 8-hour drive down to Switzerland, but with stops and road construction it ended up being about a 10-11 hour drive. The girls did quite well as we drove one long day going down there and one long day coming back home. We ended up staying in a hotel right outside the city of Lucerne. So, our first day there we went into Lucerne and explored a bit.

Andy with the Chapel Bridge in the background. A bridge that was built in 1333 and is the oldest wooden bridge in Europe.

As you walk across the bridge the ceiling has paintings from the 17th century that tell of Lucerne's history.

Audrey enjoying being strolled across the bridge.

The Ruess River in Lucerne.

Rachel enjoying lunch at a cafe right along the Ruess River. We have decided that the Swiss are obsessed with pizza and pasta (or else they figure tourists are and they want to keep us happy). We had a difficult time finding anything different. I guess since they are neighbors with Italy, they enjoy Italian food??? Who knows.

Lake Lucerne.

Lucerne's Lion Monument. A little bit of history: "The Swiss have a long tradition of supplying mercenaries to foreign governments. Because the Swiss have been politically neutral for centuries and have long enjoyed a reputation for honoring their agreements, a pope or emperor could be confident that his Swiss Guards wouldn't turn on him when the political winds shifted direction. The Swiss Guards' honor was put to the test in 1792, when--after trying to escape the French Revolution--King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and their children were hauled back to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. A mob of working-class Parisians stormed the palace in search of aristocratic blood. More than 700 Swiss officers and soldiers died while defending the palace, without knowing that their royal employers had left the building. In the early 1800s, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen was hired to sculpt a monument to the fallen Swiss Guards. The sculpture was carved in a sandstone cliff above the city center."

That afternoon we drove down to Bern and stopped to take a look at the temple. There was even an LDS bookstore across the street from the temple, but unfortunately it was closed.

We then ventured into Bern's old town and walked around. This is the city's famous clock tower. The clock dates from 1530 and on each hour bears, a jester, and a rooster play out its performance.

We ventured across one of the many bridges in Bern. And discovered that the Swiss definitely have a sense of humor, even though it's a bit morbid. There were footprints on the bridge and on the edge of the railing right above this:

A view of Bern from the bridge.

Rachel and I on a bear statue. Bern has bear pits, which were started back in the mid-1800s. Andy checked the bear pits out briefly while I was in the car with the girls. He didn't see any bears because the bear pits are currently being transformed into a bear park scheduled to open this coming fall.

The next day we decided we had all had enough of the car. So, we purchased some Swiss rail passes and spent roughly 11 hours riding on trains. We stopped twice for lunch and dinner, but enjoyed traveling by rail through beautiful Switzerland. Here are the girls ready for their train ride - Audrey's first train ride and one of many for Rachel.

I would seriously run out of space on the blog if I posted all the beautiful pictures we took. So, here are a few of my favorites:

Audrey definitely enjoyed being able to spread out...

Sleep comfortably...

And be held. She was tired of her car seat! :)

We stopped in Interlaken for lunch and then got back on to head down to our final destination of Montreux, a beautiful town along Lake Geneva. We didn't have much time in either place, but we wish we had had more time in Montreux. It was beautiful weather and there was a park that Rachel enjoyed. Here's a picture of Rachel with Lake Geneva and The Alps in the background:

The next day we headed to Interlaken. On that drive I officially decided that Switzerland is the country of tunnels. We drove through so many tunnels that day. The longest one was 5200 meters (roughly 3.2 miles) long. The Swiss name their tunnels. It definitely made the drive easier going through the mountains, rather than over the mountains. We walked around Interlaken for awhile and got some lunch, then we headed up the Lauterbrunnen Valley where my ancestors had their dairy farms and where my great-great grandmother was baptized. We went to Trummelbach where we were able to see 10 waterfalls inside the mountain that were reachable by a tunnel-lift. Here is a view of the Lauterbrunnen once we had gone up the tunnel-lift:

We then went through several tunnels and checked out the waterfalls. Audrey was put to sleep by the noise of the water. Even though it was quite noisy, Andy said the noise didn't compare to Niagara Falls. We definitely enjoyed exploring the tunnels and checking out the waterfalls.

After we had explored the falls we realized that the clouds had cleared up and it was a really nice day. So, we decided to drive a little further up the valley and go up to Schilthorn. Schilthorn has the world's longest aerial cable-car system. We had to transfer and take 4 different cable cars to reach the very top. We had beautiful views as we were going up, but once we got up to the tippy top (9,744 feet) things were pretty cloudy. Supposedly on a good day you have panoramic views of over 200 mountain peaks, but we weren't so lucky.

Riding in one of the cable cars.

The higher we went things went from green to white:

Here's a sneak peek at what things could have looked like:

And here's what things looked like once we were up at the top:

We still made the best of our time up at the top.

The first thing Rachel wanted to do was make a snowball and throw it at her daddy. After that she was pretty adamant about building a snowman. She was so focused on building her snowman that she wouldn't answer any of Andy's questions, but she did a pretty good job for a toddler.

Andy then helped her build a snowman and she was pretty proud of it. Although she didn't become too attached to it because Andy was able to convince her to knock it off the railing and let it fall to its death. Supposedly she thought this was pretty funny.

Audrey was a good girl and pretty much slept through our whole Schilthorn experience. Just a random fact - a 1960s James Bond movie was filmed on Schilthorn, so up at the top there was a bunch of 007 stuff.

Our last day in Switzerland was absolutley beautiful! We used the Swiss rails once again and headed to Ballenberg, a Swiss open-air museum. We spent most of our day exploring Ballenberg. There were lots of farm animals to see. They had log cabins that showed how the Swiss have lived through the centuries. There were live demonstartions of local crafts, like basket weaving and sewing. Rachel really enjoyed seeing the animals and exploring the open-air museum.

Rachel really liked this stove in one of the cabins we explored.

She also had a lot of fun with the Swiss bells.

Audrey loved being outdoors as well. Here she is chilling in the stroller with her daddy's sunglasses on.

There was a playground that Rachel enjoyed. While she was busy playing at the playground there were four men that played some traditional Swiss bagpipe music for us. It was quite a special moment for me - standing there listening to the beautiful music surrounded by the Alps, watching Rachel play and Audrey being put to sleep by the music. I'll never forget those 10 minutes of time.

I know Rachel can count. She does it all the time. But she really surprised me when she quickly turned around and told me there were 5 horses. She loved seeing all the animals we got to see.

And to end a perfect day and a wonderful trip we had to have some ice cream. Audrey was asleep in the Beco while I ate my ice cream bar. After she woke up and I took her out, I realized some of the chocolate around my ice cream had missed my mouth. Audrey didn't seem to mind though! :)

As we drove home the next day we decided to take a different route. We were hoping to avoid the road construction in Germany, which we did but of course there was traffic other places as well. On our way home we drove through 5 countries - Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belguim, and the Netherlands. It's so weird to me that countries over here are like states in the U.S. We definitely enjoyed our Switzerland trip. We couldn't have asked for better weather and better little travelers. It was such a neat experience to be able to see where some of my ancestors came from. I know Bern, Idaho has its own kind of beauty but I think it's hard to beat the Alps and the beautiful Swiss countryside.