Work It Out!

Aidan's first unit in first grade is "work it out". The kids are exploring jobs in the community and how workers help people in the community. Aidan has been job shadowing teachers and principals and nurses at school and today he got to job shadow Jason at work.

He was so excited to go to work with Daddy! He got to ride the train to work with Jason then spent all morning in his office. I went to pick him up after lunch. The boys even dressed alike! Here are a few pics of Aidan's day at work. Co-workers!

Aidan had to take pictures of Jason working to share with his class. Here's Jason "counting cars" on the computer.

The picture below was taken last Friday when Aidan had career day at school. The kids had to dress up like some profession. Aidan dressed up like a veterinarian. He even took a doctor bag and a stuffed dog.

He's so excited about school and all the cool things he gets to do there. It's such a great experience for him!

A Little Help for the Spartans...

Let's Go State!!!

Ugh. I thought we were supposed to be good this year! 1-3 start to the football season is NOT good by my standards, boys! I'm so glad I haven't spent money on tickets to any of these games like Erin (who, by the way, I'm beginning to think is a bad luck charm-stop going to games, already ;)! Anyway, I thought I'd post this pic to give the Spartans a bit of spirit for next week's game vs. U-M. It is SO hard to be a Spartan fan sometimes.

Slow-Down Zurich

Today was Slow-Down Zurich. A long stretch of road from Meilen to Rapperswil right along the lake was closed to traffic and open only for bikes, rollerblades, and baby strollers. We missed it last year, so we decided to go today.

It was quite the hassle to get our bikes to Meilen on the train, but it was worth it. The weather today was fantastic and we enjoyed all the lake views along the way. Aidan rode his own 2-wheeler, his longest ride to date! We didn't do the full 24 K stretch, but we went nearly halfway and then back. Lainey was still suffering from her ear infection, but was happily medicated and liked riding in her seat behind me. Here are a few pics of the day: Having lunch along the way

That's Aidan and Jason biking along the road. (How impressive that I can ride my bike and take pictures at the same time?)

Lainey at the lakeside in Meilen.

Alpabfahrt-otherwise know as a fancy cow parade...

...didn't happen for us this year. We planned to go yesterday to Engelberg to see the traditional cow parade and actually take some pictures this year. I remembered to charge up the video and still camera and we were all set. Until Lainey was up for a second night in a row with an ear infection.

The poor girl has a horrid ear infection. Thursday night at bed time she was complaining her ear hurt and had a bit of a fever. By 9pm she had waken up and was nearly inconsolable. She and I were up most of the night, and Motrin was just not cutting it. I took her to the doctor Friday morning. By then she was complaining her head and cheeks hurt too. The doctor said she's got a double infection and has blisters (!) on one of her eardrums. Poor thing! So he sent us off with antibiotic ear drops and some pain medicine that is stronger than Motrin. I'm a little convinced that it's some kind of narcotic because when Lainey is crying "my ear hurts, my ear hurts!" and I give her the pain medicine, within 5 minutes she's happy and giggling and silly. It's like she's high! Hopefully, it's OK...

So because of her feeling badly and not sleeping we decided not to go. So for your information, here's a link to someone else's blog, explaining what an "alpabfarht" is including pictures:
http://expatfiles.blogspot.com/2006/09/alpabfahrt.html

Jamie's American Road Trip

BBC is obsessed with cooking shows! Every night, at just about any time, you can find some Brit cooking something. Our new fave cooking show is Jamie's American Road Trip. Jamie is Jamie Oliver, he's popular in the US as "the naked chef" (not nude, but preservative/chemical free!).

This new show of his has him travelling all around the US getting a "real taste of America". He's been to Wyoming for cowboy food, New York for ethnic/immigrant foods, and today he's in New Orleans checking out gumbo and alligator post-hurricanes.

It's hilarious to see this relaxed, but very proper Brit hang with Essie May cooking gumbo and alligator hunting! Jason and I are cracking up at him drinking Coors Light and trying rodeo riding. I love watching these shows because it's funny to see how "outsiders" see American life. As Jamie said in one episode "foreigners see America as a big machine, but no one really gets the slow-down family side of America".

It's nice to see something on TV here about America that isn't just murder or politics or dirty business or stereotyping.

I think I'll buy Jamie's American Cookbook when I'm in London next month! Funny stuff.

Lainey's photo from the Greifensee Lauf

Here's the funny photo of Lainey, I couldn't get it in the other blog, it was upside down, but it is too funny not to post!

Greifensee Lauf

Arriving in Switzerland, one of the first things you notice is how fit everyone is. In the year + we've lived here, I think I've encountered fewer than 10 overweight people. And, in most cases, those who are overweight are not Swiss!

So, Jason and I have tried to become more active. When you go outside, you see people hiking, biking, running, walking, everywhere. It's good motivation for us, so he's gotten back into running and bikes to work a few days a week now. I've started running for the first time in my life. I used to say that the only reason that I'd ever need/want to run is if someone with a knife is chasing me, but I can actually say I enjoy running now! Maybe it's the environment? Running in the woods with breathtaking views of the Alps and the lake is much better than running on a track or in a subdivision! I find it quite relaxing actually, especially now that I've discovered downloading audiobooks to my iPod. I listen to books instead of music and it makes me want to keep going to see what will happen in the book.

So, obviously, with all these runners, there must be races, right? There are marathons, half-marathons, 10k, 5k races nearly every weekend somewhere in Switzerland. They even have races for the kids to do. So, along with some of our friends here, we decided to run in the Griefensee Lauf (Greifensee is a small lake, and "lauf" means run). Being new to the sport, I just did the 5.5K. Jason did the 10K, and Aidan and Jason did the 1.2K kids run. The Greifensee is a serious half-marathon that runners from all over the world come to compete in. Last year a Kenyan finished the half-marathon (13miles) in just over an hour! So, along with us beginners, there were many serious atheletes in the 40,000 or so participants. MuKi/Vaki means "MotherChild/FatherChild"-this is the race Aidan did with Jason.

Here is Team Barnett! Ready to race...

Team Barnett, with our friends Team Starkey- Rob and Jack

Aidan did a great job. He ran the whole time and finished the 1.2K in 6 minutes 24 seconds! He was so proud of the medal he won and the t-shirt he got. Many of his friends from school ran too, so it was lots of fun for him. He's already talking about doing another race soon.

Here, you can just see half of him running on the left side of this pic. It's hard to take pics in the crowd!

Post-race medal winners!

After Aidan's race, I had to run down to the start of the 5.5K. I only had 25 minutes to get there and the start was far from where Aidan's race ended. I was so stressed. I had to run to get to the start line and made it with only 2 mins to start! So, I was already a bit winded before I even began my run. Not setting me up for success! But I started off strong and even passed people in the first K. Then I stupidly trusted my Nike+iPod chip to tell me what my pace was, and it ended up being off by a few mins/k's overall. I thought I was doing better than I actually did, so I didn't really push myself. I finished in 35 mins 38 secs, but I had hoped to finish in about 33 mins. Oh well. At least I finished and didn't hate every minute of it. I much prefer running in the peaceful woods than dealing with crowds of 40,000+ and being over taken by people. But I think I'll try another race soon. Just to get used to the pressure! I'm competitive in every other sport I play, but with running I am so not. If I can't beat 'em, I don't even want to join 'em. I know I'm out of my league, but I'm going to keep trying to compete just with myself to better my time or extend my distance. I can't let others get to me. Good luck to me with that!

Here I am post race, relived to be done!

Jason is a much more competitive runner than me. He was dead-set on finishing his 10K under an hour and he did by a lot! He finished in 54 mins, 58 secs! Super good! But, with all the other serious runners around, that still only placed him at 117 in his age category and over 45o in all men! (At least his race, got places. The 5.5K was "just for fun" and didn't even get to have a winner-slightly demeaning. I made Jason put the results from my race into Excel and find out my place. I came in 100 out of 253 runners. I guess not so bad.) He's very proud of himself and is thinking of working himself up to a half-marathon sometime next year.

Jason post-race, sweaty as can be. The weather was HOT and sunny.

Aidan and I in the expo area, waiting for a turn on the merry-go-round.

We were all so happy to finish our races and head home after a long day. Lainey was a great cheerleader but was not happy with me that day. I had told her she was too young to run in the race, but when we got there she saw 2 kids from her class running in it. "I told you I can run, Mommy!" is what I heard all day. I promised her the next run she could do, so there's one in Oct. and one in Dec. coming up. At least she did have fun with some friends there and she got a cute photo taken in the expo the night before at the Pasta Party.

Our "Sideways" Weekend

Amongst the vines

In the Marche aux Vins

some bottles behind this gate were from 1904!

Tasting at Marche aux Vins

At one of the vineyards on the Route des Grands Crus View along the road

Grape harvesters-we think that the entire family who owns the vineyards go out to work, even kids!

The signs we followed from Beaune to Dijon

Aidan drinking frothed milk at breakfast

Jason's escargot

Silly Lainey in the wine cave

One of the many wine growning towns

Entrance to the walled city of Beaune

In the town

Aidan's 2003 vintage

Checking out the barrels in the caves

Our first glass of Pinot Noir in Beaune

Aidan took this pic

Do you know the movie "Sideways" about the guys that go on the wine tasting weekend in Napa Valley? And the one guy who swears he'll never drink merlot again, only Pinot Noir? That guy is Jason after our weekend tasting Pinots in Beaune.

We went to Beaune, France (in the Burgundy region, just south of Dijon) for the weekend. I love that we can do that-go to France for one night! We were supposed to go to Portugal this weekend for 5 nights, but Jason couldn't take the time off after all-typical. So, I decided we were going somewhere and since we had to drive and only for one night, I took out my map of Europe and figured out where we could go within a 4 hour drive. I was amazed to see that Burgundy was within my radius!

We made it to Beaune by 11am Saturday. Beaune is a cool old town surrounded by vineyards. The town itself is surrounded by walls...all the better to protect their purple treasure that is stored in caves all around town! Burgundy mainly grows Pinot Noir grapes, and a bit of Chardonnay. The fields were beautiful and it is harvest time now, so we were able to see lots of people out in the fields picking grapes as we drove along the Route du Grands Cru (main wine road).

There were tasting rooms and caves everywhere. The kids (and we did take them with us:) thought the caves were really cool. They liked reading the years on all the labels and looking for bottles with their birth year on them. Aidan even convinced Jason to buy a 2003 bottle and save it for him. We tried to explain how long it is until he will be 21 and can drink his wine, but he didn't care. I gotta say, this is one cool (or seriously messed up)kid! What other 6 year old picks out a bottle of wine to save for his 21st birthday? It'll probably be skunked by then, but we'll do our best to keep it for him.

The coolest place we went was called the Marche aux Vins. We went underground in caves and saw tons of wine in various stages of maturation-from the press to the barrels to the bottle. Jason and I got to taste a bunch of wines there, and Lainey tried to taste wine by sticking her finger in a spill until we caught her! We switched her to grape juice real quickly! This is where the kids had fun looking at the labels and exploring the caves.

We took a nice mini-train ride all around town and into the vineyards, which of course, was Aidan's highlight. There was a merry-go-round in the city center so Lainey was thrilled. There was something for all of us there :).

I was able to introduce my kids to the Jambon et Fromage sandwich this weekend. This French ham and cheese specialty is my number one memory of my high school trip to France. I ate one every day I was there, because I didn't like French food. Frankly, I still don't. Anyway, the kids agreed that Jambon et Fromage are great sandwiches. But, they were happy to leave so they didn't have to eat yet another. France is just not a kid-friendly (or Christine-friendly) place for food, other than bread and cheese. Jason, though, is not as picky and thoroughly enjoyed his escargot at lunch yesterday. Ew.

It was a great weekend getaway. We even snuck in a bike ride around town. We had hoped to bike through the vineyards, but the routes were too long for Aidan. So we drove through them instead. It was such a pretty drive through the rolling hills and valleys. The towns along the Route du Grands Cru were so old and charming. It was kind of weird to think that the grapes we saw being picked and carted into towns could someday become fine wines.

I wonder how our 2003 Pinot Noir is going to taste on July 22, 2024?

No Lack of Self-Confidence Here!

Today was school picture day. Both kids looked very nice, but of course I couldn't convince Aidan to "dress up". He wore jeans and a polo shirt. At least the photo is waist up! Delainey, as I'm sure you can all guess, did not need convincing to dress up. It was more like I had to convince her to "dress down". Generally, one does not wear a tiara in school pictures. I had to explain this to her this morning, along with explaining that I didn't have time to paint her nails before school and that no one could see her nails in a school photo anyway. She did, however, persuade me to dab on a bit of my lipgloss just before the picture was taken. She looked quite lovely sans tiara in her pink polka-dotted sundress after all battles were fought.

Delainey's class was the first group for pictures so of course all of the moms stayed to watch. Could a group of 18 3-year-olds all dressed up be any cuter? Could a photographer have a harder job than getting said group of 3-year-olds to sit or stand still and smile at the same time for a group shot? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding "NO!"

As soon as the group shot was done, I left. Later today, I asked Lainey about her day. Here's her reply (almost verbatim):

D- "Julia didn't want to have her picture taken. But I held her hand and helped her sit down."
Mom- "That was nice. You are a good friend to Julia"
D-"Yeah. Everybody loves me. Even in Aidan's class. The girls all love me."
Mom-(moving on) "Did all the kids sit nicely for their pictures and smile pretty?"
D-"Yes, but I was the prettiest. My dress was pink and polka-dotty and I had on lipgloss. I looked the fanciest of all. One boy wore a tie, but I was still fancier."
Mom-"I think all the kids looked very nice today. Everyone was dressed up."
D-"But I was the prettiest."

No lack of self-confidence in this one!

Swedish/Norwegian Crawfish Party!

Last weekend, we went to my neighbor's house for a Crawfish party. I thought that was a New Orleans thing, but apparently it's also very Swedish (and a bit Norwegian). Our Norwegian neighbors hosted along with our Swedish ones, so thanks to them (and IKEA!) it was very authentic.

Actually, it was CRAZY! We all had to wear party hats and bibs and sing drinking songs! Apparently, even more important than the crawfish at the crawfish parties is the schnapps. Lots and lots of schnapps. Strong schnapps, that was no Apple Pucker, let me tell you! All the songs we sang were about drinking schnapps. (and oddly enough, the songs were all set to familiar American tunes, like "Oh Susannah!" and "On Top of Old Smokey"). We were by far the youngest couple at this party, but I really felt like I was back in East Lansing with the level of rowdiness! We had so much fun on Saturday, but Sunday was a bit rough :)

Here we are all sitting down to eat. We were a mix of Swedish, Norwegian, American, German, Danish, English, and Turkish people! The rule was you couldn't sit next to your spouse! I ate him!

Annika (another Swede)and Jason refilling the schnapps

Me and one of my table neighbors, Rob (also an American, but by way of just about everywhere!)

Our host, Vegard, at the head of the table, dancing maybe?

Erin's Visit

Last week (or so ago) Erin came to visit! This was her first trip to Europe and I think she did it up right! I love having visitors and showing them around, and Erin (and her friends) were easy to please! She took tons of pictures (as usual) but I only snapped a few (also usual).

When she arrived, it was so stinking hot that we couldn't deal with doing much more than lunch at a sushi bar and then we went to the pool. Later that night, though, I forced her to babysit for 2 hours then paid her back by taking her out in the city. I had the great idea to walk along the lake to a bar that is on the lake and has hot tubs and pools. It was fun, except I didn't let her in on the walking part and she didn't wear comfy shoes and wasn't very happy with me by the time we got there! But, we rallied and had a drink while dangling our feet in a pool. Then we headed to a wine bar before heading home. Erin and her friend got their first taste of the prices of Zurich that night!

They popped off to Amsterdam for the weekend and when I picked them up at the airport, I got a stupid ticket for stopping for all of 30 seconds to let them in. Ugh, the Swiss are SO anal! We chipped in and paid on the spot, then took off for Luzern and Engleberg. The above pic is us at Kapel Brucke in Luzern. We had some drinks along the lake, tasted some cheese we'd seen being made and just enjoyed the nice day.

The next day we re-enacted the Travel Channel DVD of Zurich that we have! We went to the Schnapps distillery, the Cafe Schobel for hot chocolate, wandered the Neiderdorf and Altstadt and Bahnhofstrasse. I also took them to the Frauenbad for lunch with some of my friends. We laid out for about an hour or two then they went on exploring. I later brought the kids into the city and, of course, Aidan made them climb up the GrossMunster! We finished the day with a boat ride and dinner.

Here I am with friends at the Frauenbad (Erin took the pic!) The Frauenbad below:

We took funky pics with color accent of the city. (Her pics on Facebook are so much better than mine!)

I also took her to Konstanz, Germany one day and she went to Interlaken with another friend that came down to see her from Amsterdam. All in all, we had great time! I really appreciated all the US goodies she brought us, too...mmm Goldfish crackers!

Who's coming next??