Ski Lessons: Week 1

We survived our first round of ski lessons!

The kids' school sponsors ski lessons for a 5 week period at Hoch Ybrig ski resort about an hour away from Zurich. Aidan gets dropped off at the meeting point at 9:30am and skis all day. He even has lunch with the ski group. We pick him up at 3. Long day, but he's going to learn a lot and he really had fun despite the cold (around 15 degrees Fahrenheit). Yesterday, he didn't make it out of the kid area, but hopefully next week he'll advance to a T-bar bunny hill.

We didn't think Delainey would be able to ski due to her broken foot, but Thursday and Friday she was walking fine so we decided to see how she'd do. She said her boot felt fine, so we put her in the morning session of her lesson telling the instructor to call us if there was any problem. There wasn't. She was fine and had a blast with her friends. When we picked her up for lunch, she was tired but looking forward to going back for the afternoon session. She went on the "magic carpet" and skied down a tiny slope. I'm sure she'll be skiing circles around me by the end of the 5 weeks. (Evidence to support my theory: 2 of the girls from her class at school took lessons last year so they aren't in her group. They are in a group that is already on the T-bar and they were whizzing down the slope, slaloming past Jason and me. Did I mention they aren't even 4 years old yet!!??)

Jason and I practiced on the T-bar bunny slope with our friend Sam in the morning. We did pretty well and managed not to take out any kids in the process! Slowly and steadily we made it down 5 times. I was so worried about falling down and looking like a fool or hurting a child. I really want to learn and was a little nervous. Jason kept telling me to relax, but I have a little trouble with that concept.

After lunch, we paid for a lesson and our instructor took us up a blue hill! Our first REAL run! We did OK. Sam ran in to me and knocked me down once and I had a little incident with the T-bar not letting me get off (thank goodness I had on a helmet). Jason fell a few times and had trouble turning. Over all, we did pretty good for beginners!

By the time we drove home, we were knackered (my new favorite Brit word for really tired). By the time dinner and baths were done, my muscles were screaming. I layed down on the couch and could feel every muscle in my shoulders, back, and legs. Apparently, between being tense and nervous and falling twice (oh and skiing) I worked every muscle I have. I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. Jason made me go to bed at 9, but he had to help me walk there. I hurt everywhere. I felt like I was the starting QB for an NFL team who got sacked 7 times and wasn't wearing pads.

We all slept until 8 this morning. I am still sore, but not as bad thanks to a really long hot shower. The others are fine. Not a sore muscle among them. My crazy husband even went for a 12K run this morning. I think I need to figuratively and literally loosen up a bit!

Daddy's Boy

Aidan is officially a "man". He now prefers to watch sports instead of cartoons. Twice this week, when I told him he could watch TV he found a football game on instead of cartoons.

Jason is so proud. Now they talk sport statistics over breakfast and cuddle up on the couch to watch a game.

Delainey shows some interest in sports,as well, by asking Aidan "Is Michigan State playing? Go green!" But if Aidan tells her it's not MSU, then she couldn't care less and asks him to change it to a kid show. (If is an MSU game, she puts on her cheerleading outfit :)

Nature vs. nurture...? Who knows, but I've got one who's 100% boy and one who's 100% girl.

Empathic to Extremes

Mommies always want to take the hurt away from their kids, right? I always say that I wish I was the one who was sick instead of one of my kids, then they wouldn't have the hurt. Well, yesterday I tested that theory.

I took the kids swimming, thinking that was something fun that Lainey could do even with her healing foot. We all had a great time, until Lainey wanted me to take her on the waterslide. At the end of the waterslide, there is a long metal part you have to walk through filled with water to get off. It's quite slippery so I was holding Lainey's hands and telling her to be careful and walk slowly so she doesn't slip. She listened and made it off safely. I, however, did not listen to my own advice and wasn't as slow and careful. I slipped and my toe curled under my foot.

Now, that toe (the same one Lainey broke!) is black and blue at the tip and kept me up all night hurting. I think I broke it! Talk about sympathy pains!! At least it's just the tip of it.

I think that the theory may have worked, though! I'm limping this morning and Lainey seems to be walking better than before. What a good mommy I am ;)-I'll take one for Team Barnett.

Limpy Lainey

Lainey's hopes of the Winter Olympics in the next few years will have to wait. No ski lessons for her probably. She broke her foot/toes yesterday. Her metatarsal bones to be exact.

Yesterday morning she was skipping around (like usual) and just tripped on the hem of her nightgown. When she came down on her foot, she had bent her toes under so she had all her weight (what little weight there is of her!) on top of her toes. She screamed, but I didn't know at first how bad it was. Anytime you bang a toe, you think it's broken at first because it hurts so bad. So we kind of shrugged it off with a boo-boo bear full of ice and a little motrin and snuggle. We popped her in the stroller and went off into the city for a few hours.

When we got home, she still was limping and unable to put all her weight on her foot. Plus it was turning purple and a little swollen. We put her to bed and I jumped online to do some research. All signs pointed to "broken" so when she woke up this morning we took her to the Kinder Spital in Zurich. After 2 x-rays, they confirmed she has a fracture where her second and third toe meet her foot on the right side. It's not a complete break and she doesn't need a cast, but she's wrapped in an Ace bandage for 5 days and probably won't be walking normally for at least 2 weeks.
Here are 2 pictures of our little patient. She's a trooper. She hasn't complained about it hurting since the intial accident. She does not get that high pain tolerance from me!

So, for the time being, ski lessons don't look good. Nor does ballet or her tennis lessons she is due to begin next week. But most upsetting to her will be the fact that she can't wear tights and fancy shoes for at least the next week!

Christmas Eve and Day

We are a spoiled bunch!

We were so happy to have my mom and aunt in town for Christmas this year! We missed seeing the rest of our family, but on the upside, this year was much more relaxed. We weren't rushing from one house to another then back home again to go to sleep in time for Santa to come. Christmas Eve was really laid back. We just snacked on appetizers all evening while opening gifts. As you can see, we had a massive amount of presents to get through so we started at 3:30pm! The first gift of Christmas was the "big one"! Mamaw, Papaw, Grandma Pat and Aunt Toni got our family a Wii with lots of games! We spent lots of time playing it the next morning and evening.

Another big hit was Aidan's Hess racing car. Hess is a gas station company on the east coast, and my mom's uncle always sends Aidan the Hess vehicle of the year. Each year, it's something different. So far, Aidan has a monster truck, big rig, ambulance, race car and something else. It's a nice collection! Thanks Uncle Al!!

Lainey got lots of Barbies and other "girly" things. One of my favorites is this adorable hat my mom found at a craft fair this summer.

I think aside from Barbies, Lainey's other favorite gift was her roller skates we got her! She's a roller derby girl!

Santa came Christmas Eve night, of course, so the kids were up and raring to go at 6:30am. Santa brought them each a tennis racquet and kids' MP3 player. Plus, Aidan got a Bakugan arena set and Lainey got some more Barbie stuff and DVD.

The kids also surprised Aunt Toni with something she "loves" (it's hard to type sarcasm): a squirrel!

Here we are on Christmas morning all dressed up and ready for mass.

We had a nice Christmas Day playing with all our new stuff and just hanging out with PatTone. We had a big dinner the adults watched National Lampoon's Christmas one more time after the kids went to bed.

Merry Christmas one and all!!

Nurnberg Weihnachtsmarkt

This weekend, we took my mom and aunt to Nurnberg, Germany to see the world famous Christmas Market. This was supposed to be a side-trip on our way to Prague, but we had to cancel the Prague part because Jason has to work this week. (That's a whole other blog post-grr!). So, we decided to make the most out of our 2 days in Germany and visit not only the oldest Christkindlemarkt in Nurnberg, but also one in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, an amazing mideval town near Nurnberg.

Our 4 hour trip to Nurnberg ended up taking closer to 6 hours thanks to snowy weather. We were on the Autobahn most of the way, but could never take advantage of unlimited speed limit. We arrived just in time to check into our hotel. We bundled up to brave the frigid temps and set off for the oldest Christmas market in the world!

It was so unbelievably cold this weekend! It was minus 15 degrees Celsius (around 0 Fahrenheit) and according to one lady working a booth, this was the coldest weekend in 30 years. Typical that we'd pick that weekend to go! Even with multiple layers of clothes, boots, hats, mittens and scarves we were freezing. At one point, I really thought my fingertips were going to freeze off. I pictured myself in an ER having each fingertip amputated due to frostbite. I was this close to a full on panic attack when we found a cafe to go in to warm up. Crisis and amputation averted!

Aside from the cold, we had a wonderful time wandering the various stalls selling everything from toys, to Nurnberger sausages, to Christmas ornaments and decorations, to hats and scarves. My personal favorite booths were those selling Gluhwein. Gluhwein is a hot spiced wine drink that they serve all over German-speaking Europe. I didn't acquire a taste for it last year, but I retried it this year and fell in LOVE! It is perfect on frigid days. It warms your hands as you hold the mug and warms you up from the inside out as you drink it. Plus, as an added bonus, if you drink enough of it, you just forget how bloody cold it is! Around Zurich, they serve you the wine in a sytrofoam cup, but in Germany at the markets they have collectable mugs! You "rent" a mug for a 1.50 Euro deposit, then pay only 2 Euros to have it refilled at any stand. You can keep the mug or return it for your deposit back. I kept mugs from both Nurnberg and Rothenburg. Where else can you get a cool souvenir for only 1.50?

Despite the cold the kids had fun in the Kinder Markt area riding a mini-ferris wheel and double-decker carousel. My mom, aunt, Jason and I poked into the stalls and bought ornaments and other stuff. Jason is happy to have found a wooden Christmas carousel thing that spins around by heat from candles. (if you've ever seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, you know what I mean. The thing with candles that cousin Eddie knocks over while drinking eggnog from moose mugs) Jason has wanted one of those forever and now he has one from Germany where they originated!

On Sunday, we left Nurnberg for Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a mideval walled city an hour northwest of Nurnberg. We had heard this was a city not to be missed and it didn't disappoint. It was still crazy cold, but again we toughed it out. This village was cuter than big Nurnberg, and I'd love to go back during warm weather without the hoards of people there for Christmas Markets. The funny thing in Rothenburg is that I'm pretty sure I heard more American English there than I have anywhere in the last year! It's obviously a stopping point on all guided tours, and for good reason.

We finally made it home last night around 10pm after an excrutiatingly long and slow drive through an almost blizzard. Poor Jason had to go to work today. After 2 long days in a car and freezing cold, I'm hoping to stay in my pajamas today as long as possible! "Zum Christkindlesmarkt" means "to the Christmas Market"

Aidan and Lainey on the double-decker carousel

One thing Nurnberg is famous for is their "Zwetschgermannli" or "prune people". They make these little figures out of walnut shells and dried prunes. They were cute, but we didn't feel the need to buy one.

Poor Lainey was so cold she could barely move. Poor Jason had to carry her on his shoulders the whole time. We couldn't fit a stroller into the car to bring it with us!

"Lebkuchen" is a thick gingerbread-like cake that the area is famous for.

In the kids market area, yes I really am in that coat somewhere! It was COLD!!!

A quick side trip to the Imperal Castle of Nurnberg on Sunday morning

Entering the castle walls

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Rothenburg's Weihnachtsmarkt-Gluhwein stand on the corner!

Marli Tram

Every Christmas, the department store Jemoli sponsors the "Marli Tram". It's a fairy tale tram all decorated for Christmas that takes children on a 20 minute ride around Zurich. No adults are allowed on, just kids. Samiclaus and a Christmas angel ride with the kids and tell them stories and give them treats during the ride. Tickets are scarce as every child in Zurich wants to ride. Of course, it's all in Swiss German, but I still thought the kids would like it, so I made the mad rush to the store exactly one week prior to the day I wanted the kids to ride, first thing in the morning to get the much desired tickets.

When I got home, feeling confident I had scored such exclusive tickets, I went to jot the date and time on my calendar and realized Lainey had a birthday party the same time and date. Drat. Oh, well. Aidan is the one who loves trains anyway. So we invited a few friends to go with Aidan and they all went last night. Here is Aidan with William, Teddy, and Isabel in front of the Marli Tram.

Samiclaus is taking their tickets and letting them board.

Waving to us out the window as their ride begins!

They seemed to have a great time. Aidan didn't understand the story, but still liked riding the tram around town seeing the lights and eating cookies. He thought it was cool to be on a tram by himself without any adults.

After the tram ride, Aidan and I took PatTone down the Bahnofstrasse to see the Singing Christmas Tree. Every night in December, a different singing group performs in the city on a Christmas tree shaped stage. They all wear red hats so it looks like they are decorations on the tree. It's really pretty cool and very festive!

After listening to the singers for a while, we headed back out of the city to pick up Lainey from her party. We walked across the Limmat River to the trams and took time to stop and enjoy the city lights.