Long Weekend in Switzerland

This past weekend we took Caden to his 6th country. We traveled to Switzerland and visited Interlaken and Spiez. This was our first time to visit Switzerland and we thought it was beautiful. We stayed in Spiez but spent most of our time in Interlaken. We stayed at a very European bed and breakfast and decided to pay for half-board for Friday night. Half-board just means you want dinner in their restaurant. We had a 3-course dinner which included spaghetti and tomato sauce, fish and potatoes, and ice cream for dessert. All for the price of Fr. 22 per person plus our drinks. I ordered water and it cost Fr. 4, which is around $4 for a glass of water, no refills. You would think in Switzerland water would be cheaper than beer and wine, but it's not. Even soft drinks cost more than most of the beers, wines, and soft drinks.

One of the most disappointing things about Switzerland is the inflation of the Swiss Frank (Fr.). Although the Fr. is comparable to the U.S. dollar when you convert your money most items cost at least twice what they would in the U.S. For example, there is no dollar menu at McDonald's. A happy meal costs Fr. 6.90 and the value meals cost Fr. 11.90+. So if Collin and I wanted to eat at McDonald's and both get a meal we would spend close to $25 for two meals. So we decided not to eat at McDonald's and go ahead and splurge a little more to eat real Swiss food.

We arrived in Switzerland Friday around 11am and had a nice lunch. It was raining Friday so we mainly drove around and explored the cities by car. We drove up several mountains and got our "bearings" so to speak. Saturday we woke up to more rain so we canceled our plans to visit an outdoor museum and went to the mall and had lunch. We had hoped there would be several restaurants in the food court but there was just one. The food was okay. That afternoon the weather cleared up and we walked around Interlaken and ended up eating at the Zum Baren, an old Swiss restaurant. The restaurant is over 200 years old and was built in the 1700s. I ordered cheese fondue (fondue is famous in Switzerland) and Collin ordered a meat and veggies dish. I was hoping for Fr. 25 I would get more than just a pot of cheese. But for that price I only got a pot of cheese and cubes of bread, which is typical. Thankfully, it was the best fondue I've ever had.

Sunday was a beautiful day so we drove around and went to the Trummelbach Falls. We hiked up a mountain to see 10 glacier-waterfalls inside the mountain made accessible by a tunnel-lift and illuminated. The Trummelbach drains the mighty glacier defiles of Eiger, Monk, and Jungfrau and carries 20.200 tons of boulder detritus per year. Its drainage area is 24 km2, half of it covered by snow and glaciers. Up to 20.000 liters of water per second. The only glacier-waterfalls in Europe inside the mountain and still accessible. It was an awesome experience. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Trummelbach Falls

Trummelbach Falls - lots of steps

Spiez, Switzerland

Jungfrau Mountain in Interlaken, Switzerland -

there is snow all year and is considered the top of Europe

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Beautiful rainbow after the rain in Interlaken

Interlaken, Switzerland

Interlaken, Switzerland

Barbecue Season

Collin went to a German grocery store last week to pick up a few things for dinner. Collin has learned how to cook some really good German food. We also finally bought a grill in August and have loved grilling again. Collin wanted to get some German sausages to grill and asked a German man standing near the meat aisle what he would recommend for grilling. The man replied, "grilling season is over." Collin looked at him shocked and the man said since it was now fall, the season is over and there are not many good meats available to grill. And we thought people grilled at least through American football season. By the way, we still are grilling. We plan on grilling until there is snow on the ground.

3 Wonderful Months!

We can hardly believe that Cade is already 3 months old. Collin and I have really enjoyed being parents and having Cade as our son. He is such a joy!

Last Friday we started putting Cade in his room to sleep at night. He has done exceptionally well sleeping in his room at night. We thankfully have been able to get him down without crying. The first night he slept 4 straight hours! Saturday was a little harder, we couldn't get him to sleep until around midnight and we had to get him up for church so he didn't get much sleep, poor guy. He woke up at 4am and then 6am and then we had to wake him at 7:30am. Then Sunday night he slept 5 straight hours, Monday night 7 straight hours and last night 7 straight hours. So I have been able to get 4-6 hours of sleep a night which I am so thankful for. I'm not a napper so what I get at night is what I get and I have a hard time falling back asleep after feeding Cade in the middle of the night. Although last night I was so tired I put him back down and fell right back to sleep. Basically after his long stretch of sleep he then wakes up every 2 hours and will typically sleep for 10-12 hours a night after waking up to eat and have his diaper changed. I am really enjoying his new sleep schedule. Collin and I actually got to watch a movie last night. Cade went to bed at 9pm and after he went to sleep we watched a movie. It was wonderful! We're trying to put down Cade between 8-8:30.

A few new things Cade is doing include having better head control. He can put his hands together and grab things. He is doing wonderful at tummy time and can lift his head pretty high and turn his head from side to side in the air. He's laughing a lot more, is very chatty, and went for his first stroller ride Sunday afternoon sitting up. He loved it! Our German buggy allows us to have him face us or out so we had him facing us and were able to talk to him and he talked right back. His looks are changing and he's getting bigger. He's already doubled his birth weight and is getting longer. Praise God I been that I've been able to exclusively breastfeed Cade. My goal is for him to have only breast milk for the first 6 months. I am now halfway there! On the downside, Cade is teething and has been having a hard time with that. He is drooling a lot, biting everything he can, and is generally uncomfortable. It looks like his bottom two teeth are going to come in first.

Here are some pictures from birth to 3 months.

1 day old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old! Sitting up in his stroller!

3 months old! We love his all gum smile!

Cade's First Flight and 5th Country

We just got back from a wonderful trip overseas. We went to Texas and were able to see lots of family and some really good friends. We wish we could have seen more! Hopefully next time we will be able to. The three of us all got sick and we had to cancel many plans which was disappointing. This was Cade's 5th country to visit. He's going to be a world traveler!

We were not planning on coming home this soon but Collin had training so Cade and I came with him. I agreed to this trip before I had Cade. If you can wait on the travel with an infant, do so. Overall we had a wonderful time but were just really tired and unable to see everyone we wanted to.

Cade did great on his first airplane ride. It was a long flight. The overseas flight was 10 hours each way. We didn't buy a seat for Cade but did pay for him to sit in our laps (AA makes you pay for an infant to ride in your lap, crazy, I know!). It was a full flight both times so needless to say on the way over neither of us got through a movie. On the trip back to Germany Cade slept half the flight so we did actually get to watch a few movies. We also took a shorter flight to see Collin's parents and thankfully our flight on Southwest was not full and we were able to give Cade a seat. That made those flights so much easier.

We had several firsts on our journey back home. This was Cade's first time to fly on an airplane, fly overseas, and visit America. Cade had his first blow out diaper right before we boarded the plane. Thankfully it wasn't after getting on the plane. Collin went to gate check Cade's stroller and I was holding him and heard something and realized my hand was all wet with poop. Runny poop at that. There were not changing tables around and so we had to change him there and rinse his clothes out and change him. Cade also had his first shots. Poor little guy, the nurse gave him 7! I wish we would have said something and had them wait, that's a lot of shots for a two month old. Basically since he didn't get any shots at birth or at one month they decided to give him all of those. It was hard to watch. Cade also started having neon green runny poop while we were on the airplane. We go through so many diapers with this little guy. I feel so bad for him. We asked the doctor and nurse if this was normal and what to do about it. The doctor didn't say much and later we talked with a nurse on the phone. She said one of the shots could make his poop runny. Three weeks later it's still runny. It stayed green the whole time we were in the States. When we got back to Germany it was back to yellow, runny, but yellow. So strange! I guess that's enough with the baby poop. I know fellow parents understand our concern.

Other firsts include Cade getting to meet all of his aunts and uncles, his three great-grandmothers, and his paternal grandparents. He also met several of his friends. Legacy also gave Cade a baby blessing at church. We were really excited about that.

Now we're back in Germany and trying to get a schedule going. Cade's been sleeping in our room since birth but he's about to be 3 months old and we'd like to start transitioning him to his room at night. I've been very consistent in putting him down for his naps in his crib but during the night he's still on Texas time and is up every 1.5-2 hours. Once his jet lag is over I think we'll start putting him down in his room at night. It's tiring being a parent!

Here are some pictures of our precious boy.

Granddad teaching Cade about investing

Great-Grandmother Dot, Marisa, Collin, and Cade

Marisa's family

One sleepy baby!

3 generations - Collin, Granddad, and Cade

Collin's family

Remember my friends Ashley and Jocelyn? We were all pregnant at the same time. See picture from a blog entry in April. Now all our babies are here.

Tracey and Cade

Grand Cathy, me, Cade, and Great WoWo

Aunt Michelle and Cade

4 generations - Granddad, me, Cade, and Great-Grandmother Charlene

Busy New Parents!

We have been extremely busy these past few weeks with Cade. He is growing so much and we are enjoying every minute of it! He is so much fun. We enjoy watching him smile and laugh. We thought we would post a few new pictures of him and us. I think we have the most handsome boy in the world! He loves exercising in his gym, meeting new people, smiling, talking, riding in his stroller, and looking at people. He is now 2 months old.

One of our German friends from church gave us this outfit.

Here's Cade playing on his gym. He's quite the athlete! He has great eye, hand, and foot coordination. He also focuses really well.

Here is a picture of some corn growing in the farm fields by our house.

Here I am on one of our walks with Cade with our European buggy.

The tires are awesome on this stroller!

It has been a year!

We just celebrated our 1-year anniversary being in Germany. We left the U.S. last year on August 3 and arrived August 4. So much has changed this past year. The best blessing we have received while in Germany is our son. Overall things are much better than they were a year ago. Here's my new perspective of Germany since we've now lived here a year.

- Germany is a very pretty country and there are a lot of wonderful things to see and do
- I have learned how to cope with the different culture. For example, I no longer smile at Germans as I pass them unless I know them.
- I don't ask anyone if they speak English because of all the no responses I've had, rather I speak my little German and what I don't know I ask in English. So far I've received a much better response to this approach.
- Once I actually was looking pregnant Germans were friendlier to me.
- The Germans in our area really like babies, several of my friends have had different experiences but since having Caden many people have stopped and talked to us and wanted to see him.
- I miss central air conditioning and heating, especially having air conditioning.
- It's tiring being parents but a lot of fun too!
- Germany is in a great central location in Europe and based on its geographical location we have been able to travel to many wonderful other countries. The friendliest countries we've been to are The Netherlands and Italy. We have also had a really good experience in France as well and several other countries but those stick out the most.
- The U.S. Dollar does not go very far in Europe
- You don't have to pay to change your baby at most gas stations, you also don't have to pay if you're handicapped
- We have had some interesting people stop by our house, one man from a circus collecting donations for the animals, another guy selling fruit, another selling a vacuum, and another guy from a handicap association selling random things
- It is possible to have a natural and drug free labor and delivery
- I miss having a Roomba
- We of course still miss our family and friends

There are other things too but that's all that has come to mind right now. Overall we have enjoyed our experiences. Collin really likes his job and I'm enjoying my new job. Thankfully my pregnancy weight has dropped fairly quickly and it makes getting around a lot easier. I still have about 10 lbs to go before I'm at my pre-pregnancy weight but was able to start wearing many of my pre-pregnancy pants after 4 weeks. I have not started any exercise program but we do try and walk everyday or every other day. We have wonderful farm fields just a 2 min walk from our front door. The air is fresh and there's plenty of bike trails.

Opa and Oma's visit

Today Caden is 6 weeks old. He is doing really well and is growing nicely. We have just been really busy and barely have time to do much else besides our regular home duties and taking care of Caden. I'll eventually respond to the emails and we'll try to post more blog entries.

The past few weeks my parents have been here and we have had a wonderful time with them here. They really helped us adjust to having Caden. While they were here we received Caden's passport, hooray! So we decided to take a day trip to France, it's only about an hour away. We also took a mini vacation to Brussels, Belgium and spent two nights and made a stop in Maastricht, The Netherlands for lunch. In Belgium we went to the Atomium, road the subway, and ate some really good food, including chocolate. Belgium has the BEST chocolate we have ever had. During Caden's first month of life he visited 4 countries, Germany, France, Belgium, and The Netherlands. Lucky guy!

Caden enjoyed his grandparents visiting and looks forward to meeting the rest of our family and friends. Here are a few pictures of Caden from my parents visit and a few of our travels.

Sleepy time!

Eating at a cool castle in Germany

Lunch in The Netherlands

The Atomium in Belgium

Inside the Atomium

Caden's first time on a subway

At a restaurant in France

Caden's first picture with Opa and Oma on Marisa's side