As you can see I am backtracking big time but we would miss so many special memories if I just jump in now! So enjoy…or bear with me, whatever the case may be :)

The Friday before we left Bern Seth’s coworkers hosted a farewell party for him. I didn’t get many pictures as I was chasing boys on the lawn of the Embassy but it was a neat time to see Seth’s coworkers appreciate him and thank him for his work. This was his first position managing local staff and it was neat to see him grow in his managerial skills. It was evident at his farewell that he was well respected and will be missed.

The Saturday before we left Bern our friends threw us a wonderful farewell party along the river. Our friend Daniela booked a place with a big outdoor grill, playground, awnings for shade and of course the  river! It was beautiful and so many special friends came to wish us well. We felt so so blessed and overwhelmed once again to see how God provided friends for us in yet another home.  We have so many wonderful memories, pictures and extra pounds (for me) that we will cherish forever…well not the extra pounds, those will be gone soon but the memories of Switzerland will be cherished. Just like anywhere we have lived there were good days and bad, things we loved and things we never quite got used to. I could go way deeper into all of this but I am so crunched on time so without further ado here are some pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bitter sweet for sure!! As we left Bern we were so anxious to be back stateside but so sad to say farewell. I am sure we will be processing all of the farewells for months to come!

Two days after our farewell we loaded up and flew back to Washington, DC….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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This weekend has been packed. Yesterday I made a baby shower cake for a friends shower that I attended in the afternoon. Today we spent the morning with Jackson’s school at a local farm for the end of the year party. They served a traditional Swiss brunch. This evening we had a potluck at church! Our last weeks in Switzerland have been so full of fun times with friends making memories that we will for sure not forget.

Baby Shower

The cake looks grey in this lighting but I promise it was pale purple. I made a cream cheese icing and I guess because it was so hot outside it was super thin. Instead of piping on decorations like I had planned I had to find a plan B quickly because the icing was just running off. So it looked artsier than I had planned but tasted good and the makeshift clothes line looked cute in the end! The shower was beautifully done by my friends, Karen and Merve. They decorated with lots of flowers and purple decor and had a beautiful spread of fruits, veggies, cookies, etc.  The favors were little flower pots with seeds displayed on a cupcake stand. Such a cute idea. Beautiful job, ladies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preschool Farm Brunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

get this boy a pup!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

king of the mountain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

class sing along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

succulents in the roof gutter! so pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

 


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This past weekend we spent our Saturday with our neighbors. We started the morning with some semi-successful strawberry picking and ended it with a big pot of Hungarian goulash over a fire pit and kids playing in the sprinkler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

you can barely see the mountains in this picture but they were visible yesterday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great job Scott and Erika! So yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

watch out world, Owen discovered the water guns!

 

 

 

 

 

 

snake bread (stick bread) over the fire

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strawberry Rhubard hand pies…from last weeks post (Southern Living)


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{This must be catch up week around here! Sorry to bombard you with so many post but I don’t want to fall behind!}

Switzerland has no doubt given us a wonderful place to host family and friends. I never could have imagined how many people we would have and it has been such a fun season. Tiring no doubt, but fun.

Our last visitors at Swiss Chalet Kolb were my cousin, Josh, Jordan and Justin Strong. They were on their way back from living in Thailand and wanted to do a bike tour around Switzerland. They spent  a couple of days with us here visiting Bern and it was fun to get to know them better since I haven’t seen them since they were my boys ages! Made me feel quite old!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

notice  the metal table and fancy chairs! Temp furniture makes for fine dining with guests!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After they ate granola bars for their 4 bike riding days we made sure they made one last stop at a Swiss restaurant…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

at the beginning of their fondue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by the end!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our house was overflowing with boys. I for sure was outnumbered. My boys got ramped up in an attempt to get the big boys to give them attention…which was tough to do with soccer games on tv. By the last evening Seth was busy doing something so Owen asked Josh to help him with his ice cream. He then wanted to hold his hand. It was too funny!  Owen knows how to lessen the generational gap :)


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