Our Swiss friends have been telling us about their apartment in the mountains since we arrived. It is in Grindelwald where we went with my brother Graham and my sister-in-law Tina. This past weekend they lent us their place for a few days. I kept it a secret from Seth until his birthday so he only knew about it for a couple of days before we went. I was actually hesitant to go at all considering it would require all of the packing of snow gear and resettling of kids with sleep. But we decided to give it a go and thought it might be a the perfect break from the house hunt stresses. Turns out the kids slept relatively well but the house craziness continued with numerous interactions with the bank and our realtor, i.e. messages in the night and wee hours of the morning. We still haven’t heard the final word on our counter offer but we are hoping for news tomorrow when the bank is back to work.

After a relatively snow free winter here in Bern it was fun to have some really snowy days! We left Bern Friday around lunch time and started with lunch at the Trucker Bar…sounds delightful huh. Seth had read they have the best burgers in Bern….after which I decided it’s just better to wait until the US for burgers. It looked good but was a bit scary. But then again it might have been the atmosphere that threw me. We hit the rode, arrived in the afternoon and geared up to sled and play in the snow. The next morning we went sledding at a place around the corner where they offer ski lessons and lots of winter sports. Seth and Jackson got sled passes and rode the automatic ramp up and the sled down. That afternoon we went to the indoor pool at the sports center. On Sunday we woke up to big beautiful snowflakes. We played in the snow with some oh so grumpy Kolb boys and had a big pot of fondue before packing up and heading back home. The boys slept like champs last night once they were back cuddled up in their own beds. The trip might have been just what Owen needed to jolt him back to being a sleeper.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Grindelwald

view from balcony

(not sure if you can tell but it appeared a bird landed in the snow and left his wing markings)

a bit deep for snow angels

happy boy

rosy cheeks

Heidi was our main read of the weekend

Last year we had a house full of chicas for a fun week!  I braved heart-shaped whoopie pies which was fun but very time consuming!!  This year I decided to skip the whoopie pies and we started the day with pink waffles, whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast.  The boys were delighted and that started the day off with HIGH energy! They managed to sustain that energy until Seth walked in from work at around 5:30.

I tried to defuse the wildness by plopping down on the couch with a stack of books. I went through our stack of books on the shelf and pulled out all of the love books just to make it extra enticing and festive for V day. It lasted a few minutes and then they were back to wild. We filled our day with making cut out cookies, playing with friends and ended the day with a heart shaped pizza for dinner. No candlelight in this house this year!  This year with the chaos of our schedule we just decided to make it a family gig and postpone the romantic dinner until the dust settles. (Did I mention we are considering gutting a foreclosure house?!….the dust abounds right now)

We have a long  way to go on our journey of learning to love each other well but I hope our little family celebrations teach the boys a bit about loving each other better!   I hope each of you had a happy Valentine’s Day wherever you may be!

We are heading to the mountains tomorrow thanks to a day off for Seth and some generous friends who offered to lend us their chalet in Grindelwald. Hopefully I will be back Monday refreshed and with lots of pictures!