Doctors, Pharmacies and Ear Infections

I knew it had to happen sooner than later. When Henry started getting cranky on Saturday I hoped it was because he missed his nap on our way to the temple. When he was cranky on Sunday I hoped it was because Ruby woke him up too early. By the time Monday rolled around and I spent most of the day holding him - including the 2 hours of nap time he spent crying- I knew we would be making our first visit to the doctor's office.

I held out most of the week hoping it was a virus, but with Pete heading out of town tomorrow and a lone weekend ahead of me I gave in. I was fortunate to discover that going to the pediatrician and pharmacy in Switzerland is a breath of fresh air compaired to most of the inconveniences we've experienced since moving here.

I arrived at the doctor's office ten minutes early expecting a stack of paperwork. As soon as I entered the office, I was ushered into a room and given a clipboard with a 5x7 piece of paper on it. The receptionist asked me to fill it out and told me the doctor would be right in. Yeah right! So I started filling out the "paperwork" which consisted of Henry's name and birthday, our address and telephone number, my name, Pete's name.....and that's about it. No medical history, no patient's bill of rights...nada.

To my surprise, while in the middle of filling out this "lengthy" form, the doctor came in and started checking out Henry. After a couple of minutes he confirmed my suspicion: ear infection. He asked me a couple of questions, weighed Henry to figure out the dosage, wrote me a prescription, and sent me happily on my way. Next stop the pharmacy.

Again, bracing myself for a 30 minute RiteAid style wait with cranky Henry and Ruby in tow, I pulled up to the pharmacy and unloaded. As soon as I walked in, a nice lady took my presciption and started filling it. I was in and out in about 5 minutes! I'd say the whole trip was less than an hour and a half, which is dang good considering I live 20 minutes away from the doctor's office.

Thankfully, Henry is now on the mend and I have found another (highly unexpected) perk of living in Switzerland.

"Hen-ery is our baby....and we love him!"

the Bern Switzerland Temple

On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to the temple in Zollikofen, near Bern, Switzerland. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Thank goodness for portable DVD players.

The temple in Switzerland was the 9th operating temple and the first one built in Europe. There is a national forest right next to it. Unfortunately, unlike these pictures I got off the web, it ended up being a gray, rainy day so we didn't do a lot of exploring.

"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

After living in California and driving 10 hours just to get to Utah, I'm always amazed how close everything is in Europe.

The official flower of Switzerland?

Switzerland is covered with dandelions - they are everywhere. I cannot express how many there really are. If you associate chocolate with Switzerland, I can assure you that the dandelion would be more appropriate.

The highlight of my new dandelion world came at a business lunch last week. When my salad arrived I was was pleased to find a nice mix of leafy greens. After inquiring about one leaf in particular, it was explained that this was "le dent de lion". I thought about that a while and then it hit me, I was paying $15 to eat dandelions.

It became more interesting when I told my colleagues that in the past month we have pulled out over 300 "dent de lion" and taken them to the dump. They were almost offended to learn that we didn't pull them out for cullinary purposes.

Signal de Bougy

For Pete's birthday we went to this big outdoor "play" area. It had miniature golf, go-carts, bumper boats....think Family Fun Center or Boomers....only a lot more beautiful, lanscaped acres. It also had a huge playground that the kids loved. I guess it would have been more suitable for one of the kid's birthdays, but we had fun watching them play. Ruby wanted to stay and sleep there and Alex didn't understand why they couldn't keep going on the go-carts and bumper boats. To quote my dad, "What, do you think money grows on trees?"

Bon Anniversaire!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

The kids and I did some early morning decorating

Whoops, I forgot candles so we used...toothpicks

Pete and his clone army

First day of school...Ruby style

One week ago, Ruby had her first day of French preschool. While we were getting ready for school she told me that she was going to walk to school all by herself. I guess I should tell you that Alex walks to school by himself and she thought it would be the same for her. Even though her school is only a 2-3 minute walk, I let her know that we would be going together. She pouted about this for a minute and then informed me that once we got there she was going to walk inside and up the stairs by herself. "I'm not like Henry mom, I can do it by myself." Needless to say, her first day at school was not at all scary for her and the teacher informed me after class that Ruby is a "lovely girl".

Annecy, France

On Saturday we drove about an hour to Annecy, France. It's amazing how different it was compared to Switzerland, even though it is so close.

Canals run through the old town of Annecy and restaurants line every street. Every other vendor was selling crepes or ice cream, which are harder to find here. The streets are cobblestone and everything felt so much older than it does in Switzerland.

There is a large old-fashioned carousel near the lake and the kids had fun riding together. I think I heard Alex say, "Ruby, it's just like at the Spectrum!"

Pete and Alex ended the day with some ice cream. You can see they are standing in front of my favorite shop in Annecy....the Chocolatier. Unfortunately, Ruby and Henry missed out on the desserts.

Le Pont de la Caille

This suspension bridge was build in 1839 and it stands about 500 ft above the river-filled ravine below. It is a spectacular sight unless ...
... You're afraid of heights. As many of you know, Christina likes having both feet firmly on the ground - literally and figuratively. For Christina, having only a 2 x 4 between her feet and an unsuccesful base jump does a bit more than just raise her heart rate and make her palms sweaty. Notice how tighly she is holding Alex? That's for her benefit, not his.

Aren't spit wads the best?


Again, notice the death grip. Do Ruby and Alex look concerned?
Here is the bridge currently being used. The picture only captures about the top 1/3 of the canyon.
You can almost hear Christina saying, "Get me out of here!"

Nyon

The city of Nyon is about 15 minutes away and it is where Pete will be working next year when the new office building is completed. Last Thursday and Friday were holidays, (here they celebrate the Day of Ascension), so on Friday we decided to head into Nyon to have some crepes and walk around the city a little bit. Nyon also has a castle which dates back to the 1500s. It was completely restored between 1999 and 2006 so it looks really new.

A view of Lake Geneva from Nyon

These are the stairs we walked up to get to the castle. I stopped counting when I was gasping for breath, but the kids ran up and down multiple times.

We love Margaux!

In the village of Begnins, which is about 5 minutes from us, there is a restaurant which shares the name of one of our favorite cousins. Although a lot of people in the states are unfamiliar with the spelling, it is obviously very common here. We are hoping that we will get a visit from cousin Margaux while we are here so that we can go and eat at "her" restaurant.

"Better Together"

hall duty

After another Sunday of walking the halls with Henry, Pete and I miss the companionship we found with other parents in the Irvine 4th ward. I am also recognizing what a great blessing it was to attend church in a building with no stairs and carpeted floors. Needless to say, the countdown to nursery has officially begun.

yummy yummy

One thing the kids have all come to love is Nutella. They eat it on bread and pancakes, but their favorite treat is to have a crepe with Nutella. I am trying to explain to them that eating nutella is like eating a donut. It's fine to have it every now and again, but we don't eat it at every meal.

First day of school....again

On Monday, Alex started at the French public school. Here they have two years of kindergarten and he is in the second year. School starts at 8:25am and goes until 11am. Then in the afternoon, the kids go back from 2-3:30pm. Alex has two really nice teachers and luckily both of them speak English. There are also 3 other kids in his class that speak English. After seeing how nervous he was when we dropped him off, I was surprised to see how happy and excited he was when it came time to pick him up. He had already made friends and was thrilled that he was able to go back for more in the afternoon. The school is relatively small-there are only 16 kids total in his class. He is already picking up french words here and there and I'm sure he will be helping me in the future.