morning fog with a chance of afternoon furies

fu-ries (fyoor'ees), n., pl. 1. unrestrained or violent anger, rage, passion, or the like. 2. a fierce and violent person, esp. a woman.

As many of you already know, we just took our first trip back to the United States. Our kids had a 2 week break from school and we thought it would be good to replenish our sunshine canteens in preparation for the coming winter. We knew that the Geneva-London-Los Angeles flights were going to be brutal but we thought we were ready for it.

We started early on a Saturday morning and should have known things were going to be a bit rocky when we found the Long Term/Inexpensive (P51) parking lot full at 7:43 am. Fortunately there were still about 65 spots left in the Short Term/Very Expensive (P1) parking. **Tangent** The Geneva airport has a handy feature where you can go online and see how many parking stalls are available before you arrive. As I write this there are 109 places available in Long Term. Feel free to try it out for your self: http://www.gva.ch/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-65

After checking in and dropping off our lugage we stopped by a bakery and enjoyed some pastries. Like the rest of us, Henry has come to love chocolate breads and croissants. Can you blame him?

So do Alex and Ruby

Long story short, we sat on the plane without moving for nearly two hours because of infamous London fog and then flew 7 circles above Big Ben until we could land at Heathrow. By the time we deplaned at the "supposed-to-be-fantastic" Terminal 5, our LAX flight was 45 minutes gone. Needless to say we were disapointed but we knew that the 3rd daily LAX flight would be leaving in about 3 hours and so we didn't give up. That is until we saw this:

Because we missed our connecting flight we couldn't go directly to the gate. Instead we had to wait with 2,000 other people who had also just missed their flights all queued up in this little corridor (note: the bottom picture was taken on our return trip when Christina actually had her wits about her):
To put it into perspective, Christina and the kids were starving, sweating and overwhelmed by the chaos so they stood in a far corner crying while I stood in the line that moved a whole 10 feet in 51 minutes. When I realized that the last LAX flight of the day was now leaving in 2 hours instead of 3 and I wouldn't be talking to anyone who could help us get to California for at least 3 hours, I decided to cut my loses. I got out of line, we cleared customs and headed for the check-in desk at the front of the airport.

I wouldn't say the idea back-fired on us because it was no longer body-to-body chaos and Christina found some Pringles and carmel popcorn to help us eat away our sorrows, but the line was already over two hours long. After a few minutes of going nowhere, I approached the line police and told them I wanted to see a manager. The kids hadn't eaten real food for over 7 hours, we were disapointed because we knew we were having a London sleepover and wouldn't make it to California until Sunday night and we needed to find some more diapers.


WHAT??????

We all know that flight delays and cancellations are a part of air travel, but I think BA/Heathrow should have been a bit more organized and prepared to handle 2,000 stranded passengers.

Again, long story short. As the morning fog lead to afternoon furies and Christina passionately made it clear that she was not going to stand in line for another minute and she was going to get on a flight or else, I went to the front of another line and found out that my Gold frequent flyer status does mean something. We found out the only way to leave the airport that day was to fly a red-eye to JFK and spend 4 more hours on a layover. Obviously we chose the better part and found ourselves on a shuttle to the Heathrow Renaissance Airport Hotel about 45 minutes later.

On the shuttle to the hotel 9 hours after we left home and only 1.5 hours closer to our destination. Note: at this point Heny was almost completely converted to a liquid diet and had not slept all day.
If only our room looked this nice.

Christina letting people in California know not to expect us for dinner. Can you see her enthusiasm? Henry is pretty happy though.

Things worked out fine at the hotel although dinner didn't start until 6 pm (7 our time) and the kids had not eaten a meal since breakfast at 6:30 am that morning. Luckily, we took the first flight out the next morning. The novelty of the toys/books/projects in their backpacks had completely worn off long before we boarded the 10 hour flight to LA so we had to stop and buy additional bribery items.

Alex and his airplane set

When it was all said and done, we spent 9 hours of our lives in or trying to get out of Heathrow's Terminal 5. I think it is safe to say that next time we will fly through Zurich.

Big wheel keep on turning

I went outside the other day to bring Alex in for dinner and this is what I discovered. He had borrowed several bikes from friends, and along with his and Ruby's, created this "machine". He was so excited about it and was fairly confused why none of his friends found it as fun and interesting as he did.

He was trying to create an electric generator without harming the environment.

Much like Kramer and his "Oil Bladder", it was a great idea, but he still has a ways to go.

Parlez-vous?

Over the past few weeks, Ruby has been jabbering around the house in French. Sometimes, when she's done going to the bathroom she calls out "J'ai fini!" Occasionally when Pete calls, she will have a mini-conversation with him en Francais. Especially when she is playing make-believe with her babies she is speaking French to them. The other day I overheard her trying to teach Henry to say "Maman, je veux quelque chose a boire" (Mom, I want something to drink). So imagine our surprise when Pete spoke with her teacher this week and she was concerned because Ruby is not speaking ANY French at school. Hmmmmm.

Rub-a-dub-dub

So I thought I would post a few of these pictures so that 1) you could see how long Henry's hair is and 2) you might learn a little more about the funny kid he is turning out to be.

Seasons change

We have been experiencing some unseasonably cold days in the past few weeks....think 30s and 40s. On Saturday (October 4th), it snowed! Ok, so not in our backyard or anything, but very close. The leaves have started changing colors and every time I drive down the hill, it is more and more beautiful.

The hills behind our village
The beginning of fall
We took a trip into Morges to do some shopping.

You can see how thrilled Alex was.
We were all a little happier to stop in a boulangerie and enjoy some treats.
Ruby especially loved her eclaire.

In the afternoon, while Ruby was at a birthday party, we took the boys out for a ride.

Behind Alex is our swimming pool.

Henry is not a fan of the stroller anymore

A couple of the things I have come to love about Switzerland

Continuation of Desalpe

MOOOO!

Cows on Parade

Ricola!

Allez la Suisse!

Fete de la Desalpe

Last Saturday we had our first traditional Swiss experience. Every year on the last Saturday of September, the Swiss celebrate the return of their cows from the mountains (Desalpe). It is complete with flag throwing, cow bell ringing, yodeling, and alpenhorn blowing. The main feature is a continuous parade of cows wearing bells and flowers. We ate crepes, waffles and weiners and had a great time, despite temperatures in the low 40s.

Not everyday attire for Southern California
Here come the cows

This cow contributed to the cheeses of 1987
Ruby was sure that the flowers went through the cow's head
Ruby enjoying the alpenhorns
Henry's favorite thing was the assortment of Swiss cows--MOOOO!
Can you tell which person is not from Chicago or Minnesota?
Elsa and Ruby
Alex and Henry
les papillons

All tuckered out

About a week ago, Pete had to travel to Lisbon for work. He left early on a Saturday morning and the kids were a little sad when they woke up to find he wasn't there. Luckily, some friends of ours called to see if we wanted to go hiking in the mountains about 20 minutes from us. I thought this would be the perfect thing to take their mind off of Pete being gone. My friend assured me that it was a kid friendly hike that would be about 30 minutes.


To make a long story short, it was a little bit harder than he had remembered. There were plenty of hills, it was rocky and muddy, and to make it more interesting I carried Henry in the backpack the entire time. After about 45 minutes in, we had still not reached the lookout point and decided we better turn around so that the kids would have enough energy to make it back. Needless to say, all 3 kids were asleep about 5 minutes after I put them to bed that night....and I'll have to admit that I didn't last much longer.

Do you mind?

Since we moved, we have noticed a difference in how Europeans and Americans view the body in it's natural state. A few examples might be insightful.

1. In the US, I'm sure a kid at school would be reprimanded for exposing his underwear to his fellow classmates. However, I can remember the day Alex came home from school here and announced, "When we went to gym today, we all changed our clothes in the same room--boys and girls!" Ruby has made similar comments since she started school.

2. In the States, women are criticized for nursing in public--even when they are covered. (Nevermind the fact that women can appear at the beach half naked and that's fine!) In Switzerland, it is not at all uncommon to see women nursing in public and nobody seems to mind(as it should be)--even when they are not covered.

3. We were enjoying a nice day at the beach, when Alex and Ruby observed that some ladies near us were not wearing any swimming suit tops. This made for interesting coversation on the drive home.

Although it has taken some getting used to, I think things went a little far on a trip Pete took to Coppenhagen, Denmark.


After a long morning of meetings, he proceeded to the restrooms during a break. As he was using the facilities, a cleaning lady came into the bathroom and started cleaning the urinals. As if this wasn't strange enough, she worked her way over and started cleaning the urinal he was using! You gotta love it here.