A Swiss Halloween

Unfortunately, the Swiss don't celebrate Halloween like back in the states so we had to get a little creative with the costumes. As you can see, we didn't try too hard. We still enjoyed picking and carving pumpkins, and going to a Halloween Carnival our stake puts on for the American kids.


Brooke is supposed to be a movie star, but the feather boa and necklaces didn't last very long.

Lambies

We have some new next door neighbors! Not even the electric fence detered Brooke, who was determined to feed the lambs. (Don't worry grandparents, the voltage is very low.)

A Saturday spent in Zug

The Schaftboden playground on top of the Zugerberg. This awesome park was made to order for the mini-adventurer. The teeter-totter, tunnels and jungle-gyms are all made out of trees. There is even a zip line that unfortunately our kids were a little too little to enjoy. It was a surprisingly sunny day (albeit freezing!) and the drive to the top was gorgeous with colorful leaves and gorgeous views.

It was a little warmer underground. We drove to the Hollgrotten Caves to see 20,000 year old stalactites and stalagmites.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kiddos!

1) An easle with art supplies will hopefully keep them entertained indoors during a Switzerland winter. (Our kellogg friends will notice that Brooke's boot novelty has not worn off) 2) Some fun wooden toys we picked up in Germany 3) Admiring wrapped presents 4) Anyone who knows me knows I can never hold out all the way when it comes to surprises, presents or celebrations. So I had to let the kiddos open up at least one present the night before. They were almost as excited about Grandma and Grandpa's birthday cards as they were their new loveys. They made us sing "Happy Birthday" about 10 times before we could put them down!

The Romantic Road, Germany

We headed up to Germany this weekend to enjoy the changing leaves and beautiful fall weather. We spent Friday and Saturday nights in an adorable old medieval town called Rothenburg and slowly made our way back home on Sunday stopping at a few more towns along the Romantic Road, including a quick visit to the Neuschwanstein castle.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Brooke is already showing signs of a promising shopaholic

Playing with leaves

Neuschwanstein Castle

Winikon Corn Maze and Petting Zoo

We drove out to Caton Luzern to take the kids to a corn maze and petting zoo. They loved feeding the cows and goats and petting the ponies. But I think their favorite part was finding all the dead ends in the maze. Andrew started to cheer every time we found one and Brooke would say, "Oh no, other way!" They spend quite a long time on this little bridge in the middle of the maze. They would hold hands and just keep going back and forth.

Everyday life in Knonau, Switzerland

(1) Playing in the sandbox in our backyard (2) Breakfast..."Annew do it" (3) We go on walks almost every day, trying to find fun places to play, or just cool scenery (see #4). I love to catch them holding hands or playing games all on their own (4) Just one of the many amazing things we see around our neighborhood (5) I am so enchanted by the beautiful homes here with real shutters and amazing window boxes (6) In the tunnel at our park (7) Playing with baby (8) Yes, that's a snake crawling across my back patio (8) Fun with crayons


(1) Holding baby (2) These kids love story time before bed. I'm not sure if they are just trying to postpone bedtime or just genuinely love it (I'm sure a little of both), but it can last for up to an hour. They pull every single book off the shelf to read. And even though they know the stories backwards and forwards from reading them so many times, they never seem to tire of them. They are now starting to read the stories to me! (3) Fun with magnets (4) Yes, we still watch "Finding Nemo" every single day (5) And sometimes "Cars" too (6) Bath time swimmming (7) Sidewalk chalk outside our apartment complex (can all our Kellogg friends recognize their sweatshirts? "We are the Kellogg Kids...") (8) Playing with our new friends (American, LDS and right next door...what a blessing!) (9) Again, in the backyard. They are getting pretty good at taking turns. "Annew's turn" "Berk's turn"

The park just down the street...

There is a park just down the street from our apartment which we go to almost every day. It's about a 3 minute walk, which makes for a great "must get out of the house" activity, or a great stop on the way back from our many exploring walks.

From top, left to right: (1) Who needs a triple stroller when you have a single snap-n-go? (2) Andrew on the swings (3) The Swiss don't seem to believe in baby swings, so my kids have resorted to tummy swinging (4) Along the same lines as #3, the parks here are definitely not made for toddlers, but my kids don't seem to mind. They are getting more and more daring every day. (5) A Brooke pose (6) I wish we had gotten the entire slide for you to see how huge it is. They would never allow this in the states... (7) They have these water fountains everywhere here. Drinking, washing or just spraying everyone who gets in your path (8) In Brooke's words "I sit la la step," translation: I sit on the step (9) Andrew could throw rocks in this little stream for hours (which we almost have accomplished a few times).

We're a minivan family!

We figured with three kids, it's about time we took the plunge and bought a minivan! At least it's a cool Euro van!

Interlaken

We drove to Interlaken to meet up with our great friends Tyler and Joelle Baldwin. These guys are like 2nd parents to our kiddos, and their pictures are right next to Grandma and Grandpa in our "Who loves baby?" photo album. I'm not sure we would have made it through the first year of Kellogg if not for these great people. It was so great to have a little bit of home come visit us in Europe, and to be able to tour a little together. For more pictures of our weekend in Interlaken:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashleyshontz/Interlaken

Rhinefalls

We drove about 45 minutes to Rhinefalls. It is the biggest waterfall in Europe (75 feet tall and 450 feet wide). The kids loved walking down the hundreds of steps to the bottom, and we loved carrying them back up to the top.

Venice, Italy

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was just a short detour on our route to Venice. A few unnecessary photo captions: 1) Family photo (a very gracious tourist cutting off the top of the tower) 2) Baby holding up the tower 3) Buildings around the tower 4) A look that completely sums up the torture we put our kids through while dragging them across the world and then through four countries in one week

Cinque Terre, Italy

Nice, France

Cannes, France & Monte Carlo, Monaco

1) Building sand castles on a beach in Cannes 2-5) The amazing views on the short drive to Monte Carlo 6)Smelling the flowers at the Monte Carlo casino 7) And picking a few too 8) the Casino 9) The family

Milan, Italy

Traveling

July-August: 2 continents, 5 time zones, 5 countries, 3 airplanes, 15 bags, 2 strollers, 3 carseats, 5 passports, 5 hotels, 1 speeding ticket, and 1 big Harry Potter book