Random Moments- baby come now edition!

All of our company has left us and I only have 6 more days until my official due date. Of course this date means nothing, but a girl can allow herself a false set of hope, can't she? Who knows, maybe number 4 will be the baby who comes early. I'm to the point where nothing completely covers my still growing belly, I want to eat ALL of the time (I refuse to believe that these first two are connected), and I think my legs have finally given out on me. Basically, I'm a beast. I can, however, still shave my legs in the shower, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Despite sounding like I am giving up on life, we are all very excited. The kids and I have settled on a name, we just have to get Andrew on-board. So now we are onto the waiting game, which gives me some time to blog...lucky you!

Belly and Boots

The picture above shows things from my view these days. You can also see the boots that I recently purchased. I spent a long time trying to find shoes which were comfortable, yet stylish. I came home quite pleased with my selection, only to have Andrew tell me that they "look like something straight out of Star Wars". Talk about knocking the wind out of my sails.

Incidentally, Andrew said that same thing last year when he saw the boots on the man shown in the picture below. Yes, that is a man (remember this is Europe- nothing can be assumed about his sexuality). Yes, I felt compelled to take his picture. And yes, I wish my bum looked that good.

Tokens of Love
Onto more wasteful shopping... I've had it in my head for 8 years now that it would be really romantic if Andrew were to surprise me with some "token" of appreciation for birthing each of his children. And by token, I mean jewelry. My subtle hints have gone unheeded in the past, so this time I decided to take matters into my own hands and just buy something for him to give to me. I know, if only every man were to be so lucky....

I settled on a pandora bracelet and bought the bracelet part for a reasonable price while we were traveling. What I didn't take into account was the cost of filling the dumb bracelet with charms. It is supposed to look like this...

And yet, after stomaching the cost to buy a single charm at the Swiss cost I think my bracelet will remain like this for a long, long, time. So much for my big, materialistic ideas.

WARNING
A couple of weeks ago I set up the bassinet where the baby will be sleeping for the first 3 months. This is the same bassinet that Afton slept in, and I really liked it. However, this time I noticed that the entire contraption is covered with "WARNINGS!" pretty much saying that my child should never sleep in the thing. This is supposed to be a bassinet- I'm so confused!

That's it for now. I should talk about the kids and Andrew, but let's face it, with my "condition" it is all about me and the baby- at least for today.

Fall Holiday

Right now the boys are currently enjoying time off from school for their "fall holiday". This is a week and a half long break, which Luke's teacher informed me was very good "because the children have already been in school for 7 weeks". Really? When I was in school we didn't get a long break until Christmas.

Were I not extremely pregnant we would use this excuse to go on a long trip like everyone else here... BUT with D-Day looming near we chose to stay close for a 3 day getaway. We spent our time down in Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy (all about 2 1/2 hours away). This area of Switzerland is known as Ticino and uses Italian as it's official language. We're still enjoying the company of Aunt Coco (although her time here has been flying by!) and it was a lot of fun to have her join us.

Day 1 was mostly spent in Bellinzona, Switzerland. This is a beautiful village with three medieval castles all within walking distance to each other. We only made it to two, but I was quite proud of myself for hiking up to that second castle.

This was our first time staying at a hotel in Switzerland (well, the first time we paid for a Swiss hotel). What we discovered is that Swiss hotels are extremely pricey- especially for a family of 5. After coming to terms with the prices, I found a place a little less expensive then the rest, but way, way, way off the beaten path.

One of our friends to greet us on our way there...

As you can see, we had stunning views, but to get to this hotel we had to go up the side of the mountain on a single lane road meant for two way traffic. This would have been ok, except for the insane local drivers. Honking is essential when driving up there. I took the picture below literally 5 minutes before we encountered one of these drivers. Andrew had to swerve a bit which resulted in a popped tire and stranded family in the middle of nowhere.

Parked and waiting for assistance- thank you cell phones.
We eventually all made it safely back to our hotel and a new tire was purchased the next day.



Day 2 was spent in Bellagio, Italy. Bellagio is located on Lake Como and is a wonderful little gem packed with charm and character. Colleen and I decided it would be a perfect place to spend a weekend sans kids and husband. A girl could do some serious shopping there. We still managed to do a little shopping even with the kids and husband.

You have to look hard, but Colleen and I couldn't stop laughing at the woman shown in the picture below. My kids were climbing on a wall and this lady looked as if she was going to keel over and die watching them. The wall looked pretty ordinary to me, so I'm not sure what she was so worked up about.

The next stop was to the Swiss Miniature. This is a little park filled with replicas of all the big castles and cathedrals in Switzerland. Andrew was so excited to go there which for some reason cracked me up.

Above- Sam and Luke standing in front of "Basel", Andrew and Colleen in front of the Castle in Thun.

Day 3, our last day, included a stop in Locarno, Switzerland. It was a little chilly that day, and after our stop we were happy to head back home! It was a great trip, and hopefully our last before this little girl decides to grace us with her presence.

The Berner Oberland

Yesterday we spent the day in the Berner Oberland. "Wow" is all I have to say about that. Actually, I'll also add gorgeous, breathtaking, stunning, relaxing and another "wow" for good measure.

I'll also add this description: The Berner Oberland is a region of the Swiss Alps with a ton to do and discover. We focused on the Alpine towns of Mürren and Gimmelwald. Mürren is a little more touristy but still completely charming, while Gimmelwald seems to have remained almost untouched by tourism. We saw lots of locals working on their farms, and even had the chance to enter a little hut which housed aging cheese.

Above: Luke in Alpine heaven, below: taking the cable car down to Gimmelwald.

Above you can see my belly is all of it's 8 month glory. No, I am not having twins, and yes, I can and will get larger. I've decided that the next time I get asked either of those questions (which seems to happen daily- by women no less!), the claws will come out.

Below is the cheese hut we encountered. It was basically a tiny little room with shelves of "Alp Cheese" aged 1-3 years. The owner said that he sells his cheese to restaurants in Geneva.

Luke exiting the cheese hut with his samples-

Casa de la Willis

If you are planning a visit and would like to stay with us, I suggest that you book months in advance. Switzerland seems to be a popular vacation destination (or maybe everyone is coming all this way just to see us??). Fortunately, we love having company!

September was a busy month, with an overnight visit from Andrew's aunt Florence and uncle Dave, a 10 day trip from my aunt Karen, a 3 week trip from my Grandmother and a 6 week trip from Andrew's aunt Colleen. Right now my Grandmother (aka Granny or Oma) is here until Tuesday, and aunt Colleen (aka aunt Coco) is here until the end of October. This all means that we've been having lots of help and lots of excuses to take fun trips.

Below is a picture of my "Granny" with the kids. It was taken about an hour after she and my aunt arrived at our house. She had traveled for 24 straight hours, and yet as soon as she got to our house she picked all of the neglected grapes in our backyard and made homemade grape juice. Afterwards we finally convinced her to take a short nap. What I've learned during my grandmother and aunt's visit is that there is no stopping those two. They are energizer bunnies...who clean my house and cook really good food for us.

Sidenote: My Granny was born and raised in Berlin, and immigrated to the US after WWII when she was 19. While she now considers America her home, it has been a lot of fun to see her back in Europe to show us the ropes. It also has been awesome having a native German speaker around!

pictures of our recent explorations
Below: Granny, Aunt Karen and Afton touring the local castles. The boys are obviously in school during the day, but Afton has been a trooper to travel around with. I guess it helps that I bribe her with sweets along the way-



Below: Aunt Coco at our favorite Swiss Castle- the Chateau de Chillon.



Vevey, Switzerland

Fribourg, Switzerland

Note From Management: We are booked until the end of November (with a trip from the mother to help with the baby), but are currently taking reservations for the new year.