Cold and Freezing Fog!

Well we have only see the sun once since New Year's Eve and that was on New Year's Day. It warmed up just enough to make the following weeks a mess! Ice was everywhere. It was a holiday so not too much got accomplished. I have to say the roads were cleared off enough to get 1 1/2 cars thru. Sidewalks didn't exist and parking is still a little bit hard to find.

So many trees split with the weight of the snow and ice that they have been removing quite a bit of wood as well as hauling away ice/snow from the streets and sidewalks. In this picture you can barely see the huge pile. They haul everything to part of the parking lot down by the lake.

These pictures are from yesterday's walk along the lake. It is very pretty. This past weekend it didn't get above 18 degrees F.

The lake has gotten very low. The rocks on the left are usually under a foot of water.

The crane looked cold too! I didn't have Jason's high powered zoom camera with me.

I saved the best for last. I love this picture of the big tree.

I think the sun is trying to come out now. No, I think I have been staring at the computer screen too long! Ha Ha I hope you have enjoyed all the updates.

Fireworks

Here are a couple of fireworks that we watched on December 20th. They were right over the downtown area and didn't last too long which was nice. We watched them from the bedroom windows. There was another fireworks show on January 6th which was directly in front of our place off the pier to mark the end of the holiday season and the beginning of the New Year!

Quick Trip before Mom & Dad Leave

It was the day before Mom & Dad had to go back home. We decided to take a drive up the mountain. I was hoping for a good view of the Alps and a nice Swiss lunch. We all tried some Fondue which wasn't too bad. Sometimes the cheese/wine is very strong! The kids preferred their french fries.

I like this picture of my dad. It looks like he is ready to take on the world!

You can barely see the Alps above the clouds. The sunshine felt great!

We were sad to see them go but we had a wonderful time!

Fun on New Year's Eve!

We were finally getting a wonderful snowstorm! The snowflakes were huge and it was looking like a winter wonderland. Oh yes, they took down the white tent. It only took 5 days. It was gone by December 19th. I was thrilled. My parents had the best time watching them disassemble it.

The kids really enjoy the back yard. We are very lucky that we have such a nice size one too! That is Lucas laying in the center of the picture.

They had gotten some more snowball makers for Christmas and they were putting them to use. They love to build their forts.

Kate got tired of snowball making and decided to do a snow angel.

The kids had been dying for Jason to build a fire in the chiminea that we brought from El Paso. He of course built a nice hot fire!

I made some chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate and we enjoyed the day sitting around the fire. Kate said, "This is the best day EVER!"

We finished the day with Devin giving Maggie some fun exercise around the yard! We probably ended up with a good 8 -10 inches of snow at our place. It was a nice wet, heavy snow.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I can't believe today is January 14th and I am just now posting for the end of December. I have to get better at this. I have quite a few things that I wanted to post. We'll see how well I do. Katelyn has half days on Wednesdays so I better get busy!

I wanted my parents to take one more train trip before they left. I chose Luzern. I had been there over 20 years ago when I went with a group from high school. Yikes, it made me feel old. We had a good time. It was very cold and we just did some walking across the famous bridge and down thru the center of town. It was a Sunday and we were so happy to see that Starbucks was open. We all warmed up with some good hot chocolate and coffee.

The artwork on the buildings down town is absolutely beautiful.

I look forward to going back in the summer time.

Trip to Interlaken

Today we decided to head to Interlaken, Switzerland. It's about a 2 hour train ride one way. It's a beautiful area. The town is nestled between 2 lakes and is surrounded by mountains. It definately had the feel of a ski town. We picked a good day to go. It wasn't crowded and the weather was perfect.

The following are a few of the pictures that Jason took while walking around town.

We had arrived at 12:00. It was pretty to hear the church bells ringing.

I can't believe Devin had his eyes closed!

Jason was able to get some really nice pictures on the train ride back home.

We plan to stay home for a few days. I think we have all had our share of train rides for awhile.

A trip to Montreux

We decided today to head to downtown Montreux. The ride was nice and not too long - 1 hour. We got to see some of the mountains and SUNSHINE! We haven't seen that for awhile and it felt sooooo good!

Montreaux has one of the biggest Christmas Fairs in Switzerland and everything is set up on the shore of Lake Geneva.


We were having some fun!

There were quite a few "trolls" around the fair. I don't know how they are associated with Christmas. I'll have to ask about that.

We were enjoying the view in the following picture. We were also happy to get away from the crowd for a little bit. It was very busy!

Jason snapped a nice family picture. It's hard to see the mountains in the back due to the haze. Once the sun started going behind the mountains, it cooled off very quickly.

We ended the trip watching the men play the Alp Horns. Here is a sample.