Boys Trip: St. Andrews Golf

Since I doubt Brian is going to have time to update everyone on his trip to St Andrews in April 2009, I've decided to post some pictures from the trip.

Brian and my dad went to participate in the Father and Son (son in law in this case) Tournament that St Andrews hosts every year. They didn't win. :-)






Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing -Video Sharing - Photo Printing

6 months.

Half a year already. Geez!

Well, Betti is working on sitting up now and almost has the hang of it. She first attempted it at the park the other day. She has since gotten much better.

This is a full two months before her sister was sitting up. Does that mean she'll walk sooner? Oh boy.

Despite only rolling from her back to her belly and only on her left side, Betti is trying her hardest to scoot and crawl by pulling her knees up under her body.

She is also constantly looking for Marion and wants to be with her. I wonder how long that will last?

In other news, I'm going to attempt to feed her solids any day now. I'm a little hesitant for several reasons:

1. I enjoy making baby food but that takes time and money. It will be cheaper than purchasing baby food in Switzerland, but it will still be more out of my pocket at the grocery store.

2. The mess. Oh the mess. At the beginning it isn't so bad but it goes downhill pretty fast from there.

3. The diapers that result from eating solid foods are nasty. Ugh, Brian may be on diaper duty soon.

Despite my hesitation, Betti is ready. So full steam ahead!

And to celebrate the half year mark, another comparison.
Betti at six months.

Marion at six months.

The Swiss didn't like witchcraft

So says my interesting read for the week, No one tortured witches like the Swiss, from www.swissinfo.ch.

What the hell is an Alpabfahrt?

If you caught some of the discussion in the comments of my last post, you might be wondering: What the hell is an Alpabfahrt?

Well, an alpabfahrt is a celebration that occurs when farmers herd their cows down the mountain before winter, when it just gets too cold for the cows to graze up in the mountain pastures. It is often referred to as the "descent of the cows" and happens in September/early October.

We are hoping to check out the one in Urnäsch on Saturday; however, there will be cows marching in Flims and Flumserberg as well.

If you can't make it this Saturday, just do a quick Google search. There are a ton happening in the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

Knabenschiessen

Thanks to Jessica over at Swiss Story Blog we had a heads up about the Knabenschiessen this past weekend.

Knabenschiessen, a word I still can not pronounce despite the amount of people who have tried to help me, is a shooting competition for 13-17 year olds in Zurich. It is commonly referred to as "kids shooting".

Yep. A celebration of teenagers shooting guns.

Moving on...

A chilbi surrounds the area where the competition takes place. And you all know how much we love a chilbi.

So we packed up the kids and went into town for some rides and food with some friends.

Rides, rides, everywhere there were rides.



Siena was fascinated by Goofy behind her.

Checking out a 3D Batman show, which apparently was more psychadelic than expected.

The men discussing at what point in the morning it would be acceptable to purchase beer.

First roller coaster ride.

Betti, chilling.

Everyone testing their strength.




Adorable.

The beer was purchased rather quickly, followed by a relaxing ferris wheel ride.


The men got sucked in to a fair game. Brian missed all of the cans on his first try. The guy running the game was amused by his efforts.

Betti then surprised us with her grossest blow out diaper to date.



The girls had their own way of riding the swings.

Everyone at the "silly house".

Marion loved the blast of air from the floor, once she was used to it.

I've always wondered what Nemo would taste like...

One last ride.

Great day! Sorry, no pictures of the kids with guns. Maybe next year.

Ballet!

We finally made it. After a year of emailing the ballet teacher to find out more about this class, I got Marion there. The process was pretty easy which just reminds me how completely miserable I felt while pregnant. Yuck.

Anyway, ballet. Marion loves it. The class we attended wasn't your typical, classical ballet class. It was more of a mommy and me music and dance class.


Eh, Marion doesn't care. It had music, dancing, and other little kids. And we called it ballet.




Plus, Betti enjoyed watching the madness.

I promised her that if she liked it we would go buy ballet clothes after the class. Oh she liked it alright so spend money I did. You'll just have to wait until next week to see her in them. :)

*I am finally taking my camera off the automatic settings and trying to figure out how to take great pictures manually. I jsut could not figure out the lighting and setting in this room so I'd appreciate feedback from my expert photography readers!

Malta: Take One, Day One

Brian's time in Malta started in mid-June. At the time his stint there was only supposed to be for a week, maybe two. My sister happened to be in town and agreed to watch Marion so Betti and I joined Brian for a couple of days.

The first thing we noticed on the airplane was the language. Brian and I looked at each other, puzzled. What is that? English? No. Arabic? No. Italian? No. Ohhhh, it's Maltese! The Maltese language is a fascinating mix of the three languages, it keeps you guessing!

We arrived on a Sunday evening, put Betti to bed, then enjoyed the view from our hotel balcony.

The next day Brian had to work so Betti and I decided to take a tour of Gozo, one of the Maltese islands. Betti slept most of the trip, including our ferry ride over.

Our first stop was National Shrine and Basilica of the Blessed Virgin of Ta'Pinu, or just Ta'Pinu. Legend has it that a woman, I believe her name was Carmen, used to pray there every day. One day she wasn't feeling well and walked past the church towards her home, choosing not to pray because of her illness. She heard a voice calling to her, telling her to come inside the church to pray several times because it would be her last opportunity to. She looked around and eventually went into the church, where she determined Mary was speaking to her. She prayed and went home, eventually getting sicker and dying. She never got to pray in the church again.

At least that's what the tour driver said.


Malta is highly Catholic, second only to Vatican City. It shows in many ways.

Each town celebrates a feast during the summer for their patron saint. During this feast, the town is decorated and, usually, there are some fireworks. For the larger towns the feast includes a huge outdoor mass for the town's residents.

Next stop was the Gharb Folklore Museum. There were some interesting parts to the museum, but it was pretty small and entrance wasn't included. But it is in the middle of nowhere, what else are you going to do when the driver drops you off here?

A child's hearse. Gorgeous and depressing all at the same time.

Traditional dress.

Driving through the town you can see evidence of Malta's unique history. There is so much history on this little island it is impossible to summarize, but you can check it all out here. Essentially, Malta has been under the rule of many nations, including England, and the British influence is still noticeable. For example, I didn't expect to see this phone booth in Gharb.

Next stop was the Azure window. Gorgeous!

It's estimated that the window will only be there for a few more years as rock periodically falls off. Get there quickly if you want to see it!

Betti briefly woke up and wanted to eat. This is how I feed a newborn while traveling.

Next we stopped at some natural springs that just happened to be near some shops. Coincidence? I think not.

A shelter was near the springs; the sign shows the interesting mix between Arabic and English in the Maltese language.

This is the main spring. Locals still use it for washing- in the morning before the tourists come. See the statue at the top? It is a small statue of Mary; various religious figures are depicted in statues like these all over the island. Just more evidence of the strong Catholic faith of the Maltese people.

After lunch we stopped at the Ggantija Temples. These temples predate Stonehenge and are pretty large. But just my luck, they were being restored. Seems to be my luck lately. Still pretty impressive.




I managed to get a view of Ta'Pinu from the temples.

And then I stepped a few feet forward and took another picture.

Weird how much bigger the church looks, right? I thought so, but then again, I haven't taken a physics class with optics in, uh, way too long.

Next... Wow, I'm sounding like a broken record here. It was certainly a long day!

Anyway, our next and last stop was Victoria, the capital of Gozo.

Another statue. These really were pretty and have I mentioned everywhere?

The Cathedral within the Citadel.

Okay, this place blew me away. Never have I seen such an elaborate cathedral. Velvet drapes? Crystal chandeliers? Elaborate marble designs? Wow.


And then I spotted the flat screen TVs. Just a wee bit out of place, no?


Then again, Malta had this interesting mix of old and new everywhere. They use their cathedrals and other historic buildings, as opposed to leaving them for the tourists to see.

I walked around the Citadel after touring the Cathedral.



The Citadel provided some gorgeous views of Victoria.


Finally it was time to go home. After a long day, I was exhausted. It didn't help that I was lugging Betti around in the heat!

The pictures I didn't get but wished I had (crazy driver!):

- The sign advertising "Southern Fried Chicken". Southern where? I naturally thought American South. Honestly, I don't have a clue though. Shame I didn't get to try it.

- The JFK memorial. John F Kennedy never set foot in Malta, yet there is a memorial to him there. He made quite an impression apparently.

I really enjoyed my first day in Malta and was anxious to learn more about the country's history after my tour of Gozo. Day two would allow me to do just that.

To be continued!

*more pictures on flickr, here. warning: there are a ton!