They learned the Waltz, Foxtrot, ate, appetizers and desserts and enjoyed a fun evening together! Hanna loves her Daddy!
March 27, 2012
March 24, 2012
Bern Switzerland
We are back from our whirlwind Spring Break Trip! 9 days of Spanish heaven! Now laundry grocery shopping, cleaning sorting, and resting have consumed our lives….as well as baseball, piano, homework, and work. I can’t wait to blog our Spain trip, but before I can tell you that story I must first tell you this one…..
Our friends Jeannie and Paul approached us back at Christmas time and asked if we wanted to do a kid swap for an over night get away for the adults. We were on aboard with this idea, and watched their kids during Christmas vacation so they could go over night to Nancy France which is known for their gourmet food. So we finally found a weekend that we could take our turn and decided on Bern Switzerland for our get away. It is about four hours away and has the Bern Switzerland Temple which was the first temple in Europe. We thought it would be cool to see Switzerland as well as we needed to go to the temple since we haven’t been since moving here (I know….don’t judge us). We stayed in the temple housing which was cheap and clean, and doesn’t have much else going for it, but cheap and clean are pretty big on my list:) It felt like we were back in the dorms at BYU except it was more narrow, crazy right? I knew I loved Switzerland as soon as I got a view of this:
It was a gorgeous day when we pulled into Zollikofen which is the little town where the temple is located just outside of Bern.
As we were driving around exploring the area and scenery we suddenly ended up downtown Bern. We had no idea it was so close to the temple! So we took the opportunity to see the old bear habitat and the new one below which is right in the city where everyone can watch the bears interact and play with each other. Bern has been home to bears for years and they have become a symbol of this city. It is right along the Aare River which arches around the old city of Bern like a horse shoe. Bern is the Capital city of Switzerland. It is where Albert Einstein worked, the Toblerone chocolate bar is made, and Emmental cheese, known as Swiss Cheese, became famous.
After a sneak peak of downtown Bern, we cruised back up to the temple for the 7pm session. There were Spanish, German, French, Italian, and English speakers in this session. The workers had to read off a sheet of translations! It felt great to be back at the temple. After a great night’s sleep in our "plush" hotel we headed downtown to take in Bern.
This building and parking area around it were very interesting. Its art in some form I suppose.
Bern is so pituresque with the Aare river and bridges all along it to cross into the old city. I read somewhere that there are 18 bridges in Bern.
This downtown shopping area is known for these arches and sidewalks under them. It allows for shopping and walking in all kinds of weather.
Of course every good European city has a grand cathedral so we made our way to Bern’s to take a gander.
The stained glass was the finest I’ve seen.
We found this outdoor market with lots of samples. It was like a European Costco. We had ham, olives, cheeses, and breads. And then we purchased one of these yummy things up above. Then we immediately went back for another! It was covered with cream and sugar.
On our way home we stopped at Cora in France to buy some Speculoos (like six jars) its like cookie peanut butter you can only get in France that we are way addicted to. Anyway, I called Jeannie to let her know we were almost home and then she said, “I need to talk to you about a little incident that happened today”. Seems that Jake changed his shirt threw it behind him put on a short sleeve shirt, shut his door and went out to play. Unbeknownst to him, the shirt landed on his lamp and eventually caught on fire. Everyone was outside playing (even Jeannie), except for Hanna and Becky, their oldest daughter, who heard the fire alarm go off. Hanna was really composed and responsible through it all. She grabbed the fire extinguisher (thank you Carter who had showed her where it was a week earlier), and handed it to Jeannie who ran up and put the fire out. Hanna gathered all the kids with Becky and they headed to safety across the street. Luckily, Jake’s room was spared major damage as well as the rest of the house. Thankfully his curtains did not catch on fire. Jeannie (bless her heart), after putting out the fire with the extinguisher, then got to deal with the after math of cleaning up all the mess and washing numerous toys, legos, etc. in the bathtub. What a blessing……it could have been so much worse. I think this was a direct blessing from attending the temple the night before. We had to air out Jake’s room almost a week, wash all of his clothes, curtains, and bedding, scrub his furniture and clean out the vacuum used to vacuum everything up from head to toe. There is still a faint smell of smoke in his room to this day! Jake learned that even though it was an accident, he still had to help clean things and make things right again. I guess we’ll see if the Kartchner’s ever want to do a trade again, we are apparently a lot of work to take care of!!
Our friends Jeannie and Paul approached us back at Christmas time and asked if we wanted to do a kid swap for an over night get away for the adults. We were on aboard with this idea, and watched their kids during Christmas vacation so they could go over night to Nancy France which is known for their gourmet food. So we finally found a weekend that we could take our turn and decided on Bern Switzerland for our get away. It is about four hours away and has the Bern Switzerland Temple which was the first temple in Europe. We thought it would be cool to see Switzerland as well as we needed to go to the temple since we haven’t been since moving here (I know….don’t judge us). We stayed in the temple housing which was cheap and clean, and doesn’t have much else going for it, but cheap and clean are pretty big on my list:) It felt like we were back in the dorms at BYU except it was more narrow, crazy right? I knew I loved Switzerland as soon as I got a view of this:
It was a gorgeous day when we pulled into Zollikofen which is the little town where the temple is located just outside of Bern.
As we were driving around exploring the area and scenery we suddenly ended up downtown Bern. We had no idea it was so close to the temple! So we took the opportunity to see the old bear habitat and the new one below which is right in the city where everyone can watch the bears interact and play with each other. Bern has been home to bears for years and they have become a symbol of this city. It is right along the Aare River which arches around the old city of Bern like a horse shoe. Bern is the Capital city of Switzerland. It is where Albert Einstein worked, the Toblerone chocolate bar is made, and Emmental cheese, known as Swiss Cheese, became famous.
After a sneak peak of downtown Bern, we cruised back up to the temple for the 7pm session. There were Spanish, German, French, Italian, and English speakers in this session. The workers had to read off a sheet of translations! It felt great to be back at the temple. After a great night’s sleep in our "plush" hotel we headed downtown to take in Bern.
This building and parking area around it were very interesting. Its art in some form I suppose.
Bern is so pituresque with the Aare river and bridges all along it to cross into the old city. I read somewhere that there are 18 bridges in Bern.
This downtown shopping area is known for these arches and sidewalks under them. It allows for shopping and walking in all kinds of weather.
Of course every good European city has a grand cathedral so we made our way to Bern’s to take a gander.
The stained glass was the finest I’ve seen.
We found this outdoor market with lots of samples. It was like a European Costco. We had ham, olives, cheeses, and breads. And then we purchased one of these yummy things up above. Then we immediately went back for another! It was covered with cream and sugar.
On our way home we stopped at Cora in France to buy some Speculoos (like six jars) its like cookie peanut butter you can only get in France that we are way addicted to. Anyway, I called Jeannie to let her know we were almost home and then she said, “I need to talk to you about a little incident that happened today”. Seems that Jake changed his shirt threw it behind him put on a short sleeve shirt, shut his door and went out to play. Unbeknownst to him, the shirt landed on his lamp and eventually caught on fire. Everyone was outside playing (even Jeannie), except for Hanna and Becky, their oldest daughter, who heard the fire alarm go off. Hanna was really composed and responsible through it all. She grabbed the fire extinguisher (thank you Carter who had showed her where it was a week earlier), and handed it to Jeannie who ran up and put the fire out. Hanna gathered all the kids with Becky and they headed to safety across the street. Luckily, Jake’s room was spared major damage as well as the rest of the house. Thankfully his curtains did not catch on fire. Jeannie (bless her heart), after putting out the fire with the extinguisher, then got to deal with the after math of cleaning up all the mess and washing numerous toys, legos, etc. in the bathtub. What a blessing……it could have been so much worse. I think this was a direct blessing from attending the temple the night before. We had to air out Jake’s room almost a week, wash all of his clothes, curtains, and bedding, scrub his furniture and clean out the vacuum used to vacuum everything up from head to toe. There is still a faint smell of smoke in his room to this day! Jake learned that even though it was an accident, he still had to help clean things and make things right again. I guess we’ll see if the Kartchner’s ever want to do a trade again, we are apparently a lot of work to take care of!!
March 20, 2012
Girls Trip
POLAND:
Lisa and her favorite gals from Heidelberg were going to Seiffen, Dresden, and Poland for a shopping trip and she invited me along. It was a super fun weekend filled with shopping, food, and girl talk. What could be better?! I’ve been wanting to check out Polish pottery. I’m not a huge fan of Polish Pottery I must admit, at least that was until I saw this line that Lisa and several of her friends have collected pieces of. I took one look at it and I kinda “Imprinted” on it so to speak in cheesie Twilight jargon. I bought two large bowls, some small platters, a small gravy pitcher, and one large platter. I already had two smaller bowls and a small oval serving plate. It has lots of colors like red, green, and mustard yellow as well as the traditional blue that is on almost every piece of Polish Pottery. This town is filled with about 20 shops all hooked to the factories where they make it so it is priced more reasonably here….and hence the American military wives tradition of traveling to Poland for Pottery.
This was another line I really liked because of its brown color I thought it might be fun for Fall time with soup! 
One of the stores was a little drive outside of town through the Polish countryside……so I snapped some photos. 
We stopped for a late lunch at a Polish restaurant and tried Peirogis. They are a hand made stuffed ravioli. I got cabbage and mushroom as well as the Mediterranean salad with feta cheese. Check out that FETA! This whole meal only cost 4.50 euro. In Germany it would have been 10 euro! Poland is still recovering from the effects of communism and a very poor nation. It was a little sad for me to realize. 
DRESDEN:
We headed for church first thing Sunday morning in Dresden which is only 1.5 hour drive from the Pottery town in Poland.
After Church we headed to downtown to quickly tour Dresden. 
These girls know how to have fun…. I however do not know how to get an action shot….
SEIFFEN:
I love Seiffen Germany! It was one of the first things I did last summer when we had just arrived from the US. This city is located in the region of Germany where all the wooden decorations for Christmas that Germany is famous for originated. People travel from afar to buy: Nutcrackers, Schwiboggans, Pyramid trees, smokers and several other wooden figurines. I was on the hunt for more little girls for my collection plus 4 boys to represent my four favorite boys in the world, as well as more nutcrackers. Of course I had lots of success and found a really cool smoker dude unlike any other smoker I’ve seen. Seiffen is just a really fun city and I can’t wait to take the family sometime soon and let the kids pick something out to remember Germany by. Then when they are married some day they can take it with them to their families.
Lisa and her favorite gals from Heidelberg were going to Seiffen, Dresden, and Poland for a shopping trip and she invited me along. It was a super fun weekend filled with shopping, food, and girl talk. What could be better?! I’ve been wanting to check out Polish pottery. I’m not a huge fan of Polish Pottery I must admit, at least that was until I saw this line that Lisa and several of her friends have collected pieces of. I took one look at it and I kinda “Imprinted” on it so to speak in cheesie Twilight jargon. I bought two large bowls, some small platters, a small gravy pitcher, and one large platter. I already had two smaller bowls and a small oval serving plate. It has lots of colors like red, green, and mustard yellow as well as the traditional blue that is on almost every piece of Polish Pottery. This town is filled with about 20 shops all hooked to the factories where they make it so it is priced more reasonably here….and hence the American military wives tradition of traveling to Poland for Pottery.
This was another line I really liked because of its brown color I thought it might be fun for Fall time with soup! 
One of the stores was a little drive outside of town through the Polish countryside……so I snapped some photos. 
We stopped for a late lunch at a Polish restaurant and tried Peirogis. They are a hand made stuffed ravioli. I got cabbage and mushroom as well as the Mediterranean salad with feta cheese. Check out that FETA! This whole meal only cost 4.50 euro. In Germany it would have been 10 euro! Poland is still recovering from the effects of communism and a very poor nation. It was a little sad for me to realize. 
DRESDEN:
We headed for church first thing Sunday morning in Dresden which is only 1.5 hour drive from the Pottery town in Poland.
After Church we headed to downtown to quickly tour Dresden. 
These girls know how to have fun…. I however do not know how to get an action shot….
SEIFFEN:
I love Seiffen Germany! It was one of the first things I did last summer when we had just arrived from the US. This city is located in the region of Germany where all the wooden decorations for Christmas that Germany is famous for originated. People travel from afar to buy: Nutcrackers, Schwiboggans, Pyramid trees, smokers and several other wooden figurines. I was on the hunt for more little girls for my collection plus 4 boys to represent my four favorite boys in the world, as well as more nutcrackers. Of course I had lots of success and found a really cool smoker dude unlike any other smoker I’ve seen. Seiffen is just a really fun city and I can’t wait to take the family sometime soon and let the kids pick something out to remember Germany by. Then when they are married some day they can take it with them to their families.
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