Sledding in Switzerland

For the past few weeks, my friend N and I had been trying to find a time that we could get the kids (and adults) together for a long weekend.  With her family living in Zurich and us in Germany, and having different school schedules, it was proving to be very difficult and it didn't look like it was going to happen until just before summer or even later.  And then I got an email from her husband asking if I could photograph him for the cover of a trade publication that he was being interviewed for.  The catch was that they needed to have the pictures taken by February 1.  The catch for me - B would still be in Latvia on business until late Saturday night.  We talked about it and decided that the girls and I would head over for the weekend. And so was hatched our first road trip of 2017.

We left right after school pickup (this is when I love getting out 2 hours early on Friday's).  One standstill traffic jam, four hours and four countries later - Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland - we were saying very excited hello's to the S family.  It took about 5 seconds for our kids to reconnect and disappear somewhere deep within the house.  N, J and I spent some time catching up, eating fondue and generally just relaxing.

Since I was mainly there to do the photoshoot and not sightsee, I didn't take many pictures on Saturday, other than for the magazine and we didn't do much other than enjoy each others company and have lunch in town.  

Back at home, these 3 decided that they wanted to sleep on the floor so they could all sleep next to each other.  It didn't last and they all ended up in beds but they did watch some TV this way...

 My job done. it was time for some Sunday fun before we had to head back to Munich.  N had found the perfect sled hill so we bundled up some excited kids for the short drive over.  And in that short drive it felt like we had entered another world.  The hoar frost was incredible.  We parked across the street from the hill and we could hear the kids laughing and screaming as they sled but we couldn't see a thing.  We couldn't even see across the street!  It was a bit unsettling actually as the kids kept getting lost in the fog if they wandered more than 10 feet in front of us.  Which made it hard to tell where you were stepping and where the actual hill for sledding was.  We set off in the direction of the sound and after about 100 meters the sledders (and the hill) came into view.  Thankfully there was a bit more visibility here as the fog cleared a bit in the bowl but as you will see from the pictures, it didn't clear much.

I snapped a bunch of photos though the fog made it difficult.  I do love the softening effect it had but it does make it hard for the camera to find focus in all of that white.  But I couldn't resist snapping away because it really was gorgeous and the kids had such fun.  And don't get me started on the hoar frost that was clinging to everything - the feathery, dew and snow covered branches were some of the most beautiful I had ever seen.  See for yourselves...

These guys were only feet from me.  And look how that horizon falls away to nothing right behind them.

 Everyone got in on the sledding fun.

This is what I normally got for a picture - until they got super close to me.  And then I fixed them a bit in post processing so that you could tell there were actual people in the pics.

This one kept busy while waiting her turn - cartwheels and sledding like penguins do.

We wore them out. And it was time for lunch and for us to get on the road.  But first - that tree!

Hoar Frost - completely different than snow.  Or dew.  Or regular frost.  It is formed when water vapor goes directly to a solid state, skipping the liquid state altogether.  The feathery hoar fost (as seen above) is formed when the object it adheres to is already below freezing.  (This is where I wish I had a macro lens to show you the details better - but you can get the idea).  It makes for stunning pictures.

The feathery branches!

In Black and White...

i-Phone snap.

Rocky Mountain High - Part 2

The first week in Colorado was fun but a bit rough.  Between the jet lag and getting sick on Christmas Day I was home bound for a few days. The upside was that when I finally felt better I just wanted to ski and snowshoe and be out playing with the girls. So week two was even better than the first...See for yourself.

I might have been feeling better and the sunshine was amazing but it didn't mean everything was right with the world - the zipper on my jacket finally gave up (it is many years old so I guess it was about time).  It meant either going in, getting back to the house, picking up another jacket, coming back and putting my ski stuff back on and then hitting the slopes or jerry-rigging the coat.  I went with option 2 by snapping the inside flaps together at the bottom and rolling a balaclava down around the outside of the neck.  Thankfully it was a pretty warm day and there was no wind because as you can see in the photo above it really didn't do much except keep my jacket from flapping behind me as I skied. 

The girls took us to their favorite run - through a castle grounds with winding obstacles.

We ran some errands in town with a stop at our favorite candy store and we played some board games.

We celebrated the New Year with friends.

And we met up with Munich friends for a day of skiing (again)

We did some snowshoeing (and I got to play around with my new camera!)

We jumped in the snow...

And made snow...angels?

Even Lucy got in on the fun...

We watched a movie (or six) downstairs when we needed to warm up.

And once again, Lucy joined in...

We warmed by the fire after soaking in the hot tub...

And we celebrated MadHatter a bit early with a movie (Moana) and some Mexican food.

Until once again, it was time to head home.  Of course, we had to drive to the airport through a snowstorm.  A gorgeous snowstorm but a snowstorm nonetheless.

And we were welcomed home to Munich with a snowstorm...It all came full circle.  Now, if we could only kick the horrible jetlag...

Rocky Mountain High - Part 1

Jet lag has turned my brain to mush and zapped all of my motivation.  It's the only excuse I can come up with for not having the pictures and posts from our trip to Colorado up yet as we have been home in Germany for the past 4 days.  But the fog is starting to clear and I have finally gotten around to the first post (which covers our first week at Nana and Grampa's house in Colorado) with pictures, a few video's and hopefully some words that make sense...Sleep deprivation does crazy things to your ability to speak even your native tongue.  Enjoy.

We spent the first day acclimating to the altitude and fighting off the jet lag but by day two the girls were ready for some ski school...

And I took a solo snowshoe around the neighborhood to clear our the cobwebs.

Crazy enough, A and his brother D, who are in Stinkerbell and MadHatter's classes respectively back here in Munich, were in the exact same ski class as they were!  So we met them and their parents for drinks after class...

These two!  They swear they aren't getting married until they are older (and they have discussed it and decided not to have kids - they are too much work they say)

All four!

The next day was a family ski day so that the girls could show us what they learned in ski school.

Pretty good...

And then they took Grampa out to show him how they do it...

We stayed in for Christmas and the 26th (I was sick for a few days and couldn't ski) and did this puzzle with Uncle Spike and S.  Darn that one missing piece keeping us from finishing!

And we all hot tubbed - as much as we could - especially when the wind picked up and we couldn't sled or ski.  

We made it to the sled park one morning and had a blast running up and sliding down...

Even Mama.

We snowshoed.  And generally just had a great time for our first week.  Even if I was sick for most of it.