Switzerland

Ryan drove up to Amsterdam tonight for The Killers concert. Tomorrow he and I are headed to Paris to see the French Open. Monday is a holiday and we're doing something, so lest I get behind in my blogging, here's Switzerland! We have found when traveling with our kids on a longer vacation that it is much easier to have a "home base" as opposed to moving around from place to place. It also helps in keeping the cost of our trips down as we can eat breakfast at home and cook dinner at home, if so inclined. We employed this technique on this trip and had our home base in Grindelwald, a small little village about 30 minutes SE of Interlaken. We stayed in a small, 2 bedroom chalet that was cozy and mountainous and perfect. We spent all of our time in the Jungfrau Region, riding trains, catching cable cars, and hiking. We would wake up every morning, eat breakfast, consult our maps, pack a lunch, and head out for the day. Except for one day of rain and fog, the weather was gorgeous. Even though we were early in the season, we were able to do everything we had planned except for 2 hikes and a cable car ride that was closed due to snow. We ended everyday with a good meal, warm showers, and games. Uno Junior anyone? Overall - like I said in my previous post - it was the best family trip ever. There were times as we were hiking between no-car-villages that we literally had to pinch ourselves at the beauty that was surrounding us. I remember saying to Ryan one day, "I've never been so happy," and in that moment, I don't think anything could have been better. Communing with nature surrounded by those I love so fiercely...the thought makes me want to go back right now. :> Since I have posted so many pictures, I will only add captions where I deem appropriate. (pictures posted in no specific order) The view outside our chalet (side door)                                

Sneak Peak...Switzerland

So we're back from our week long soiree and all I can say is that it was INCREDIBLE. As much as I consider myself a "city person", I can't help but re-define myself after this trip. This trip was unanimously the family favorite, and I'm pretty sure we are going to have a hard time branching out to see the rest of Europe after discovering a little piece of heaven that is the Swiss Alps. It's going to take a while to adequately sort through our (800+) photos, but here are a couple of teasers for your viewing pleasure:







Stay tuned...

Charie's Special Day

Today we celebrated Charlotte's 2nd birthday. Her real birthday is Saturday, but we are leaving on our trip to Switzerland early that morning and have other committments tomorrow night, so today it was. Ryan and I only decided last night that today would be "the day" and as I woke up this morning, I realized that I didn't have enough time to emotionally prepare for this big step in her life. Seriously, where has the time gone?! 2?! Already?! It's weird for me to have a 2 year old without another baby in tow, and I'm not gonna lie - it's so fun. Charlotte and I have so much fun together and she's my little best friend. I have a really hard time summing up all of my feelings about Charlotte, because they are so widespread. I love her so much that when I look into those blue eyes or hear her big belly laughs it almost makes my heart quiver and shake with sheer, unmeasureable joy (ok, excuse the drama, but it's true!) Most of you have probaby heard the following story, but for those that haven't and for nostalgia sake since it's her birthday and all, here we go:

When it came to planning my "future family" in my younger years, I was never one of those who knew exactly how many kids I wanted, or when they would come, etc. All I knew was that I wanted BOYS. No girls. BOYS. When my first 2 went exactly according to plan, I thought I was in the clear for a house full of boys. Going into my 20 week ultrasound with Charlotte, I was fully convinced that it was a boy. So much so, that when the ultrasound tech told Ryan and I it was a girl, we were mute. No talking. No ooohhing and aaahhhing. Nada. Just pure shock. Around this time, we had begun collecting Disney movies and The Little Mermaid had recently been released. Wanting to collect all of the movies, regardless of gender, we snatched it up. Well, the ultrasound technician finished the ultrasound (as we remained mute) and as we got outside and into the car, Ryan looked over at me and the first thing he said was, "Well, I guess The Little Mermaid will get watched now." Despite my friends and familys' excitement over the fact that I was "getting my girl" (as if no one in their right mind would want all boys...) it took me over a week before I could even wrap my mind around it and begin to be excited. Of course by the time she was born I was thrilled about the addition to our family, and those feelings have only increased. She is equally adored by the boys in the house and appreciates wielding the power that accompanies such adoration.

Tonight as I was putting Charlotte in bed I said, "Charlotte, are you mommy's best friend?" to which she replied, "Yeah, bes fiend Momma." And I hope it stays that way. Enjoy a little eye candy birthday-style:

Step One for any birthday girl: Primp.


The cake. Let's just say given the circumstances it could have been worse.


The birthday girl in all her glory (and a huge enormous THANK YOU to my thoughtful, talented sister-in-law Jessica for Charie's birthday shirt. Check out more of her talent HERE)


Blowing out her candles (I want to throw my camera filter out the window after realizing that the candles are reflected on her forehead...U.G.H.)


The aftermath: frosting face and toys = perfect 2 year old birthday.


A big thanks to our families who took time to send things for Charlotte's birthday. Things like that make me feel not quite so far from home and lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE! WE LOVE YOU!

You think your doctor is bad?

WARNING: What you are about to read may be long-winded, emotionally charged, and grammatically incorrect or, all of the above.

There are many things that are on my "to-do" and "to-see" lists while I am here in Europe. Today something on my "please please please don't happen list" happened. I was woken up early this morning by the sound of Landon having a seizure, and while I feel experienced in this realm now, it is never welcome or pleasant. As I have talked about Landon's febrile seizures, I have come to know many other children that deal with these. On the surface, febrile seizures are not technically that serious and is something that most children outgrown by about age 6. One of the complications with Landon is that he has complex febrile seizures where, instead of seizing for a couple of minutes (standard is under 3 minutes), Landon's seizures have all been between 15 and 20 minutes. After his last seizure in the States, the ER doctor was concerned about the repeated length of Landon's seizures and referred us to a neurologist. The neurologist did an EEG to determine if Landon's seizures were more serious, or had another cause beyond high fever (e.g. epilepsy, seizure disorder, etc.). Thankfully the test results came back negative for anything unusual and we learned that Landon's seizures were soley contributed to high fever. After this appointment, the Dr. gave us a prescription for Diastat, an anti-seizure medication used mostly for epileptics. He told us that even though the seizures were solely caused by high fever, it was still not good for his brain to be seizing so long and, in the event of another seizure, we were to administer this rectal medicine and then take him to the hospital.

So, fast forward to today, we administered the medicine and shortly after Ryan took Landon to our local hospital's ER. To begin, they were completely confused at to what a "febrile seizure" even was. (To be honest, I am still confused about their ignorance in this matter as we had quite the circular conversation trying to differentiate between convulsions and seizures with the Dr. Apparently they are 2 wildly different things here.) Then, as things were explained a bit more, they took Ryan and Landon into a room and asked Ryan what Landon's temperature was. Ryan said he wasn't sure because the last time it had been taken was 20 minutes earlier (at that time it was 105.8 fahrenheit). The nurse proceeded to give Ryan a rectal thermometer and asked him to take Landon's temperature and she would be back. (?!?!?!?!) She returns and asks Ryan how much Landon weighs. Ryan has no clue. She says, "Maybe 40 kilos?" and Ryan, having no frame of reference and obviously not thinking about it a whole lot says, "Sure" and she administers some Tylenol-esque medicine to him based on her estimation of his weight at 40 kilos (FYI - Landon weighs 20 kilos). Landon then fell asleep and they were largely ignored for the next 90 minutes. By this point I had taken Brayden to school and dropped Charlotte with a friend and was arriving at the hospital. I walked into the room to hear the Dr. explain that they had no reason to think he had anything bacterial, that it was probably just a virus that had caused the fever, and ARE WE SURE HE HAD REALLY HAD A SEIZURE? The next 20 minutes were the biggest waste of time ever, and, as mentioned previously, we had a wildly circular conversation about exact position of his arms during the seizure, the sounds during this seizure, etc., as if we had to prove that a real seizure had occurred. Then (this is when it gets good) I pull out the Diastat syringe that we had administered to Landon earlier that morning and I said, "The thing I am most concerned about at this point is just making sure that we can keep his fever down so he doesn't have another seizure and that we are aware of any side effects that this (holding the syringe) may have for him." (you see, the neurologist that gave us the medicine told us to administer and then take Landon straight to the hospital so we hadn't discussed too much about side effects, etc.) Well, that got their attention and suddenly they realized -being the smart Doctors that they were - that Landon MUST be epileptic and they just hadn't understood us correctly. They were shocked and stunned that we had this medicine and the Dr. and nurse immediately disappeared with the empty syringe and said they'd be back. At this point I believe Ryan made a comment to the effect that his guess was that instead of the Dr. and nurse returning, it would be 2 armed police officers ready to take us away for mis-medicating our child. My guess was that we had a 50/50 chance. :> The Dr. and nurse return, this time with a much more "important" Dr. who began asking us about our son's epileptic past. At this point I just about blew a gasket and explained AGAIN Landon's entire seizure history. The Doctor then says, "Yes, well, you mentioned that his teeth were chattering during this seizure (which they were - his whole body was shaking you idiot!) and you know, when your body temperature rises to a high level often time your body can chill, causing shakes and chattering of teeth. Are you sure this isn't what was happening?" The Doctor ended the conversation by telling me various ways to reduce a high fever (sponge bathing, tepid bath...) and saying that next time Landon was "chilling" to try one of these techniques instead of administering Diastat and lastly, to make sure to call tomorrow to set up an EEG to make sure that he's really not epileptic. (But wait, you just said it was the chills....)

Honestly, I was stunned and I am STILL stunned. Stunned that I somehow thought we were not living in a third world country when it comes to medicine! Admittedly, I was spoiled with wonderful doctors and specialists in Portland, but seriously - it was insane. If I haven't been impressed in the past with doctors here (and I haven't) I'm really not impressed now. To top it all off, we were rear-ended driving home from the hospital. Just one of those days.

However, the good news (and most important news!) is that Landon is doing well. He's received a blessing, he's completely doped up on Acetominiphen and Ibuprofen, and he got to watch movies (in English!) and eat cookies all day. I mean really, what more could a kid want?

Couldn't resist sharing this: The garbage in the room we were admitted into. In case Ryan's blackberry doesn't quite show the detailed contents, it's a mixture of dirty tissues and old diapers. Apparently the janitors have been trained as well as the doctors.

Keukenhof

This past Friday was "Labor Day" here in Europe and so we took the opportunity with Ryan's day off to go see Keukenhof - the annual tulip festival - in Holland. It was beautiful and I have to admit that as much as I love architecture and cities there is nothing quite like nature to make my soul sing. The kids were less than thrilled at getting pulled out of bed and put into the car at 6am and despite the fact that mid-way through the day I found myself asking Ryan "Why do children try to ruin every fun thing in my life?" I would count the day as a success. :> Charlotte was definitely the star of our picture show as she was good for a smile any time it was asked of her, and I think of any of the kids she enjoyed it the much. She just kept running around pointing at all the flowers saying, "Fowers! Fowers! More Fowers!" She was so curious about everything and it was so fun to see. Although we took over 350 pictures in the span of a couple of hours, I still feel like I didn't capture all that we saw.

The Flowers

The Fam (Like I mentioned, Charlotte won the award for most willing to be photographed that day)

The Obsession

I was so fascinated by the color of this duck! I'm not even going to disclose how many pictures I took of this duck. Charlotte was also just a tad fascinated. I'm thinking in our next place we need a pet duck??

The Fun

The Funny

At one point, I was with the boys getting ice cream and Ryan was with Charlotte. When we finished, we set out to find Ryan and Charlotte. As we were walking, I noticed a crowd forming around one area and when I looked to see what all the fuss was about, there was Charlotte! She was standing by some tulips smelling them and a group of Japanese young adults started snapping her picture. She was so confused, and even more confused when they crowded around her for this pic:


despite Charlotte's good picture day, the award for The Real Model goes to...

America's Next Top Model 2024??