Powder Day

This winter is really working hard to change my seasonal malaise about where we live - all we need is a few north-facing slopes and I could live here happily - all year long. (Check out the duct tape on my kid - he is so Vail, dude)

Appropriating a steep unplowed street nearby - and an old metal advertisement sign for beer that came with the house and has been stowed away in the basement - and you can have lots of fun.

I take everything back I've ever said about boring, dull North Carolina winters.

Big Boy

Lately I'm struck dumb by how very boyish and not at all babyish our Gus now looks. I know, I know, he is two and holding his own, but secretly I still think of him as my baby, complete sentences, entire book recall and all. I guess that's a mother's lot in life, he is straining to run his own life - and working on it with every prank and tantrum - and I'm just waiting for that precious moment when he needs to "cuddle with Momma," because he is hurt or tired or unsure of what to do next.

Tschiertschen II

We start with a hearty breakfast...Swiss-style...lots of dried meats and crusty bread...

Out with Granna, posing by the old-timey barn...

On the ski-helicopter with Granna...

Decisions to make during apres-ski...

Tschiertschen I

On the chairlift (or ski-helicopter as Gus named it)...

Getting ready to ski the slopes...if you want to ride up, you have to ski down...

Celebrating his first real-slope outing with his Granna and Pap

A future ski champ with his very proud parents...

Rome-Delissimo IV

Jacob enjoys Italian window shopping...

Like Father, like son...striking a pose...

Rome-Delissimo III

This one's for Heather...pistachio is big here...

Who said you can't sell hot sandwiches (Panini) and Gelato in the same shop? I would leave the Gastronomica off the signage though...sounds too much like an intestinal ailment of some Italian sort...

Jacob trolling at the Trevi Fountain for an Italian love (throw in one coin and return to Rome, throw in two and fall in love with an italian, throw in three and marry that Italian...and so on)

Jacob coming to his senses and keeping all his change in his pockets...

Roma-Delissimo II

That's Jacob, not some Latin-hunk...all style AND substance...

Colosseum...

Roman Forum...

Jacob and Sistus IV just outside the Sistine Chapel

Roma-Delissimo!

Atop the second-biggest cuppola in the world - St. Peter - in Rome...

Five-hundred or so steps above the din of the Vatican...the yellow-clad figure on the right is Ronnie, not Big Bird...

A typical, pictoresque Roman street...

View from Vittorio-Emmanuel's monument near the Roman Forum...

Swiss-Images Part II

Raclette Dinner - melted cheese and big smiles...as Jacob's folks, Cindy and Ronnie join us in Uster...

More public transportation, this time to check out Zurich...

Gus riding high on Osi's lap in the Forch Bahn...

Swiss-Images Part I

Taking the train almost anywhere...

Clock tower of Bern, where time was (almost) invented...

Old patrician center of Bern

Bern, a town of wealth, commerce and orderliness...

Happy New Year!

A happy New Year from us to all!

Three little boys, one DVD player, one hour of blissful quiet. Gus and his second cousins, Nik and Len enjoying a bit of Pingu during the New Year festivities

Snapshots from our Swiss vacation...

Naptime...Gus likes to settle down next to Grosspabe...the snoring seems soothing to him...

Jacob is making good friends at the Uster Feuerwehr (fire department) they even pulled a beer our of the department fridge for him...

My brother, Dominic, who will start as firefighting volunteer in mid-January, enjoying the American fire specialist visit...

Gus on the seesaw in front of my parents' house. That's the most action that thing has seen in a decade...