Skiing & Superbowl

Rachel working on her "pizza" in ski school.

Look what kids will do with some little toys and snow piles on the terrace! Hours of entertainment.

The girls are greeting the sheep in the field behind our "backyard."
Kendra is having a lot of fun learning to ski.
More fun with Polly Pockets.

Skiing in Switzerland is different. Although Bart & I have only been up once, we can now say that we have skied through cow pastures, next to stables with cows and horses (they eye the strange two leg creatures with interest) wait to cross through the t-bar riders going uphill as we are going down and, of course, were laughing at the car crossing sign on the ski run - just as a car actually came across so they could park in their barn! I must say I was feeling elated last weekend. It's been 9 years since I've skied (Rachel is 8 1/2 - you do the math! - not that I'm blaming my kids, or Iowa) and I was reminded once again that God created snow so I could ski on it! I know He has lots of other reasons but for 2 hrs while the girls were in lessons - it was a small slice of Heaven. But, there's not been much snow this year - weather is crazy all over I think - and I did not bother skiing this past weekend during their lessons. Bart stayed home and worked - contrary to my previous blog comments, the man works alot (and he helps me out with the dishes which I really don't like to do).

SUPERBOWL XXXVIWXYZ????? Many American expat discussions this weekend centered around who was staying up to watch the SuperBowl, where they would watch it and for many, the sadness over lack of cool commercials. The game started at about 12:30am here. Bart & I entertained ourselves pre-game with a lovely Anniversary dinner at a local restaurant (sans kinder) and 2 hrs of '24.' After watching the initial 92 yd run, I headed off to bed. Bart was a bit disgusted with his "Sky" newscast group - their 'guest' commentator was Don Johnson. And of course, there were no good commercials - unless you are interested in some great travel deals from the UK, lowering your car insurance rates in the UK OR finding some fantastic quick foods from Sainsbury (oops! that's in the UK too). Should we ever find ourselves taking a rotation in London (as expensive as Zurich but without the beautiful scenery or fantasticly on-time train system), we will find ourselves already adapted to much of the British culture.
Anyway, Bart apparently stayed up 'til game over, woke before ten and was into the office by 11:20 - not bad. He had indicated there would be no 'start time' at work this morning - sticking up for his US staff and of course, his hard-core sports watching self.
A good weekend. And the week has started off well - I just purchased 20 books at the school's Book & Bake Sale. 20 books for 20chf!!!!!! About .80 cents apiece - all English! Just one of them new would be equiv. $15 - 24 at the English bookstore in Zurich. Happy Day.