Sunday

After what seemed like one of the longest weeks of my life, Gordon returned Saturday from a week-long trip to Indonesia.  One of the great things about Gordon being a local employee, rather than an expat, is that he does not have to travel as much as the expats do.  In the year and a half that we have been here in Switzerland, this was only the second time that he has been gone for a whole week.  He left for his trip last Saturday, exactly one week after Claire and I returned from Chicago.  The weekdays that he was gone were not terrible.  We were able to keep ourselves busy with the park and playdates and such.  The weekend, however, was rough!  It seemed that all of our friends were either out of town for the weekend or they had visitors from out of town.  Either way, they were unavailable to us, so we were on our own.  We got through it though, and by the time Sunday rolled around this week, we were ready to get out and have some fun with Gordon!  

In the morning, we drove up to Les Paccots, which is a ski resort in the winter and has a fabulous playground built into the side of a hill that we enjoy using in the non-snowy months.  

  

You can see one of the ski runs in the background of this photo.

Do you see the silver tube next to the stairs in the photo below?  It's a tube slide, built into the side of the hill.  It's a steep drop and the heavier one is, the faster they fly through the tube.  Gordon took Claire on his lap first and she loved it.  Shocking us all, she decided to go it alone the next time.  

Here is the result of the solo journey on the slide:

She was terrified while coming down, but started laughing and smiling and wanting to do it again as soon as it was over.  My brave girl!  

After a nap and dinner, we headed down to the lake, determined to enjoy what is probably one of the last warm Sundays of the year.  

Rather than playing at the park, Claire decided to play on the skateboard half-pipe.  After about six thousand times climbing up and sliding down, it was time to head back home.  

This week, we are supposed to have beautiful weather each day.  I intend to be outside enjoying it every day.  Winter will be here soon!