WEEK FORTY NINE:

Monday, July 19
This is what having a 21-month-old looks like:


Tuesday, July 20
An exceptional day for clouds and blue, blue sky.

Wednesday, July 21
The senior citizen parking at Golden Corral. All the signs for the senior parking have been hit and pushed over. Pretty sweet.

Thursday, July 22
It's not everyday you see a massive dragonfly dead on the side of the road.

Friday, July 23
Good friends Alissa and Tanner's wedding reception. Instead of a sign in book, they had a typewriter. How awesome is that!?!

Saturday, July 24
Our friend Elise's birthday was on Saturday and we celebrated with a huge breakfast/get together. It was awesome. It was crazy to see how many kiddos there are running around these days. This shot was long overdue, but we finally got it. I love it. It has such a classic "line all the kids up," feel to it. Too bad we were missing some of the other kids and parents that are living elsewhere at the moment.

Sunday, July 25
Anyone else find the text on this sign funny, given what kind of business it is?

WEEK FORTY EIGHT:

Monday, July 12
Hallie was peeling this cucumber and set it down to do get Cambria's dinner for her and the next time we looked up, she was eating the whole thing. Crazy kiddo.


Tuesday, July 13
I've been really into The Avett Brothers as of late and highly recommend them to anyone who enjoys quality music.
Thanks again Jer.

Wednesday, July 14
The beautiful ladies in my life.

Thursday, July 15
Ah, summertime. Gotta love the non-air conditioned apartment.


Friday, July 16
Someone learned the "Superman," style of swinging this week. And she hasn't wanted to do anything but since.

Saturday, July 17
I missed taking pictures of this darling while I was away. I think it's obvious by how many times this week she made my photograph of the day.


Sunday, July 18
A Sunday BBQ at Pam and Guy's and a little swimming for the little lady=a great day.

WEEK FORTY SEVEN:

Monday, July 5
Cambria got some cool shades from her aunt Leslie. And boy is she cool in them.
Thanks Leslie!

Tuesday, July 6
On Monday afternoon my scooter battery died and so I bought a new one. I think it was an omen however.

Wednesday, July 7
Us.

Thursday, July 8
On my way to meet Hallie and Cambria at Pam and Guy's, I was nearly hit and killed on my scooter by someone who ran a stop sign. When push came to shove, all I could do was "hit," the breaks and it put me into a slide and me and the scooter went down and slide across the road. The truck that ran the stop sign finally stopped and avoided running me over by about four feet.

Friday, July 9
Take note of how the scooter is straight and the wheel is turned? How is that possible you ask? It's the byproduct of a wrecked and soon-to-be totaled-by-the-insurance-company-scooter.

Saturday, July 10
Cullen and I attempted Fox's Pizza Den challenge. A 30 inch, 10 lb nightmare. Winners receive free pizza once a week for an entire year. We did not win, but we came darn close.

Sunday, July 11
Me.

WEEK FORTY SIX:

Monday, June 28

St. Gallen.

The library at this cathedral is the library that Disney's Beauty and the Beast was modeled after. I'd show a picture of that, but they didn't allow any photography. Bummer. It was pretty awesome though.

Tuesday, June 29

Isn't being a tourist fun?

Wednesday, June 30

Amazing slot canyon in Switzerland. Only bad part of this day was the crappy train guy that over charged us. I didn't have anything good to say to him.

Thursday, July 1

Stained glass museum in Romont, Switzerland.

Friday, July 2

Swimming in Lake Geneva. A heaven on earth.

Saturday, July 3

Switzerland's Team Epic.

Sunday, July 4

What a way to celebrate my arrival home from Switzerland: Independence Day and to squeeze this little beauty.

WEEK FORTY FIVE:

Monday, June 21

Bern, Switzerland.

Tuesday, June 22

The Vitrahaus. The architecture here is remarkable. Work from Gehry and many others. The Vitrahause itself is loaded with contemporary and modern furniture design. Ispiring. I mean, look at this bench. It is a part of the buildings' wall. How genius is that?

Wednesday, June 23

Is this the most amazing and breathtaking view or what?


Thursday, June 24
The Freitag store in Zurich, Switzerland. An up-and-coming design giant. Check them out at www.freitag.ch you won't regret it.

Friday, June 25

Sadly, our last official day for the design thinking program, but we weren't going to let that get us and our mustaches down.

Saturday, June 26

The Matterhorn. Absolutely incredible.

Sunday, June 27

Switzerland is a funny place. It is spectacularly beautiful in its architecture, art, design, history, landscape and yes, its graffiti. It's seriously everywhere. And somehow, maybe because it's more about art than vandalism, it just blends in with the beauty of the country (well, in 9.5 out of 10 cases anyhow).

WEEK FOURTY FOUR:

Monday, June 14

Anthroposophical Museum stairway.

Tuesday, June 15

Brainstorming and Design Thinking for a project.

Wednesday, June 16

Fribourg, Switzerland from the top of a nearly 1,000 year old cathedral.

Thursday, June 17

Rolex Learning Center.

This entire building is shaped like Swiss cheese basically. Google it and see how amazing it is. Really. Google it. Now.

Friday, June 18

Spiez Castle.

Saturday, June 19

This is what Switzerland makes you feel like.

Sunday, June 20

Father's Day.

Since I was away from my father today and my daughter, I thought today would be pretty hard. Thankfully, I had a reason to forget about myself.

I met a friend here on my study abroad trip-Mandy. Her dad served part of his mission in a city called Lugano and it apparently was one of his favorite areas. From where we are it is about a six hour train ride one way to reach Lugano. Not close. Mandy told some of us the other day that she wanted to make the trek out there and get some photos of her in Lugano, print them, frame them and give them to her dad for Father's Day. When I heard this idea, I almost teared up because I thought how much I would appreciate the same gift from my daughter. And I knew I had become part of this epic journey. And it was epic. Here's just a sampling from today's epicness. And yes, the 12+ hours on the train were awesome.

WEEK FORTY THREE:

A quick side note:

With how busy I find myself while away, I don't have much time to dedicate to the description of each photo. Please don't mind the small description for each.

Monday, June 7
Castle ruins in Sion, Switzerland.

Tuesday, June 8

The Valley of Death just before the St. Bernard Monestary/Hospice.

If you look close in the bottom right corner there are little dots trailing up the side-those are people hiking!


Wednesday, June 9

Reflection.



Thursday, June 10
The old morgue at St. Bernard. There are still bodies in there!

Friday, June 11

The Dying Lion monument. Spectacular.

Saturday, June 12

Cowfights. The "humane," form of cow fighting. The cows are not provoked at all, it is more of a hormonal and instinctive thing that makes them want to dual. It's a big deal here. After months of competing, the finalists compete for a grand prize of over 40,000 Francs.

Sunday, June 13

Evyoire, France. Beautiful.

WEEK FORTY TWO:

Friday, June 4

Honestly, I can't get this dumb picture to move down and I'm way too busy right now to mess around with it, so here it is, out of order.

This is in the NJ Newark Airport. It is the only good thing about that horrid place.

Ok, forgive my backwards week, but I started this post in the good 'ole USA and am finishing it in Switzerland and I really don't feel up to moving the images around. So here we are:

Sunday, June 6

Chateau de Chillon castle. One of the best-preserved castles in Europe from the thirteenth century. It was amazing. Here Lord Byron wrote The Prisoner of Chillon.

Saturday, June 5

An image from our hike not long after arriving in Switzerland. Breathtaking.

Thursday, June 3

Yes, I am aware that the picture is "blank." But really, it is black. And it is intentional. With a new life about to start, it felt very fitting to have a black photograph. At the beginning and end of everything (in my mind), it is always black. And Thursday was the end of my life for a while and the beginning of a new life (albiet temporary) in Switzerland.

Wednesday, June 2 The other day while walking to the car, a bat just fell from the sky. It scarred me and I jumped like a real big sissy.

Tuesday, June 2

A semi-new restaurant in Smithfield. It took the place of my favorite bbq place ever-Eddy's BBQ. This new place is pretty good though and despite the name, there is a lot more than you'd think to choose from.

Monday, June 1

Memorial Day. A beautiful day.