Summertime

So I have been very remiss in many of my blogging duties. I don't feel too bad though, as most of the people who follow this blog also keep up with me on Facebook.

So the Swiss have a 5 week summer that begins in July. Many people go out of town for all or part of this time, but we did not. There were 3 reasons for this decision. First, my mom planned to visit us this summer to escape the heat of Arizona. Second, Dave's par

ents planned to visit us this summer because they had friends traveling to France and wanted to make a whirlwind tour of it. Third, we are a little cash strapped and vacation time strapped due to the move. So....it was just Cameron and I trying to make the best of it while dad went to work.

ok....so it wasn't quite like that.

The very first week of

break my mom came to visit. Having been through several hot days in June I advised her to bring her capri pants and be prepared for humidity. Of course...the week she was here ended up being the coldest, rainiest week of the entire summer. Rain makes it difficult to see Zürich at it's best but we tried anyway. I made matters worse by taking her an hour out of town to see a castle that ended up being closed. Thanks mom for being a good sport about the whole thing. Cameron loved having a Grandma to talk endlessly too and was sad to see her go.

Then the long part began. Two weeks of just Cameron and me......what would I do? How many trips to the pool could I tolerate? How many times could I play soccer? Would I be able to stay awake while being forced to play yet another round of "Pirates?"

Okay....so it wasn't that bad. Dave actu

ally took Thursdays off so I could have a day of peace. But in my defense we did A LOT of the things I mentioned above.....and I didn't fall asleep....okay.....I kind of did.....but only once. The pool is also really neat, if a bit cold. We have a bunch of slides, a play pool for

babies, a play pool for older kids, a lap pool and a diving pool....it's lots of fun....now if Cameron would only commit to swimming.

During the last two weeks of vacation Cameron spent the mornings going to a summer program

for kindergarteners. We decided to do this to save my sanity, get Cameron back in the habit of speaking German, and basically give Cameron the chance to have fun since the theme was "Water and Pirates" He did have a good time, and said repeatedly that he wanted to keep going to that school, and he didn't want to return to his old school.

Then today, after five long weeks, he returned to Rietberg Montessori. He was reluctant, but we reminded him that now he was a bigger boy and he could go all day and do the cool art, music and sports stuff in the afternoon. That got him over his uncertainty and he hopped on in to meet his teacher ( it should be noted that at his school they have the same teacher for 2 or 3 years, so he knew her). I was nervous about him going all day without a nap, but his teacher said he was fine if a bit boisterous.

Now I have to decide how to fill my day. We live in town now so I have all of Zürich at my disposal. Cameron is in school until 4 p.m. so I have tons of free time. What will I do? For the answer you will have to read my next post.