Catching up

We have been on the move. It seemed an enormous effort to clean up the house and pack our things for Switzerland. It was so sad to say goodbye to the house we have been using in Kandern. We can tell that Layla is really struggling with the travel...we've stayed in 3 places the last four nights and the last two places she's said "can we stay here forever? It is SO BEAUTIFUL!" 'Tis true - the places we've stayed have been gorgeous. Switzerland is unbelievable. Everywhere we go we are just saying: Look at that! Look a that house waaaay up there! Look at that waterfall! Layla gets in on the fun and comments about how beautiful everything is.

She has started to want to pose for pictures. She enjoyed posing before but it was just for the camera. Now she wants to stand in front of whatever we are taking pictures of. Switzerland was PACKED FULL of tourists from Japan and Mainland China and if you know them (to generalize, of course) they LOVE the silliest poses. I don't mean they are goofy, but they always like to do a funny little pose for the camera. So Layla was cracking them all up and everyone started taking pictures of her wherever she was posing. I'll find the picture Tom took, but one time she actually laid down on the ground on her side and put her chin in her hand. It was SO hysterical. I'm sure people wondered why we'd taught our daughter to pose this way.

We are staying two nights in Kandern here at a very unusual house. It is actually an old factory building with a crazy history and a couple bought it and are slowly renovating it room by room to provide a retreat place for artists to come and work. It is a huge project and they are doing it themselves. So we have this wonderfully eclectic room and when you open the door it is like stepping into a huge barn stuffed full of big power tools and antique furniture! We have access to the kitchen/cafe area that has all these different tables and chairs and a great little kitchen we can use.

Tomorrow we take a train north and will stay put for about a week. We are looking forward to that! We've heard that there is a petting zoo near where we are staying and I'm sure the kids will be fascinated. Ryan still gets all stiff and excited and yells when he sees a cat or dog. He'd probably practically pass out if he could pet a bunch of animals!