Winter Wonderland

Dear friends and family, we don't mean to rub it in, but we can't resist.

We just finished our best family vacation on record in the Austrian alps, and just had to revel in the moment before the credit card bill arrives, and before the end of the month arrives and Bill starts down the backside of "the hill".

Anyhow, it was a great break from the stress of our regular lives, struggles at school, and upcoming seperation. Plus, the boys got hooked on cold-weather sports.

Hope all of you are well, and we look forward to meeting up again, wherever and whenever that might be.

The Swaneys

View from the Top

Note the snowboard, and that the picture is taken moments before Bill proves he is really to old to be riding one by taking a spectacular (read painful and very cold) fall that motivated him to head to the outdoor bar and grill even earlier than usual 

Lincoln - King of the Mountain

Or is it King Graham?

Or a Power Sharing Arrangement?

(yeah right)

View from our hotel balcony

A more somber side trip to Dachau on the trip home

And a trip down memory lane visiting Bill's old dormitory in Wurzburg

(also where we first really met)

Boys

Boys in Tree

Wurzburg at Night

See ya!

February Update

Dear friends and family

2011 has gotten off to an excellent, but exhausting start. The boys are very active with their gymnastics (Eli), swimming (Graham), and kickboxing (Lincoln) - Gotcha! but Lincoln figures out how to be active. Mom and Dad are now beyond the point of no return in our training for the April 10 Paris Marathon, having now sacrificed too many hours of our morning to scratch that item from our bucket lists... On the positive side, it saves us a dog walk.

School and work are similarly busy, and Bill's July departure to Afghanistan is looming large on the horizon. Fortunately, a ski trip to Austria is the next big adventure, which should be a nice escape from the city.

Hope all of you are well and getting a good start to the New Year

The Swaneys

Graham and his buddy Sam at the Space museum

Hiking outside Versailles with the Scouts

Lincoln and Nanny posing with Buzz Lightyear's ship

Another satisfied Grandson

Holiday Party with the Neighbors

Shark Attack!!!

OK not a shark, but...

The closest Bill gets to being artistic

Xmas morning

The Traditional New Years Fondue

Falling into place

Well it's been a busy fall with lots of activity at school in particular. The older boys are enjoying their friends from last year, and Lincoln is adapting to his new environment (that is diplomatese for "he hasn't been expelled from school - yet"). After a mere two months of administrative processing Kristie has gotten permission from the French government to start a job at the school she was given at the end of summer. Busy protesting against changing the retirement age from 60 to 62...

We've kept plenty busy with early Halloween activities, a scouting trip (in the freezing rain) to Belleau Woods, and a road trip (yes on a ferry and then on the left side of the road) to London. The only thing missing has been guests, but we have a few recent bookings that we are looking forward to - so act now this is a limited time offer.

Soooo - in no particular order ...

London Trip - we had a great visit, taking the ferry over, not quite getting sea sick and being welcomed by the white cliffs of Dover. Then a nice drive through the country where everyone seemed very nice, but kept moving into my lane... :) just kidding - but we did notice that these poor blokes even seem to have their trains moving in the wrong direction!  Next we did the London eye, arriving for a perfectly timed sunset "flight" - which apparently makes you feel better about the most expensive ferris wheel you'll ever ride. Honestly though - it was worth it for an amazing view of the city. Then off to our hotel, which was on a major road by the airport but which apparently had some kind of GPS cloaking device since that usually reliable marriage preserving device insisted the hotel was several miles away. When we finally stumbled across it, we got a nice room and felt like we were back in Paris because, regretably and ironically, the room had been recently occupied by one of the much more rare London smokers - who had ignored the fact that the entire hotel was non-smoking.

The next days were a whirlwind of bus, ferry and "tube" trips, great meals, blue skies, marching guards and an ultimately unsuccessful effort to get the various Ben and Jerry's vending machines we found to actually produce that heavenly product. We topped off the weekend with a visit to the show "Wicked" which we would highly recommend to anybody who gets the chance (and can find reduced price tickets...).

 

Hallowen - part 1 of 3-5:  One nice thing about being in a country that doesn't really follow or understand our crazy traditions, is that they won't notice the liberties taken with them. Accordingly before Halloween hits America, we will have celebrated and cashed in on at least three major trick-or-treat outings. We realized that perhaps we weren't really following State Department advice not to stick out as Americans when I was talking with a French colleague about Halloween and she remarked on a cute little boy she had seen in the metro in a Buzz Lightyear costume. I was curious and asked if he had the inflatable wings, which he did, whether he was blond, which he was, whether he was about so tall, which he was - and whether he was running and talking a blue streak - which definitively identified him as Lincoln...  Oh well - at least we have a superhero on our side.

 

Outings:  A relaxing Columbus day bike ride in the gardens of Versailles (while the boys were at school)

 An evening ride to a park overlooking the city

Celebrating the birthday of a good friend

A visit to Belleau Woods where Graham and his friend raised the American flags at a cemetary on the site of a battle of defining importance and solemnity to the U.S. Marine Corps

 

 

 

 

 A wet and cold but still magical Disney trip