Hiking in the Swiss Alps

Kevin and I have always loved the outdoors and hiking so we were excited to take our children on their first "big" hike up the Ferpecle Valley to a glacier field.

Here's the crew; happy and excited for our hike.

Just about there....you can see the glacier in the background. The kids did amazingly well for what was estimated to be a seven-mile round trip hike.

These funny trail markers would show up sporadically; especially once we left the lush trail and entered the rocky terrain.

Proudly displying their chipped "ice" from the glacier.

Ava was so worn out that the minute I took her out of the backpack, she snuggled into my chest and promptly fell asleep. Kevin and the kids continued up to the glacier while I sat down and enjoyed cuddling my youngest. There was a roaring river in front of me and beyond that I could see the back side of the Matterhorn. Every once in while the sun would peek through the clouds and light would dance on the water. As I sat there, I was in complete awe of the majesty and beauty of nature. It was deadly silent except for the roaring of the river and my slumbering baby who every once in awhile would snortle and resettle herself. I was again reassured, as I have been many times in the past, that there is a God and that He created all of this. This beauty, this wonder, this majesty all for US that we might find joy.

A perfect day.

Swiss Family Parkers

Grimentz, Switzerland

This was a beautiful village. Part of the old town was roped off from cars so it was great to just let the kids run wild and explore. You can't really see from these pictures, but most of the buildings were up on stilts. We wondered if it was due to problems with flooding from the spring run off, but we were told it was to keep the mice out of the housess

We planned for one more hike, but the kids were hungry and Ava was exhausted (no nap) so ended up driving up to the lake and having a picinic lunch. Amazing what P & J can do to raise your spirits!

Evolene, Switzerland

On our last touring day, we stopped for a delicious fondue lunch in Evolene (a darling little village). You can not come to Switzerland without having fondue (of course we are a little obsessed with fondue so you know .....) Well, perhaps I should clarify, Kevin and I had fondue and the kids had pizza and chicken nuggets. Wish we could get them to eat fondue - grilled cheese sandwiches they like and this is just about the same, but the cheese is on the outside of the bread ... so cheesy and fabulous! The best part was that there was a small playground on the vicinity. So the kids had a blast playing while waiting for our food, and Kevin and I actually had a chance to have a somewhat of an adult conversation that did not revolve around Webkinz or Barbies.

Wait a minute. We're missing someone. Dad? Oh yeah, he's the guy that is always behind the camera. Where's Lauren? Lauren?

There she is.

We were amazed at how the firewood was neatly stacked. It was too beautiful to not be considered art and prime candidate for a photo opp.

A sweet little pension and restaruant - the flower boxes were amazing.

Took a picture of this beauty as we were coming down the mountain from our chalet. It is even smaller than a smart car if you can imagine. It was a one seater, but she had her dog seated next to her traveling at a whoppin '10 kilometers per hour.

Dumpster Diving and an Unexpected Visitor

Germany has an interesting garbage removal and recycling system. Basically, you have recycle just about everything except dirty diapers, seriously, I'm not kidding. It is a good thing though. I feel as though I am doing my part to be a little kinder to our planet. When we moved to Texas after four years of a very Green life, I had a hard time with all of the waste that our family threw in the trash. Actually, we just received info that our old community in Rockwall, TX is beginng a recycling program. Go Rockwall!!

Anyway, in Germany, they basically don't have a service for getting rid of large pieces of furniture or unwanted household items. Instead, they have "Junking Days". I wish we had our household goods and I could take pictures of all of the fabulous things that we have found over the years through Junking Days....Kaden's bedroom night stand (which we refinished), the red chair that I use to have in my entry way, the solid wood round table that was in my living room, the two cute chairs in my bedroom (which my mom helped me make slipcovers for).....just to name a few.

So a few days after we moved into our home, we noticed that our neighbor had a black leather sectional outside on the curb infront of her home. Not wanting to be too presumptuous, I asked if she was getting rid of it and if so, if I could have it. It was perfect for our game/toy room in the basement. She said, "Yes", and I couldn't wait for Kevin to get home to help me haul our treasure home.

We had kind of a busy evening, and by the time that we got the kids in bed and had time to get the sectional it was about 11 p.m. Although we share a fence with this neighbor, to get to the front of her house was about a two block walk. Now two blocks is a short distance to walk, unless you are carrying a heavy leather sofa. Luckily, the sectional came apart into three pieces. The first piece Kevin and I carried home together. However, half way there, I started laughing hysterically (must have been the hour) and it took me about 10 mins. to regain my composure enough to muster the stamina for the rest of the journey back to our house. Kevin threw the middle section over his shoulder and huffed it home by himself as I was still laughing. What a stud I'm married to. Finally, we realized that we had a wheelbarrow at the house which proved to be quite handy with the last piece of the sofa.


So we had all three pieces infront of our home, we just needed to carry them into the house and down the stairs. Kevin had a brilliant idea to bypass the stairs, take the furniture through the backyard, down the slope, and into the house through the walk out basement. On our way down, we found this little guy rolled up tight in a ball and sleeping in the grass. Lucky for us we didn't step on him first. We lovingly nicknamed him "Hedgy" and Kevin was as giddy as a kid in a candy store. He loves little critters.

This picture shows Hedgy unrolling a little bit. He was so cute. We learned that hedgehogs hibernate during the winter. Sometimes the young ones don't find a very safe place for their long winter nap, and Germans will rescue them, put them in a shoebox, and keep them safe in their basement all winter. Seriously, they do this. I guess it's pretty common.

Kevin was so excited, that he insisted on waking up Kaden to show him what we found in our backyard. Kade is a little dazed in this picture, but he thought it was pretty cool. How many kids can say that they have actually held a hedgehog? Good thing that Hedgy slept through it all, I'm not sure how aggressive they can be. Come to think about it, we probably should have checked into that before bringing a wild animal into our house and waking up our slumbering son insisting that he touch it.

After Hedgy's photo shoot and play date, we carefully set him back outside and continued to carry our sectional downstairs. Ahhh....finally finished. What a night!

Schloss Vollrads

My last post was depressing...even to me. Things are looking up. We are all healthy now (everyone got sick but Kevin) and we even found a beautiful home. We get to move in, in two more weeks. Yahoo!!! Somehow knowing that makes living in the hotel for 14 more days a bit more tolerable.

Saturday we ventured out to see some of the local architecture. Schloss Vollrads is about 15 mins. away from our hotel. The original palace, built in the first third of the 14 century, consisted of the tower you see below surrounded by a rectangular moat that is only accessible by bridge. It was inhabited by a family who shaped the destiny of the palace and viticulture (vineyards) at Vollrads up to the days of our time: the dynasty of the Barons of Greiffenclau.

The building of the actual palace – next to the massive tower that Goethe described as »unusual« during his visit in 1814 – was commissioned by Georg Philipp von Greiffenclau in 1684. Subsiquent heirs continued to add to the palace and gardens over the next several hundred years.

With the untimely death of Erwein Count Matuschka-Greiffenclau († 1997), the proprietorship of SCHLOSS VOLLRADS and its vineyards passed to the Nassauische Sparkasse (Nassau Savings Bank). It carries on the estate’s great viticultural tradition.

The gardens are amazing. We arrived quite early in the morning and some of the grounds were gated off, but we hope to go back when we can wander through the stone paths, vivid blossoms and follage. There is also a restaruant inside one of the side buildings that we were told has excellent food. If any of you care to venture over to our side of the world for a visit, I promise to take you there, my treat.

Diamond Mine and Camping Adventure

He talked me into it. Kevin finally talked me into taking the entire family camping. In the past, I have been adamant about the fact that we would not go camping as a family until all of our children were walking. Chasing around a crawling baby covered in dirt and marsh mellows was not my idea of nature bliss. I conceded! Why? I'm still not sure. Ava, although she was 15 months old at the time, was still crawling. Kevin heard about a diamond mine in Arkansas where you could mine for diamonds and keep what you find. He thought this would be the the perfect next adventure for the Parker Family.

We arrived later than planned (think frequent potty stops and scary backwoods gas stations) and started to set up camp around 10 p.m. We were finally finished around 11 p.m. Our only problem was that no one was ready for bed except mom and dad at that point. Our kids are not use to sleeping together in one large mass and thought it was a party! Our tent does have three rooms and we put Ava in her pack n' play in one section, but the flimsy nylon separator did little to muffle the noise coming from our other two monkeys. Somewhere around midnight, our biggest monkey finally settled down and my eyes closed for the first time in over 24 hours. It was a restless and short lived slumber though, because our Kaden woke up two more times between midnight and 5 a.m. to use the potty. This meant that not only was Kaden awake, but the entire tent was awake for each episode.

At 5 a.m. we began to hear thunder followed by the flash of lightning. A few short mins. later the rain came. So there we were- awake and ready to go at 5 a.m. only it was dark and pouring outside. We were not to be deterred though! We came to Arkansas to find diamonds and find diamonds we shall; or get wet, muddy, and completely miserable in the process..

This is the Diamond Mine! Yes, a big muddy field. It was quickly decided that I would stay with Ava under the the covered equipment rental area. Although this area had a roof, it was still open aired and without walls. At this point, poor Ava was so tired, that I was willing to drive her around in circles if needed to help her get a nap. However, Kevin didn't think that Lauren would last long out in the rain and cold and and I stayed back to wait for her.

My first clue should have been the fact that the older two were mining with Kevin and he can make a root canal sound fun (no pun intended here to my handsome and talented dentist hubby). Long story short, the three of them lasted over 3 hours out in the muck and mud while I tried to entertain an extremely fussy and tired baby on a cold concrete slab.

The mighty diamond hunters returning after hours of searching for diamonds. Notice they are still smiling!

Lauren had a hard time keeping her shoes on in the greasy mud. Amazingly, they came perfectly clean. Thank goodness for plastic shoes!



Kaden completely lost his shoe at one point. He took several barefoot steps in the swishy muck before realizing his shoe was no longer on his foot. This is the bucket, shovel, and screen that Kevin and the kids used to harvest their findings.

Upon returning to our camp, we decided that one more night in the rain might be a little much and our sweet daddy packed up camp in the rain, while the rest of us ate fruit snacks and watched Scooby Doo in the van. Although no diamonds were found, memories were made, and many lessons learned. What an adventure!