The Carlock's Visit

This week was a pretty easy week - both kids had off of school for parent/teacher conferences, and teacher training days. As a result, we had the opportunity to have a few playdates for Jack with his new classmates, which was great. Our parent/teacher conference for Jack was really terrific - it was Jay's first chance to meet his teacher, Mrs. de Koning, and we both feel like he is in the perfect place. That is such a reassurance after feeling that we were sort of "winging it" on our own over here - its nice to be back in an environment that is much more similar to what we'd be experiencing back at home.

On Thursday and Friday, we celebrated Bapa and Papa's birthdays (respectively) with phone calls and "Happy Birthday" sung by Jack - he's now added Italian to the mix, so the performance is quite long - with renditions in English, German, French and Italian. We're very proud of our multilingual singer. :)

On Friday, our friends David and Laura Carlock, arrived for a weekend visit. David consults for the NBA, and he was coming over to Europe for the NBA game in London next weekend. Since Laura is 6 months pregnant, they decided to make the trip their "babymoon," and after visiting us, had a week in Florence, Rome and London planned.

They arrived a little jetlagged, but ready for action. Kate and I picked them up at the airport and then took them to their hotel, where they had a chance to shower and rest for a bit before meeting us for lunch. Unfortunately, it had started to downpour by then, so we kept the walking tour short and went to Tibits, a vegetarian restaurant nearby their hotel. After lunch, they returned to the hotel to make some phone calls, and Jay and I met up with them that afternoon.

We started the evening at Cafe Odeon - Jay was trying to impress his friends with his German language. And although Jay actually does speak the language very well now, the waiter was a bit lost - and as a result, our drink orders were fairly messed up - and in the end, we got a round for free... it turns out that not speaking the language can be a benefit sometimes! Afterward, we had dinner at Terrasse, one of our favorite restaurants, and enjoyed a wonderful meal - and fun conversation. On the way home, David stepped up to the "tram race" contest and set a new record - 2 tram stops and he beat the tram to the last stop. This of course made us miss MY favorite part of the tram race - when the tram passes the runner and there is such a look of panic on the runner's face... regardless, we were impressed by his speed.

On Saturday, we picked them up late morning and took them on a walking tour of Zurich, stopping for the obligatory Starbucks along the way. Jack commented that this was a NEW Starbucks to him, and proceeded to count all the Starbucks he knows in Zurich - turns out he has now been to 8 of them. (Embarrassing but true - although with the current financial crisis, we are pretty sure that Starbucks won't be as prevalent when we emerge from this recession)

After the walking tour, we had lunch at Globus, and the kids and I departed - Kate and I took Jack to his friend Chance's house for a playdate, and we went home to make dinner and relax. (Kate had been suffering from a mild case of bronchitis the week before, so we wanted to keep it low-key for her). Jack had a really wonderful time with Chance - they play so well together and have such a terrific friendship.

That night, we had David and Laura over for dinner, and shared many funny memories - mostly about the boys' time at Disney - and the legendary exploits they shared (or witnessed). On Sunday, we had the Carlocks over for brunch and then Jay took them to the airport, meeting the kids and me at church afterward.

Finally (after our friends had left, unfortunately), the weather turned spectacular, and so we spent the day at the lake - making leaf piles and playing at the China Gardens park. As I was taking this picture below, I remarked (for the millionth time)

how lucky we are to live in a place so beautiful. We returned home in time to watch Mary Poppins (the kids' favorite movie right now) and relax a bit before the week.