Together again soon

We have managed to book the return flight for Delaine and the boys to return to Europe. They will be arriving on Thursday, 24 February, which will mean that it has been roughly one month of separation. As the man of the house, and the only person in the house at present, I must say that I am extremely excited to have my family back with me. This also means that there will be yet another transition period for our family, as Delaine and the boys return. We are heading in the right direction though, even though there is still a lot of work left ahead before we achieve the goal of graduating from business school. This whole experience reminds me of one of my favorite paintings by David Caspar Friedrich called Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. (I have seen the original in Hamburg). Still stuck in the fog somewhere on our way to the top, but we will reach the pinnacle soon, and the vistas will be worth the hike. They always are.

Everett's first step into a career in photography

When we bought a new point-and-shoot camera before coming out to Europe, we gave our seven-year old, dutiful, and well used Sony Cybershot to Everett. Since then, he has been perfecting his art. He has an eye for the abstract, and he tends to capture things that we would never consider aiming a camera at. On our last trip before Delaine and the boys returned to the States, Everett put his skills to good use. He told us to stop the car and let him take some pictures. Here is what resulted (he took them all, except the one with him standing in front of the car).

Impressive, isn't it? What does your brain see in those salt spots on the tail of this BMW?

Here is the little photographer himself!

This what the car looks at his eye level. Not bad, Everett!

Here is the BMW logo up close and personal, even the slight skew is artistically meaningful.

Nice job, Everett. This one truly captures my driving pleasure. We have rented several cars out here, and each time I wanted the Beamer, only to get denied like five times. It was fun to race around on the Autobahn and on the lazy back roads in Bavaria.

Alpine Trip

Before Delaine and the boys set off for the States, we took a little alpine drive to Chur and also through one of my areas in Wattwil, which is in Kanton St. Gallen, for those of you who know Switzerland. It was a nice drive, and it reminded me of the hard work, sacrifice, and success that we experienced in this secluded, but beautiful part of Switzerland. It was nice to show Delaine, the boys, and Mindy my old stomping grounds. I must admit, there was a strong desire for me to park the car, march up into the mountains, and try to find some families by knocking on some doors...

Here is the church in the small town of Alt St. Johann. Yes, I did knock those doors on the hillside!

Delaine snapped this photo along the way.

The boys and Mindy enjoying the ride, even with eyes closed.

The mountains never get old, it is so beautiful around here!

A Tale of Two Continents

Delaine and the boys recently went back to the United States, as we learned that Delaine's grandfather had passed away. We already felt as if we had missed some pretty important family events due to our distance, work, and school conflicts, so when we heard the news, we made the decision to send Delaine and the boys back with Delaine's mother, Mindy. Which was helpful, because they could travel back together.

So we will again be a multi-continental family for a short while. If you see the occasional blog entry or Facebook post from either continent, this explanation should suffice. We will all be back in Europe within the next couple of weeks, and then our EuroFun will resume. Until then, Steve will hold down the fort one continent, and Delaine will be playing with the boys on the other.

Thank goodness for Skype!

I have uploaded our most recent family photos from 2009 (I did this mostly because I miss the family, but also because we got some good snapshots of us all... and I wanted to share)