Living in Europe and Being in Nature!

Our boys have become very curious about the world that surrounds them.  Now that spring is upon us, they are SO into finding bugs, rocks, sticks, slugs, leaves, flowers, and virtually every living thing around them.  There are times when we as parents get a little tired of the constant flow of flora and fauna that makes its way into pockets, floors, mouths, tables, etc.  But when I really reflect on this trend, I am so grateful for the beautiful world in which we live.  The boys are merely rejoicing in the beauties of the world that Heavenly Father created for us.  This has actually been a recent development.  When we were in the States, the boys weren't really out and about in natural settings, and when they were, we lived in a desert.  So, it has been a blessing to see our little Everett play with slugs (see below), whereas he used to be afraid of anything that moved, even dogs and cats.  Liam on the other hand has always been unafraid of everything in nature, so this opportunity to experience the Spring in the Alps has put him in perpetual bliss.  He would live outside, if we would let him.  In short, our boys love to play with creeping things, and we love to see their curious little minds race!

Yes, this is Everett playing with his first slug of the season!

Here are the boys watching a local beekeeper maintain his hives.

Here is a horse and rider out for a stroll in the fields behind our place.

Loving the Bubbles!

Daddy recently found out the the cheap store-brand shampoo makes the best bubbles in the world.  And we have had fun for our bath time ever since.  Our investment of CHF 1.10 has certainly been worth every Rappen.  

Everett would make a great Santa Claus!

Very rarely do we catch a picture of Liam smiling, let alone with a million bubbles on his head!

Spring Time at the Farm Behind Our House

Evidence of Spring

Wanted to post a few pictures to show that spring has arrived here in Liechtenstein.  We still need to wear our coats from time to time, but we have loved getting outside, and there is no shortage of things to do out here!

Prague - Part 4 (The Toy Museum and Franz Kafka)

Everett and Mommy are helping Liam to find every single animal in the antique Noah's Ark collection.

Yup, those are some vintage Star Wars toys along with some newer ones.

Some New Kids on the Block dolls.  This picture is mostly for those who remember the NKOTB (especially Dawn)

Everett pushes a button on an interactive display.  Liam is entranced... at least for 1.39 nanoseconds.

These soldiers remind me of the setups at Grandpa Timpson's house.  He would have loved this museum!

Liam and Everett marveling in front of the antique toys under the careful eye of Darth Vader.

Mommy and a huge Christmas pyramid.

We had gone through all of the exhibits, and the museum was closed, when Everett asked us to take a picture of him with Superman.  We had already left the museum, but we decided to see if the doors were already locked.  Mommy ran up the stairs with Everett, and the lady was still there and let us take this picture, which averted an emotional meltdown.

Here is Daddy leaning against the Franz Kafka memorial in the Jewish Quarter.  This was not too far from where he was born.

As we were walking around the largest castle in the world, freezing our buns, we saw a little sign for a toy museum.  At this point, we were willing to do just about anything to get out of the cold and warm ourselves for a while.  It was still on the castle grounds, and the price was reasonable.  The boys loved it!  There were so many awesome vintage toys.  Everett was a little dismayed at the number of Barbie dolls on the top floor, but that is also where we found the Star Wars toys.  Wasn't sure where else we could have put the picture of Daddy in front of the Franz Kafka monument, but we just had to put it somewhere.

Prague - Part 3 (Visiting the Prague Branch and The Prague Castle)

We decided to visit the Prague Branch while we were here on Sunday, and it was awesome.  The Church building was on a prominent corner, between the Israeli and Indian embassies.  (The Israeli guard outside looked really cold).  The building serves as the mission office, the home of the mission president, and the meeting house.  We asked the missionaries which embassy did the building serve as before being bought by the Church, and learned that it was a famous bar before the Church bought it.  The ward has a whole bunch of American ex-pats, and we spent the majority of the time with a whole bunch of American kids in nursery with Liam.  Everett went to English-speaking primary, and later reported that it was his favorite part of our visit to Prague.

We also visited Prague castle, which is the largest castle in the world.  It was MASSIVE, and we only spent a couple of hours up there and didn't even get to see 1/10th of the place.  The cathedral dominates the scene up there, and it is totally Gothic.  This is where royalty, including Czech royalty and the Habsburgs spent their time.  It was spectacular!  The view of the city below is marvelous, but as the pictures show, there is certainly enough to see up on the top of this hill.  Pushing the double-stroller up the long cobblestone road was well worth it.

These pictures below do not capture how flippin' cold it was on this day!

Delaine and the boys in front of the LDS meetinghouse

Liam and the Everett squaring off in front of a random old door we found.

Liam loves rice... he ate almost this whole plate, while Mommy and Daddy ate local fare... Everett ate french fries.

Liam and Daddy in front of the city of 100 spires

Mommy and Prague (can you see the Czech blood coursing through her veins?  She really does have a lot of family connections to CZ)

Liam and Mommy tried to make this guy laugh to no avail

One of the Gothic statues overhanging the cathedral on the castle grounds

Liam walked around this circle several times before moving on to the next thing.

There is not a set of stairs in this world that Liam will not attempt to climb

Another angle on this gorgeous city!

Prague - Part 2 (Old City and the Charles Bridge)

Here is the Pražský orloj or Prague Astronomical Clock.  It is pretty cool.  Originally made in 1410.  Liam and Everett are holding their respective toy snakes, oblivious to the historical significance.

This is some of the ornamentation on one of the churches we peeked into.

Here is Daddy and Liam on the Charles Bridge, the second oldest bridge in Europe.  The statues on the bridge are awesome, and even though it was really cold, it was PACKED.

Mommy on the Charles Bridge.

One of the gates to the Charles Bridge

Mommy poses in front of the famous bridge!

Liam and Daddy's turn (Everett wasn't interested)

One of the first things we did was head down to the old city and Charles Bridge.  Here are a few of the pictures.  It was a clear, crisp, sunny, but cold day.  It was more fun for Mommy and Daddy, but Everett and Liam were good troopers!

Prague - Part 1

Before hitting the city itself, Everett rocked out a little bit!

  

Here is Liam on our first morning in Prague!  He did care much for anything but his stick!

Delaine poses in front of the Vlatva River overlooking Prague's endless line of ancient bridges!

Everett ran all the way down to the base of this ramp, he was excited to get out and stretch his legs. 

One of the many cool old trams in Prague.

Statuary is everywhere, even in places you wouldn't expect.

This is the Old/New Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Prague.

This is the Jan Hus (Czech Religious Reformer) Monument in the downtown center of Prague

We noticed recently that we still had a long list of things to see, and now that we only have three months left here in Europe, we jumped in a rental car and drove to Prague!  It was stupendous.  There is really no other way to describe it.  It took us about six hours to get there, and it only cost us 30 Euros a night for a hotel including breakfast!  This was Steve's first time to the Czech Republic, and he LOVED it.  He repeated nearly 1,000 times, "I love Prague!"... or something similar.  There is much more to come.  We had such a great trip.  It was long overdue, and it was a great opportunity, because Steve had a four-day weekend (Gotta love Liechtenstein's Holiday/Work Calendar).