Tuesday I took a little trip down to Rapperswil again to see if I could find myself some comfy shoes that can keep out the fall and winter weather. Elisa looks pretty hot in them too. I managed to find a pair and am putting them to good use right away. It was more fun to take a lone trip than I expected, though I still prefer the company of Chad. When we first moved here, I was excited that Elisa would be able to take day trips, like to Geneva, while I was at work. She was horrified by the suggestion. 🙂 But I was able to practice speaking German with the lady who helped me in the shoe shop and with some random old man from Holland who sat down next to me on a bench up at the castle. My vocabulary needs to improve. I was able to tell the lady I met at the shoe store what Mormons are—hopefully I didn’t say anything too off.

Wednesday was the happy day I was finally able to take my test. I got up early and took a train and then a bus to the University of St. Gallen. Alvin Schwendener graciously proctored for me. After all that waiting, it took me only 20 minutes to complete. Lame. Elisa also received the grades for her assignments so far. She has aced everything. I think psychology comes naturally to her. I walked around town and bought a sweater since it was a good 10 degrees cooler at the higher elevation. I went to this ancient library that reminded me of the one in the Beauty and the Beast Disney movie. It was full of scrolls and books and documents that were hundreds of years old. I even had to wear these funky felt slippers over my shoes just to go in and see. Unfortunately, due to the library’s fragile nature I couldn’t take any pictures. I strolled through the market and bought some figs and pepper Raclette cheese.

Monday night we headed over to Nik and Rahel’s to have dinner and Family Home Evening. What a fun time. The way to their house takes you past a yummy-smelling chocolate factory. We succumbed and got some some good truffles to snack on. We helped Milo put cherry tomatoes and Mozzarella balls onto tooth picks–but not many of them made it to the tray. I think Milo ate one for every one he completed. As soon as we were done he was convinced we were supposed to start eating them. We ended helping with a new project to avert his attention. We began to sandwich little cookies together with a chocolate-hazelnut filling. His new distraction was dipping his spreading spoon into the bowl of chocolate filling and putting it straight into his mouth.

We had planned to ride our bikes back home that we had left at their place on Saturday but it was too dark. We ended up going back later in the week one evening for another attempt. This time Chad’s front tire was completely flat and we discovered their new unused pump was defective. They tried it on a neighbor’s scooter that was down there just to make sure it wasn’t just a problem with our bike–but no luck. I let all the air out of the scooter’s tire and couldn’t fix it. Some five-year-old is going to be surprised when he finds out!

The weather has been beautiful this week so we have been able to do some fun things outside. On Saturday we went with the Mascaros and the Jacksons to a little campground in Austria. From what we have seen camping is not near as private as in the states. Everyone just sets up camp all in the same place. Elisa and I both went swimming in the chilly water. I even went wading before I had changed all my clothes, because two of the kids tripped at the same time and were having trouble keeping their heads above water. The river was really nice and we had a campfire and even smores! Everyone kept passing us so inquisitively as we roasted our marshmallows. One lady finally stopped and asked if we were roasting “Käse” (cheese). We were able to treat her and her two grandkids to their very first marshmallows. The kids caught some trout at a little man-made trout fed pond. Matt cooked it up over the fire and it was delicious! It was a great time together.

Sunday afternoon we met up with some families from the ward and we went up to the hills over Zürich. Everyone had brought their dinner to roast over a fire. Chad and I didn’t know that was what we were doing but were amused as everyone creatively tried to cook their different things. The Baumanns showed us how to make snake bread. They had brought some dough and we wrapped a long thin piece of it around the end of a stick and then “baked” it over the fire. It was super tasty and fun to see the Swiss traditions. We also came home with 144 photos. Most were taken by Sienna. We kept the 3 photos that were in focus on people’s faces.

• Campfire photos