One year older and wiser too

Happy Birthday to you Jerry. Congratulations on 30 great years of life.

While we were traveling

In case you were all wondering what Levi was up to while we were gone, here is what Rachel (Vivian's little sister, and babysitter extraordinaire) had to say about their week together.

# of YSA activities Levi attended: 8- Beach hike, BBQ, church, going away party, croquet match, enrichment night, movie night, ultimate frisbee

# of my guy friends that think Levi is the coolest little dude in the world: 8

# of my girl friends that want to marry him: 10

# of sea cucumbers Levi touched: 2

# of crabs he touched: 0

# of gallons of plankton water that Levi thought was juice: 100 (it took a lot of work to convince him he couldn’t drink any of it)

# of times we watched Winnie the Pooh: 9

# of disc tosses: 249

# of times I was happy to have Grandma Mona (Granma Mota) here: countless

# of times he asked about Mom and Dad: countless

# of emotional breakdowns: 1

Most heart wrenching moment: I was teaching Levi about using the word "find/found", so I was telling him "find a trash can" and he was saying things like "Bevi find a fire truck". Later on he was asking about his Mom and Dad, and I was telling him the story of them leaving on a bus. He got a thoughtful/concerned look on his face for a minute and then said "Find mom and dad." Aw.

Longest sentence: “Ra-ra and Bevi get gas in a car a drive home!”

Best find: tied between an orange remote control car and a bunch of helium-filled balloons (both found in the magic dumpster)

Most stressful moment: when my Relief Society teacher called 15 minutes before RS to tell me she wouldn’t be coming in. I gave an impromptu lesson and was once again very glad that Mom was there, as I couldn’t have done it if I had to watch Levi as well (Levi was very good, but was sometimes very distracting…occasionally during the lesson he would say “heyyy Ra-ra”, which would completely throw me off my train of thought)

Best new word: Funky. As in, “Levi funky!”

Most joyful moment: Watching Levi’s face when he finally saw his Dad and Mom getting off the bus

Levi’s newfound talent: hip-shaking

update #2

I don't have the time to upload pictures so I'll write about the event for which I have no pictures (of my own). On Tuesday night Jerry and I went to an concert by the zurich orchestra. It was in a very ornate historical building downtown. The music was beautiful. Both Jerry and I were remarking on how we always forget how good music sounds when it is live. It felt very fun to get to go to a show together. Thanks Rachel!!

Zurich Update

Jerry and I arrived in Zurich yesterday after a 10 hour non-stop flight from LAX. The city is a 10 minute train ride from the airport. We checked in to the hotel and called our friends Jeffrey and Karen who have lived in Lausanne since last fall. We walked down the riverfront and around by the lake. The weather has been very nice. People were out lounging in swimwear and soaking up the sun. We bought some bratwurst and fries from a street vendor and ate on a bench.
Side note: it has been interesting ordering food here. I try my best in German and the waiter or person at the counter will usually speak back in a mix of German and English (depending on how long it takes me to process and respond to the deutsch). Its kind of nice because I have been able to add words to my vocab that way. Most notably I've noticed a distinct lack of that "look" that you can often get from people with a bad attitude towards tourists when you're trying to speak their language, which is nice.
Anyway, after we ate, we met up with some other former santa barbarians who now live near Basel and had some dessert.
We got in bed extremely tired, but of course because of the time change - both woke up around 3:30. I was able to fall back asleep, but not Jerry. Any bets on whether or not he falls asleep during the opening session tonight?
Today we visited Lucerne which is very picturesque. Which is an adjective that fits everything we've seen so far. You know- buildings with shuttered windows with flower boxes lining a river. One thing we didn't expect to see was a group of maybe 200 plus people in full wetsuits, scuba masks and various pool toys jumping into the river and floating away. I have no idea what this was about. We wandered around the walled part of the city and listened to the clock chime at noon from within the bell tower.

Now I'm back at the hotel and Jerry and Jeffrey went to the opening session. After walking all day, I am pretty tired right now, probably even more than yesterday. I'm blogging to try to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime. So- sorry about any typos or incomplete thoughts.

May and June Photos

Rachel's cool costume, random activities, and a few wedding photos.

Jet Lag

Its 8:01 am and I've already been up for hours. I know for many of my friends, especially those who also have kids, this doesn't seem newsworthy. But for me it is.

With regards to our upcoming trip, Jerry has decided to try to move his sleeping schedule as far as he can to minimize the effects of jet lag. He has already moved it almost 3 hours. I have my doubts as to whether this will have a measurable effect, but I know I get excessively tired from crossing time zones, so I am willing to give it a try.

My strategy is usually - sleep as much as possible on the plane then try to resist the magnetic pull of my bed until a reasonable bedtime.

Anyone out there have any better ideas? Do you think trying to change your sleeping schedule before departure will work?