Désalpes - Bringing Down the Cows

This weekend, we decided to partake in an age-old Swiss tradition: the descent from the alps of the cows for the winter - known as the Désalpes. We hopped in the car and started to make our way to the mountain village of Charmey. About half-way there, we ran into some stopped traffic and sat in the car for about 30 minutes. Finally, we heard the bells start ringing, and shortly afterwards a parade of cows, decorated with their best bells and bouquets of flowers began to stream by. Apparantly, we didn't get to the village in time to miss the first herd coming down the mountain. Mason and Nicole jumped out of the car to get a better look at the colorful, incredibly smelly parade. The cows seemed to like watching Mason as much as he liked watching them (as you can see in the picture). After the first herd passed us, we made our way up the mountains to Charmey, dodging cow-pies all over the road.
The village of Charmey was packed with people, many dressed in their traditional swiss costumes, and most of them consuming beer, wine and sausages pretty freely, while the smell of fresh cow-pies filled the air. Nicole felt like she was back in Wisconsin. An MC gave information over loudspeakers about which herd was coming next, where they were from, and where they were headed.
George watched the cows passing nervously from his perch in the backpack carrier. I think he was a little scared of how big the cows were and how loud their bells were as they marched past us. Towards the end of the last herd we saw, I was standing a bit too close to a passing cow, who decided to whip his tail in my direction, sending a nice spray of you-know-what landing on my jacket and forehead. Nicole was nice enough to grab the baby-wipes to help me clean-up, but not before she continued to casually take some more pictures. I guess after watching the cows move at their glacial pace, Nicole decided to take it nice and slow as well. Lucky me.
For more pictures and some video of the Désalpes, check out the pictures and video links to the right.

Look Who's Walking

Yes, yes, I know I start every post these days with, "I know we haven't posted anything in awhile", so I will not start this post the same way this time. So, anyway, since our last posting, George has reached quite a few milestones. First teeth, first birthday, first temper tantrum, and now, his first steps.
If you haven't see his first birthday pictures, please follow the "Our Pictures" link to the right to our Shutterfly website where you can see the latest pictures. I admit I am doing a much better job keeping the pictures updated on Shutterfly than keeping this blog going, but I promise things are going to change. We have a lot of action coming up in the next few months, so I think we will have some good blogging material to work with.
So you can see how George's walking has progressed in the last month, you can follow the "Our Videos" link to our YouTube page and watch some video of the little guy waddling around. Notice that George is also taking on some of Mason's finer personality traits already, as he is probably the loudest 1-year old on the planet. I guess when you have to compete with Mason, you adapt quickly to survive in this household. Mason is also teaching George the finer points of ripping toys out of other kids hands, which George is already starting to do at playgroups. On his own, George is also keeping us extremely busy as he opens every cupboard and every drawer in his reach and emtpies all contents. While we are busy cleaning up from one cupboard, he moves quickly to the next one and starts emptying those contents. We can't seem to find any good child-proofing locks in Switzerland that will not ruin our cupboards, so we just deal with it. Now you know why we never post on the blog anymore...