Halloween 2022 and the best of Fall

We picked our pumpkins at Langley's on Vashon again this year.  It was the first time it wasn't raining!

 

I love Alia's pumpkin with the tongue hanging out.

This year we decided to cut the pumpkins from the bottom and clean them out that way.  It was a way easier way to clean them out and the top didn't rot and fall in as Halloween approached like it did other years.

Avery had an A1 design his pumpkin.  Not a bad design but the computer is definitely still learning.  

Paddle boarding at Kvi.

Running at Misty Isle trails.

Need an engine rebuilt?

 Scott and Avery spent the months of September and October rebuilding the engine of a car Avery bought at auction.  It's an Audi A4 B7.

Fall Fun

 This weekend we headed to Gifford Pinchot National Forest and hiked High Rock which is along the Sawtooth Ridge.  The hike was a moderate 3 mile out and back climb.  We had amazing weather, although we didn't expect temperatures in the 70's so high up in October.

The fire tower is perched on that rock point.

The scramble to the top was scary as you couldn't see the edge until you were over top of it because of the rock slope.

After the hike we headed to Huntting's haunted forest and corn maze.  We were impressed by the amount of work that was put into making the forest scary.  They brought to life scenes from terrifying movies and we all ran and screamed a few times.  The corn maze was also fun at night and we split up into groups and hid from each other.  At one point Scott thought he heard Avery and I and he jumped out at another teen and scared him so bad the teen left the maze.  

Fall Pictures 2022

 

 Avery 10th grade, age 16 and Alia 8th grade, age 13

 Maia 12 and Luna 2 

Alia's first day of school

 

Alia's first day of 8th grade.  This year she is going to Harbor school and her first week she gets to go to an outdoor camp near Mt Rainier.  She's excited for the ropes course and a chance to finally go to camp with friends since she missed Waskowitz in 5th grade.

I was happy to get an email with a smiling Alia and her 8th grade class at Camp Cispus.  

Milestones

Avery passed his driving test on Saturday!  It was a long process of zoom classes online, two written tests, 6 behind the wheel classes with an instructor and 50 hours of drive time with Scott and I, 10 of those at night.  He did a great job and nailed parallel parking.

 First day of Sophomore year for Avery at Vashon High School.

We decided to do a deck rebuild the last week of summer break as ours was in bad shape.  We've hit the stage where the kids can do so much more and they were so helpful and we got most of it torn out and rebuilt in 4 days.  Avery was a powerhouse ripping the old boards out.

She loved working on the deck everyday and asked what she could do next.

Mostly done, just have to add the railings.

Happy 16th Birthday Avery!

 He still asked for ice cream cake this year and he's always a good sport about posing with Banana.

Yearly Questions:

1.  Favorite Color:  red

2.  Favorite Toy:  my brain

3.  Favorite Game:  Badminton

4.  Favorite Animals:  Panther and ants

5.  Favorite Book:  Eragon

6.  Favorite things to do outside:  Lay in the sun, hunt for insects, play with Luna.

7.  Favorite Holiday:  Christmas

8.  What I want to be:  I don't know, it's too stressful.....an engineer, programmer or biologist.

9.  Favorite Subject:  Math                  Least Favorite:  English

10.  If you could buy anything what would you buy:  Gene editing machine or anything of Tony Starks

11.  Biggest accomplishment:  I learned to row, code and do lucid dreaming

12.  Favorite thing to do:  Travel

13.  I like to collect queen ants.

14.  Funniest thing that happened this year was when Dad bought weed soap in Switzerland.

15.  Favorite memory:  Going to Iceland and Switzerland.

Jungfrau Region of Switzerland

 After Lucerne we boarded the train and headed to the Jungfrau region of Switzerland which is in the Bernese Oberland area.  We visited Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Murren, Brienz and Schilthorn on our trip.  We stayed in Wengen at an Airbnb.  Each of those areas was easy to get to by train, cable car or gondola.  It was also really easy to walk to each area as the trail systems were well marked and there were over 300 miles of trails from Wengen.  The town was neat because it was a car free village 1,310 feet above Lauterbrunnen valley with views of the Alps.  Because of its location it is the sunny side of the mountain with more daylight.  We also had amazing views of Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch  mountains.  The town looks like a traditional Swiss alpine village with all of its timber chalets. 

 Every trail all over Switzerland was marked with these signs.

Wengen had a fun challenge around town called kugelblitz challenge that was similar to a marble run but with regular sized wooden balls.  Each business built a run.  It was a great way to get to know the town.  

We did a lot of hiking while in Switzerland.  Our first hike we headed to First by taking a gondola from Grindelwald.  The gondolas were fun to ride.  The views were amazing and there were always cows or marmots below you.  

There is a great cliff walk you can do here.  The views of the mountains were beautiful.

A perfect lunch spot.  It was fun to watch the paragliders take off from here and soar into the valley below.

We decided to ride another gondola to the top and take the mountain carts and trotter bikes down to Grindelwald.  You ride the carts on the first portion and then pick the trotter bikes up on the last section.  I enjoyed the mountain carts more as the terrain was very steep but both were fun.  The last portion with the bikes was great because you got to ride all the way into Grindelwald town. 

 

We saw so many cows on this trip, they roam the mountain sides for the summer.  Everywhere you go you hear the cow bells.

On this day we headed to the top of Schilthorn for 360 degree views of the mountains.  We took a series of trains and gondolas to get to the top.  The train ride was one of the prettiest we were on.  It left from Murren which was on the other side of Wengen.  Most people go the Jungfraujoch but we did a little research and realized that Schilthorn had a way better view and is less crowded.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got to the top and saw there was a restaurant with a rotating floor so you were able to see the mountains while you ate.

The restaurant was featured in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, a James Bond film.  The food was great and it took about an hour for it to rotate the full 360 degrees.

This was the bathrooms in the restaurant.  Everything had a James Bond theme.

The views from the top were breathtaking.  

We decided to hike down from Birg after we took the gondola from Shilthorn.  Birg to Murren is about 6 miles.  It was a relatively easy hike down.  On the way we saw a park perched on the mountain so we decided to detour for some fun.  

You can see the park on the plateau below Alia and Scott. The park was called Allmendhubel and it had underground tunnels, and a timed water course.  

 

Murren

We took the cable car from Wengen up to Mannlichen.  We came back here a few different times to play at the park, hike back down to Wengen or hike over to Kleine Scheidegg.  In this picture Avery is looking down at Wengen.  Those are snow fences in front of him.

The park at Mannlichen was fun.  Switzerland had so many parks all over the place.  

This restaurant and hotel was also at the top of Mannlichen.  It was easy to go for a hike and find a  place to eat.  Those were some well earned fries!  I think we ended up having fries and dessert for dinner on this day.  

The hike from Mannlichen to Kleine Scheidegg is an easy 3 mile hike.  We did this hike once in the rain and once in the sunshine.  Both hikes were beautiful.  The flowers really popped in the rain.

Kleine Scheidegg had a great gift shop.  Speaking of gift shops, make sure and look up words you don't know even if it's just soap.  We couldn't find a regular bar of soap in any of the stores so we went to a gift shop and picked up a goat milk soap that had something else in it.  We assumed the something else was just a fragrance.  It ended up being weed soap!

The pool in Wengen had great views.  That's Scott jumping off the high platform.  

Rock climbing in Grindelwald on a rainy day.

Alia loved all of the animals in Wengen.  They had chickens, cows, and rabbits in town.  There were also cats everywhere.  She made friends with the cat that kept showing up at our Airbnb.

The snails had really pretty shells.

We took the train to Brienz Switzerland to visit an open air museum called Ballenburg.  It's a 200 acre area that displays buildings and architecture from all over Switzerland.  It was neat to see how each region's architecture was influenced by the country it was closest to.  

Switzerland had these drinking fountains everywhere.

We had to head to Zurich a day early to catch our flight so we decided to check into our hotel and rent a car and drive to Zeiningen.  It was an hours drive on country roads.  Zeiningen is the town Ignatius Wunderlin (1806-1878) emigrated from to Pennsylvania and then to Southwest Wisconsin, settling there to farm 40 acres.  It was fun to see the town.  There are still many Wunderlins there.

A winery Gerard Wunderlin owns.

Church Ignatius was baptized in.

The area looks so much like the area he finally settled in in Wisconsin.

If you ever find yourself in Zeiningen we highly recommend Pizzeria Due Maestri, it was the best food we had on the whole trip.  Ordering was a little tricky as there was very little English spoken there.  Scott tried to ask for dessert in German and the owner gave him a weird look.  I glanced at Scott's google translate and his poor spelling got him once again....he was asking for desert!