Happy Birthday Jordan!

 

We got to celebrate Jordan's birthday this past weekend.  As he prefers, it was a quiet affair with a simple dinner, cheesecake and close family and friends.  He is closing out his 30's, and it is weird to think that this is the year in which he has known me longer than he hasn't.

He is our rock - steady and solid amidst life's turmoils.  While he is a planner, one of his greatest strengths is that he can roll with the punches when the unexpected rears its head.  He is a wonderful spiritual leader, and he loves his family deeply.  He is also one of the greatest hiking, hunting and travel companions around. 

We've had some wonderful adventures this year, and I'm very much looking forward to what God has in store for us in the coming years as we get closer to having an empty nest.  Life won't be boring, that's for sure!

Reindeer Games

 

We were blessed with another visit from Jordan's folks over Christmas.  As is tradition, we celebrated with fun games, including variations of B-I-N-G-O!

 

We spent a lot of time just visiting and relaxing, with a few social events to break things up.  One night we feasted at a Friendsgiving meal at Troy & Melissa's home.  

Two days later, us girls spent one super fun day in Billings shopping, antiquing and dining.  Meanwhile the men hung out - and Thane and Papa got to sneak away for some one-on-one time over lunch.  The days flew by way too fast, and we were very sad to see them go.  Thanks for the generosity of your presence and presents.  Until next time...

Sweet Treats

One highlight of my childhood was opening the gifts that Gramma Heydenburg would send to us.  As we got older, her family expanded greatly - first with great- and then great-great-grandchildren.  Gifting the masses proved expensive, so Gramma started to send boxes with, among other gifts, homemade bread and her famous boiled fudge.  Gramma always added a decorative bag for each of the kids filled with the same 4 things: a bag of M&Ms, a candy cane, a sugar cookie and a crisp $1bill.  While this may not seem like much, this bag of goodies is something that the kids very much looked forward to as the years passed by.  This December marked our first holiday without Gramma, and her presence is missed.  But to ensure that her memory lives on, Annabel and Thane each found a special bag under the tree filled with some familiar treats to enjoy.  This is a tradition that we plan to pass down to our grand children (great and beyond!)

Family Christmas

Maine friends Troy & Melissa were the last people that we saw before we moved from Machias.  Faithful friends to what we thought was the end, the Parsons showed up early the morning we left our farmhouse for our travel trailer adventure and a new life in Sheridan.  They helped us clean and pack up the last few things from the house and then waved us off.  If you would have told us that morning that we would all be living in Sheridan one day, we would have laughed.  If you said that we would be serving God together at a church in the mountain village of Story, we would have seriously questioned your sanity!

And yet, here we are.  What a kick it has been to be able to spend time with these precious friends that God surely placed in our lives. They are truly members of the family now and, as such, it was great to be able to spend a crisp Christmas Eve with them at church and then at a celebration at Grampa & Gramma's house.

We ate way too much food and laughed the night away - as it happens with family.

Sweet Sixteen

Annabel turned 16 the week before Christmas.  We got to celebrate this sweet girl twice - the first time with family, and the 2nd a week later with some of her friends.

Annabel continues to remain focused on her studies and future plans, which include something in the medical field.  She is funloving, kindhearted and sweet.  She is officially dating Bridger now, and we feel her absence acutely as she spends more time out of the house.

She has her driver's license too, and it won't be long before she is ready to fly.  Until then, we continue to be delighted with her presence.

We love you so very much girlie!

Black Mountain Lookout

  

During a layover on our flight home from Europe, I found out that one of my co-workers had been hospitalized with a fairly serious health issue.  Since I was the only person in the Department that knew the full scope of her job, it was up to me to carry most of the load until she was back on her feet.  So for the next several weeks, I was holding down two full time jobs.  Jordan, in the interim, came home to discover that the hospital would most likely be moving ahead with over $25 million worth of expansion and renovation projects over the next few years - all with him serving as project manager.  Chaotic is/was an understatement.  

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with lots of members of the extended Lentz' family, but it flew by and we were well into December before we were able to briefly pause and regroup by taking a day trip up to our beloved Big Horns.

There hadn't been a lot snow in the mountains yet, so we decided to try to trudge our way up to the Black Mountain fire lookout, perched on the highest point in the photo above.

At a height of 9500 feet (the last couple hundred of which were in knee deep snow), the lookout offers 360 degree views of the plains (including Sheridan in the middle of the photo below) and surrounding mountains.

Spending the day enjoying God's creation was just what we needed.  We can hardly wait until the spring melt off when we can hike some more!

Another Successful Year of Hunting

The men had another successful year of hunting.  We are so grateful to be able to live in an area where the wildlife is abundant and we are able to fill our freezer with healthy, sustainable meat.  And believe me, when you have a growing boy like Thane (who, at his 14th birthday, was over 6' 3"), you take every bit of food that you can possibly get! 

Jordan and Thane each shot an elk and a deer - enough for us to eat, feed Freya and share.  A true blessing!

Bon Voyage!

Sunday morning dawned all too soon.  With it came grateful goodbyes, as the Shores headed to Zurich for flights to London and home.  Jordan and I, on the other hand, caught a later speed train to Paris for a very full afternoon of sightseeing.

First we made our way to the Cluny Museum, which features all things related to the Middle Ages.  The last time I was there much of the museum was closed for renovations, and I was thrilled to be able to explore more of their collections.

The museum contains old furniture, reliquary boxes (like the one carved of ivory above), and coats of armor, among many other treasures.  

But the museum is best known for its collection of tapestries, many of which are quite well known.

From there we walked several blocks to check on the progress of the restoration of Notre Dame.  The work that has already been done is quite impressive, and we look forward to going back one day to see it completed.

Paris is a busy, noisy place - and it can be overwhelming at times.  For this, and many other reasons, I most often choose to walk along the Seine when I am there.  On street level, the sidewalks flanking the river are mobbed.  But on the river level where the ancient cobblestone path is wide, there is room to breathe and escape the chaos above.  We even saw some swans gliding across the smooth water as the Seine reflected the night sky. 

All too soon, we had to head back to our hotel to get ready for our morning flight back to the States  and reality.  We were so grateful for an incredible trip, even if it wasn't what we had planned.

Thun

While the rest of the group was in Liechtenstein, Jordan, who was a bit travel weary at this point, decided to spend a more relaxed last day in Switzerland exploring more of Thun.  We had walked around quite a bit of the retail district earlier in the week, but we completely missed the older part of the city.  Such a bummer, as we missed some of these cool spots:

We'd love to go back and explore this area more in depth, and we hope to return soon!

Liechtenstein

 

On our last day in Switzerland, Uncle Kelly, Aunt Michele and I opted to visit the tiny country of Liechtenstein, which sits on the northeastern border of Switzerland.  The 4th smallest nation in Europe, Liechtenstein is roughly 62 square miles in size.  Just when we thought that we'd seen all of the beautiful spots in a very beautiful country, the trip to the capital city of Vaduz was breathtaking.

Once there, we walked the "Yellow Brick Road" in front of the capital building, taking a few moments to look up the hill to the royal palace.  Then we went to the national museum, which was filled with taxidermied samples of every bird, bug and animal native to the country.

The museum also contained interesting artifacts of both the royal family and ordinary citizens, along with information about national exports.

On the way home, we couldn't resist stopping at the Lindt chocolate factory, a short distance from our connecting train to Thun.  While we didn't have time to take the tour, we did treat ourselves to some sustenance on the way home!

Lucerne

The next day dawned bright and clear, which was perfect as we planned a tour of the city of Lucerne.  Known for its high end luxury items, Lucerne is a beautiful city in the northeastern part of Switzerland filled with artistic buildings, churches and historic places.

 

Perhaps one of the most moving sites is the Lion Monument, which commemorates Swiss guards that were massacred when a mob stormed the Tuileries Palace seeking King Louis and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. 

Near the monument is a garden and small museum that showcases the topography of Lucerne over the ages.  The site contains 32 glacier pots - smooth, circular grooves carved into the bedrock (some by as much as 30 feet deep) by water moving large stones over the years.  Fascinating!

 

We walked around the city for awhile after lunch, and then crossed the Chapel Bridge, the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.  The bridge is famous for wooden paintings adorning its ceiling.  Although many were destroyed in a fire in 1993, the paintings are being painstakingly restored.

Lucerne was absolutely beautiful, and we could have easily spent another day or two exploring the area.

A New Friend

 

As I stated in my first post about our trip, Switzerland was a last minute stop on our itinerary, and we threw the details together literally at the last minute.  For example, while on our layover in Denver, we searched for VRBO options in Switzerland.  I couldn't find any in Interlaken, the town we thought we'd use as a base.  Jordan zoomed out on Google maps and suggested the nearby city of Thun.  I checked there and found an incredible penthouse apartment near the train station - complete with 2 levels and a rooftop deck with the prerequisite outdoor hot tub!  Here's one of the views from the 2nd floor of our rental.

We booked the apartment and headed to our gate to board the flight to Munich.  The plane was only about 1/3 full, and we were excited to think that we might not have to share our middle aisle with a stranger.  Wrong!  Just before the doors closed, a women sat right next to me.  The flight attendants let us know that we could get up and move around once we were in flight, but until then we had to stay in our assigned seats.  The woman and I started making small talk, and it turns out that she is from Switzerland.  Not only that, she is from... Thun!  We chatted more, and it turns out that she biked through Colville - right past where we used to live.  It's such a small world!  We asked her for some tourist/restaurant tips before she left for her own row of seats, and we exchanged emails.

Fast forward a week, and we received a lovely email from Karin, our new Swiss friend. She sent us some great tips, and then invited us to join her for dinner.  We met up with her after our day in Grindelwald, and we enjoyed a traditional Swiss fondue dinner.  Swiss people embrace the winter, and they often eat under the stars despite the weather.  We each had a faux sheep skin placed over the seat of our chair to keep us warm, and then we were provided with a flannel throw to cover our laps.  With the candles and heaters under the fondue pots, we were super cozy!

We spent a lovely evening getting to know Karin, who is a substitute teacher for middle school children.  She is quite remarkable and bikes around the American west during school breaks.  Karin is one of the most interesting people we've ever met, and we have plans to connect the next time that she is in America and/or we get to Switzerland!