For our two week vacation in October, we all enjoyed some much needed down time. Nick, especially, had been confronted on a daily basis with challenges and stresses since the beginning of school; new kids, new teachers, new building, new school route, not coming home for lunch, and less sleep. It was a relief to have everyone home and just be able to relax and surround ourselves with the known and comforting.
We played lots of games, especially Nick’s new birthday game that finally arrived just before vacation: Settlers of Cattan, Cities and Knights. In fact, we played it a total of three times, and had a lot of fun each time. We also went to the Transportation Museum in Luzern twice, and visited Aunt Ursula as well.
Our first trip to the Trans. Mus. was a quick one. We had plans to meet up with Aunt Ursula later, and since we were also coming the next week with friends, we just visited the highlights. The most important activity was making our own movie.
The kids love playing with the green screen. And since it wasn’t a very busy day, they had lots of time to goof around and make several different little recordings. Then we patiently waited for them to be uploaded to the big screens showing throughout the entrance hall of the museum.
It’s Noah the floating head! And his sister, Sarah!
And there is their other sister’s head poking up from the back. It is pretty cool to see yourself on the screens like that. I know, because I make a surprise appearance in the back of their movie occasionally. 🙂
When we had our fill of being famous we moved on to the Playmobil area. Well, really, it’s about rescue helicopters. But they have a station where you can reenact what the rescuers do with playmobil figures and vehicles. The kids love it, even though we have been here countless times!
Over in the space section, we spun around the merry-go-round until we were all sick. Then we played house in the space-age inspired furniture. We think it looked very Dr. Seuss-y.
I may get this one blown up for my wall. A good picture of all 5 kids is a rare thing indeed. 
We went outside and played in the construction zone while we picnicked next. It was a great day, weather-wise, and I let the kids play for quite a while. When they had had their fill of tossing rocks and shoveling gravel, we packed it up and headed over to Aunt Ursula’s house. She has lived in Luzern for almost 2 years, but she has only visited us at our house before. So we were excited to see where she lives.
It was a gorgeous apartment, with a fantastic view of the lake. And she had giant plates full of delicious goodies for us to snack on, along with about 6 different drinks. The kids were in heaven. My favorite thing was the book she pulled out for me to look at. It seems that my mother-in-law spent a considerable amount of time writing down all the memories and history of her parents and her childhood. There were tons of photos as well. I didn’t have time to read everything, but what I did see was fascinating. I hope we get our own copy someday. (hint hint)
When the kids were just about bouncing off the furniture, Ursula wisely suggested taking a walk outside with the dog. 🙂 We went up through a really nice forest path, with a river right next to it, up to a monastery on the hill. It was a great walk, and the kids had a lot of fun finding treasures and crazy looking trees the whole way. They also loved observing Chicco with his stuffed animal. He was just like a little baby carrying it around everywhere, then setting it down to examine something else interesting in his path. Then he would pick it back up again and carry on. Occasionally, he would get distracted and walk off without it, but either he or Ursula would notice it before long and go back to retrieve it. They were really worried he would forget it completely and kept an eagle eye out for it the entire way.
By the time we made it back to the house, it was time to head home. But we had a wonderful visit and hope we can come back during Christmas vacation.