Ordinas.com » Family

Moved into our new house

jordinas — Tue, 11 May 2010 14:25:23 +0000

It has been a very busy 5 months since my last post, we have moved back to the US, have twin girls on the way, bought a house and I started working from a new office. A lot of change in a very short amount of time.

Our 3 1/2 years in Switzerland were a great experience, and while we decided we could not end up calling Switzerland home, there are definitely a few things we will miss. The feeling of safety and security, the efficiency of the public transportation system, the beautiful views of the lakes and the Alps, the Rösti (a Swiss version of hash browns) just to name some.

It was clear to us, however, that living in a non-English speaking country is too much of a challenge. Constant reminders every time we received a letter from the tax authorities, our local community or even most of our service providers, and all the work involved in trying to translate such notices (Thank you Google translate!) Most trying of all was being away from family and friends, having to get on a plane any time we wanted to visit with our parents (CT or Mallorca).

A picture of our new house:

Our new house in Sherman, CT

Now we are getting settled in, most of our boxes are unpacked and gone, and we are getting into our routines. We still have some things to sort and put away – mostly in the basement and office, but we are getting there.

We’ll work on getting some more pictures up in the near future, and get back to posting more regularly.

Trip to Mount Pilatus

jordinas — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:48:21 +0000

Today we went up to Mount Pilatus in the Swiss Alps. It is not one of the tallest, but the views from the top are quite spectacular. We took the world’s steepest cog railway to get to the summit, and then took a gondola cable car to get down the other side. It was a fun day which also included a ride in a Rodelbahn (summer bobsled). Here are some pictures we took today.

Sledding in Samstagern

jordinas — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 10:44:32 +0000

Yesterday afternoon we took our inflatable sled and went to a little hill on a field right behind our house to go sledding (sledging for those in the UK)… We took some video of the sled (sledge) runs – and as you can see Mateo had a great time!! Actually we all did

Big Baci plays Lawn Jarts (on the Wii)

jordinas — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:23:40 +0000

While we were visiting Kate’s parents in CT, we bought a game for the Wii which included an electronic version of Lawn Jarts – apparently Big Baci was a master champion of the game. As you can see from the video she did quite well too with the electronic version.

Pedro and Marina’s Wedding

jordinas — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 20:57:27 +0000

Last weekend we went to Menorca, Spain in order to attend Pedro and Marina’s wedding. I took some pictures, and video. I am still working on the video, but here are some of the better pictures. I’ll try to put the video online in the next week or 2.

Mateo goes into his big boy bed

jordinas — Sun, 04 May 2008 04:41:59 +0000

This is some video of Mateo seeing his big boy bed for the first time. We themed the room to a Disney ‘Cars’ theme – which was a great hit. Mateo took his first nap in the afternoon and slept his first night in the new bed with no issues!

Kate’s digital scrapbook pages

kordinas — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:38:50 +0000

Kate made these digital scrapbook pages. Click on them to view the full size picture.

Mateo counts to 10 and says his ABCs

jordinas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:43:59 +0000

Mateo has made some great progress in using his words. Here is some video we took where Mateo counts from 1 to 10 and says his ABCs both in English and in Spanish… Still needs a little more practice with the Spanish

Kate, Mateo and I went to Mallorca and Menorca

jordinas — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:48:07 +0000

Kate, Mateo and I took a trip to Mallorca to visit my parents, and then flew over to Menorca to visit Pedro, Marina and their new baby Tomas. We had a great time, and Mateo enjoyed visiting the beach and running around La Mola. Here are some pictures we took on this trip.

Mateo got a new bicycle

jordinas — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:13:59 +0000

We bought a new bicycle for Mateo. It is a wooden bicycle without pedals which is very popular here in Switzerland. It helps the child learn how to balance on the bicycle without having to worry about pedaling which he can learn once he graduates to a “big boy” bicycle. It is still a little bit too tall for him so he can only reach the ground on his tippy-toes.