Sledging and Snowboarding in Zermatt with Aunt Bear & Lauren (oh, and Mom too)!!

A few weeks ago , Aunt Bear and Lauren came here to Belgium. That weekend we went to a cyclocross race in Hoogerheide. I met Aunt Bear's friends and we watched the race together. The person who we were rooting for didn't win even though she was in the lead in the beginning. We were screaming for all of the American women that we knew, but we were like the only ones screaming.  It was like a mud pit there and Aunt Bear and I ran all over and up and down the hills.  Then mom wouldn't let us in her new car, so we had to take our shoes off and put them in a bag in the trunk.

The next week I took off from  school and we all went to Switzerland for vacation. It was a long trip to Zermatt (in Switzerland) to get to the hotel. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning and the car came at 5:30. Then we took the airplane to Geneva which was an hour and a half. Next we took a train and then another train which was 4 hours because we had to stop for passing trains and another train broke down so the people on that train went on our train and we were kicked off it and had to wait for a different train. When we finally got to Zermatt, we took a electric taxi to the hotel because they don't allow cars that run on gasoline in that town.

On the airplane...look who snuck into the picture in the background

What a cool reflection of the mountains...this was when we were waiting for our train

               

That afternoon, we went to the ski school place to sign me up for snowboarding lessons the next day and got our ski and snowboarding boots, boards and helmets. After that we went to GRAMPI'S for dinner where we had risotto, pizza, and lasagne.

The next day we woke up to Aunt Bear calling us "snow bunnies".  Which she did every day while we were there!!  We got dressed and went down to breakfast. We tried to hard-boil eggs but the water wasn't boiling so they were a little mushy. After breakfast we came up and got into our suits and put our boots on.  Aunt Bear stole some bread and turkey and made a sandwich to bring for lunch on the slopes.  (Yes, this is the very same person who made us stay in the "NEW Hotel" in Paris...what a disaster.)

                     
Then we went to the ski lift to go up to the place where we would meet my instructor. He was very nice. We first went to the bunny hills where he taught me how to glide down the hill. When he thought I was ready he brought me to the bigger hill and taught me how to do heel side and toe side down the mountain. Then he taught me how to turn. At the end, he said I learned as much as a person would with a couple of weeks worth of lessons.

At the end of the day, we took a visit to the sheepfold with the hotel. They brought us to the place that had the best sheep. The two companies work together so that is why the hotel has a lot of things made out of wool. The sheep were black nosed sheep. They also had cows and three of them were pregnant! When we finished, they let us try their different types of meet, beef, pork and sheep. They also let us try what they give the sheep for food which was hey soup. It was delicious!

On Thursday we woke up normal (this time Aunt Bear woke us up with a "snow sheep" wake up call) and ate a normal breakfast (eggs still weren't good). Except, we split up, Aunt Bear and Lauren went to Italy and mom and I went back to the bunny hills. Mom fell on the ice snowboarding and she says she broke her tailbone...ouch.

After practicing my turns my instructor thought I should try going on the slopes with him and my mom. It was really fun but my lesson was over so we went back to this restaurant at the bottom of that slope and ate lunch. Then mom and I tried to turn together like he does with me but it didn't turn out so well so I just practiced my turns.

Aunt Bear and Lauren had an adventure skiing and snowboarding on the Italian side.  When they had to stop for a potty break, the bathroom was just a hole in the ground.  I don't think I'd like that very much, so I was happy we stayed on the Zermatt side.  Lauren said she was doing pizza pie skiing that whole day too and Aunt Bear has some good video of her.  She has some LONG legs, so it's a really BIG slice of pizza.

My instructor and I on the slopes with the Matterhorn behind us

Me waiting for my instructor

     There was also a little girl that we think was two on a snowboard.  I'm not sure she could even walk yet.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                   

The end of the lesson.

When we got back to the hotel, we went to the pool. Mom went in this very small cold pool for your feet that had rocks in it.The pool was connected to the spa and we didn't know it was a naked area. After that we went to the outdoor hot tub and put snow on the places that we bruised from snowboarding. Mom had texted Aunt Bear and Lauren saying that we were at the pool and asking if they wanted to come so they showed up when we were at the hot tub in their snow outfit and a woman was chasing them around holding slippers for them because they were in the naked area. 

That night, we went to eat at the restaurant at the hotel and the food wasn't good. Our waiter brought out a free appetizer which was smoked trout on bread with horseradish sauce. It was horrible.  I ordered Hay Soup but it wasn't as good as the stuff they give to the sheep.  The waiter told me I could go and get some cheese, so I took half the assortment because I thought we would all share.  But the cheeses were all smelly and we didn't like any of them, so we all took some and cut them into smaller pieces and hid them on our plates under things.

On Friday, Mom and I went for another half day of snowboarding.  Mom said she must really love me a lot to go that morning because she was sure she had broken her leg and her tailbone.  Her leg did have a big bump on it, but she just took some medicine and just kept on going.  Aunt Bear and Lauren didn't go that morning so they slept in and were lazy bums that morning.  No, not really, well maybe Lauren slept in, I don't know because we were on the slopes.  Mom and my instructor and I got to go on the big slopes twice that morning and I even was able to go some by myself.

That afternoon, we went sledging (no, not sledding, sledging).  Aunt Bear and I LOVED it, I think Lauren liked it when she wasn't screaming too much and mom just barely survived it.

She was like put-putting while Aunt Bear and I were like an Olympic bobsled team.  The sledge didn't really have any way to steer, so you had to use your feet and dig into the snow and also you had to lean a LOT.  Aunt Bear kept saying that we were "dialed in" and we were except for the one run where she lost me off the back.  It was ok, we were at the bottom, so I just rolled the rest of the way down.  Sledging was one of our favorite things that we did in Zermatt.

Then, on the way home, we somehow got the times for the trains mixed up (Lauren!!!) and we almost missed our flight to Brussels.  We had to run through the airport and Lauren was funny because she said that we were running in age order because I was out in front, she was next, then Aunt Bear and Mom.  We all made it, because in the end, the plane was even a little delayed, but we got a good workout in anyway, especially mom with her broken leg.

We miss Aunt Bear and Lauren and even Beau misses snuggling with Wilbur.  (Shhhh...don't tell Aunt Bear, I'm not sure she knew how close they got during their stay)

Hanging Out In Jersey for The Holidays

I made the basketball team at my school!!  Now I play on both the school team and the local club team.  Most of my friends from my class made the team too, so we get to travel together to play at different schools in different countries.  So far, we went to Germany and the Netherlands.  We travel on these awesome double decker buses and I usually sit up top with my friends.  My mom says that she was lucky if they got to ride in a rickety old yellow school bus and travel to the next town.  This sounds a lot more fun than that!

In Belgium, before heading home for Christmas, after sports my heel was hurting a lot so mom brought me to this person (I don't know what the heck they are) that told me why its hurting. It turns out I have a fatal disease... just kidding its because my bones are growing faster then my muscles and if I don't stretch enough before I do sports, it will hurt like crazy. I keep on forgetting to do it so its not really getting any better. 

Clearly Beau doesn't have any problems stretching.  This is him sleeping on the beanbag couch in my room...nice and comfy!  Here he's helping me with my homework.













On Dec 6th, Sinterklaas comes in Belgium.  You have to leave 2 shoes out by the fireplace and he comes and fills them.  This year he left me some of those 3D puzzles that I love.  I made Nan a dream catcher and I made Mom this great thing for her desk to help her to keep her stuff organized.

On Dec 13th, we flew to NJ.  The Jets were playing and so Pops picked us up at the airport and we went right to the game.  We even made it in time for kick-off.  And the Jets even won, which I think is because we don't have Rex anymore.  Mom doesn't agree, but Pops and I think she's wrong.

Mom's always happy going into a Jets game,
just not always coming out

Me and my Pops at the Jets game.  I know a lot more about football now and I love going with Pops!

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas.  




We have a tree that Sunshine Mary got us for the hotel so Santa can still come.  Sunshine Mary pretty much takes care of everything, she works with me, but she's really more like a member of our family.  Mom says she won't move to another job unless she can take Sunshine Mary with her.  Which is good because things would surely be a mess without her. 
Mom made me take my picture with Santa and it wasnt so bad.



I also had to try on outfits for the wedding that I'm going to be in.   Aunt Amy says I look like James Bond.  I'm not sure who that is??



JJ stayed over Christmas Eve with us and when we woke up there were presents everywhere!!!! Look...JJ got muscles for Christmas.  Mom got me a hoverboard, but Aunt Bear made her send it back so it wouldn't explode.

I got a lot of great things for Christmas like a MindStorm robot, these cool rollerskates, and a couple of drones from Nanny and JJ and LaLa gave me this really cool loom that I wanted and I already made something on it and Pops gave me an Ice Cream maker which is GREAT because I can't get mint chocolate chip ice cream in Belgium!


Also while I am home I love seeing Aunt Bear and Lauren like every single day to hang out. We did so much fun stuff like wrapping presents, sleeping at her house, riding roller-skates down the hotel hall with hot chocolate or jugging while she pulls me and stops me short (I hope the hot chocolate didn't stain the carpet, whoops :|?) and a lot more. I am going to miss her and everyone else very much when I get back to Belgium.







One day I was trying to teach Aunt Bear, Lauren and Scuzzle how to do the whip and neigh-neigh...it wasn't pretty.

Speaking of Aunt Bear I went to her house for christmas. Before dinner she was testing me to see if I could tell the difference between all the different color peppers.  I love peppers every since I had them with her and Lauren.  I didn't do too bad guessing.

Then we ate dinner which was manicotti. It was delicious, so delicious that I had six of them.  I think Poppy makes them or maybe he used to make them and now he just buys them and says he makes them.  I don't really know, but anyway they taste great.

After that while we waited for Greg (Karen's husband) to come back from somewhere, I dont know where, and then we did the first activity. We split into two groups. Each group got a box that had the parts to make a gingerbread train, and had to build it. Greg was the judge when he got back and we lost badly because ours was falling apart by the time he came. 

When he finished judging we had some pork (I didn't have any because I was stuffed from the manicotti) then we started our next game. It was the game where you all sit in a circle and each person picks a card and goes in that number order and picks presents. You can steal from someone and number 1 always goes last. Well, mom was 1, Nan was 2 and I was 4 so we got a lot of stuff.  

Then we all had desert. For desert there was pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, cannoli (my favorite), chocolate pretzels, thumbprints, peanut/chocolate cookies and some other stuff. After that my team came back and won in the cardboard Rudolf making contest. You had to put pieces of him together and we did it faster.

The next day we went to the Poconos with my cousins Timmy and Chris and with Pops and Mary Jean and oh yeah, with Mom.   We went to this indoor water park where they have a ropes course and big wave pools and slides and a wave rider thing that's really fun.




Mom even went on the ropes course with us, but she wasn't liking it very much.

Then we went on the zip line and mountain coaster outside because there wasn't any snow to go tubing or anything.

Timmy and I coming down on the zip lines

Mountain Coaster

I really liked the wave rider, but it wasn't that easy to do.  This was a time that we snuck in under the rope when they had said it was closed for the day.  Timmy and I both made it on another time.

I also snuck under the rope to play the piano in the lobby.  People were really liking listening to me play, but then the man from the hotel told me that I had to stop.  Then someone came and programmed it to play by itself and it played boring Christmas songs and nobody stayed to listen.  That's one of the great things about Europe because everywhere you go there is a piano that says "Play Me!!" on it.  In the train stations, the airports and other places.

While I was home I also got to see my friends, Kelly and Chelsey.  We went to the movie to see the new Chipmunks movie and it was a lot of fun.  





















Then we went to the park to play, but it was really cold that day.  We still had a lot of fun, we always have fun together and never want to leave each other when it's time to go.









Now while I'm writing this, I am in the car coming back from a party at TT's and Jordan's. It was so foggy that when mom was on the ramp to go onto route 23, she went on the wrong lane and a car started coming towards us but mom saw just in time and we went on the curb thing in-between the two lanes. I was laughing but mom said that its not funny because we could have gotten killed.   It was a little funny though.

Ok, so the party at TT's. Yeah thats what we were talking about. Ok, so we had a party at TT's house. I don't know if it was for christmas or for New Years but it doesn't really matter. (Wait, no it couldn't be for New Year's because TT doesn't let kids come for New Years so Aunt Bear and Lauren had New Years at their house so I could come.) While we were at  TT's, we took out Jordan's karaoke set and sung songs like "Thats Not My Name" by the ting tings or songs like "Pussycat" by ???? I don't know, i don't really pay attention to artists. We unwrapped presents and I got 2 knex sets and a robot arm from Jordan and TT, these  delicious s'more chocolates and $75 for iTunes from Amy and CC which I really, really wanted and an awesome shirt from NONO. I had a really good time and the food was delicious (thanks TT:)).  Mom didn't have any pictures from TT's so I don't have any to put on here with Amy, CC, NoNo, Jordan, Annette or TT.

On New Years Day we had to go back home to Belgium.  Our puppies had been waiting for us and they were very happy to see us.  Here they are at the place they stay when we're gone                       and with their New Years hats on.

I had fun being in NJ with my family and friends for the holidays.