Mr. and Mrs. Enthusiasm

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On Saturday, I attended a class called "Boot Camp for New Dads" -- what a valuable course! There were only men in the room, as evidenced by the sign outside the door:

The Clarks (Jerry, Judy, Chris, Erin, Annie, Suzy-Q) descended upon Charlotte to hang out and help us spruce up our backyard -- we had a great time (our backs will make us pay for it for the next two weeks, but it was worth it). 

Kate and I didn't think we had enough big news to share recently, so we went out and bought a house. We're pumped! It's in the same neighborhood where Kate's sister and her family (the Dreschers) live. Here are a couple of photos of the new pad:

For those of you who haven't heard, IT'S A BOY!!!

We're so excited. Here's the little guy -- isn't he cute? I think he's got his Mommy's brains and his Daddy's ears. :)

Here's an email we sent out to family and friends the day we found out (which was my birthday -- what a great birthday present!):

Hey everyone:

For those of you who haven't heard, we're expecting a baby! And even if you have heard, we have some even newer news: it's a boy!

We know what you're all thinking: we'll have our hands full with a little Graham running around (we're thinking the same thing :).

Kate's due on July 22, so we're in the 2nd trimester and everything looks healthy. Here's an ultrasound picture of the little guy.

Have a great day!

Graham and Katie

Dear Readers of the Clark Family Blog,

Our family management executive leadership team apologizes profusely for taking nearly five months to update the blog. As MorMor indicated tonight on the phone, you're probably all getting tired of Day 6 in Switzerland! Time for some new news...

As all of you who read this blog know, the most exciting news we have had in the last five months is: we're pregnant! More accurately (since I haven't started to show yet and don't believe I will) KATE'S pregnant and WE'RE expecting.
 :)

And it's beautiful because Kate is starting to show now, which is just another little cool sign that our lives are in the process of dramatically changing. And as her Dad, Bruce Wray, says, her showing pregnancy will be her glory.

We found out about our precious little gift from the LORD early in the morning on Monday, November 18, 2008, but haven't been at liberty to tell the world until today.

Below are some ultrasound pictures taken just a few days before Christmas 2008. The baby was about an inch-and-a-half long, and we could see the heartbeat! I would just have loved for anyone who doesn't believe that this is life to have seen this wonderful creation squirming in the video we saw. It IS life, and we are so proud to be parents!

We'll get another huge piece of news tomorrow morning, when we go in for an ultrasound that will hopefully tell us whether this life is male or female. So 100 points to the person who can look at the photo above and say confidently that they already know (don't ask me what the 100 points is for). All submissions must be received by 12 noon on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

Another update coming tomorrow!!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy Clark

Now this was hands down our favorite day in Switzerland (and also the most expensive!).  We got up really early Wednesday morning to go back to the mountains since we had another clear day.  We rode the trains and cable cars all the way up to the top of the Schilthorn mountain – one of the highest in the area.  It was incredible!  And the best part was getting to eat in a revolving restaurant while we enjoyed the view!  Here are some pictures:

 

 

After we had enjoyed the view for a while, we rode back down and hiked back to Gimmelwald and down to Lauterbrunnen where we picked up another train to go up to the mountains on the other side of the valley.  Little did we know, the views were even more spectacular on that side!  You could see other ranges of mountains and all the way down into the valley, which we couldn’t do the first day.  So we rode the train to Wengen and then took another cable car to Murren – which had the absolute best views.  So we hiked from there to Kleine Scheidegg on a mountain pass where you could see both of the valleys and all of the mountains.  Here are some more pictures along the way…

 
 

And that was pretty much it.  By the end of the day we were totally exhausted so we stopped for dinner on our walk home from the train station and went to bed early.

 Our second day in Wilderswil was fairly cloudy, so we decided to head up to Interlaken instead of going back to the mountains.  We decided to take the train around to see Thun and the castle there.  It was a fun time, though no crazy stories from our time there.

 

 

Afterwards, we hopped on a boat to take a lazy boat ride back to Interlaken.  It was a really beautiful ride in and out of the ports around the lake.  We saw a couple other castles along the way and arrived in Interlaken in the evening.  On the boat we met this fun family.   It was a family from Canada visiting their great aunt and cousin.  The great aunt told us some stories and history of Switzerland that was interesting… the most interesting thing was the fact that military planes launch from within one of the mountains we were riding by.  There is apparently this whole city inside the mountain that was all stocked and ready for war during World War II (and likely still today).  Pretty crazy.

We walked through Interlaken... and saw this along the way!  Ava, what happened to the cow???   (I had to include this for her :))

 

In the evening we went to a recommended restaurant and found it to be the best meal we had in all of Switzerland.  Pork Cordon Bleu and a Farmer’s Market Rosti with great wine and dessert.  We loved it.  Plus it was in this very cute, log cabin building with low ceilings, a fire place, candle light, etc.  We loved it.  And crazy enough the same lady that owns the bed and breakfast we stayed at in Wilderswil also owned this restaurant and was our waitress :)  Small world over there…

So I woke up early the next morning, so excited to see our view… and it did NOT disappoint!  From our room you could see the snow covered peaks – it was gorgeous.  Our bed and breakfast sat up on a hill a little above the rest of Wilderswil, giving us a great view in all directions… we could see Lake Brienz to the north and the mountains to the south.  I had to wake Graham up so he could see… :) 
 

After an incredible and leisurely breakfast, we went down to the train station and rode into the Lauterbrunnen valley.  Everything was so beautiful and we had perfect, sunny day.  We took our first cable car and then hiked to Murren.  From there we took a really steep train (can’t remember the name for it) part way up the mountain.  We then did the “North Face” hike and walked through fields of cows, woods, etc. where there were better and better views at every turn.  One surprise was an incredible waterfall along the way.  Here are a bunch of pictures from the hike.

 

We hiked all the way to Gimmelwald where we took a cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen.  We had been hoping the whole way that we could eat in Gimmelwald, but got there to find out the entire town does not have a single restaurant…  We had a late lunch/early dinner in Lauterbrunnen went back to our bed and breakfast.  It was a GREAT day – absolutely stunning views. 

 

On Sunday, we had a leisurely morning and then headed to the train station for Gruyeres on our way to Wilderswil (where we’d be staying the next 5 days).  First we missed the train we needed and then we got on the wrong train and ended up on a 1.5 hour non-stop ride far beyond Gruyeres.  We still have no idea how we messed that up, but it gave us a nice long train ride through the countryside that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise :). 

 

Gruyeres was a really cute little town. We started out going to the cheese factory for a very cool tour about how cheese was made.  I had no idea how many specific herbs, etc. that cows have to eat to make the cheese!  It was really interesting and it included three cheese samples at different stages in the process (6 months, 8 months and 10 months) so you could taste the difference in the aging process.  Very cool!  We had a great lunch afterwards – Gruyeres cheese fondue and French onion soup with gruyeres cheese on top (Graham says this is hands down the best French onion soup he has ever had!! And Graham NEVER speaks in superlatives!!!)

 

 

Then we walked up the hill to the town and visited the castle there.  Here are some pictures from our walk and time in the small town.

 

 

Around 5:00 we left for Wilderswil and took the scenic route again… This day was definitely marked with lots of train rides, but it was really beautiful traveling through the country and seeing all the mountains as we went.  We arrived late at night in Wilderswil so we had no idea how great the views would be until the next morning…