A day of building...and football

The first half of the day was about as lazy as they come. We ate. We lounged. Bella and I even watched a bit of TV (a German home improvement show featuring a bathroom remodel). We took some photos in the grass beside the chalet, posted them on Facebook, and then enjoyed reading all the positive comments.

I helped build two things today, so I suppose it wasn't as lazy of a day as it could have been. First, Cristina, Alex, and I put together a patio table that Stefan and Karin bought for the chalet. It had been delivered earlier in the week, and we felt the least we could do is put it together for them.

In the late afternoon, Stefan and I ran a few errands down in the village with the boys. First, we picked up a new gas grill for Stefan and Karin's part of the chalet. Then we bought a new football for Robin (he lost his in the creek at the lake on Tuesday). Next we mailed some postcards to the States. And then we went to the football (soccer) field by a school and played a bit of football. We played dads against the sons. Judging by the heat and our thirst, we decided to play to 6. At the halftime water break, it was tied 3-3. The game finished 6-5 in favor of the boys. We went easy on them. Yeah, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

One last errand. Stefan bought some fresh bread for dinner and some ice cream for all the tired football players.

Back at the chalet, I helped Stefan put the grill together. We made fast work of it and we didn't make any mistakes that required dismantling and rebuilding. I hate when that happens!

The payoff was the barbecue that Stefan grilled to break in the new grill: steak, bratwurst, and a Swiss traditional sausage called cervelat. They score the ends of it before they grill it (or stick it in a fire) and the cooked ends make the Swiss cross. Like so:

Back in Langenthal, Ellie's dad had a medical procedure scheduled at the end of this week, so we thought it would be considerate to give him a little extra time to rest up before we re-invaded. Stefan and Karin agreed to extend our stay a day, but the downstairs flat was being rented out on Saturday, so the next morning we needed to bring our stuff upstairs to stay the last night with them (so it could be cleaned). Because of the need to somewhat pack up, we tried not to stay too long talking after dinner. We got mostly packed up and to bed by midnight.