Bluebird's Nest

One day after Christmas we drove back out to Valbella to spend time with my husband’s aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, and grandma. It was a snowy wonderland. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that much snow and almost the whole time we were there (5 days) it just kept on snowing. You might remember it as a green Swiss Alp valley. Winter time changes the scenery completely.

We had some wonderful times there.

We put the tweenager into skiing lessons for a day. She did great of course. The only problem is that they don’t really have lessons for someone that age (either young lessons or old person lessons – like me) so we put her in the young peoples lessons which might have been a mistake. She really enjoyed the first half of the day, but the second half was too easy. Check out the video.

One day we walked to Lenzerheidi to get some groceries and we took the lake route which was beautiful. They have a cross country track that goes around the lake so we had many discussions on the two different types of cross country, how hard it is, and how good it is for your body. My hubby’s uncle is a huge fan of it. It was gorgeous walking through the snow covered trees with the sun dipping in and out. We never once used the stroller but instead a sled to pull the wee babe around. She loved it and the fresh mountain air so quite often you would look back and she would be fast asleep. Of course I always worried about frost bite but she was completely fine.

Another day, myself, the wee babe, the tweenager and my aunt-in-law all went for a 2+ hour walk to get some nice coffee and sweets. It was again a gorgeous day but I don’t think I understood the distance we were walking in the snow, and wasn’t as well prepared as I could have been for the wee babe. Regardless, it was a beautiful walk.

While I was walking (and a couple of other days too), my hubby went snowboarding. He had a wonderful time high up on the mountains with his sister one day and his uncle another day.

One of the most memorable moments happened at the spa. But this ain’t no ordinary spa. Oh no. Let me start at the beginning.

My aunt and the tweenager had been to the “spa” and pool the day before. My tweenager wasn’t allowed to go into the spa area as she wasn’t old enough. I thought that was a little weird. Anyway, the next day my sister-in-law asked me if I wanted to go to the spa. “Sure!” I said. A little while later before we left, my aunt-in-law mentioned to me that the spa was a nudie spa. “Ok” I said “but the guys are in their spa and the women in theirs right?” “Nope.” was the response. They go in there together. Eep!

I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. A few thoughts crossed my mind: I for sure wouldn’t know anyone there, if everyone is naked then they won’t all be staring at you cuz everyone is naked, I could wear my bathing suit anyway right (this isn’t allowed by the way), look at this as something that might make you stronger and something that you can say that you did! (you can blog about it!), Oh and maybe the spa will be closed.

The spa wasn’t closed. But first we did some “sport” and did some lengths in the pool where bathing suits were a must. Then we went into the spa area took off our bathing suits right there where the men were passing by. It seemed so strange. I was completely in my head for the first hour or so (maybe even the whole time). Let me paint the picture. So there’s about 7 spas that you can choose from. Hot, moist, dry, warm, etc… When you’re in the spa you sit on your towel, naked. When you’re walking to the next spa you have your towel on. Not so bad I guess. (I’m understanding why you have to be a certain age now though.) They also have a cold pool that you can run into after you’ve been in a hot spa. It’s supposed to increase your heart rate and be good for your health. It’s friggin’ cold let me tell you. My sister-in-law (who had absolutely no problems with all of this by the way) threw herself into a snow bank beside the hot tub just to see what it was like – let’s not forget she was naked right? Oh and one other interesting thing was that there was actually a woman who did wear a bathing suit and she stuck out like a sore thumb! You could see that she was very self conscious. I found that interesting that it worked the opposite way – that being naked you blended.

Anyway, the whole experience was very liberating and I really loved it for exercising my pyschie and just seeing how confident I was in my skin. Let’s not forget here people, that everyone in the spa was all within their ideal BMI. Oh and that some of the spas over looked the ski  hill so while you’re sitting there naked, you’re watching people skiing and snowboarding down the hill RIGHT outside the window (they can see you too by the way). Overall, I had a great time there.

Lastly, there was New Year’s night. After putting the wee babe to bed in the play pen in our room and grandma to bed, we drank some wine and then eventually headed outside to play in the snow and watch the fire works. It was great walking around the streets, playing on the toboggan and checking out all the fire works displays. I didn’t get any photos (drat) but we had a very memorable New Year’s night.

We had such a wonderful time with family, the food was as always divine (we had fondue on night – yum!), great wine, beautiful scenery, fun games, fresh air, abundant amounts of glistening snow and memories to last us a life time.

Thanks so much Claudia, Christophe and Nanou for having us up to your beautiful haven. xoxoxo