Two Days with Jonathan

Well, Jonathan didn't get to stay very long in America, but we are thankful for the 2 days that we got and made the most of all of it. Emily planned some good times for all of us to remember Papaw together.

Everyone decorated a rock with ONE word and a picture that made us think of Papaw.

Hudson was sad...missing Papaw, thinking about Regan going to college, etc. Lauren took over and just stood there and hugged him.

Dinner together. Regan was trying to keep her distance as much as possible. She felt fine but had tested positive for Covid. She really didn't want to give it to anyone else so kept the mask on until she reached the end of quarantine.

Cookouts are always good :)

Katherine was in charge of holding the pretty flowers in the car

We got to visit the cemetery, place flowers, and share what we had written on our rocks.

Afterwards, we drove down the road to get some ice cream. Regan had pomegranate and lemonade.

Benjamin got so tickled at his root beer float.

Katherine had a Dr. Pepper float

selfies

Auntie Em fixed him a cup of coffee to start off his day.

Mamaw took everyone to Wasabi's to celebrate Regan's graduation. Mamaw had never been before so she got to sit in the middle next to Regan for the best views.

One of my favorites :)

We really enjoyed everything so much.

Our chef had a fantastic personality. He was determined to throw rice into everyone's mouth.

Rice in the shape of a heart

Congratulations

We actually got to sit together.

Family selfie outside the restaurant

We did our first college shopping! First on the list...towels and a wok!

Linus is hoping that he gets some cake, too!

Regan and Benjamin making carbonara with Emily

YuM! Good job guys!

Making everyone's plates

We are about to start a 4,000 piece puzzle of the Great Wall

Step one...sort 

We haven't see Benjamin for a few weeks already because he came to the states before us and has been staying with Granddad and Mammy. He was all smiles :)

Regan got her phone for college

We met at the McDonald's parking lot to drop Benjamin off (they were heading back to Columbia) and Jonathan was on the way to the airport to head back to Italy.

"last" family photo for a while...at least a family of 7

Everyone sending Jonathan off

Some last minute pictures and goodbyes in the airport.

A dad pep talk about college life ;)

Mamaw holding the vase and flowers that Katherine made for her.

 This is a fantastic photo!

Switzerland-last day

We were up super early to pull off our plan! We needed to leave our ABNB, take the train to a certain stop, race to put our bags in a locker, get back on another train and head back to the stop we needed, then switch to another train to have a last minute hike because the weather app said it was supposed to be a beautiful day. We did the math and figured we could still make our flight back.

We were the only ones up and awake :)

The morning sun from the train

i took a picture of our locker with our luggage to make sure I didn't forget which one I put it in. We had 3 minutes to get it in the locker and back to the right platform for the train. Thankfully, Regan could move much faster than me because I was moving much slower by this time in our trip than at the beginning ;)

Our train that ran from Lauterbrunnen to Interlaken.

This was the train to Schynige Platte...the hike that we had to cancel on Monday due to rain. This was the hike Regan was looking forward to the most. So, we were super excited to try to squeeze it in before our flight.

This train was an hour straight up the mountain just to be able to start the trail. We had to opt to do the short hike instead of the long hike.

We started here, heading towards to flower gardens first.

The views were spectacular! This was by far the best day ever! We could have stayed up there all day just looking at the beautiful views.

And yes, we did start singing ALL the songs from The Sound of Music ;)

We left the flower gardens and started the hike.

Hiking along the ridged... the beautiful lakes on one side and the snow capped mountains on the other.

This is the town, Interlaken (between the lakes), where we left our luggage.

This is probably one of my favorite views...the wildflowers, hills, mountains, blue skies...just amazing!

This was the last hooray...climbing the stairs to one last view before we complete the loop to head back down the mountain.

saw a bee in this flower

We said that this flower reminded us of Horton Hears a Who.

Thankful we chose the right path ;)

Waiting for the return train

Taking it all in

Here it comes1

We actually got to see/hear the alphorn players!!

Heading back down on the train.

Our final picture. We are in the air and heading back to Italy. This was an amazing senior trip and I am so thankful for all of these memories with Regan before she heads off to college!