A Weekend in Grinderwald, Switzerland 2016

We went to Switzerland this past weekend.  We stayed on a working dairy farm, it was a great time.

Cheese storage area up on the Alps.

The little cheese storage house.

We were up at the crack of dawn to go and visit the cows as they got milked.  The cows were up on the mountain for the summer and are brought down in October.  The farmer's daughter gathers them for milking with the help of her grandparents.  They milk the cows and make cheese daily.  The photos of Colby and Laney are of what they do when you tell them to hug for the camera.

Mya had to use the bathroom up on the mountain, it was a bucket, this is Kara cracking up!

Breakfast included cheese and milk from the cows.

The farmer had a fabulous telescope, you could see hikers at the tip of the mountain.

Cow bells hanging in the barn that we slept in.  All the cows wear the bells but on the day that they have the ceremony to walk them up or down the mountain they put some of these specialty bell on the cows for the parade.  We came home with one the smaller ones.  Laney wanted to put it on Sieben.  

We made these signs as part of the trip, lots of arts and crafts.

This is where we slept.

Sleeping in the straw.

The host of the trip brought all the kids an "un-birthday" gift.

Matt went out and got the ingredients for fondue and made it for all with the farmer's pot, yum!

S'mores in a banana boat!

We drove about an 15 minutes up the Alps to visit the cows that were up on the mountain to graze for the summer.  This is the father of the farmer, he and his wife live up there during the summer to milk the cows and make cheese.

The where they live, milk the cows and make cheese.  

The farmer's daughter.

Cleaning the cows tails off.

The cow pooped and Mya's face was priceless!

Making the cheese. 

Laney took this one...

Laney took this one too!