France et Switzerland I

I don't know how to do our trip justice, but I will do my best with some of my favorite pics (out of many, many) and a brief description of what we did. It was super fun, and super tiring!

Starting out, we flew a nice red-eye to Paris, where we hardly got any sleep due to all the happenings on the plane (you would have thought we were back in the hospital having a baby with all the interruptions!) not to mention the fact that Erik was getting over a cough and couldn't sleep well once everything quieted down.

When we got to Paris we caught our flight down to Geneva to see my mom and Jim on their mission. It was a great reunion with them and they greeted us with a baguette, so we could feel real French-like.

Without any further ado, and hardly any time to unpack, we went to the institute in Geneva. They live in Ferney Voltaire, France, so began the constant comings and goings between the two countries.

While Jim was in a meeting, my mom took us to see some parts of Geneva near the institute. We walked over to the Reformation Wall.

Here's on our walk. And the Wall.

I loved these buildings!

After our quick, short tour of that area we went back to the institute and listened, or tried to, Mom and Jim's lesson on Paul, I think! We were so tired by that point we could barely keep our eyes open! They gave a well-prepared lesson, though.

That night, Erik was so worn out he slept 8 straight hours! That helped me get started on the right foot. Especially because the next morning we were up early to begin the fun.

Here's a nice view of the mountains behind Lake Geneva. We were on our way to Gruyere, Switzerland, a medieval town, close to where they make cheese and chocolate. At this time of year we didn't get to see many cows out yet, so no pics of those animals which are the key to all that cheese and some of the chocolate.

Erik was happy to be out of the car.



I loved this plaza!

Here's going into the cheese factory tour. The smell was interesting, but the cheese we got to taste was good. We learned how the flowers and grasses cows eat, at various times of the year, alter the flavors of cheese, making 75 different types.
Now who can go to Switzerland and not take a tour of a chocolate factory? Switzerland consumes the most chocolate in the world, so of course they have the best.

Those aren't tootsie rolls! They were delicious, but not as good as the many other kinds we were able to taste later!

Cocoa beans.

After our chocolate tour we headed toward Lake Geneva to the castle Chillon, which is right on the water. I loved the moat as I walked over the bridge.
Here's the prison in the cellar which inspired Lord Byron to write his poem The Prisoner.
This is just outside on the dock.


Isn't that gorgeous?!
Here's Erik on the way back talking to Grandma.
It was a busy first day-and-a-half, but worth it! Stay tuned for the next few days' travel!

Time Flies!

Erik will be 4 months on Friday! Since Jason and I (and Erik, of course) will be in France and Switzerland during that time, I thought I'd pay tribute to his four months now.

Believe it or not, he did gain another pound, making him 16 pounds, according to our scale. Victoria was 17 pounds at 12 months, so we have had the spectrum of skinny babies and chubby babies!

Other than getting stronger and going a little longer without nursing, not too much has changed. I have noticed something about him that's different than his siblings. He does not care for any of his toys. Not the ones hanging from the bouncer, not any other fun things I give him while he's on the floor. He only wants to look at people! If he's left alone, he will fuss until someone comes over to "talk" to him. Luckily, the kids enjoy this. If they're not around, he will twist his body and stare at me across the room in the kitchen, where I'm trying to accomplish something so I can go "talk" to him. So, we have another social bug amongst us. It's very cute, though, and he's going to love all the undivided attention he'll get on our trip!

Au revior! (I think that's how you spell it!)

12, 34

On the 12 th was my 34 th b-day. Here are some of the highlights of my day:

This cutie! Here he is with me over the weekend.

Also:

-a good workout in the morning

-finding the soundtrack to Tangled at the library that we danced to many times during the day

-having my friends surprise me with bagels and an Oreo cake at my house when we were supposed to have our meeting for our Primary callings (we still had our meeting, but with an extra perk!)

-another friend dropping off lotion a chocolates

-Karissa and Austin playing well for a long time on their own

-hanging out with my boys outside (the weather was dry and nice in the afternoon) while the girls went to dance

-cinnamon rolls from my friend who drove the girls to dance

-Chinese food and and chocolate cake that Victoria made

-flowers from Jason

-nice cards and a few gifts from family and friends

-phone calls from friends and family

-weighing less than I had for the previous few nights, despite eating a few more treats!

Here's a pic that Karissa took with my flowers.

After she took a bunch of pictures, though, there was a finger print on the lens, hence the smudgy pictures with my cake!

I don't know if you can see Erik well, but he's smiling here at the excitement.

We forgot to have the kids take a pic of us before going to bed, so we cleaned off the lens and took it ourselves. What a great day!

Skatin' Station

As mentioned before, we went to the Skatin' Station over mid-winter break with our friend Bethany for the preschool skate. They got to see Elmo.

Here's Karissa on the wall at the beginning, but she got more confident as the time went on.

Luckily, I brought our training skates for Austin, just in case. He wanted to use them and did very well for a 2 1/2 year-old!

Victoria took right off and did great! I'm excited to skate with her around our cul-de-sac!
Aren't they cute holding hands?
Austin later decided to push his car around like some of the other boys his age were doing. He enjoyed running at high speed with the loud music.

When we left, we got free tickets to come back. Since they only do the preschool skate on Thursdays and Karissa's preschool the next Thursday was moved to Wednesday, we took advantage and went with her friend. Here she is, the next week, looking good!

Here's her friend Evelyn.
Erik slept most of the time, but here he is on another day, getting some lovin' from his sisters!