Corinne!

One of my BEST friends in the whole world, Corinne, came to visit me in June. We've been friends since Junior High, and it was so much fun to have her here!

Fun in Switzerland - Jucker Farm, Lenzerheide, St. Gallen, and Thalwil

We left Matt with babysitting duty and went on a three day getaway to Sardinia, Italy. It was a crazy adventure! Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and getting around town wasn't as easy as we expected. We did manage to spend one warm sunny day lounging on the beach and we ate a lot of great food. The gelato alone was well worth the rain and the crazy man that kept trying to get us to go with him to Egypt. It's a long story.

Sardinia

Love you Corinny. Thanks for coming to visit me!

Rachel Turns 3!

My baby girl turned 3 on June 20th. The poor girl was still recovering from a nasty stomach flu when we celebrated her birthday, but she managed to perk up for cake and presents.

Rachie is an explosive amount of personality crammed into a teeny tiny package. She's feisty, unpredictable, completely lovable, and attracts attention wherever she goes. She makes me rip out a considerable amount of my hair everyday, but she also makes me laugh...a lot!

Love you Rach! Life certainly would boring without YOU!

Bolanders Come to Switzerland

Our dear friends, the Bolanders, came out to visit us in early September. These two allowed Matt and I to live in their house for four months before we moved to Switzerland. They put up with us, all our stuff, our dogs, and probably most difficult, pregnant ME! Then they had to listen to screaming newborn Danny for several weeks. They're great friends, and we're so happy they made it out here to visit us. We crammed in as much as possible before they continued on to Rome.

Hanging out down by the river in Liechtenstein

We had some mean rock skipping competitions that day. Bo totally dominated, though I felt my skills were nothing to be ashamed of:)

We went to Lenzerheide, where you ride up the mountain on this...

...then get in a kart and ride down this

It's about a 7km ride and it's great fun. Well worth the ridiculous amount they charge you to ride.

Taking a moment to enjoy the view from the top.

We also visited Wildhaus, a resort up the mountain behind our house. You can take a tram up the mountain and then rent scooters to ride back down. Check out our very sexy, but only somewhat effective helmets!

We took them to our favorite Fall hangout. I LOVE Jucker Farm this time of year!

And of course, we spent a lovely afternoon in Zurich.

Our final destination together, Lake Como

(Sarah, can you send me your Como pics? I don't have many. I especially want the ones from our seafood dinner:)

Brian and Sarah, we're so happy you came and hope you had as great a time as we did. Let's not wait another five years to see each other again!

Triple Baby Shower

Three of my dear friends here in Switzerland were expecting babies! (Two, Baby Will and Baby Aiden, have already made their debut) My neighbor Emily and I decided to throw a triple baby shower. We're always looking for reasons to get this fantastic group of girls together! For dinner, we served up Cafe Rio sweet pork tacos and salads.

Everything turned out great! Especially considering all the craziness leading up to the big event. Of course, Rach had to come down with the stomach flu that day!

Corinne was in town and was kind enough to spend a day of her European vacation helping me make marshmallow fondant to top off our strawberry cupcakes.

Shortly before the party began, we noticed and unexpected visitor.

Persistent little bugger!

Jenna and Elisa

Alyssa and Roberta

Alyssa was visiting from the States. Switzerland hasn't been the same since she left!

Corinne, Eva, Jess, and Rachel

The whole gang! LOVE these girls!!

(Since the shower, FOUR of these girls have moved away--the worst part about living abroad is frequently saying goodbye to people you love)

Cousin Brant and Sardine come to Switzerland

July 21-August 5, 2009

My parents came to Switzerland! Their names are Brent and RaeDene. Most children call their grandparents Grandma & Grandpa, Nana & Papa, etc... Rachel is not most children. She prefers to call her grandparents Cousin Brant and Sardine. It makes me laugh just typing it!

We had such a great time while they were here! Even though I'm certain my parents would have been perfectly content to sit on our balcony and stare at the view for their entire trip. We did manage to pry them away from their perch for a bit of sightseeing.

We took a short hike to Heidi's house. Yes, even fictional characters have homes.
My husband, the goat trainer

Those goats were mean. Poor danny took a horn to the gut. Fortunately he suffered only a minor flesh wound.

(Click on the collages to enlarge)

August 1st is Swiss National Day. Matt and I had arranged to have breakfast at a local farm. For my parents, I think this was the highlight of their trip! Fresh cows milk, rosti (Swiss style hashbrowns) fresh eggs, homemade breads, jams, pastries, and sausages. It was to die for!

The kids had a blast playing on the farm. Danny couldn't get enough of the tractor obstacle course.

We also took a 3 day excursion to Bern and Interlaken.

I was in charge of finding hotel accommodations for one night in Interlaken. I checked on Trip Advisor and found a reasonably priced and seemingly clean hotel. Funny, neither Trip Advisor nor the hotel's online site mentioned anything about the fact that it was also a home for the elderly and mentally disabled. When we first arrived and walked into the lobby, we were certain we had walked into the wrong place. No such luck. My parents kept the kids in the lobby while Matt and I parked the cars and carried the luggage up to the rooms. After doing so, we met up with my parents and told them we may need to switch rooms because of the awful smell. My Dad then informed us that the smell came from the old man downstairs who just pooped his pants. We figure he saw the 'mess hall' sign and got a bit confused. (Da Dum-Ching) Fortunately, the mess was cleaned up an the smell eventually drifted away. Needless to say, I took a lot of flack for my choice of hotel. I told my parents that if they kept giving me a hard time about it, I would check them in PERMANENTLY! I can't remember the actual name of the hotel, but to us, it shall forever be known as The Poo Palace.

UPDATE: It was the Hotel Artos in Interlaken. After scanning the site a bit more meticulously, I found this in the photo section. I suppose if I would have taken the time to study the blurred figures in the background, I would have noticed that they were all OLD!

We also visited the Trummelbach Falls, Schloss Neuschwanstein, and beautiful Appenzell.

In Appenzell, my Dad bought me and awesome birthday present. A bell almost identical to the one in the picture above. I LOVE it!

Thanks Brant and Sardine! We had a blast. Come again soon!