A Trip Across The Lake

While my sister and her family were in town this weekend we decided to hop on a boat and go to France! Lausanne is just across the lake from Evian Les Bains and the short boat ride made for an easy day trip. We left early and when we arrived in France, they were having a formula one boat race! It was so crazy to step off the boat and watch a giant crane lift the speed boats into the lake! We watched the racers practice for about a half hour while the kids played at a nearby park and man those boats go fast. I kept waiting for them to crash into something, but thankfully nobody crashed! Quinn and Kevin were so cute watching the boats here that I had to snap a sneaky picture from behind.

So, most people go to Evian to bathe and partake in the famous healing waters. There are lots of spas and things of the sort that looked amazing if we weren't traveling with a gaggle of kids. Fortunately we were able to partake in the healing waters, much to Kevin's happiness!

Quinn also enjoyed some of the healing waters. The fountain below is the original source for all that delicious Evian water.

 

After we revitalized ourselves we took the old wooden funicular up to the top of the mountain. Quinn loved it and Annie slept through most of it! 

 

There wasn't much to do at the top except walk or ride down but I did snap a picture of a cute little French house while I was up there.

After a long day of water drinking, and wooden train riding we grabbed some quick sandwiches and headed back onto the boat. I have to say as a side note that since we've been here our kids have become expert baguette eaters! All the little sandwich shops sell ham baguettes with BUTTER, SO MUCH BUTTER. It's really a dream come true for me, and proudly my kids can throw down ham and butter sandwiches like champs!

We spent the boat ride home entertaining kids with breath mints and taking pictures in front of flags. My sister Noelle and her family are experts at kid wrangling, and it sure was nice to have family around! Quinn and Anna were in cousin heaven!

We'll miss you Noelle and Brad, hey everybody else come visit us!

xoxo

My commute

Lausanne's public bus and metro system is amazingly efficient so it makes it so easy to get around town.  The first day I had to go in to the office I took the bus and of course I took it in the wrong way.  Since then, we've become pros at the buses and ride multiple everyday.  As easy as the transport system is, I've been walking as much as possible to better see and explore the city.  I've started walking in to work from our temporary apartment--it's about a mile walk and it's pretty much all downhill and goes right through old town/downtown.  True to old European cities, I pass a ton of things that have been here for centuries and are beautiful.  Here are a few shots of my walk earlier this week.  - Kevin

Temporary Living!

We've been here for two weeks and it has flown by, the first week we were bleary eyed and this week we've settled in a bit, but I still have mostly felt like we are on vacation. Then, today when our our air shipment arrived it felt a little more permanent. Seeing our old stuff in this new corporate-ish
 apartment is a little weird, and I'm sure when the rest of our belongings arrive at our permanent place, it will be super strange, but along with everything else we'll get used to it and soon it will feel like home!

I thought that I would put up a few pictures of our temporary apartment so that these few weeks will forever be saved in Internet-land.

Luckily the people who own the place put this sign up so that we can remember where we are, and Anna clearly considers this home!

The apartment is a two bedroom with a small kitchen and dining area. It's really been ideal for cleaning, and a bit less than ideal for toddlers...

This is the view from the entrance hall, the white couches have been a tricky obstacle with all the nutella that we've been consuming and bathing ourselves in lately, but we're trying to keep things tidy. Although, my sister says I can just take the couch covers off and wash them.. I wonder if a good scrub from a baby wipe would clean them up, because our washing machine is VERY tiny.

Here's a nice view of the kitchen. It's nice and compact, and it makes cleaning a breeze. But, we've got to get out of here before we break all the rest of the glasses!

This is a view from the living area towards the two bedrooms and bathroom. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the bedrooms...just imagine lots of white. Speaking of bedrooms the kids have been doing great sharing a room. I'm definitely putting them together in the next apartment!

Okay, that was it, that's the whole place. Welcome to temporary Swiss living!

xoxo

A Day in Bern…Rawwr!

Hi again! Last weekend we took a trip to Bern, and it did not disappoint! Bern is such a beautiful city with hundreds of fountains and lovely stone buildings everywhere. I read that long long ago the city had a major fire, and when they rebuilt they took out all the wooden structures and replaced them with stone. I don't think they've had a major fire since.

The city also uses the bear as its mascot and there are bear statues everywhere. They have an old bear pit, which is basically a big hole in the ground where they keep bears! They've done some updates to it in recent years to improve the quality of life for the bears, and unfortunately for us it was closed for repairs when we visited. Quinn was pretty bummed!

We arrived by train, it was a super easy, very scenic hour train ride from Lausanne and walked around the old city for the morning. It's beautiful cobblestone streets were lined with flags and there are fountains about every block that the kids had fun drinking from and washing their hands off in!

After we had a  snack in the old city we walked across one of the many bridges and happened upon a place called Rosengarten. It was quite a hike to the top of a giant hill, but we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the city! This park had a giant wooden playground, a little cafe, and hundreds of gorgeous roses and gardens. It was a perfect break from the stroller for the kids and we must have run around and played there for an hour. I mentioned to Kevin while we were there that we may have to re-name our blog "The Parks of Europe", because that seems to be where we find ourselves most!

I had a bunch of really nice pictures of the park and gardens but unfortunately I deleted them while transferring to my to new Swiss phone! So sad.

Anyway, Kevin got some nice pictures from the day, so glad we have those.  After the park we headed down to the city to watch the Tour de Suisse. The time trial for this bike race was in the city and we got to see some of our favorite riders! The kids also had a great time dancing and playing in the square with all the other spectators. It was quite a scene.

 This was a really cool bike track that bigger kids were riding around! We snuck onto it before the big kids did and got some running in!

There was a steal drum band in the square (kind of random for Switzerland..). The kids spun and danced their hearts out while we waited for the bikers to ride by, and when they rode by IT WAS FAST! If you blinked you missed them! Here's a blurry picture for proof.

We had a great day in Bern and we can't wait to go back. It was kind of neat going to the capital city and feeling like we were in a totally different country because of all the German speakers! 

xoxo

Day trip to Geneva

On Friday we took a day trip to Geneva and we had so much fun! First of all whenever our kids get on public transportation, buses, metro, trains… THEY ARE STOKED! They love sitting in their own seats, watching the people around us and and Quinn is always fascinated to look out the window.

The ride is around 40 minutes and goes by really quickly because it is so scenic! The lake is on one side and mountains with vineyards and beautiful houses are on the other, so no matter where you sit there is always something to look at.

We arrived in Geneva and picked up a few wayward travelers on our way out of the train station. My sister and her family are biking through France for a few days then are headed to Lausanne for a visit! FUN!

We spent the day touring beautiful Geneva with our sleepy family, and Geneva did not disappoint. We grabbed sandwiches at a local shop then headed to the park to let our kids run free.

Quinn ran and played, and poor Anna slept through the whole thing. She may be sleeping her way through Europe quite a bit these next few months!

One of Geneva's most visible landmarks is it's Jet d'Eau, this is a giant water fountain located where the lake meets the river, and sprays water 140 meters into the air. It's so cool and you can actually walk out to it on a long jetty. I have to say, we were the only people who took our stroller with a sleeping child in it to see the sight…

Look the other way Quinn!!

We took a boat to the other side of the lake where they have a little beach that sort of reminds me of Venice Beach complete with a huge diving platform, "water" slide, rock climbing wall, lakeside public piano, pull-up bars with beefy men working on their muscles, and all the people watching you can handle!

 This sandbox was so great, it was an actual box to keep the kids contained in on the rocky beach! Genius! The Swiss think of everything.

The kids brave older cousins did flips off the platforms and I missed the shot! Our kids meanwhile were lapping the "water" slide and loving it! Thankfully Kevin stationed himself at the end to catch the kids before they went too far into the lake, it's pretty chilly right now!

After a full day, we headed back to Lausanne. It was so so nice to see family, thanks Noelle and Brad for letting us crash your vacation. Geneva is a beautiful city that we can't wait to explore again!

xoxo

Follow By Email

Hi everyone,

I've been getting lots of questions about subscribing to the blog, so my incredibly helpful cousin Laurel asked her good friend google how to do it..et voilà!

Go to the box on the right side of the page and add your email!

xoxo

Outnumbered!

From the moment we arrived, I have felt like we were on a vacation. Two parents, two kids all the time, it was great! Monday we had to do a bunch of registering and photo taking and finger printing which took some time and was a little hectic but was managable with the two of us.

Then Monday night rolled around and I coudn't sleep a wink, I tossed and turned wondering what Tuesday would bring with Kevin heading to work and me exploring the city with the kids all day.

Well, morning came as it always does and the kids and I set out to find a toy store. After spending a good part of the morning slightly lost, we picked up some sand toys and set out for Mon Repo which is a park that is really close to our perminant apartment downtown.

 We happened to walk by Kevin's office just as he and some colleages were coming back from lunch so we spent a little while checking out his office and introducing the kids around. I think this will be one of the perks to living so close to Kevin's work, it was such a treat for the kids to see him midday!

Anyway, the park was amazing and we spent HOURS there! After being a little nervous at the start, the kids settled right into their natural habitat...

Mon Repo has many neat places but the "bird zoo" portion of the place may be the coolest. There are two giant cages with all kinds of beautiful birds in them. They captivated the kids and Anna must have stood still by the cages for a good ten minutes, which is a lifetime for her! These birds are talkers and would cat-call the Swiss ladies as they walked by! So funny.

This park has the coolest art pieces scattered throughout it's grounds that kids can climb on, or in the case of our kids... jump off of. That reminds me, I keep meaning to look up the Swiss number for 911...

 When we first arrived there was a huge group of daycare children in the sand area, and at one point one of the teachers must have asked the kids to get ready for snack so all the kids washed their hands under the pump then got in two lines so the teachers could inspect their hands and give them their snack! It was amazing, everyone was so obedient!

These sand tables are everywhere and are so cool! Quinn had hours of enjoyment at this one while I sat on a bench and did a little people watching.

We finished up at the park just in time to walk past Kevin's office to meet up with him for the bus ride home!

First Days

We have hit the ground running these first few days (and nights but more on that later)! On Saturday we spent the day walking around Ouchy, which is located on the beautiful waterfront in Lausanne. There is a great walking/bike path that winds all the way around Lac Leman with parks, grassy areas, and cafes along the shore of the lake. It's a really fun place to people watch and was a perfect place to let the kids run free!

The playgrounds here are a bit different from the US.... They are mostly the wooden kind with metal slides that burn your buns as you go down. You remember those don't you?! I haven't seen too many of the colorful plastic types that we see so often in the US. Our kids are loving all the playgrounds and Anna screams "playground time!" anytime her parents aren't being entertaining enough for her! It turns out that both our kids are CLIMBERS!! These guys are like monkeys, it's going to be interesting when Kevin goes to work and I have to play a zone defense at the playground..

Oh, and these things, I call them the spinning swings of death, our kids are magnetically attracted to these bad boys. Hold on Anna!!! Apparently the Swiss are not as litigious as Americans! 

After the kids had their fill of death defying playground stunts we walked along the lake and as soon as Anna saw all the naked Swiss children playing in a giant fountain she had to join in. So, what is the saying? When in Lausanne do what the Lausannois do?! We did. And the kids had a blast, in fact they went back in at the end of the day and they were brave enough to spray the water from the small fountains at unsuspecting swimmers and bystanders.  ; ) Really mostly at just Kevin and I, but still..

After all the fountain playing everyone was hungry so we stopped for some delicious ice cream and a quick game of hide-and-seek. Kevin's buddy was really excited about a full cone all to herself!

Here is a sample of the gorgeous views that we have around here this is looking into the French Alps.

Our kids...always camera ready! 

Until next time!

xoxo