Annecy... the 'jewel of France'

We can see why people call this one of the prettiest cities in France - such a fun day today! Just 45 minutes from our home, Annecy had the canals and cute little stores and yummy ice-cream...

Below: The Palais de l'Isle, or "old prison", was built in the 12th century. Taking up most of the island in the middle of a canal, it is the symbol of the town and is among the most photographed monuments in all of France.

We walked up a super-steep hill to this lovely old castle at the top...

Then we got on a paddle boat and enjoyed one of the most fun rides ever - such a gorgeous view on the lake... Mom an d Dad stayed on shore and people-watched and souvenir-shopped...

HP tour and swim class

We had fun taking Dad in for a tour of Daron's HP office in Meyrin, right outside Geneva - Dad's always so cute, appreciating everything. The building is beautiful, and of course we love the free hot chocolate.  This is such a great experience for us - and Daron is loving his job and all his new co-workers.

Today was a big day for our family... we purchased the 5th grade homeschooling curriculum for Stephen for this fall! We're excited to give this a try - we've heard such great things about the Sonlight program.  And I'm looking forward to having my buddy home with me, and learning with him. We figure this will be the only chance we'll have to do something like this -- since we're happy with Texas schools and he'll get back into them when we return, yet while we're here, we can have him take advantage of all the fun things this beautiful country has to offer. We're totally excited about the field trips... 8-)  Today we went to watch Stephen swim at his class in school ~ Mom's comment here about not liking the school stems from some of the issues we've had with it. Nice teachers, but that's about it - lots of foul language, older high-school students, and no adult supervision outside at breaktime. Just to name a few. But great swimming class! 8-)

Daron teaches Self-defense!

A fun day with lots of memorable things...

* Grandpa walked Kas home in the rain...

*  Stephen asked to have his own email account... (one of those 'firsts' I'll always remember, just like when Uncle Sterling said, years ago, when he returned from his mission - "Internet? What's the internet?")

*  When I checked the camera, I found this video that Kenny had taken - his little voice is so funny!

*  Stephen loves his Badminton class at the local village gym... here he is at the end of it ~

And Daron did a great job as the guest speaker at Activity Days tonight - Kenny (although too young to attend, he was so excited!) couldn't wait to go learn karate from his dad.

...With liberty and justice for all!

Today we're celebrating the DEATH, finally, of Osama bin Laden! Americans (and others!) everywhere are rejoicing... I saw a guy driving down the road here in Crassier with USA flags stuck all over his car screaming and shouting 'yahoo' as he drove.  Apparently Obama ended his victory speech with my phrase that I always used to end my high school speeches with -- "with liberty and justice for all"... all my neices and nephews apparently shouted that out when they heard him.

Here's Mom treating the kids to a unique chocolate puzzle... (it's sitting on my happy birthday platter from Daron that matches my happy toaster)

Kas is jammin' out...

Funny - one of Kenny's classmates' moms told me that all the little Swiss kids in his class now call their teacher 'teacher!' when they're calling her -- apparently before he learned how to say "maitresse", he ofcourse said "teacher", and now he has mastered the accent perfectly and says it right, but the rest of them apparently still call her teacher - they all think it's funny.

And Callister's new glasses... how adorable!

The HISTORIC Schmutz Farm in Bern!

Wow - a dream come true today! We got to visit the centuries-old SCHMUTZ FARM! Generations of Schmutz ancestors have come from Vechigen, Switzerland, and we've heard about this farmhouse that's still there, so after Dad checked his genealogy, pulled up the village and street names, we plugged it all into the GPS and drove STRAIGHT THERE!

(A stop at the temple first...)

Look at Dad - so proud of this darling old Schmutz farm! We're so glad we found it!

Cute "Fritz", who still lives here ~ his grandfather bought the farm from Anthoni Schmutz, who was my Dad's great-great-great-great Grandfather!



Fritz's family gave us a tour around the farm...

Mom and Dad loved the baby goats...

And here's Dad pointing to the wooden sign in the barn that says "Schmutz" - it dates back to 1500. Unreal!

They let us into their kitchen to see the iron stove that Anthoni Schmutz built 180 years ago... you can see the date 1830 and his initials (AS) in the white stove. (They just painted it, which is why it doesn't look as old as it is)

What a blessing to participate in seeing this part of our family's history - a legacy of generations of Schmutz's have LIVED in this beautiful valley and listened to these cowbells chime for so long. Like Dad, I'm so grateful for each of them, to be their descendant, and to now have walked where they have been walking for centuries!

SPIDERKIDS!

Our fun Thursday-of-Spring-Break-activity... becoming Spiderman!

That great nearby mall where they got to fake-skate set up this fun play area for 2 weeks... 11 different stations with fun-to-do Spidery things. We can't wait to see what they put in next!

Then Stephen and I found some tadpoles at a nearby pond... finally we now have pets! The gluttonous little cretins love the maggot food we bought for them.

The singing cowbells and unreal wisteria

We did a little jaunt out to see some fun things near our home... these musical cows are just the cutest things in the world. Even for Daron, who doesn't prefer cows. OK, he's scared of them because he thinks they're going to take over the world.

And these gorgeous, amazing-smelling wisteria vines that have probably been growing here for 100 years...

 Then onto downtown Nyon for a picnic by Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)...

The picnic was cut short by a bird that pooped on mom's back. Sick. Pretty much ended our little activity.

 But we wiped it off and moved on - good for Inger! Off to the mall for some goodies...

Then home to try out Kenny and Kassie's new (thrift store) roller skates and blades! 

And as for babies back home... here's Stephanie and Christopher's perfect little chubby Callister...

And Keri and Jacob's sweet Kylie being blessed!

Chocolate Factory (again!) and Cheese Factory!

I mean, what could make a more fun day?? Returning to the Cailler chocolate factory with mom and dad, seeing the most beautiful Sound-of-Music-like countryside, and also touring the Gruyere Cheese Factory.  I'll always treasure the memories of Mom and Dad stuffing their fanny packs with chocolates.

And voila... the chocolate room ~ here's Mom and Dad's conversation while standing at this sample plate...

Inger: "My favorites are the truffles and the coffee flavored ones."
Stephen: "The coffee ones tickle my throw-up buds."

Look at Dad's technique. He would be a perfect pilferer ~

Then, on to The Gruyere Cheese Factory, in the cute little medieval town which has been producing the special gruyere cheese for centuries here. (The cheese's flavors come from the flavors in the milk ~ 75 different scents have been detected by scientists in the cheese -- all coming from the different plants, grasses, and flowers that the Swiss cows graze on in these mountains.)

Watching them move the milk from the huge vat into the molds...

The special, special Swiss cows... 8-)



And the rows and rows of cheese rounds that are stored for up to 15 months to achieve different aging qualities...

We decided this day of activities needs to be a must for all visitors. 

Joyeuses Pâques! (Happy Easter!)

What a wonderful day - Easter is always such a relaxing, happy, uplifting holiday.  We woke up and Dad read the "He is not here... He is risen!" scripture story to us from the Bible, and the kids enjoyed hearing that. It's hard to comprehend that we created these cute little unique people withe their precious little minds... Kenny commented this morning when we watched a video about the crucifixion, that Jesus' crown of thorns must have been the most painful of all, then he prayed that the thorns wouldn't hurt Jesus so much.  It's so neat to have my kids' grandparents here ~ my children get to hear about what they did as children on Easter, how they lived... their traditions. Mom told us about how every year she got a colored chick - like these (below). Now of course our children are looking forward to picking out their own baby chickens next Easter... (we'll see about that)...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErdqeOvjL0

Two women brought me so much joy today -- Mom and Allison!

Mom came into my Sunbeam class and helped me teach it (we colored and sang songs and did creative movement games - Mom was so loving and adorable to the cute little kids, trying to speak French to them - what a great woman). And Allison, my Young Ambassador friend and such a great Primary President, did an amazing job with the children, singing and doing bells. Kenny was especially thrilled when she chose him to do the xylophone:

I read a very insightful Ensign article this week that gave me a new perspective on Jesus. In His moment of greatest agony on the cross, when He said "O God, where art Thou?", I have always found that so sad because it seems like He felt like He was being left all alone. But this article talked about how Jesus was actually, in his last dying moments, teaching us. That phrase is actually a quote from Psalm 22! I never even considered that. The Psalm, which starts out with that question, goes on to express a profound trust in God that He will NOT forsake us, and it even goes on to prophecy of the Savior's suffering on the cross. So even though Jesus only quoted the first verse, if we know the rest of the psalm, we understand that Jesus was not only fulfilling that prophecy, but that He was declaring that He knew that God was there with Him.  It was a very powerful realization for me. What an inconceivably selfless, loving man Jesus is.

I took Mom and Dad shopping in France yesterday and Mom got this beautiful new outfit - Kassie especially loves the sparkly scarf.  She just wanted some lovely new European duds, and we found just the right thing. 8-)

Fun 39th birthday!

What a blessing to celebrate another year alive with my family all around me. I have so much to be thankful for! It would only be made better by my siblings and their families here too. But it's great to have Mom and Dad here. So many people sent Facebook notices - it's very sweet and humbling.

The day started with an early morning bikeride with Daron up into the Swiss mountains ~

While Mom and Dad stayed home and watched the kids and made yummy squash casserole...

Then back home to open fun gifts... (and still so grateful for those given me in advance before I left... I wore my pearl/diamond jewelry today given to me 3 months ago by Steff, Sterl, and Mom)...

Then enjoying my fresh strawberry pastry birthday cake...

Then squishing into our car... thank heavens it holds 7 people...

And driving into Old Town Geneva to explore the beautiful old part of town!

Then we enjoyed one of the yummiest meals EVER... a cute cobblestone sidewalk cafe called "Spaghetti Factory" ~

Here's a video of lunch... watch the cute little birds swoop down and fly off with bits of the napkins for their nests!

Then driving around cute villages on our way back to our Crassier village -- stopping to fill water bottles at the public water 'trough' - every village has one and they're all decorated now for "Paques" - Easter!  Then home to watch Netflix movies projected on the wall.

And finally, perhaps my FAVORITE video to post yet - as I sat here at the table, I looked up and this is what I saw: Dad watching some comedy clip - look how he can't breathe when he laughs ~