Geneva with the Twins

This was not planned. The boys spend most days in Jordans (basketball shorts) and soccer jerseys.

They have been great babysitters :)

Really though--they have been a lot of help. Corey was just jet-lagged when babysitting that time

We went to Baby Plage (local beach)

The water was just a bit too cold for June. She cried.

This little beauty (worth about $2.6) has been floating around Geneva for the past few weeks. Curt is literally drooling over the Bugati.

Fun entrecote dinner with the twins at Carnivor du Centre

These are from the Tavel House, a residence transformed into a museum in Old Town. Definitely worth the visit (and it's free)

  

La Tour de L'Ile. I walk by here all the time and took the bus from Bel-Air Pont to work many days. It's nice to have people visit and take photos for me :)

Jet d'eau around sunset (thanks again for the photos Clint!!!)

Meeting Daddy for a picnic on the lake

Playing Bohnanza (we played into the wee hours of the night--not the best photo, but illustrates we were tired?)

Trip with the Twins (part 4)

Last Saturday we went on a fun day trip. We started out by heading to the Swiss Temple in Zollikofen. The boys attended the temple while I baby sat June.

Great photo by Clint

It was really neat because both Clint and Corey ran into people they knew from their missions (both of their missions are assigned to this temple)

After the temple we headed to Gruyeres where the boys went on the cheese tour (I babysat as June and I have done that tour 2x). We then went to Broc for the Cailler tour. I joined this time since I'd just done it once...and the chocolate sounded good

Smelling cocoa beans

Watching Branches bars being produced

Leaving silly notes at the end of the tour

Chocolate tasting. I love the Femina line.

It was fun carrying June around in the sling. She is such a pleasant baby! She slept through the tour but woke up in time to taste a little chocolate.

After the tour we took part in a special Chocolate Personality tasting session (I am "ChocoHolostic")

The boys then went to walk around the town of Gruyeres to see the castle and other things while June took a nap. I'd been there twice and opted to just stay down by the car. June woke up about two minutes after they left so we just played. I was glad we stayed because it started to rain. We were lucky to have great weather the entire day!

Entering Gruyeres

Some great cows with bells

Trips with the Twins (part 3)

We went on another day trip to Pisa and Florence

Pisa

Cathedral in Pisa

Pictures don't do the leaning tower justice. It looks like it is leaning more than the camera can show.

Took a photo of Curt because it looked cool with the tower and cathedral in the background

Tried the same thing with June, but the sunglasses stayed on for about 0.4 seconds

Florence

Palazzo Vecchio

The duomo in Florence (Basilica di Santa Maria de Fiore)

Duomo with tower

Ponte Vecchio

We went to the Accademia Gallery to see the original David and other sculpture works

It was fascinating to learn the evolution of sculpture while there

Trips with the Twins (part 2)

Our main trip was a road trip through Italy. Our 'home base' was in a quaint village 15 minutes outside of La Spezia.

This is what the drive looked like between Switzerland and Italy

and another view of the bug and her uncles

On the way to our place we stopped in Genoa. This was the best gelato place

We at TONS of foccacia in Genoa

Basilica of Santa Maria di Castello

Cathedral di San Lorenzo Campanile

The village we stayed in. It was on the top of the mountain and had a great view.

Walking from our apartment to our car. It was such a cool place to stay.

Hanging out in the apartment we rented playing Bohnanza, Settlers and drinking blood-orange juice

Day trip to Cinque Terre National Park. We accidentally left the baby backpack carrier at home....so we solved the problem by going to SuperCoop and buying a cheap umbrella stroller. It was well worth the money to enjoy our trip (and we didn't have one anyhow)

Riding the train through Cinque Terre-The views from the train were great.

We started out trip in Monteroso and worked our way through the towns. 

Monteroso: we swam at the beach, walked around and ate gelato; Vernazza, we walked around a little and accidentally got soaked by some big waves crashing into the shore; Corniglia: opted not to do this as we had a stroller and no baby carrier. It's a couple hundred stairs just to reach the city; Manarola: spent a majority of time here and had a great dinner; Riomaggiore: we ran out of time but felt we had seen enough-missed this one.

Monteroso

June was a little scared by the crashing waves and refused to play in the water

Clint injured his toe in Manarola (it was pretty bad) so I got to play nurse.

Just before dinner in Manarola

We at at Trattoria dal Billy in Manarola (the 2nd of 5 towns). Definitely recommend that restaurant.

Manarola at night