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Crossing the Border...

This weekend we ventured over the border into France for the first time. We drove all the way around Lake Geneve and spent most of the day at La Plage D' Annecy (The Beach of Annecy). The scenery was really beautiful and the mountains just went straight up! They were so tall that I had a hard time getting the entire mountain in a picture.

On the bank of the lake is a pretty amazing hotel called the L'Imperiel Palace which has a huge garden and a playground which Madi was sure to spot :)

While walking around the lake Madi got distracted by these enormous treeroots that were pertruding from the ground. She entertained herself by "balancing" on each root and yelling "Look Mommy!!!" (which are two words that I must hear 100 times a day :o) "Look Mommy, I'm balancing!" Each time we tried to prod her along she would say "No, I'm balancing right now." After about 10 trees and 50 balancing acts later, we convinced her that we needed to move on. She agreed but insisted on hugging and "Theo kissing" the tree before we left. She coined the term "Theo kiss" after learning to Swiss kiss (kiss, kiss, kiss on the cheeks) her friend Theo. Now she Theo kisses Drew, Daddy and pretty much anyone who will let her!

Before leaving the beach we rode the train around part of the lake and then loaded up and headed to Evian, France.

The Lausanne City Center

It's hard to believe that we have lived in Lausanne for 6 weeks and this weekend was the first time that we had made the mile hike up the STEEP hill to check out the city center. We can see the beautiful buildings from our bedroom window but we always seemed to go down the hill to the lake instead. The reason for this is probably because going to the beach is free but spending $ in the city is almost unavoidable due to the great markets and amazing shopping. After going, we discovered that we have been really missing out!! Every weekend the city of Lausanne has a market that covers at least 2 city blocks with the most beautiful fruits, veggies, flowers and the freshest meats, fish, spices, cheeses, olives, etc. that you can imagine!!

We took our 2nd double stroller that I insisted Brad buy and as you can see I am carrying Drew in the Baby Bjorn most of the time. What can I say.....I'm an enabler!!

At one point in the day, we walked up to this big group of people standing around odviously waiting for something to happen. We, of course, joined them and within a few minutes a clock chimes and this "puppet show" begins. We were thinking it would be pretty cool and Madi would enjoy it even though it would undoubtedly be in French. We were a little confused when after a few little figurines danced across the set while a man's voice gave a narration in French. It was literally less than a minute long and everyone just left acting as if the show was worth waiting for. Madi was asking where the puppets were and we assumed it was just another one of those communication gaps??

Madi was just as confused as we were.

We couldn't leave without letting Madi ride the "horsey" - 5 or 6 times...ok so I'm the enabler and Brad's the push over :)

We just can't get enough of Montreux!

Our weekends have become all about seeing as much as we can of our new country from the time we get up until the kids completely crash. Saturday we decided to take our first trip to France. It's only about a 40 minute car ride so we grabbed the passports and took the lakeside route. However while driving through the beautiful cities of Vevey and Montreux, Switzerland, we decided that we just had to stop and spend the day exploring Montreux for the third time. It is the most incredible place that I have ever seen. I could go on and on but I will let the pictures speak for themselves....