Montreux, Switzerland

We hung out in Montreux (it's not too far from Geneva) and went to see the Chateau de Chillon (a castle).

These ostrich shaped plants were interesting...

Here's the Chateau

Inside the courtyard area of the castle

They had these long creepy secret passageways that led into different bedrooms (you can sort of see me at the other end of the tunnel)

Neil likes weapons, in case you didn't know that.

Down in the dungeon. The weather wasn't that cold the day we were here, but inside the castle was freezing! I was surprised at how much colder we were inside the castle than being outside.

Neil chained up in the dungeon

We also made a stop in the Montreux Casino, but we didn't win any money.

Geneve

A few weeks ago, Neil had to go to Geneva, Switzerland for school (he's in getting an International MBA from Thunderbird University, so they travel internationally a few times while they earn the degree). Anyways, since he was going over and was going right after our anniversary, we decided to make a romantic getaway out of it. He flew to Geneva and had classes and meetings the first week, then I flew over and we travelled around together for the next 11 days. It was cold, but still very amazing. So, there will be SEVERAL posts of what we did throughout the last little while, just so ya know!


Here's Neil in the city

And Neil out to dinner with some of his Thunderbird classmates.


Sometimes you just need a Happy Meal. Actually, everything in Geneva is closed on Sundays, so we didn't have too many Swiss options for dinner.


We found this really cool looking building and as we were wandering around inside of it, I noticed that the stones on the floor are shaped into a heart. I thought that was pretty cool.


Us in part of Old Town, I believe.


In Old Town, there's a cathedral from 1160 that is called Geneva Cathedral, St-Pierre Cathedral, or St. Peter's Cathedral. Here's part of the inside
Here's part of the outside


Lake Geneva is an enormous lake that has a very large fountain in it. Here's a pic of the fountain


The fountain was turned off when we went back to take pictures with us in front of the lake. oh well.

All the streets (in Switzerland and Italy) are really narrow and I ALWAYS forgot that I was on a street because they seemed more like sidewalks. I nearly got hit by cars a few different times. Neil was constantly pulling me out of the way!

In both Switzerland and Italy, we've been fortunate enough to find The Simpson's on tv!! I wish I could say they were in English, but I think half the reason we liked it so much is because of the RIDICULOUS voiceovers they've done. It's just too hilarious to hear the Simpsons in a different language with different voices. Also, because we're obsessed with the Simpsons, we already know all the jokes and exactly what they're saying anyways, so we could still enjoy the episodes. Nothing makes me feel more at home than the Simpsons
After Geneva, we went to a small town a little ways away called Montreux...

As I was thinking last night about all the pictures we took, I realized that every single picture is the same of us, the backgrounds change, but we pretty much just took 800 of the exact same picture. At least Neil got really good and taking a one handed pic of us!

February Birthdays

We had 3 big birthday parties in our family this month. Although, I just realized that we didn't celebrate Stefanie's birthday while she was here. Sorry Stef!

We did have a party for Seany


And Shelley (she's buried under the kids)

And Brittney

That's not the actual order of their birthdays, but it was the order that we celebrated them for some reason.

National Academic League

I got to be the coach of Legacy's NAL team again this year and I loved it! I have the smartest and cutest team ever!

This year was very unfortunate though because I had a class I had to take up at Weber State that conflicted with almost all our games! I only got to go to 2 of my own teams games! I felt very bad about it, but my principal asked another teacher to sub in as coach for the other games and she was FABULOUS!

And don't they look so good in their dress clothes!? All the other teams we play against wear enormous NAL t-shirts that look really gross- especially compared to my kids!

I think this was at South Davis Junior High, it was our first game of the season.

This is at Kaysville Junior High after we lost in overtime!
If you have no clue what NAL is, which you most likely don't, I wrote about it after last years season ended and you can read it HERE

VD Day :)

Neil and I had a very fun Valentines Weekend.
We went to see Monty Python's "Spamalot" at Kingsbury Hall (which was SO hilarious!!)

We also went to see "Just Go With It" (Neil's a HUGE Brooklyn Decker fan)

And we got our annual Mrs. Cavanaugh's valentines from my mom and dad



Oh- AND I made dinner for Neil! Happy Valentine's Day to him! AND it's almost time for our EUROPE trip!! YAY!

(a note about the title: someone at the gym said "Happy VD Day" to me and I don't know if it was on purpose, but I thought it was hilarious because I bet several people do contract VD's on Valentine's Day!)

The Reason for the Vacation

The reason John and Stef came out to Utah with their kids is so they could bless baby Hadley and have the whole family present. It's much easier to fly 5 people to Utah than it is to fly 50 people to California (obviously).



Me holding baby Hadley



Stef getting her ready for her blessing.




Jeff entertaining the kids with a Halloween book.




La La and the gorgeous baby girl


Dane is so cute with his sister.




She seems to love him a lot too!

Delicious Sunday brunch!


Cute little Max and Cord all dressed in their church clothes

Pops and Max in their matching blazers and scriptures.

Max, Jeff, and Berrie

Come again soon John and Stef!

Cali Christensens

Last week, John, Stef, McCord, Dane and Hadley came to town from California. Most of our family had never met Hadley yet, so she was pretty much the star of the show!

She's just too adorable!

Pops and Hadley

I LOVE her face in this tubby time picture!

Here's Alex giving Hads a hug that was maybe a little too tight

Movie night was filled with lots of cuddling with the grandkids.

Cute Daners playing catch with his daddy.

Neils with Hadley.

Me with Had

All the kids LOVED holding the baby and wanted about 50 turns.

Happy Anniversary

Neil and I had our 6 year anniversary yesterday! It was a very fun day to spend together.

We woke up and went out to breakfast at The Grand America Hotel. They always have THE most beautiful flowers!!

For dinner, I planned for us to go to Takashi for the best sushi around, but the wait was ridiculous and they don't take reservations so we went to Ichiban instead and had very average sushi :(

The best part of our anniversary celebration is going to happen in a couple of weeks when we head to Switzerland and Italy for our romantic getaway!

Ice Skating

Last weekend, Neil and I went ice skating with Scotty Mac and Jason.

These boys were pretty good on the ice, I must say... Well, Jason and Scott were anyways.

Scott tried to help Neil skate on one leg. It was funny but unsuccessful,

and ended up like this... At least they didn't fall all the way down!