Hungary

Greg served his mission in Budapest, Hungary. Like moi, he loved his mission and loved the people he served. Unlike moi, he has maintained close relationships with many, many people. In fact it was humbling to hear how grateful they were that he still had made such an effort to maintain their friendship. They'd always mention the many missionaries that promised they would, but didn't. I probably fall into that category.

Since we've been married, he has wanted to take me there and introduce me to his beloved city and friends. Finally we made the trek. As previously mentioned our family loves road trips. Even if a six hour drive takes eight or nine.

We drove into Budapest in the evening through the brightest rainbow in my memory. The kids were thrilled and begged us to divert to search for the pot of gold. It was a sweet entry for my dear husband who really misses the country and the people.

We rented an apartment from a member who has numerous apartments for rent. We were hoping that it was actually the apartment he'd lived in and rented from her years ago. However, his apartment was a couple houses away.

This is the Orszaghaz - the national parliament building as seen from a cruise on the Danube River.

This is the royal palace (now an art museum) in the castle district.
Eating gelato on Vaci Street - Budapest's version of 5th Avenue or the Magnificent Mile.
This is part of the Vajdahunyad Castle - something that was built for the World Fair in the early part of the century.
When the Soviets left Hungary in 1989, the Hungarians immediately started tearing down all the communist propaganda and statues that had dotted their city for the last 50 years. Now, all of those crazy communist statues stand in a park outside the city limits.
This is Aquaworld - a water park built a few years ago. A Hungarian in Greg's office recommended it. We're glad we went, although the night we returned home, the lead story on the news was how a kid drowned there the week before and it's been under scrutiny for very lax life guards. Glad we heard about that after a fun day.
This is a huge cathedral in a city called Esztergom. It's an hour north of Budapest on the Danube bend. If you walk around the back of this cathedral, you can see Slovakia across the river.
Here's Ansel wondering why the pews in our church don't have arm rests.
Greg made us drive through Slovakia on the way home, because when else are we ever going to drive through Slovakia? On the map, it looked like it would be the same distance driving to Vienna. But what we didn't realize were that the highways in Hungary are modern, and the main highways in Slovakia are, well...like this.

Austria

We're three days back from our summer trip to Austria and Hungary.  Oh!  and a drive through Slovakia.  Because, why not.

We started our journey with a six hour drive to Innsbruck, Austria.  Our family actually enjoys car rides.  When the drive is so beautiful and the music so good the time passes quickly.  We arrived in time for dinner, and while exploring the city found a nice little pizzeria.  While enjoying the outdoor pizzeria we got caught in a huge rainstorm.  We didn't even suspect it would come.  We came back to the apartment drenched and ready for baths and bed.

The next morning on our way to Hungary we decided to stop at the Swarovski crystal "museum."  This crazy head is outside and you enter the museum through its shoulders.  They had fascinating Euro-modern-artsy ways of displaying their crystals.  We were all very fascinated and entertained.  The grounds were beautiful and included, a view tower, hedge maze, two parks and flower gardens.  Definitely a worth the time stop.

On the way back from Hungary we stayed in Salzburg for a couple of nights.  The swimming pool at the hotel was the main attraction.  Not outdone however, by the historic old-town.  We loved seeing Mozarts old stomps and trying to follow the journey of the VonTrapps while singing "Doe a deer a female deer. . ."
Not my favorite picture, but here we are outside of the gazeebo that Rolf and Liesl danced around.  Ahh.
Henry couldn't resist the gigantic pretzels.  He ate the whole thing.  
Can't you just see Maria dancing through this street?

Ideklic

The weather this summer has been perfect.  Most of the days have been in the high 70's to low 80's.  Because air-conditioning is rare here, when it gets into the 80's it just isn't very comfortable.  A few weeks ago on a day too hot to be comfortable, we decided to venture into the Jura mountains and visit a children's festival in France.

The ride was beautiful.  Up and down around and around.  Two hours later expecting to find county fair crowds, I'd wondered if we were in the right spot.   Instead we found a great parking spot and a lovely French village lined with banners ready to celebrate children.  At the end of the street we found a "Charlie Chaplinesque" man playing a piano that moved like a bike.  We only got to enjoy a few of his songs, but I'm pretty sure we got the best of the show.  He invited people to dance while he played.  It was great.  Couples in the street dancing while this barefoot piano man played.  The children were delighted.

We began looking for the other events-face painting and crafts, but were apparantly too late.  We did happen upon this. . .

An open trailer filled with paper-mache people playing really awful band music.  The children were allowed to stand in front and conduct the group.  Henry spent nearly half an hour pretending he was the conductor.  Yikes.

We ended our evening like you might expect at a French festival, eating crepes filled with nutella.

A wonderful way to spend a hot evening.

Boating at Balexert

Our local mall has a huge courtyard that they use for weekly exhibitions.  About fifty percent of them are targeted at children.  I don't mind because they are generally free, fun, and keep them distracted from those coin-op shake machines shaped like motorcycles and spaceships.  I despise those.

For two weeks we were able to enjoy the boats you paddle with pedals.  They were contained in a inflatable pool that contained one foot of water.  Very entertaining.  And a little bit pathetic.

Genova

We headed to Genova, Italy for the Fourth of July.  We thought it would be novel to  visit the birth place of Christopher Colombus.  Really it was hot and stinky.  I served for one month in Genova with a companion who didn't leave the apartment.  I hardly have any memories of the city-except for CC's house.

Here is the corner of the house.  Henry took the picture.  He wasn't interested in being in any of them.

This was a lovely tribute to the man.  It stood about a hundred meters from the train station and 10 meters from the bus station.  It seems to be the gathering spot for Hobos.  In contrast the man who liberated Genova had the most beautiful garden surrounding his statue, but I didn't catch his name.  
After our sightseeing we headed down the coast.  We had a delicious lunch.  The kids ordered the ever popular spaghetti noodles with butter.  The chef loaded on the butter.  They couldn't have been happier.  Henry didn't leave a noodle in the bowl.  That seemed to take care of the grumpies he'd had.

We visited a local beach and hung out with the locals.  Ansel made quite a splash with his blonde lockes-that and his fearless swimming techniques.  The water was amazing warmer than our favorite pool in Geneva.  A wonderful introduction to the ocean-and a refreshing break from the heat.

Before we left we had to have some gelato.  We found a great little place near the restaurant.  Having eaten my fair share of gelato, I don't like to eat just any old gelato.  It has to pass certain requirements:  A. Be "arteginale" that means that is made there and is usually a good sign.  B. It should look soft.   If it passes those two tests, we can go in.  Not too tough.  After filling up on the usual chocolate, strawberry, lemon and coconut that we all tried Greg was stricken with curiosity to try lilac.  He went back for a cone of the stuff.  It was wacky-like eating a bar of soap without the soap.  After one lick I went back for more confused, my brain was waiting for the gag reflex to kick in, but it never did.

Like lilac ice cream our trip was enjoyable, but doesn't need to be repeated.  The drive was beautiful.  And really, even hot stinky Italy doesn't disappoint.  There is a bit of a sting looking at our family's blogs and seeing them enjoying the local parade and relaxing in Nana's pool.  I love the Fourth of July for that.

It's Been A Year!

It's been a year since this was our only seat in the house.

To celebrate we bought a couch.  It will go on the opposite wall in the same room as this picture. . . when we figure out how to get it from it's point of purchase to our house.

Here's how we did it a year ago.

We spent hours with those little wrenches from Ikea.  

With the house put together we'll spend this July swimming and barbecuing instead.

One of my first memories when we arrived was how hot it was.  I was surprised Geneva got so hot.  The heat of the sun wasn't helped by the modern aid of air conditioners.  It made us very irritable.  (well that and jet lag).  I didn't know how we would make it through the entire summer.  

We soon learned that Geneva summers aren't hot forever.  70 degrees is perfect when there isn't air conditioning.

Now here we are same week a year later and Geneva is again going through a little hot spell.  I'm surprised how well we've adapted to not having the luxury of cool air-except what is produced from a little fan.  

Picnic at the Mission Home

A mass exodus is about to take place in the Geneva Ward.  Sadly we will be saying goodbye to nearly 60 people.  Ouch.  Before they all left we had a terrific activity at the Mission home.  The yard was large enough to let the kids run free.  The house was built in the 60's by the Iranians.   Once it was built they felt it wasn't grand enough to meet their needs.  They actually built twin homes facing each other.  The one you see in the pictures is used for offices and missionary apartments.  The other is the Mission President's residence.  President Peterson told me that President Hinckley took a nap here in the 80's and after requested the property not be sold.  Many properties have been sold, luckily we still have this beautiful place in Geneva.  Thanks President Peterson, we had such a lovely time with so little effort.

My kids love the elders.
Nothing like a great game of "Red Rover."
We invited our friends JiSoo and Sung Yoo.  They brought their friends.
I got to man the barbecue until some men arrived.  Why is it men always control the barbecue, but not the stove?

Hannah Montana's Geneva Fan Base

Elsa has two passions, dancing and drawing.  Both of them seem to put her into an alternate universe where no one else should dare enter.  She's very happy there.

While I was in Chicago my friend Michele introduced me to Hannah Montana.  Of course, I'd heard of her.  We even watched the show while staying at Euro Disney.  To our surprise, we liked it.  Michele's daughter and Elsa's dear friend Brynn, sent us home with the soundtrack to HM's latest film.  Elsa couldn't stand it.  Suddenly the floor was no longer enough to feed her passion for dancing fame.  Here she is posing on her newly built stage.  

Standing ovation please.

Pickin' Berries!

I love to tell new people I meet about being a child growing up in Oregon.  The fresh air, the unpredictable weather, the child labor force.  Before the migrants from Mexico came up to pick strawberries, they sent the children out.  School ended in time for berry picking to begin.  The bus would pick us up at 6:30 in the morning, luckily we were at the end of the route.  We'd unload with our sack lunches and then be assigned a row to work in.  I remember sitting with my best friend and chatting the hours away.  Mostly daydreaming about what fabulous thing we'd buy with all of the money we were making.  We'd work until about 2:00 PM  and then they'd take us home.  This routine would last about two weeks, three if we were lucky.  The last day they'd drive us to Dairy Queen treat us to lunch and ice cream and give us our cash.  My grand total, usually a whopping $100.  Those were good times.  Such a shame the children today can't earn their own living for a couple of weeks.

These memories flooded my mind when I drove past a local u-pick berry farm.  There was no doubt what our free Wednesday morning would now include.  I knew they'd love it. . . they did.  Henry who is Mario Kart obsessed sums it up best, "Mom, I even enjoyed this more than Mario."  Of course he did!

In all of my excitement to be the first ones at the farm (I wanted them to have the thrill of putting their chilled hands into the dewey leaves), I left my camera at home!  Such a bummer.  However, here is a record of our loot.  We managed to eat half of those berries fresh!  Including two strawberry pies.  The other half is now some very delicious strawberry jam.

Mom's in Chicago

Last week was fun-filled for the Christensens!  I flew to Chicago on the 10th to attend to some landlording.  Luckily, more of my time was spent with wonderful friends and lots of shopping.  I had such a fabulous time.

Greg stayed home with the kids for three days and the weekend.  I think they had a pretty swell time as well. . . (maybe he'll update this post with the events in the photos)!

Hi. This is Greg with an explanation of the pictures. These first two were taken at the Nyon beach/swimming pool where Henry and Elsa spent the early afternoon collecting shells and the late afternoon screaming at Ansel for dumping them back into Lake Geneva when they weren't looking. (That white mountain in the background, by the way, is Mont Blanc. It was an incredibly clear day.)

The pictures below are from a picnic we had with friends. 

Events at this picnic that were not photographed include:

1. Elsa pooping her pants.
   
2. Elsa finishing the job on the grass while I tried to change her into Ansel's backup underwear.
   
3. Elsa stepping in her own poop once she had Ansel's underwear on.
   
4. Ansel pooping in his pants after Elsa had donned his backup underwear.
   

Good times. Good times.

Ascension in Yvoire, France

The kids had Thursday off for Ascension Day. We decided to visit a midieval town in France, just minutes from Geneva. I had pretty low expectations. Someone had told me it was boring. The first thing we did was take a forested trail down to the lake. It reminded me of day-trips to the beach from my youth. We walked along the rocky beach, skipped little rocks, and climbed on the big ones. The kids were having the best time.
We walked around the castle and then through the ancient city. The streets were lined with boutiques that sold lovely things like hand blown glass (the blower was looking at us through the window), art, and homemade gingerbread. There was also a sensory garden. I can't wait to go back and see, hear, taste, feel, and smell what that is like.

Vevey, Switzerland

Have I mentioned that I think it's a pretty good thing we live in Switzerland? Saturday morning Greg woke determined we were going to have a great day and go on a little trip. Honestly he was the only one with that thought. The rest of us were barely along for the ride. As it turned out. . . 20 minutes down the road he'd nearly given up on all of us. That's how we ended up in Vevey!
We parked and he pulled out a most amazing picnic-which he bought groceries for and prepared entirely on his own. The picnic included the most delicious chocolate eclairs. I believe they were my first eclairs since we've lived here.
After eating, we were all starting to feel much much better. The day was beautiful and Vevey has a beautiful park that we enjoyed for a couple of hours.

That's why I'm glad we live in Switzerland (and married to Greg). We'll do Basel another day.

Amelia

Amelia was here last week. Yeah! It was such a great time being with Aunt Amelia. We kept very busy. Here are some pictures of our day spent in Lyon, France.
This is how Henry and Elsa enjoyed the Textile Museum.


This is how they enjoyed the ruins.


Here we are crossing the pedestrian bridge.

This is why I think Lyon is funny. A mini Eiffel tower. Serious.

This is why I don't intend to spend too much on a badly needed new camera. Any suggestions?

We love you Amelia. Thanks for coming.

Annie Was Here!

Annie came and I haven't any pictures. I just wanted to document how much we enjoy visitors. Annie why didn't we take any pictures?
She brought us a cupcake pan that I am so grateful for. Sarah and Alma are probably thrilled too. I made banana muffins in my new pan. I didn't spray it-they don't sell non-stick spray here-and not one muffin stuck to the pan. It's that nice. We have gone way too long without a muffin pan.
Annie you rock.

Sunday Walk

A couple of weeks ago we decided to enjoy our Sunday morning at Lake Divonne in France.

The kids enjoyed the meadows, flowers, bike paths, the prospect of going to the beach, and the boats. Henry brought his scooter, Elsa brought her bike and Ansel brought Elsa's old scooter.

Then Elsa fell down a hill and Ansel wet his pants and it was time to go home.

Fits.

I embrace every aspect of my children's lives including the "terrible twos." Ansel's tantrums are mild-he doesn't kick or throw himself on the ground. In fact they are quite endearing. Runny nose and all.