Do you ski?

When we came here for our trip to scout out a new place to live,it was surprising how often we were asked this question. Even more than "Where are you from?" or "What do you do?" Since Switzerland's surface area is 65% mountains I can see why they have such a love affair with all mountain sports.  At the drop-off at Travis's school it is funny to hear all the moms talking about where they skied that weekend and often they are dressed in their ski clothes ready to go while their kids are in school. I myself have scooted off after the drop-off to hit the slopes as well! The closest resort is 15 minutes away, with bigger resorts like Verbier and Port de Soleil 45 minutes away.

The school that Travis attends, Haut-Lac, starts taking the kids for skiing every week starting in first grade, and they have ski teams that regularly participate in competitions. It's amazing to me that they take them skiing at such a young age.  Ryan and I first skiied when we were 13 and 10, respectively.  We have put Savannah in a "Jardin de Neige" (snow garden) where she and other 3-4 year olds get bits of practice. Really it is just babysitting on skis! Travis starts private lessons this week as there was a lot of standing around in his group lessons and not so much skiing. After their lessons we have rewarded them by taking them sledding, which they both prefer to skiing.

Prior to this past weekend, both kids were pretty fearless. Unfortunately we got a little too overconfident this past weekend and took the kids to a slope to ski with us. They say you shouldn't attempt to teach your own kids to ski and that is definitely the truth!To put it mildly, it was a disaster-lots of crashing and crying by most members of the family!  I'm still sore from going up the ski-pull while trying to keep mine and Travis's skis straight. We fell off the pull and got our skis all tangled up.

This past weekend aside, Ryan and I are really enjoying the opportunity however to improve our own skiing abilities. It definitely is different here-they don't have names for the runs(called "pistes") but they have names for the lifts. Therefore it is difficult to know where you are and what level slope you are on. It seems rather easy to ski right off the slope and go "off-piste!" (Which is rather dangerous, as the threat of avalanches is particularly bad this year.)

 In a few weeks we already have another school break (called "Ski Week", naturally) which seems pretty soon considering we just had such a long Christmas break! However, we won't be skiing that week-we're headed to Barcelona for Mobile World Conference-hopefully Ryan will be able to get away to enjoy the city with us!

Couple other snow-related topics: We went to Geneva last weekend to see "Frozen" in 3D and more importantly in English! Of course we are all loving the songs and have been watching clips on Youtube!

Lausaunne is the home of the Olympic committee as well as the Olympic Museum which recently reopened after two years of restoration. There was so much interesting Olympic memorabilia there including medals, mascots, and sports equipment. It really got us in the spirit of this year's Winter Olympics!

This is Norway's mascots from 1994-the girl is named Kristin!

Northern Italy trip

We decided shortly before Christmas to do a trip over the break to fill up the 3 week break Travis had from school(kids here are on vacation a LOT!)  Ryan and I love Italy so we planned a driving trip through northern Italy- Verona, Venice, Modena, and Stresa.

Verona is the town if you recall your high school English where Romeo and Juliet is based. I was fascinated by the beautiful marble streets-we had seen this in Turin but there they were covered. At night with the lights from the shops reflecting off of the marble and the Christmas lights it was a magical atmosphere. We stayed just off the main shopping drag and it was packed from about 4:30 to 7 each night-this is called the "passeggiata"-the evening stroll.

 

Though Romeo and Julie were not real they were based on real families in Verona, and you can visit "Juliet's balcony." There is a statue of Juliet that if you rub her breast is supposed to bring you luck in love (her breast now has a hole in it!)

After Verona we made our way to Venice, one of my favorite European cities!  Venice is a difficult place to navigate because there are no cars on the island. We had to turn our car in keys and all to a parking garage with just a slip of paper to show that we had turned in a vehicle. Then we took a water bus to a stop close to the apartment where we were staying, where the owner then met us (1 hour late, typical Italy! :) He then took our luggage on his boat to our place. While our place was a bit sketchy it was a terrific location in central Venice and bringing the kids' scooters really helped with keeping them going through all the walking. 

Venice truly is "decaying elegance." The architecture is so beautiful but the buildings literally seem to be crumbling before your eyes. Makes you wonder how much longer Venice will be around..

 

I absolutely love Murano glass so it was terrific to take the boat over to Murano to see glass being made. I also picked up some jewelry and decore items for the house. I'm not a big shopper but Venice is one of those places where I can just look and look and look!

The kids had a lot of fun feeding the pigeons in San Marco Square..

We left Venice and headed for Modena-if the name sounds familiar you may have seen it on basalmic vinegar bottles.  The making of the vinegar is quite an art and there are a small number of families who have made it over the generations. We visited a family vintner's house and participated in a basalmic vinegar tasting-even Travis tasted it! The good stuff goes for about $150 for 1 oz-needless to say we didn't get the best stuff but we did bring something back for special occasions. It was a really unique experience!

In Modena we stayed at a farm that is part of the Italian Agriturismo movement. The bed and breakfast was a renovated farmhouse and in addition to growing wine and keeping donkeys, chickens, and cows the owner bottled their own jams and honeys which were delicious.


Ryan and Travis had a boys' trip to the Ferrari museum while we were there and had a great time.

We also visited Parma, home of parmesan cheese. We had delicious meals there as well as in Modena, this area of Italy is definitely a culinary epicenter. 

This is at a cathedral in Parma where the kids lit a candle for good health for their grandparents-I like the intense look on Travis's face in this photo.

Finally we headed to Stresa, which is on Lake Maggiore. We were there for just one night and the weather wasn't totally cooperative so we didn't do much but we had a fantastic dinner!



On the way home over the Alps naturally there was a snowstorm which made for some tense driving, but we eventually made it home. After our trip we are all pretty maxed out on pasta given how much we ate!!! Once we get over our pasta overload I plan to give the pasta maker that Ryan gave me a shot. :)

December 2013..Snow, Europapark, Christmas!

Better late than never!  I meant to sent this out before Christmas, but you know how things get around the holidays!
We got some snow at the beginning of December that hung around for a couple weeks. We bought a couple sleds that are rather hi-tech-they even have steering and brakes! (as there were no basic saucers like I had when I was a kid!)  The kids really enjoyed sledding and making snow angels.

 Once the kids were out of school we visited Europark in Germany, a smaller version of Disneyworld, some parts copied right down to the Epcot silver ball! The holiday decorations were so beautiful and the kids loved the rides of course!

A sampling of decorations from Vevey, the town we live in, and other places around. The decorations here are more understated, lots of white and silver-very pretty! We went to several Christmas markets where handcrafted items were sold and the drink to have was "vin chaud" (hot wine!) I am not a fan of it!

 

 Ryan has been traveling a lot to the US over the past few months-this is him at Rockefeller Center..

 Travis and Savannah got on skis for the first time-Travis really seemed to take to it pretty well! This is in Verbier. Ryan has skied there a couple times already as well

  We stayed here for Christmas which was different and hard not being with our family. However we did visit Papa Noel to help the kids get excited about Christmas. We did have a very nice holiday and it was great to have new friends here who had us over on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

 Savannah really got the knack of opening presents this year!! She helped everyone open their presents! Travis was so excited about the crane he got from Santa!

 Happy New Year to everyone!