Visitors!

We've finally gotten some more visitors! (We have a sofa bed and we'd love to have more visitors - hint,hint!) ANYWAYS, my parents are in Europe for the month of August and started with us so they could be pack mules with all of our necessities they bought from Sam's for us. We had a very busy week. Since they were here for a whole week, we did a lot of the sightseeing stuff around town. I'm getting tired of writing my catch-up posts (this is number 3) so it's mostly just pictures.

We went to Voltaire's Chateau that's only open in the summer. Grandma really wanted the boys picture with this fountain.

I was coming down the stairs, so I don't know the full account, but after this was taken my dad came in towards Ezekiel. Ezekiel stepped back and fell into this nasty, stagnant water. Thankfully the water was not deep and he only got wet to his chest. But, when I pulled him out he was covered with muck and bugs and I don't even want to think about what else. Our day was over and it was home for a bath.

We took grandma and grandpa to the Meyrin pool. Since we finally had more adults than kids, there is actually picture proof that we've been to this pool!

Grandma played catch with Ezekiel for about 3 hours


Grandpa helped keep Xavier warm after his 30 minutes of fun

Xavier is really into games right now and was excited to have a willing opponent

Xavier wanted to read to grandpa

We didn't think my parents were going to be here for the final night of the Fete de Geneve and the big fireworks display, so we went down and explored during the week. Grandma took the boys on the rollercoaster since I'm pregnant.

We saw the Reformation Museum and the Archelogical dig under Saint Peter's Cathedral. The boys enjoyed the audio guides and searching for bones like Dora's mami.

We climbed up Saint Peter's South Tower

We were still house sitting while my parents were here and had a car. (Thank you Antonia and Stephen!) So, we went up into the Jura mountains to check out the view.

Where we were

View of Mont Blanc from the Jura's and a view of the valley where we live

Having fun on the mountain

Enjoying the view from the telecabine

This is a four-seasons luge that I can't wait to do when I'm not pregnant!

The boys learned a new trick! They can now open and close our shades. It's going to be nice on Saturday mornings. Usually they wake us up to open them for some light and then let us go back to bed. We've eliminated the waking mommy and daddy up step!

My parents try to let us go out on a date whenever they visit. We were supposed to go to Paris for our anniversary, but Ulysses had to do a DOE review and the schedules weren't working out. We did get to go to "China" for a dinner alone. (The boys call this Chinese restaurant in town "China". We're not sure why, but the name seems to be stuck.)

I don't know what I did, but somehow I've had it in my head for a year that my parents were going to miss the final night of the Fete de Geneve and the huge fireworks display. Luckily, mom checked her ticket and we didn't take them to the airport a day early!

What's becoming a tradition.

Enjoying the show


This is not even close to the finale. 55 minutes of amazing fireworks set to music. I'd recommend visiting during the Fete.

How Ezekiel ended the evening. The fireworks started at 10 and we had a busy day before that.

Enjoying Geneva the preschool way...

So, the day after my parents left another visitor flew in. My maid of honor's little sister is getting ready to start an internship in Naples and just finished some time in London, so she decided to see some of Geneva. We were very excited to have a visitor. Xavier was infatuated (especially with Becky's computer and games) and Ezekiel was enjoying a new audience for all of his "tricks." There were several times throughout the week that we felt very old, but it was fun to see a familiar face from the states.

We went around Geneva to a lot of the historical landmarks and what makes Geneva famous. Many of them we had just seen the week before with my parents though, so the boys decided to do some different exploring.

We went back up to Col de la Faucille where the boys were very happy all of their rocks were still there.

We went to the Art and History Museum where the boys played "catch the pigeon" on the lawn in front

I told them we would go have a snack and chase pigeons while Becky finished the museum. Unfortunately, there were no birds for them to chase so they took turns being the pigeon while their brother chased them. I don't have great pictures, but the picture on the right is Ezekiel tackling his pigeon.

Becky was very interested in seeing the Palais des Nations. I think it sounds very interesting, but it's an hour tour once you finish waiting in line. We opted to play in the UN fountains while waiting for Becky to do her tour.

As they were playing, I was amazed at what has become "normal" for us. This is a typical summer day - splashing in the fountains at the United Nations to the sound of protesters.

Becky also asked to see some of the parks around town. Well, the boys were not quite as excited about the definition of parks that Becky had in mind, so we went to a rose garden that had a playground on the top of the hill. Becky explored while the boys played.

Ezekiel was scared of all the kids speaking French, so he played in the tree on the outskirts of the playground. Xavier, being the good big brother that he is, joined him.

We did repeat a trip up the steps of Saint Peter's Cathedral. Well, Ulysses and the boys repeated. I took a nap in the back pew after pulling something in my leg being dragged down 150 steps the week before.

Even preschoolers get a little tired after 150 steps...

But the view is totally worth it!


Inside Saint Peter's

We also went to the Parc de Bastions to see the Reformation Wall. I never asked our Catholic friend how much she enjoyed seeing all of the foundations of Protestantism, but maybe she'll read this and let me know. But, at this park while Becky explored, we played at the playground and fed the birds.

Something new that we did see with Becky was the famous Flower Clock. The flowers change with the season and I believe it has the World's Largest Second Hand.

Summer Fun/Craziness

Sorry it's been a while. I'm fine and as far as we know the baby is fine. We will have our "big" ultrasound on Monday to check everything out and hopefully answer the boy/girl question! We've been entertaining company and trying our best to stay cool during this exceptionally hot summer in Geneva. The temps have been in the 80s for most of the last month. Now, I know my Oklahoma blood thinned some in Illinois, but mostly it's the total lack of air conditioning that's killing me. I can tolerate outside, especially if we're in/around water, but inside is not cool. I'm going to update in several posts (starting with the most recent) because blogger irritates me on how they post the pictures.

A new meetup group has just started in Geneva. I was really excited when I got the email since I enjoyed the meetup group in Champaign so much. Unfortunately, summer has been crazy so we haven't been able to make it to a meetup. Well, today we finally did! We went the the Bains des Paquis downtown and swam in Lake Geneva! I convinced the boys to go by telling them there was going to be sand and we could build a sand castle. Well, there was a sandbox, but it wasn't the beach and they decided very quickly that it was too hot not to be in the water. Sadly, my camera died early on in the morning, but we spent 5 hours there! The boys usually only last about 1-2 hours at the pool, so I was shocked. Despite sunscreening twice, I burned myself for the second time this month and Ezekiel got a little pink. I'm hoping he mostly has heat rash and will be better in the morning if we can stay cool tonight.

Attempting (and failing) at building a sand castle like Big Bird's

The boys were very panicked about sharks and would not go very far out in the water, even with their wings, but they had a great time near the shore

Digging trenches and moats