Bye Bye Winter.....Hello Spring!

I thought I was on a roll with this whole blogging thing, but I definitely have my dry spells. We haven't traveled much the past two months or so, but it this time has been quite busy! We are realizing that living in a new country such as Switzerland doesn't necessarily mean one non-stop adventureland vacation.....though I feel like it is much of the time. I love the thrill of our travels--seeing new places, trying new foods, meeting new people, taking pictures of our memories. But there is also something nice about living somewhere. There is the day to day routine and schedule. Andrew goes to work, I work at home. Sometimes we go out into the city, sometimes we chill out at home. Sometimes we get together with our wonderful friends here, sometimes we get to be together, just the two of us. It is nice to get to a point where we feel like our lives are here and we are a part of a place.I feel like we have turned that corner. And right in time for Spring!

Spring is beautiful here in Geneva! The gray gloominess is dissipating, the mist is lifting up off the lake, and the sun is shining. Buds are starting to pop out on the trees and the forsythia is in full bloom. It is quite a welcome surprise.

Updates with us! Andy has been traveling quite a bit for work. He recently went to Stuttgart, Germany, Slovakia, and Rotterdam, Netherlands. Part of his work is conducting US reviews at the Grant Thornton offices throughout Europe. Since many of the offices here in Europe have US clients, GT US employees need to conduct reviews to make sure their work is up to par with US standards. Whew! So.....that is what Andy has been up to, along with working on the Geneva office clients. Andy is also serving in the Elders Quorum presidency as second counselor. Needless to say, this is keeping him busy, but happy!

I went from twiddling my thumbs, wondering what to do, to being busy! I have started a body of artwork here, watercolors and oil paintings. It is nice to be working on my artwork again. I also am teaching art lessons  and taking a French class! French is still much more difficult than I anticipated, but we are both pluggin along at it. I was also called to the Relief Society presidency as a counselor, which I am loving very much. We feel very blessed to have our ward here in Geneva. We have made wonderful friends!

Weekends are always something we look forward to. Following our trip to Germany in early February, we got to celebrate Valentine's Day! We like to keep it low key, but romantic:) We made some cheese fondue with roasted potatoes, salad, and fruit. Our new tradition is chocolate cake. Aunt Laura's chocolate cake is to die for! Since it is rather consuming to make, I make it for Valentine's Day and birthdays. It has now become something we look forward to! We ate our dinner, and then went for a walk out in the city. Geneva is a beautiful place to walk at night. We went on our usual stroll down along the river, and then made our way back home. We enjoyed our chocolate cake and watched Philadelphia Story. If you like old movies as much as we do, this is one to watch! We love Jimmy Stewart, so we enjoyed this! Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Cake!

Beautiful Roses from my AB Baby:)

The next weekend, we got to go with the youth of the Geneva Stake to the Bern Temple. We helped with the activities at the Stake Center, and then also got to do endowments in the Temple. It was an early morning, so though we were dragging a little bit, we had a great time. We rode with Bishop and Susan Johnson, and on the way back to Geneva, they took us on a side trip to some of their favorite hidden treasures. We went to Avanches, a small village in the Vaud canton. There are some Roman ruins here, which are awesome! We saw the colosseum, amphitheater, and this Rapunzel-like tower. It was really cool! There are many Roman ruins throughout Switzerland, and it is fascinating to stumble upon them. It was nice to be with the Johnsons and have them show us some of these places all around us. And there is always laughing in the car;)

Avenches Colosseum

Where the gladiators enter

Map of the Roman Ruins

Susan and Me

Avenches Village

Suh MILE!

I think Susan meant for this to be a bit more artistic than it turned out....

Climbing the tower

Killer Clouds

Rapunzel Tower!

It is hard to let down my short hair apparently

The following weekend, we got to go to the Temple again! This time, we went with the Mongillos, Susan, Tony and Chantal from our ward. Chantal had some family names that she wanted to take to the Temple, and we got to go with her and complete the work. It was an amazing experience. We got to hear the Endowment and sealings in German, which was awesome. After the Temple, we hit up Mcdonalds, and headed back home. We ended up having a pretty chill rest of the day, we were pretty tired!

Temple!

We have also enjoyed some dinners with friends! Our friend Stephanie Hasler hosted a Chinese Fondue evening at her apartment in Morges! We got to meet her friends Micha and Carole and we had a fun evening together. We had never tried Chinese Fondue, which is taking pieces of chicken, beef or shrimp, placing them on your fondue fork, and cooking them in a seasoned broth in the fondue pot. After they are cooked, you dip them in various sauces, which Steph showed me how to make. It was all delicious.....although I think we ate more than we thought we did!

We also got to celebrate our friend Renee's birthday!  Renee and her husband Mark threw a party at their home in France! It was fun to celebrate with friends in our ward. It was a great party, complete with the best French "grocery store" chocolate cake we have ever tasted!

The time is starting to go so fast! It is hard to believe we have been here for 5 months!