Switzerland With The Folks

It's a rainy day here in Switzerland so I actually have some down time to do a blog update.

My parents arrived here in Switzerland last week on Monday. I took the 2 hour train from Lausanne to Zurich to meet them at the airport. I really enjoyed the views from the train. I actually took a few photos from the window...

 beautiful sunrise taken from my train to Zurich

Seeing my parents after almost 6 months and hugging them brought me to tears! It was a happy reunion for sure! The first night in Zurich we had dinner with some of my Dad's clients at an authentic Spanish restaurant with good food, great wine and lots of laughs! The following day, my Dad was hosting a workshop for his business so Mama Bear and I went shopping! :) We also enjoyed the world famous Mövenpick ice cream which is made right here in Switzerland and is hands down the best ice cream I've ever had!  All in all it was a great start to our visit.

Mövenpick Mango and Cream ice cream

 

On Wednesday we headed back to Lutry where I live and met up with Jared after he got off work. He greeted us with GREAT news! One of his co-workers had been working on a project for 15 years with absolutely no results, so his boss asked him to start working on the same project to see if Jared could make the chemistry work.....long story short, it took Jared only TWO WEEKS to accomplish what the other guy couldn't in 15 YEARS! To be fair to the other guy...the project was not simple, it was actually quite difficult....but God has simply blessed Jared with talent and wisdom when it comes to his field of chemistry. This is his third and definitely his best patent yet since he started working at EPFL 7 months ago! I couldn't be more thrilled for him or more proud of his accomplishments!

With my parents being in town and Jared's awesome news we decided a celebration was in order! So we had dinner at a Portuguese restaurant right by Lake Geneva in our little town of Lutry. It was DELICIOUS! Definitely a do again! After dinner we enjoyed a leisurely walk by the lake and enjoyed the sunset. Perfect.

 Lutry, Switzerland at sunset

On Thursday we did our weekly grocery shopping and also picked up some fresh herbs to start a little herb garden. The planter looks so cute sitting outside our kitchen window! :) We now have fresh basil, rosemary, oregano and lime. The lime smells AMAZING. I also got my hair cut for the first time in 6 months and the first time ever in Switzerland. It was a very positive experience. The guy didn't speak much English but with his limited English and my limited French we were able to communicate. I love how he cut my hair but WOW was it the most expensive hair cut I've ever had in my life! Staying true to the norm it was roughly double what a haircut would be back home in the U.S. so it will likely remain a bi-annual event for me.

 new hair :)

On Friday we had dinner with another one of my Dad's Swiss clients. He and his wife live in Geneva so we ate at a quaint little restaurant with excellent food. They were fun to be with. The wife was an absolute doll - so sweet and he was hilarious! We really enjoyed them!

Saturday was kind of a down day for us. We had planned to go to Italy to visit the Turin Museum and see the cathedral where the Shroud of Turin is located. Of course it is only on display every 25 years so we wouldn't be able to see it in person but the museum would be interesting to visit. However, the website said Saturdays and Sundays are bad days to go, plus I wasn't feeling very well so we are postponing our visit until tomorrow. It's awesome that Italy is so close by car or train. It's only about 2 1/2 hours to Turin, Italy from our place by car. Looking forward to that trip.

Sunday we took the famous Golden Pass panoramic train ride through Switzerland. It was a 6+ hour train ride through the mountains with gorgeous scenic views! My favourite stop was at Interlaken where we took a cable car up over 4500 feet to the top of the mountain with a beautiful overlook of the countryside and mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking! Very memorable! I took lots of photos but haven't had time to edit many of those yet. Here are just a few.

 view overlooking Interlaken, Switzerland

 Monday we tried out a new restaurant in Lausanne called Buffalo Grill. It is Jared's new favourite. It had American-style food (burgers, barbecue, steaks, etc.) with American size portions and reasonable prices. Jared's eyes lit up when they brought out his huge burger that tasted like it was straight off the grill. I'm pretty sure it will be our new date night hot spot! :) It had a nice outdoor seating area and as I said...the food was wonderful! That is one thing we will have to be careful about when we move back to the U.S. is the dining out and food portions. Here we eat out maybe once a month, I do all the cooking because it's more affordable and quite frankly...not many of the restaurants have good, flavorful food. And without a car we do a lot of walking...I've easily lost about 15 pounds since we moved here in October. Food is such a huge part of American culture...I'll have to try and keep much of our European lifestyle when we return because I'm healthier now than I've ever been. I can see how easily we could regress. I don't want that. Dining out should remain a treat. Exercise should remain a priority.

Tuesday night we had our friends Julia and Morgan over for dinner. I really do enjoy cooking and entertaining. I made fajitas, fresh guacamole, brushetta cheeseball, and black beans and rice. Even my Dad was throwing me multiple compliments about the food. :) I told them I learned from the best...my Mama! Growing up we had dinner as a family every night and my Mom loved to try new recipes and they were ALWAYS good! I get my love for cooking and entertaining from her for sure! It was fun to have our family and friends together for the evening.

So that is the long update. I had kind of missed blogging since I'm used to doing it pretty much everyday. But I put a lot of effort into my blogs, I don't just throw them together and time with my family was much more important these past few days. I have had a lot of sweet people write me and asking about updates but also encouraging me to take some time off from blogging to spend time with family. I am so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life who care about me and want to know what's going on in my life. As long as you keep reading, I'll keep blogging! :) Thank you for your love and encouragement. You mean the world to me.

I'll update again when I can. My parents are here until Sunday then in 11 Days my brother and sister-in-law will be here!! Can't wait to share adventures with them too! :)