Colmar, France

At the recommendation of a new friend, Alison, I first discovered Colmar when my mom and sister were here. With my love of all things French, I fell in love with Colmar and have been back twice since my first trip. It is just a one and a half hour drive. Colmar is a village in the Alsace region of North Eastern France, south of Strasbourg. And it's so great to have France so close...I can get all my French "fixes" without having to drive far at all.

Colmar was founded in the 9th century. There are old (very old) churches and buildings that are fascinating. One building was featured in the movie Howl's Moving Castle (Maison Pfister).

Just last week, Stacie and I took a day trip to enjoy the Colmar Chistmas Market. So much fun! These European Christmas markets are so much fun. I do think the German ones are the best.

These first few pictures are when we went in October and the collage is the Christmas Market.

The area of Colmar called La Petit Venise

A delicious Nutella crepe...yumm-o!

I loved these balls hanging outside a store.

The three of us

Colmar Christmas Market - LOVED it!

Au Revoir,

Fall Break...Paris

Maddie and Will had a two week break in October so we drove to Paris for six days. The drive was about seven hours...not bad. I wanted to take the back roads and drive through all the villages, but Bob wanted to take the highway. Lame. We stayed about a 40 minute train ride outside of Paris in a Marriott time share. And as a bonus, we were right next to a mall. No malls where we live - the malls here are a grocery store, pharmacy, office supply store, Claires (yuck), bank, coffee stop, shoe store, a couple of weird clothing stores. And all so unbelievably expensive. Seriously, very, very expensive!

So needless to say, we loved going to a mall. It even had a food court...WHAT???!!!

a little prelude to us leaving...I had known my dear friend Rochelle was going to be traveling in Europe in October with her husband. I didn't know where she would be, but I knew that Paris was one of their stops. The night before we left, I emailed her to let her know we were going to be arriving in Paris the next day and was wondering where they were. They were in Paris and leaving the day after we got there!  Providence!

So, we took the train into the city after we arrived and met them for dinner at a cafe where Rochelle and I had eaten many times on our trip to Paris over the summer. It was the best night ever. I cried happy tears when we saw them. I regret not taking a picture before we said good bye. I will remember that night forever. It was truly a miracle to be able to spend time with them. I miss my friend!

HIGHLIGHTS

• On/Off Bus Tour - higly recommend in Paris. It was cold, but we were bundled up
• Eiffel Tower - highlight of our trip. We went all. the. way. to. the. top! Best decision ever.
• Rue Montorgueil - can't wait to go back and spend the entire day
• BHV - Bazaar Hotel de Ville - great store- could have spent all day in here. Not a craft store but they have an amazing craft section. Bought some craft supplies for our dreary, boring days. No craft stores here in Switzerland...well there are some, but they are stuck in the 1970's - WEIRD!
• MonoPrix - French Target. enough said.
• Riding the Metro - Bob is a PRO!
• Crepes - I like sucre, Bob and Maddie like Nutella and Banana
• Pain au Chocolat - ate more than my fair share
• Pylones - great store for fun souveniers
• Strawberry Tarts for Maddie
• Cheap McDonalds for Will - for the four of us to eat at McDonalds here in Switzerland it costs about $65.00. I am not lying! We obviously don't eat there very often.
• Paris Disneyland - Space Mountain 8 times! Freezing Cold!!
• walking, walking, walking!
• shopping, shopping, shopping!
• New Parisian discoveries. I will be back!

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures and they were all with my iPhone.

Riding the train into Paris

On the train

Louvre

Notre Dame

Before heading to the top

At the tippy top!

Champs Elysses and Arc de Triomphe

Lunch on the Champs Elysses

Centre Pompidou

PARIS DISNEYLAND!

It was the coldest day ever! I don't think I got warm at all that day. The kids had a wonderful time. But Paris Disneyland is nothing like Disneyland at home. Everyone is smoking, so gross! It is not clean like at home. No Disneyland food. Much smaller! But it was great to be able to spend time together and to see the kids so happy!

Au Revoir,

My Rescue!

The first six weeks here were rough to say the least. Nearly every day included tears! And I am not a wimpy woman...I think I'm pretty tough and resilient! I was so homesick, my children were so unhappy, Bob was gone a lot, we lived in three different places out of suitcases, I couldn't understand anyone or anything, the list goes on an on! I was so lonely for my family and my friends...someone to talk to. I wanted to go next door and talk to my neighbor. I wanted to go to a movie with friends (a ticket to a movie cost 23 CHF...that's about $26.00 for one ticket!), or go out to lunch with friends, watch American TV, go out to dinner with Bob (dinner for two is about $100), have Sunday dinner with my family...I know it seems glamorous to live in Europe, but let me just say, it's not!

Contrary to popular opinion, you do not pack your bags every day or every weekend for that matter and travel to some exotic location. At least we don't...we have school, work, church (I'm in the YW presidency), etc.  I have the same things to do here as I do in the States...cook, drive, laundry, errands, clean, make lunches, do homework, grocery shop, help in classrooms at school, wash the car, and again, the list goes on and on! But imagine all this in a foreign place where none is the same as at home. You can go from Utah to New York and it will all be relatively similar...not here. Everything is different.

So when Bob had to go home for a week in the middle of September for work, he saw my mom and told her she needed to come sooner rather than later. My mom and Jana came at the end of September and in a way, rescued me. It was so good to have them see what I was talking about and understand how I was living.

So, I planned a few things for us to do while they were here...it was a chance to do a little traveling...our first stop was Lake Como, Italy. It's just a two hour drive from my house (I know, now that sounds glamorous and I agree...pretty cool). And after we came home from Lake Como, we drove to Colmar, France for the day (another two hour drive...I'm not making my point about a non-glamorous life very well, am I?)

We left on Thursday for Lake Como and Cannero/Cannobio, Italy. We brought Maddie along. She missed a couple of days of school, but it was worth it. Our hotel was in Moltrasio. Bob and I had previously planned on staying there at the recommendation of Bianca Lisonbee last summer but because of his work we had to cancel. So I knew exactly where to stay and thanks Bianca...it was perfect!

The drive out of Switzerland was nothing short of incredible. It was breathtaking. We arrived in Moltrasio, unloaded and took the ferry over to Como (trying to buy our tickets was painful. There is absolutely NO ENGLISH spoken in Moltrasio). We spent the evening in Como eating and shopping and walking around. So much fun!

On the second day, we spent the day in Bellagio. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ferry ride from Moltrasio...saw George Clooney's villa, Star Wars villa and some absolutely amazing villas and hotels. Again, spent the day eating and shopping. I purchased a beautiful hand carved wooden nativity that I will treasure forever. Bellagio was wonderful. Can't wait to go back with Bob.

On our way - my driveway and backyard

The view driving from Switzerland into Italy

Narrow roads in Italy - glad to be behind the bus!

Our hotel. Recommendation from Bianca. perfect.

A walk in Moltrasio - need to find a bank - we need Euros!

First stop pizza and....

Gelato!

I need to write an entire post on food in Europe, specifically Switzerland. It was
good to get some delicious and cheap food!

More images from Lake Como...

After leaving Lake Como, we headed North to this hotel in  Cannero, Italy for one night. The hotel was from a recommendation from a friend here in Switzerland. It did not disappoint. One of the most charming hotels ever. Bob and I will be going back there. We were headed for the market in Cannobio (one of the largest in Europe) the following morning in search of an awesome leather bag. We found it and some other treasures as well.

A trip I will not soon forget!

Auf Wiedersehen,

The Beginning

A view of Zug from across the lake

A view of Luzern from a northern hilltop

The famous bridge over the lake in Luzern

Zug

Yes, this is where we live...I know, it's beautiful, we're lucky, "yadda, yadda, yadda"

Well, I guess I'm going to do this...It's been two and one half years since my last post. I don't remember exactly why I stopped...it's been too long. And now I'm not sure if I can even remember how to add a new post.

I'm not even going to try to recap the past two and one half years, just update on what's happened the past four months. Because boy have they been eventful. In fact, the past four months seem like four years!

...In January 2011, Bob began working for a new company, I ran Minuteman Press until we sold it in April, learned we were moving to Switzerland in May, moved to Switzerland in August. We left Orem on the 16th of August to be exact.

tears . meltdowns . anger . joy . sadness . excitement . chaos . confusion . despair . fear . more tears . more meltdowns...and all this BEFORE we left

We arrived in Zug on the 17th of August and made our way to our little teeny tiny business apartment (our home wouldn't be ready for 6 weeks). We stayed there for about 5 days, moved to a hotel for a couple of nights and then to another even smaller business apartment for a few weeks. Maddie and Will slept on mattresses in the living area. If you can imagine the joy that Maddie felt sharing the living room floor with her 8 year old brother...good times!

Our home became ready 4 weeks early and we moved in on the 5th of September. It was so great to have room to spread out and to finally be somewhere that was ours and not have to live out of a suitcase(s).

I think I will start here and do a series of posts over the next few days to catch me up. As I've been thinking about this, so many emotions have come to the surface that I think I have to do this bit by bit in order to avoid another "meltdown".

coming up...moving in, furniture shopping, costs, Swiss Rules, cooking, grocery shopping, school, visitors, travel, church, and oh so much more!

Auf Wiedersehen

Family Photo Shoot!

This summer we had our family pictures taken...it had been far too long! We had a fun shoot in Provo with Erica. I love the way she captures families in her photos! So I emailed her and said I would love to have her photograph our family when she came out to Utah and I'm so glad I did...I love them! Thanks Erica! There were nearly 200 shots...these are just a few of my favorites.

Favorite Family Shots

Favorite Shots of Maddie and Will

Other Favorite Shots

Cluff Family Reunion/Temple Sealing

July Staycation! (Part 2)

Ben planned a great night out in the Uintas for the whole family. He wanted to take the little ones fishing. And he stayed up late the night before cooking for all of us. We had yummy food to eat and made s'mores around the fire! It was great to get out of the heat and let the kids run around and play in the stream. Maddie loved the fishing with Ben more than anything! The drive was really long but beautiful. I am constantly amazed at the majesty of these mountains. Sometimes I take for granted the beauty of this area...I know there are millions who have never seen anything like this and here we are living right in the valley of these awesome mountains! (although, I must say, the bugs up there were anything but awesome!...I have never seen so many mosquitos!)