Rocher de Naye

 This has been on our to-do list for awhile: Rocher de Naye, one of the higher Alpine peaks near us. Whatever that means... But the real draw of this one? The marmot farm at the top. We headed up in the morning on the cog train.

 Man, I love these views. I know I have lived here for 2 years now, but it still takes my breath away.

 And we were not disappointed by the marmot farm. They have marmots from all four continents, and they claim to be the only marmot farm able to boast that fact. I can't be sure as this is the only place I've been to entirely dedicated to marmots.

 The boys spent hours feeding dandelions to the braver of the marmots.

 For as much snow as we get around her, I was a little surprised at the boys enthusiasm to find snow here. I mean, really, ski season didn't end that long ago.

 Emily, this one if for you. The 7 month belly shot.

 Jonas being a marmot. He spend a lot of time like this. I was kind of surprised that he didn't end up with a weird rash of some sort.

Exhausting day; he didn't even make it all the way down on the cog train.

Jonas's 4th

 

Jonas turned 4 (I can't believe; I guess he will just be my baby until the next one comes) on June 30. We started his birthday festivities the evening before with a nice barbeque at the lake. Open community barbeques dot the beaches along lake Geneva and this type of meal is quickly becoming a family favorite.

 The kids were enjoying a dip in the lake until Jonas spotted this crawfish and became certain that death was imminent. Or at least that his father was going to die picking it up. Daniel suggested we throw it on the barbecue, but Jaxon wouldn't have it.

 We headed hope afterward for cake, candles and presents. I let Jonas decorate his own cake. He certainly enjoyed himself, although I found myself needing to scrape of some of the decorations the appreciate the cake...

 And, of course, the most important part: presents.

We spent the next day at Aquaparc, the best water park in the area. Unfortunately we forgot the camera in the car, so no pics. The kids had a blast and Jonas was thoroughly satisfied with his choice of birthday activity. Though I have to say that water parks as a pregnant woman are pretty depressing, with everyone else having the fun. Or the work-Daniel was exhausted by the end after lugging huge tubes up stairs all day.   However, I can't complain too much as there was also a spa and I was able to spend a good portion of the day in there.  In any case, it was a great celebration. We sure love having Jonas in our family!

European camping-four years later

 I can still remember the first time we went camping in France almost four years ago. We were used to American camping and were severely disappointed when we found that there would be no campfires, but rather clean bathrooms and manicured garden surroundings. Things change. Now we ask ourselves, what camping experience could possibly be complete without...

 A nice playground...

 

A bouncy castle...

 

Tennis courts...

 And a swimming pool...

 Complete with water slides...

 And a pool-side restaurant? Plus a game room, nightly entertainment, activities during the day and a jacuzzi? We had to finally accept that we have become Europeanized in our camping when we actually left our first campsite (which I had selected because of the pool and the advertised sauna, hammam and water massages) of our weekend camping outing because we spotted this one nearby with the slides. And then we hardly left the campsite.

 The kids were worn out in any case.

 

We did manage to motivate ourselves to leave the campsite and  check out the southern tip of Lake Annecy a little bit, but only after the pool was closed. We are going back to this place-a perfect weekend getaway! 

Marseille Weekend

The weekend after we returned from Crete we had yet another long weekend and decided to head down to Marseille for our first visit back in almost two years! We had planned trips back before, but they always seemed to fall through, or the weather was bad so we put it off. Okay, so here is one thing that we never really understood about France-the toll booth system. While other countries either charge you for a pass when you cross the border (Switzerland, Austria for example) to use the highways or have the toll booths conveniently located at the entrance and exit ramps (Italy), France prefers to simply put booths in high traffic areas forcing everyone on busy highways to both stop and pick up a ticket and then to pay after a certain stretch. So not surprisingly, this causes major backups, only exacerbated during long weekends when everyone wants to hit the beach in southern France. So we had lots of time to bond in the car, but we had a good time, blasting music and singing along.

Any time spent in the car quickly seemed well worth it when we got to Cassis and we were able to enjoy one again one of our very favorite places: the Calanques. We hiked down to Port Pin and spend the day at the beach.

Searching for crabs before Jonas's beach nap.

Not sure why we ever left...

We topped Saturday off in Cassis, wandering around the port and enjoying some delicious pizza au feu de bois.

The next day we headed to church and met up with old friends. We were even in luck as our good friends, the Monclins, who had previously moved to Bordeaux just happened to be in town as well for their first trip back! It is amazing how nothing seemed to have changed in the passed two year, except for a couple of new babies and a couple of inches on each kid.

This Sunday was Jaxon's real birthday. It was a great treat for him to be able to spend it will people he remembered and loved.

We spent our final morning at the beach in Cassis before meeting up with our friends before we left in the afternoon.

And of course I needed more pizza before I headed back to Switzerland.

It was a great weekend and I couldn't help but shed a couple of tears as we headed back home. Although we only spent two years of our lives here, Marseille will always be part of us.