First Day of 5th Grade

Maisie is officially a 5th Grader!  Well, actually she's in the Year 6 class at her school; the oldest kids on campus.  Here is a photo of her waiting for the bus on the first day, getting ready to rule the school.  

Join me in wishing her all the best for another successful school year.  Go get 'em Maisie! 

Summer is almost over!

It's the last weekend before school starts.  We've had an amazing summer full of visitors and days spent relaxing by the Villeneuve pool with Maisie's school friends.  The cool thing about the VN pool is that you can swim in the normal swimming pool or you can swim in Lake Geneva.  Jumping off the diving platform lands you in the Lake.  It's a bit brisk but the pool is colder.  I was brave enough to jump from the middle platform (once) but didn't have much luck getting Maisie to jump - and I'm not so sure I really wanted her to.

 Below is a photo of Maisie and her best friend Noah.  He's the only other American in her class and is a cheeseburger connoisseur, as well as a Club Penguin fanatic oh, and they both like pie.

Definitely a summer to remember!

Alizabeth!

When Alizabeth came to visit we visited G3K and then decided to take the train to Zurich. It was my first visit too and it was really spectacular. It was a real cosmopolitan city surrounded by the beauty of Switzerland. I am smitten and not only want to return for another visit but hope to live there someday (negotiations with Maisie are in progress).

Alizabeth and the Glacier

On our way up to 9000 feet!

The girls having a tea party in our Zurich hotel courtyard above and

A in front of Lake Z below.

My favorite part of her visit by far was getting to know what a cool kid she is. Thanks for hanging with us Alizabeth!!

Be Our Guest

We've had a great summer full of family and friends. Our first guests were my Sister Jennifer and niece Annie. They helped me iron out the kinks in my hostess duties and we discovered the do's and don'ts of Swiss sightseeing.

Here is Annie posing with some moose antlers in a chalet shop.

The highlight of the Boyster visit was Glacier 3000.

Nothing like playing in the snow in June!

Enjoying the view from the lift.

Maisie and Annie at Gruyere Castle

The day we drove the Boysters to the airport was the day we got to pick up Kevin!! We spent two days exploring Basel and the rest of the days lounging around.

On the streets of Basel

Cruising the Montreux Jazz Festival

Next, we had the Hood Family come to stay with us. This was definitely the happiest day Maisie has had in the past year. I can't tell you how grateful I am to the Hoods for this gift to her. The highlight of their visit was our visit to Parc Aventure although I have no photographic evidence but here is a photo of our visit to Annecy, France

Maisie and Madison

The Hood Family in Sion above and

our rainy hiking day in Les Paccots below

My niece Alizabeth came to stay with us too but somehow she managed to get away with all of the photographic evidence! We truly loved each and every visit and will cherish the memories always. Now we're looking forward to the start of another school year. I can't believe the summer went by so quickly.

Crazy weather

A coupe of days ago we had a freak hail storm with hail stones the size of grapes. Don't believe me? Look at this... our courtyard

and this... I had to stop her from making a hail angel.

Strange, but it beats an Arizona summer any day!

This one is for Ivy

Maisie's favorite summer activity is staying home and making houses for her Barbies/LPS/Webkinz/American Girls, etc. In summers past she would have had Ivy to help but alas, we are alone here.

Today she spent a fair amount of time building a house in her fireplace. You know what they say.... location, location, location.

Notice the lovely waterfall and foaming water on the left as well as the miniature palm tree in the center.

This here is astronaut Ken.

I think we need to get out more.... We miss you Lunts!

Tour de France

I am about 3 or 4 posts behind but I thought I'd jump ahead and show you all what we had the chance to see today. In a stroke of luck the route of the Tour de France came through our town. The Cantonal road that leads to Martigny and then Verbier (today's finish line) is just a block from our house so we watched the race on TV until we knew they were close and then walked down in time to see them ride by.

Here is our spot. Some of the locals painted encouraging slogans on the street, or so I thought. I've since learned that these are messages for/from Livestrong. Check Matty B's comment for an informative link.

Here come the leaders....

I think the guy in the front left spot with the red jersey is Cancellara, the top Swiss rider.

I think the kid in yellow is mine!

There was about a 3 minute lull and then the rest of the riders came over the bridge....

They were so close!

And there they go....

A once in a lifetime experience. Very cool!