A few more recent pictures

Mea and Sleeping Beauty


Jared, Nick and Ben tailgating before the UGA vs. Central Michigan game


Mea and Lily painting kites with Grandma at the JapanFest in Atlanta


Jared and the girls at Sharky's restaurant on the beach in Florida

Been too long, but here we are

Okay, so we moved back to Georgia and July and I haven't blogged the first thing about it. Sorry. We have been so crazy busy with the whole moving and adjusting process, until I have been way too overwhelmed to think about blogging much less to actually sit down and blog. But, here I am.

Because so much has happened since we arrived, I am just going to give you a brief list of highlights of what's been going on:

1) A family Disney cruise in July
2) Lots of time with family and friends
3) Mea taking swim lessons and Lily in gymnastics
4) Joining and participating in a local homeschool support group with other Christian families
5) Mandy being able to restart her Arbonne business
6) Jared happily fitting right back in at KPMG Atlanta
7) A quick trip to the beach in Florida
8) Attending and/or watching UGA games with friends

Will TRY to post more updates again soon..................

The month of March 2008

I just realized the other day that we had not blogged about KPMG TS ski weekend in Grindelwald in March, nor have we posted anything about our trip to Beaune for Easter. So, sorry to keep things brief, but here is a quick overview:

March 7-9, 2008, we spent the weekend in Grindelwald, Switzerland with Jared's group from work. We had a wonderful time skiing, sledding, swimming in the indoor pool and just hanging out with friends. (Okay, so I didn't really enjoy the skiing and almost had a complete meltdown on the slopes, but I learned a lot about my limitations both as a skier and as a mother. Enough said.) Jared and I enjoyed a wonderful Swiss fondue dinner with the group while our girls were watching movies and eating pizza with a wonderful babysitter and other kid friends in the comfort of a hotel suite. After our fondue supper, we had the exciting adventure of nighttime sledding down a VERY fast course. We lived to tell, but let's just say I had an awful lot of snow up the legs of my ski pants. Here are some pictures:







After ski weekend, the month of March flew by pretty quickly. We did go to France for Easter, and we stayed in the Dijon region in a town called Beaune. It was a great town with enough to do to keep us busy as we tried our best to avoid the very mixed up weather----there was sunshine; there was rain; it was warm; it was cold; it hailed some; I think it even snowed on us on the way there. Crazy.

We were able to stroll through the Saturday market (and buy mommy a great, straw market bag), visit some wineries and wine caves and just enjoy walking the city. The best part of the weekend was the food. We ate at two very wonderful restaurants, our favorite being 'Chez NoNo'. With a name like that, it had to be great. Anyway, my coq au vin was incredible and the tender, roasted pork that Jared had was delightful. Here are some pictures from the Beaune area:












The month of March ended with a quiet weekend at home, cleaning, packing and exploring the Wildpark Langenberg in Langnau am Albis. We were able to enjoy dinner with our friends, the McKenney's, at a fun and yummy restaurant called Seerestaurant Meilibach. Here are some pictures of the Wildpark:

Our home in Horgen

For anyone interested, we thought we'd put the apartment on video. Sorry no sound, ignore boxes and moving mess. Just thought it'd be fun to post our home for those who can't visit to see us. There are two videos.

The first is a shot coming in the front door and the second is the remainder of the apartment.

In the beginning of the first video and after the yellow front door is opened there is a scary, mystery door at which the camera points but the producer doesn't enter. If anyone's curiousity is killing them, then you should know that it is the half bath; we had a bunch of recycling so we didn't want to scare anyone.

The second video includes shots of the patio where we've done our fair share of grilling and eating outside in the spring, summer and fall months. Also shots of the garden out back as well as playground for the community.

At the end of the second and longest video is a shot of the lake about 50m out our front window. We will definitely miss our walks and runs by the lake!!!

Sunday afternoon hikes

One thing we have really come to love about where we live in Switzerland is the number of walking/hiking trails that surround us. Most weekends, if the weather is agreeable, we try to find the time to get outside and soak up the fresh air, green grass and beautiful scenery.

An area that has become a favourite of ours is called the Horgenberg, and it is just about a 10 minute drive from our house. Jared loves to go up and run the trails and the girls and I love to just get out and walk and roll in the sweet grass. Here are some pictures.

Geneva car show - March 15th, 2008

In March of every year at the Geneva International Motor Show, the world's leading automakers cram into seven exhibition halls totaling over 330,000 square feet. It is Europe's first auto show of the year and features the latest models stretching the gamut from Maserati and Ferrari to Ford and GM (Ford and GM are doing quite well in Europe despite piling up the losses in the US).


Geneva is about a 3.5 hour train from Zurich. We've done this train a few times. However, we can never get enough of the last part of the ride into Geneva, the train breaks suddenly out of a long tunnel, you are greeted with a view across the wine vineyards flowing down a steep incline into Lake Geneva and then you realize across the lake are the impressive French Alps. We are definitely soaking things in more acutely as we get closer to leaving. We will definitely be homesick for awhile when we get back to the US.

We got the girls up early (630a ... arrrhhh!) and hopped aboard.

There was a great mix of interesting concept cars such as this one from Toyota as well as "sehr cool, Euro supermodels.







The Indians from Tata Motors rolled out the new $2,000 people mover which is going to revolutionize the streets of Delhi and Bombay by putting car ownership within the reach of 1 billion plus Indians. Not sure I'd want to pile in ... might give it a few years to prove out the safety record!!!










The whole family had a great time and even got to do a little fantasizing






Here are some more pictures of the show (CLICK on the SPEAKER ICON ON THE BOTTOM LEFT of the SLIDES for the appropiately selected accompaniment "Chasing Cars")

Venice- February 15-18, 2008

Venice, the City of Lights, Queen of the Adriatic, the City of Bridges and setting of the video to Madonna's 1984 hit "Like a Virgin.

It was our destination for a long, cold weekend in February.

Of the 4 days, 2 were spent on the train (8hrs from Zurich). The first 4 hrs of the trip journey through the heart of the Alps, past the beautiful lakes of Lugano and Como, into Milan; the next 4 hrs through fairly bland, somewhat industrial, gray Italian landscapes. (video of train trip to be uploaded - check back in a couple of days)

The long and sometimes dreary train ride was absolutely worth the two days meandering the alleys of Venice. We now fully agree with those who say to throw away the map, get lost on the many islands, peer into store windows, and linger over cups of cappuccino in quiet cafes. The quietness was only occasionally interrupted by two little, active girls. We imagined solitude nonetheless.

Venice in winter is infrequently stinky, stuffed to the gills with tourists (strained maritime pun not intended), yet remains stunningly beautiful and slightly melancholy.

Established at the end of the Roman empire as the citizens in surrounding Roman towns fled the onslaught of the Germanic tribes, the city is built on over 100 islands in a marshy lagoon. Despite the seemingly inhospitable location, Venice eventually controlled much of the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages, serving as an embarkation point for the Crusades, a maze for a young Marco Polo to explore, one of many vibrant centers of the Renaissance in Italy and home of Vivaldi.

After the first half day, crossing at least 15 of the first 400+ bridges in Venice, we ditched the stroller and let the girls walk. Lily proved to be the more avid walker as opposed to Mea who prefers the "lingering in quiet cafes part" or in plastic houses at the playground to write in her journal. Here is an example of the contrast -


It was a great trip. Here are some additional pics on slide show for your viewing pleasure.

Lily's 2nd Birthday - January 21st, 2008

Sorry that I am almost 2 months overdue on posting pictures of Lily's 2nd birthday party. We had a small gathering of friends and neighbors for chili and Winnie the Pooh cake. Nothing too outstanding, but we did have a good time. Here are some pictures.