The first few days (from the eyes of Matt)

Greetings from France!!  We are a few days into out trip, but this has been the first place that we have had internet access.  We have already seen and done some fun things.

Day 1:

Our flight leaving Salt Lake was delayed by just over an hour because of potential tornados in Dallas, but we had a fun time waiting by chatting with Aaron, Nan, Papa Duck, and Grandma Suzi.  When we got to Dallas, our flight to London was also delayed because of heavy rain and thunderstorms in Dallas.  We finally got on our way however and had a great flight to London.

Day 2:

Arriving in London we only had about an hour to make our transfer and it is a big airport.  We did make it, however, and also met up with Garry and Elisse.  We had a nice flight to Geneva with some cool views of the Engish Channel, Paris, and the mountains leading into Geneva. 

Our party was split into two on the flight to Geneva, so we waited about and hour and a half until Papa Duck and Grandma Suzi arrived.  By then Phillip and Giselle, Papa Duck's friends in Geneva had arrived (Papa Duck baptized Giselle when he was on his mission years ago).  We got our two rental cars and made our way to Nyon where Giselle lives.

At this point we were excited to be in Switzerland, but also really tired because we hadn't slept much on the flights.  We forced ourselves to stay awake, however, by going for a walk down to Lake Lucern.  The lake was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  Across the lake were the French Alps and they looked really cool.  Mommy, Aaron, and Nan actually took advantage of the time to go running along the lake.

That night Giselle's daughter came by to visit, she had spent a summer living with mommy's family when mommy was a teenager and everyone had a great time catching up with her.  When it was time to sleep, Garry, Elisse, mommy and I went to Giselle's nephew's vacant flat to spend the night.  It was quite comfortable and we were quickly asleep.

Day 3:

My third day started really early since I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep; changing time zones by eight hours can be really hard to adjust to.  I sat on the couch in the other room so that mommy could still sleep, and worked on my computer until 5:30 when I decided to try to sleep again.  Finally at 6:15 I fell back to sleep and slept until 7:45 when I had to get up.  It turns out that Papa Duck and Aaron had the same problem back at Giselle's house.

It was stake conference her in Giselle's stake so after breakfast back at Giselle's house we went to a hotel in Geneva for stake conference.  Marlese Gurney's brother is the stake president here so Ashley and I met him and got our picture taken with him.  We also got to wear headsets and listen to an English translation during the stake conference.  We were all so tire, however, and it was so hot in the room that we all had a really tough time staying awake.

After church we drove into downtown Geneva and saw the Wall of the Reformers.  It is a wall dedicated to the men who risked their lives bringing about the great religeous reform from the Catholic church.  The wall is really big with the huge statues of the many of the principle reformers including John Calvin.  We were there for over half and hour and mommy and I were moved by the monument to such courageous men.

We then traveled back to Giselle for lunch and to say our goodbyes.  Phillip and Giselle were so nice and provided a great welcome to Europe.

After leaving Nyon we crossed the border into France and traveled to Grenoble.  It was only a two hour drive and we easily found our hotel.  After checking in we walked down to the city center and had dinner.  Mommy had an eggplant crepe and I had ravioli.

Tomorrow we climb L'Alp d'Huez.

P.S. Pictures to come

Arrival in Switzerland May 21 (Elisse)

May 20.  We left Dallas at 9:55am when Garry finished his last project in the office.  Then, since he was operating on about 2 hours of sleep, and I had slept 5, I drove to Houston.  There we left the kids with Dusty and hurried to the airport for our London-bound flight.

The flight from Houston to London took 8 1/2 hours.  I was fortunate to be able to sleep for about 6 hours.  Garry only slept for 1 1/2 due to wiggly neighbors.  May 21:  In London, we met the Ashleys and the Aarons adn flew together to Geneva.  And in Geneva, we connected with Mom & Dad and Giselle Dubrez (our friend and hostess in Switzerland).

After a little detour (we got lost), we found ourselves safely on the road to Nyon (Giselle's home--a suburb of Geneva).

Giselle was the perfect hostess!  She took us by the chateau (where she had gotten married), through the city garden and down to the seaboard.  There she bought me some postcards.  And then, feeling very European, we walked back to her flat (i.e. her apartment).

Aaron, Nan and Ashley had gone running and ended their run when they met us down by the castle.  Once back at the flat, we met Philippe Dubrez (Giselle's husband and also our friend) and chatted with him and Giselle as we laughed and ate his homemade pizza for dinner.  Then their daughter Christine came for a minute before we all headed to bed.  (Christine made a few trips to the states to stay with our family when she was younger.)