Time to explore!

Wow- what a week it has been!  The girls and I did so much exploring around Geneva this past week.          We visited a lot of fun parks and places for the girls!  We have also explored all the different grocery stores- you wouldn't think there is much to explore, but there is!!!  Each grocery store we have been to has something new and different, and unfortunately we have "favorites" at each place, so we will be visiting three grocery stores weekly!  Which leads me to the first topic I will discuss, since many who know me well know that adapting to different food could be a huge challenge during this adventure.

So, the food... it's been good!  Adalyn likes to compare everything we eat to how it tastes in Lakeville!  It is actually quite comical, and usually she likes it just as much or even better, which is great or she would be out of luck!  The food does go bad quickly, typcially you buy cheese, yogurt, milk, bread, anything really and you need to check the dates- because most likely it is only good for a few days.  That has been a struggle getting used to since I was already crazy about dates on food and now I have to be even crazier!!  I check daily just to see what we should eat up that day- some days we have yogurt at all meals.  Hopefully soon I will get used to buying smaller quanities and just going more often- I just have the "American" way of shopping where I want to buy in bulk! Another frustration is the lack of help at some stores- for example... today we went to Coop since they are the only store with freshly cut deli meat, and the only deli meat I have liked so far, so we went there for the whole purpose to get the meat for sandwiches.  There were two ladies behind the deli counter, I asked them if they could cut some "jambon"(ham) since there was none out on the shelf, and they looked at me like I was crazy.  The only one they did have cut was turkey, which expires tomorrow already!!  I was so frustrated- they were doing nothing and could have easily cut me up some meat...GRRRR!  So, those are things that I guess I will have to start getting used to-

We did find this gem at the grocery store on Friday in France- we were pretty excited!

What have we been up to?  Last week the girls and I went to a couple parks.  We also explored Carouge, which is a super cute little town about 5 minutes from where we live.  We walked around for awhile just looking at the little shops and then Adalyn and Eliza enjoyed their first gelato.  They obviously loved it!!

On Friday, the girls and I went grocery shopping in France and then hung out at an AWESOME water area for kids!  It's called the "Frontenette."  It's three big fountains, and the kids play in the water around it.  The water is about 2 feet and the kids can even use little floaties to go around- it reminded me of a lazy river for kids!  Both girls loved it!  Adalyn made a friend, which was funny because her friend only spoke French, so the two played together for over an hour, basically using sign language! They even have all different crazy bikes to bike around the fountain area which Adalyn and her new friend enjoyed!

On Saturday, we headed to IKEA!  We bought a few things and spent nap time putting all the stuff together- not very fun!  So, of course, after nap we wanted to do something fun, so we headed to the top of Mont-Seleve, which is the mountain that you can see from our backyard.  It was only 20 minutes from our house, so it will definitely be a place to take visitors.  It was so beautiful.  Adalyn kept saying, "Can we go to the top of the top of the top!"  We made it to the top-  On one side, you see France and the other side, Geneva.  We always see para-gliders from our house gliding around the mountain, so it was very cool for us to see where they take off!  Adalyn wanted to go para-gliding so bad, guessing if she would have gotten hooked up, that might have changed!  Plus, not sure of the age requirement or if mommy and daddy want to participate in para-gliding!  So, any visitors that want to go, you have a partner to go with!  We were able to stop and hike a bit and take in the amazing views- we plan on going multiple times since there are many places to stop and hike.

On Sunday, we headed to a small resort village in the mountains in France, Megeve.  It was the first built resort town in the Alps. It was about an hour drive from our house, which didn't seem that long since the entire way you have mountains surrounding you.  It was hard for Chris to focus on the road and not look at the scenery- thankfully he did since we were going about 80 miles per hour.  It was such a cute little town- Adalyn said she thought Belle from Beauty and the Beast must have lived there, since the town looked like the one in the movie.  It was filled with so many cute shops and restaurants.  They also had a playgound that the kids played at for awhile.  It was pretty busy, but we were told it is even busier from January to March during ski season.  So many people were walking dogs, so Eliza was very happy poitning to every "doggie".  There are three main ski areas near the village, so many people stay there and ski.  Maybe that is where Adalyn will learn to ski-and perhaps I will try again- I heard there is a great beginner area!  We ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant there and of course Adalyn wanted chocolate milk- unfortunately they didn't have it, but instead they made her a "Nutella Milk", which was milk mixed with Nutella covered in whipped cream... it was delicious!!!  I highly recommend you try it at home! 

Eliza is adapting very well to the European relaxed life-style! 

  Adalyn loving her drink-

Views out our car window

All in all, we had a great first week!  The girls are adapting so well- they are such great explorers!  We have been able to unpack more boxes and slowly are making the house our home.  Once all of the boxes are empty, I will post pictures of our house.  Adalyn starts school in three weeks and then our days will become a lot more routine- she will go to school everyday from 8:30 - 3:00.  We are looking forward to another fun week of checking out new places around town- there is a kid festival this week we will go to and a stuffed animal museum we heard was worth checking out!  We will also be practicing our French more since it has turned out that you really do need to know it and be able to use it- I rarely find workers at stores that speak English, so I end up playing charades in hopes that they will understand me. We are using google translate a lot and speaking in French as much as we possible can with our limited vocabulary!  I think Eliza is picking it up the quickest- she repeats everything we say so she can already say, "Bonjour" (hello) "Merci" (thank you) and she is really good at "Au revoir" (good-bye).  She kept saying "Au revior" very loudly yesterday as we were leaving church...I wasn't sure if I should be embarassed or laugh!  Here's to another great week-