Ben visits!

We just spent a great week hosting Chris' brother, Ben.  He was only here a week, but was able to see and do so much during his visit. 

The first full day he was here was Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is obviously not celebrated in Switzerland, so business is as usual, but we decided since Uncle Ben was here the girls could skip school.  They ended up spending the day at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, looking at all of the artifacts from previous Olympics. 

The real torches from previous Olympic games-

That evening, I made a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Turkeys are hard to find in Switzerland, and our ovens are tiny, so I cooked up two turkey breasts instead.  We were able to enjoy turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, pumpkin bars, and apple crisp.  After the meal we watched the Vikings game, which was perfect timing for us at 6:30pm. 

The next morning, Chris and Ben flew to Rome, Italy for the weekend.  They were able to tour all of the main attractions and enjoy the delicious Italian cuisine.

Trevi Fountain

Colosseum

On Sunday, when they flew back, we headed to Anney, France.  Last time when Ben visited, we did not go to Annecy, so we knew we wanted to take him there.  The Christmas market season has begun and we love walking around the markets seeing the different items for sale, enjoying vin chaud, and getting in the holiday spirit. 

Old Town Annecy

Eliza loved this bear-

Lake Annecy

Monday, Ben visited CERN.  He is very interested in science, so this was a perfect outing for him.  CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research and operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.  Many physicists and engineers work there using the largest and most complex scientific instruments to study fundamental properties.  One fun fact, CERN is the birthplace of the World Wide Web.  It began as a CERN project in 1989 and the first website was activated in 1991.  A very important day was April 30, 1993, when they announced that the web would be free to anyone.  Can you imagine life without google search???  

Sadly, on Tuesday Ben had to head back to Minnesota.  We had such a great time with him!  After he left, it was time for birthday prep for Adalyn.  She had a "Tea Party" birthday party and had a fabulous 7th Birthday! 

So thankful for her friends in Geneva- a wonderful group of girls!

Excited to see our family and friends in TWO weeks!!!