July 26, 2015

July Happenings

Nora looked totally adorable for the 4th of July this year. When did she get so grown up??

The day before my birthday, the kidlets and I met up with some friends at Zuma beach for a fun day in the sand. I love how much my kids love the ocean now. Benji used to be so afraid of the water and refused to go anywhere near it. Now, he will happily play in the shallows and really likes building in the sand too. 
 Peter has gotten so confident that he'll just go swimming on his own now. He especially likes to take the boogie board out and ride the waves in.
 Love these three.

Just had to sneak this cuteness in there.
 Another mom at our church has done a great job of planning fun, weekly activities for the kids this summer. A few weeks ago we met up at the Prime Deseret Woodland Preserve and the kids got to pretend to be Rangers for the day. You can be sure Peter was in total heaven. 
 My little fashionista
Nora with her 'little' pal Blake at a playdate one day.

Another Saturday, we decided to turn our entire backyard into a giant slip-n-slide. 


The kids (and Travis & I) had a BALL!

June Happenings

Summer is just flying by!! I did a phone dump the other day and here are some of the highlights of our summer. 

After Travis and I got home from Switzerland, we wanted to do some fun stuff with my mom before she went back to Utah. One day we went up to Switzer Falls and played around in the creek. We had brought back Swiss Army Knives for the kids as souvenirs from our trip and they were excited to use them for the first time while hiking. Whenever we stopped to rest, both boys would immediately find a piece of wood they could 'whittle' and were happy as clams to spend the entire afternoon with a knife in their hands.



building dams

And of course, we had to take one day to go to Ventura beach together.






Later in the month, we met up with the Millet clan at a house in Eden, Utah for a weekend family reunion and had a wonderful time. We often found Benji sacked out just like this.
Here he is 'hiding' in a couch cushion fort with his cousins Mackenzie and Callen. I think they wore each other out pretty good.


On the way home, we were able to stop at my sister Tracie's house to have lunch with my entire family. Jono's family was in town too and we had such a nice afternoon with everyone all together.
All 8 Lee cousins together

July 19, 2015

Zurich, Cambridge, and Home!

**If you're just joining in the vacation envy picture fun, be sure to start here.

Driving to Zurich was a bit of an experience - we may have taken a few wrong turns and even wound up driving down a sidewalk at one point, but eventually we got the rental dropped off and had a few hours to spend before our flight the next morning.

We were both pretty exhausted by this time so we didn't have much energy for anything besides a bit of sightseeing. BUT! I did make a necessary stop at Sprungli for a box of out of this world macaroons.

Poor Zurich -- it got the short stick, sightseeing-wise, but we did get to see Marc Chagall's lovely stained glass windows in the Fraumunster. 
I'm not quite sure how I managed it, but I did happen to lose my drivers license while in Zurich. Thank goodness for passports or I'm not sure how we would have gotten home.

The next morning we got up bright and early for the first leg of our journey back home. Travis specifically planned this portion of trip with a 24 hr layover in London so that we could make a quick jaunt up to Cambridge to see the college improv comedy troupe The Footlights perform their year-end review.

Travis insisted that our first stop in London had to be for fish and chips.

We then picked up our rental and got to experience the joys of driving on the wrong left side of the road. Travis looks altogether too happy about this prospect. 
 We finally made it to Cambridge proper and had a few hours to kill before the show so we explored the beautiful college campus for a bit. I could not even imagine going to school here! So. Pretty.

 I swear this was his, like, 15th kebab. He's addicted.
 We made it to the theater and the show was outrageously funny! I don't think either of us realized how young the actors would be (ungrad seems so long ago) but it was fantastic. We had front-row seats and laughed ourselves silly. After another 2 nerve-wracking hour drive back to London, we got a few hours of sleep before our flights left the next morning. 
We had the most amazing, unforgettable trip. I loved seeing and doing so many new things but at the same time, I was most excited about spending so much time with Travis all to myself. Turns out he's a pretty funny dude and we had a ball. 
We missed the kids something fierce, but I'm not kidding when I say we're already planning our trip back!

Gruyeres - a little cheese, a little castle

The next morning, we woke up to a heavy rainstorm and decided to leave Montreux and head north to Zurich. On the way, we stopped in Gruyeres so 1. Travis could have more cheese and 2. so I could see another castle.

Rows upon rows of gruyeres cheese that are lovingly turned and bathed in saltwater everyday by a robot. Travis was in heaven. 
 We were in a bit of time crunch because we had to be in Zurich to return the rental car by a certain time so our time in Gruyeres was a bit rushed but oh so beautiful.


Gruyeres is another car-free village, so we hiked up and decided to make a quick tour around the castle and to enjoy the surrounding views.









Yet again, I did NOT want to leave. The town was so peaceful and picturesque.

Chateau de Chillion and Montreux

Our next road trip took us to the small town of Montreux, on the banks of Lake Geneva. Montreux gave me a chance to dust off my college French (11 years is a long time!) and we got to see the gorgeous Chateau de Chillion. The construction of this gorgeous castle began in the 12th century and was added on throughout the years as different owners occupied the palace.

The castle dungeons were exceptionally atmospheric. Before coming I had read Madeline L'Engle's And Both Were Young and I could not help but be excited to see the dungeon that so captured Flip's imagination.
  This is the place where Lord Byron carved his name on a pillar and then went on to write the poem "The Prisoner of Chillion."


I just could not get over how incredible it was to walk around this surprisingly well-kept castle. Below is the interior courtyard and I had visions of every single one of my favorite historical fiction novels.






 And once we got up high on the ramparts, the views of Montreux and Lake Geneva were glorious!



 Once they, um, kicked us out -- we walked around the outside of the castle to check out the towers on the Lake Geneva side. So picturesque.


I so did not want to leave. I swear we were the last people inside and they all but locked the doors behind us as we left. I'm still trying to convince Travis that we need a castle of our own but I don't think he is quite sold on the idea yet.