France - Annecy, Mont Blanc, Menthon

We spent one day of our French Switzerland trip actually in France.  Although we weren't there for very long we were able to check off a few fun things.

We saw Mont Blanc - the highest mountain in Europe.  Well we kind of saw it - it is the one covered by clouds, but we are going to say that counts :)  It was freezing cold at this lookout point so we got all bundled up in the car so we could run out and snap a quick photo.

We saw Château de Menthon.  We didn't go inside, which was fine with me.  After living in Europe for a year I think I have about gotten my fill of the inside of castles.  However, seeing the outsides of castles and the picturesque settings still isn't old.  I could find a nice bench, eat some yummy treats and just enjoy this view for a while.

Most of our France day was spent in the small town of Annecy.  It was a market day, which is always my favorite, and so we loved wondering around looking at the vendors.

Obviously it was a little too cold to go out in paddle boats, but I thought it was fun that these paddle boats had lawn chairs and slides off the back.  Haven't seen any like that before but would love to try them out sometime...how fun does that slide look!

French Switzerland

Last weekend we celebrated our All Saints day vacation with a long weekend trip to south-west (aka French) Switzerland.  First stop on our trip was Lausanne.  

Lausanne was a nice city on the water - nothing overly amazing - but we had a good time roaming the old streets.  We hadn't realized it before, but Lausanne is home to the International Olympic Committee.  The Olympic museum is currently under renovation so we couldn't go inside but the grounds were really nice and we enjoyed seeing some of the posters they had displayed.  Wouldn't mind going back sometime to see the museum when it is open.

On a different day we visited Montreux to explore the Chillon Castle.  The castle sits right on the Lake Geneva which offers some great views.  The best part is that it was Family Weekend and so admission was free!  We had no idea to would be free until we got up to the ticket counter but it was a very pleasant surprise.  

During the trip we stayed with our friends Emily and Joseph, who live in France near Geneva.  They came with us to the castle and it was fun to spend the day together.  We also loved hanging out with them at night during our trip and were happy to get to see them again.

Apparently seeing castle's is tiring work.

Time to head home!

Seven months

Halloween around here

Costumes for a Mickey and Minnie mouse family were created and worn,

Candy was chomped on

Eyeball cookies were made and shared

 Pumpkins were purchased,

slobbered on,

and carved, while listening to Christmas music (of course).

Homemade glazed donuts were made and eaten and a good time was had by all.