This is a big jumble of pictures from our Europe trip. We took my parents to Spain, France and Switzerland. It was so fun! We rented a van and drove around. We started in Barcelona, spent a few days there and watched my brother, Joseph, do an ironman. Then we drove through France and stayed a few minutes outside of Geneva. Spent a few days in Geneva and met up with an Italian cousin, and a former missionary friend of mine. Then we drove down to the French Riviera for the remainder of our trip. So many fun adventures, stress, and good memories!
French macarons and bakery items are unlike anything I have ever tasted!
We kept a lot of bakeries in business!
This is at the end of our trip. We met up with Joseph's now fiance, Kate. Here we are eating crepes in Nice.
This was Lamoni's crepe.
This was mine.
Playing near Antibes at the beach in the Mediterranean Sea.
This is our pool at our condo. We stayed in the little town of Mandelieu-La Napole. The pool was not heated and soooo cold. Much nicer to swim in the sea.
Benjamin had his birthday there.
This was a seafood dinner we had in Nice.
We took the train to Monaco and walked around.
We took a train along the coast of the French Riviera into Italy.
We walked around Ventimiglia in Italy, ate lunch and visited a market.
And gelato and a bakery of course.
This is a view into our condo. Every room had ceiling to floor sliding glass doors and a balcony.
Rebecca sat between Papa and Grandma in the car.
The view from our balcony.
My mom was our personal chef whenever we didn't eat out. Without her we would've been eating peanut butter jelly sandwiches!
Eating French cheese with a spoon in the car.
We stopped at a rest area on our drive through France to eat lunch. There were olive trees all around us.
Meringues! Note the apple for size comparison.
The macarons were bigger than our palm.
This was the fairytale village of Annecy. Absolutely adorable. I'd go back and just stay here.
We got crepes in gelato while we were in Annecy.
A cheese shop near Geneva that we stopped at. We could sample anything and the prices were amazing!
It looks like he's eating cheesecake, but it's just a wedge of cheese. And he normally doesn't even like cheese!
Lamoni was great at packing our van each time we left. Note my mom's teddy bear that never leaves her side on the right.
At Laderach chocolate shop in Geneva. We went to the Laderach chocolate factory when Benjamin was a baby, so it was fun to try our favorites again.
Liam with gelato and Benjamin enjoying his own quiche.
And more macarons of course.
In old Geneva (another of the highlights of the trip), there were old water fountains with drinkable water, just like in Rome.
The water in Lake Geneva was so clear.
Grandma and Papa treated the boys to a carousel.
We had fun walking the pier to the famous water spout in Geneva.
My parents made omelets and I walked to the bakery down the street for some croissants.
The view from our window at our airbnb outside Geneva.
We were on the edge of the French alps. Absolutely stunning views!
Geneva with my friend and her boys. Ironically we met at McDonalds, because it was pouring rain and Geneva is not a very kid-friendly city. So we hung out there until the rain slowed down.
We had all split up - me to meet up with my friend and her kids. I took Liam and Rebecca with me. Lamoni, my dad and Benjamin went fishing on Lake Lausane, and my mom was at our airbnb with Peter and her cousin doing family history. We all met up at this museum cafe in Geneva.
A baguette and goodies from the bakery down the street from our house.
Liam eating a lemon tart like it's yogurt for breakfast.
We'd walk to the bakery each morning just like the French.
This was the most stressful night of the trip. We stopped for crepes in Lyon, and our van got locked into the parking lot, til 9 a.m. the next morning. I would've missed meeting my friend, my mom would've missed her cousin, and my dad would've missed his fishing trips. No rental cars big enough for us, hours from our next airbnb, and no hotel within walking distance. Through a series of miracles we were able to get our van out, and to our destination (hours late, but we got there!).
Our van and the bar that was keeping us in.
How my parents viewed the beautiful scenery. :-)
On our way from Spain to France we stopped in Carcasonne to tour the castle. We love the game, so were excited when we saw it was a real place. Definitely another highlight of the trip, and would go back!
Our last night in Barcelona at Joseph's ironman. It was so neat to be able to be there and cheer him on!
Getting some dinner while we waited for Joseph to finish.
The girls getting a foot massage in Barcelona in the gothic district.
A view of the size of the roads Lamoni got to navigate with a huge van. Poor guy! It was really really stressful in Barcelona. Especially for him. He calls it "Stress-alona". In hindsight we should've stayed closer to Barcelona instead of the ironman, and just done public transportation.
The view of the Mediterranean Sea on the train from our Airbnb to where the Ironman was.
We walked and played in the ocean after we saw Joseph off. We got up at 5 a.m. after we got home the night before at midnight. Side note, up to this point on the trip we had gotten home at midnight every night and up by 5-6 a.m.
Here's the line of participants on the swimming portion.
Joseph is in the green suit directly above the person in the front. I stood in the water with pants on to get this picture!
The excitement in the air was real. Loud music and an announcer who was really funny.
Walking around Barcelona
In the Sagrada Familia. Not many sites I'd go back to Barcelona for, but this is definitely one of them!
A chocolate replica of the Sagrada Familia
We did a bus tour through the city. A little underwhelming...
We did a tour of Gaudi's Battlo House
This is from the porch of our airbnb near Barcelona. That's the beach right at the end of the block.
We met up with Joseph and Kate in Barcelona for dinner.
I'm sure there's a picture later of the paella we ate. So delicious!
Rebecca was extremely excited on the plane. So excited she would barely sleep at all. All night. Benjamin did manage to get her asleep once!
Leaving from Albuquerque
This is an old lady at church in Nice. She LOVED Benjamin.
This afternoon will always be a special memory for me. The kids played in the sea on the edge of castle ruins in southern France. The water was warm, it was perfect weather, and everything so idyllic.
Rebecca even joined in the fun.
We then went to a beach with sand so the boys could play in the sand too.
We would play games in the evenings after the daytime adventures if we didn't get home too late.
This is at a market in Barcelona. We let the boys all pick out something healthy and something junky that they wanted to try.
These pictures are as we were leaving Barcelona to fly home. Peter was acting really sick, but we thought it might've just been from him waking up early. His tired and sick symptoms are pretty interchangeable. He actually ended up super duper sick and was miserable for the flights home and the whole next week. I can't remember if it was the flu or Covid, but some of us got it later too, and I can't imagine having to travel with it!
Another long flight with a baby who never stopped moving and grabbing stuff.
More pictures of all the sites above, but from Lamoni's phone:
This bakery was called "Benjamin's bakery" and was our absolute favorite on the whole trip. We ate there every single day we were in southern France.
The face of a happy 4 year old.
Old Geneva
Lyon
Fishing in Lake Lausanne
The water puddle from Lamoni wringing out one sock after fishing.
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A yummy bakery in Barcelona. Very different than French bakeries.
Here's the paella in Barcelona that was so yummy.
