family trip to switzerland

The long-awaited visit of my parents, sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew has come and gone. It was so much fun to have my family here. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Jared and Jenae here too to make it really the whole family. We were very busy while they were here (as you can tell by my previous posts on Germany and Austria and all that is to come). Here are the highlights from the time my family spent in Switzerland.

I received this picture of the kids (and dad) the morning that they arrived. They were all ready to come to Switzerland!

And they arrived with ALL of their luggage! After a small mishap at the airport where I managed to lose the Schaefer family (within 20 minutes of their arrival in Switzerland), we made it back to my apartment. For awhile in the parking garage at the airport, we really did not know how all of this luggage, 4 adults, 2 kids with car seats, and 2 strollers were going to fit into the two small cars we rented, but we managed.

After short naps and showers, we headed into the city of Zurich to walk around a bit and took a boat ride on the lake. The boat ride was so relaxing that mom, dad & Kaylynn all fell asleep.

On our first day back from our Germany/Austria/Liechtenstein trip, we took it easy and stayed in Zurich. We took the train to the top of Uetliberg. Some of us even were brave enough to climb the tower overlooking the city (Kaylnn included, Lainey not).

Then we took the kids to one of the swimming areas at the lake and they got to go down the big green slide. I think this was one of her favorite things about all of her trip!

The next morning, everyone went to the playground while I went to the doctor.

Then we drove to Broc and did the Cailler chocolate factory tour. Eli was very happy with the free samples. He was not so happy when his mommy stopped giving him chocolate.

We stopped in Gruyere, but missed the last cheese-making demonstration of the day.

Then we stopped on the way back to Zurich for dinner in Bern. Lainey and Josh took the kids in the strollers on top of the "fountain" and unfortunately for those of us watching, it didn't go off while they were on it.

The next day we went to Lucerne. We toured the Hergiswil glass factory.

Kaylynn was really excited that she made this fountain on the lake go using the control panel.

 

Lainey, Eli, Kaylynn & Josh in Lucerne

And here is a picture of one of the many dinners that we had on the rooftop at my apartment. They lucked out with great weather on the whole trip. On the roof is where Eli discovered his favorite thing about Switzerland - paprika flavored potato chips!

Here is a picture of our trusty drivers for the whole trip. They did a great job in these little cars. Dad only forgot he was driving a stick once and that was on the first day in the middle of a roundabout blocking 2 lanes of traffic. He recovered quickly though.

 

For their last full day in Switzerland, I took them to the Lauterbrunnen valley. We took the gondola up to Mürren and had lunch and walked around a bit.

Mürren

 

The whole group
 

Me and the kids

When we made it back to Zurich we got sausages and ice cream for dinner and walked around the old town area



Thanks for visiting! Love you guys!

family trip to austria

Next stop on my family's little European tour was Salzburg, Austria. We did a Sound of Music city tour.

 

Dinner at an Austrian restaurant:

 

The next day, on our drive from Salzburg back to Zurich we stopped in Innsbruck. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the river and then walked around the old town which was really cute.

 

Our last stop on the drive back to Zurich was in Liechtenstein. This was a quick stop as there really isn't much to see or do here, but not many people can say they've been there, so now my family can add that to the list of countries they've been to!

family trip to germany

My family arrived to visit on the 4th of July. I will write more on their visit in Switzerland later. On Friday the 5th we left in the morning to drive to Munich. On the way we stopped in Neuschwanstein. The town is very cute. We had lunch outside at a good german place. The main attraction in Neuschwanstein is the castle. As you can see in the pictures below, the view of the castle is breathtaking. You also might recognize the castle as this is the castle that the Walt Disney World castle was modeled after.

Me and Kaylynn 

 

I think this picture mom took after lunch is so funny. Between Kaylynn's face and Eli trying to drink beer, you can see that even with 5 adults, we had our hands full!

This is the bridge we walked over (well, some of us did ;) )

After our Neuschwanstein stop, we drove the rest of the way to Munich. We checked into our hotel and then we took to the train into the center of the city. We walked around Marienplatz and had dinner.

The next day we toured Munich. The first stop was the Olympic park.

Then BMW World where mom, Kaylynn and Eli all enjoyed driving this nice car:

We spent a lot of time in the Englischer Garten. We walked around and saw these guys "tight roping". They were very talented - doing flips and all sorts of tricks on the rope and only occasionally falling in the water.

We had a lunch of soft pretzels and beer at the garden. Afterwards the kids played on the playground for awhile.

 We went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner.

We had a great time in Germany!

lauterbrunnen hike with becky & caitlin

For Becky and Caitlin's last day in Switzerland, I took them on one of my favorite hikes in the Lauterbrunnen valley. We had great weather which made for a great hiking day and great views of the mountains.

I introduced them to my friends the Swiss cows :)

Caitlin drinking from a mountain stream. She said it was very delicious.

We had so much fun taking goofy pictures. I sure do love these girls!

 

Probably the most hilarious piggy-back ride ever.

After a cable car ride down the mountain we walked to Trümmelback falls. It was my first time visiting the falls and it was very impressive. There is a series of 10 waterfalls inside the mountain.

Becky made friends with this goat.

 


This was such a great day and I will always cherish the memories of the good times with these two great friends. Thanks for visiting. Love you girls!