Looking at September now that we are in October!

Where has this year gone?  I can't believe it's October.  In some ways I hope to be saying that more and more but then again....I am enjoying it here.  My job is great.  The kids fit in.  Heather and I are making friends....good ones.  I have to say - in my wildest dreams I did not imagine things going this well.  Church is great.  We are starting a small group this month with some great friends from Australia (he's this great guy that works for a Satanic company based out of the 'Nati).  We are doing worship a ton.  

At the same time, we do miss our friends and family.  Of course we are missing mexican...uhhhh I am aching for a carne asada burrito!

Ok here's pictures and quick stories on what we did.

First here's a picture of Zach and I rockin out before another Bengals loss.  

I will not mention my displeasure for this team I am stuck too.

Dad & Zach Rockin it!

Amanda and I had a great time at the M&M church event.  This was a Dad and child event where Amanda and I did a photo scavenger hunt.  To do this everyone got on a boat in Nyon and road over to Yvoirre, France.  

It's a really cute medieval city.  We had a long list of items to find from pinkest toes to a sleeping cat, and as you will see a man sleeping on a bench!  After we finished the hunt we grabbed a sandwich, went back to Nyon and then road the train to Geneve.  We met Heather and the rest of the gang at Starbucks...it's becoming a monthly tradition.  We have gone to the Lausanne and Geneve Starbucks.  They need to build one in Nyon!  Here's some pictures from the great time Amanda and I had in Yvoirre.

Dad & Amanda in Yvoirre

Just last weekend we had the final event of the month...the Z man turned 2!!  Here's how it worked.  First, our friends the Slacks and the Dixons got in a train in Nyon and rode to St. Cergue which is up in the mountains behind us.  It was a chilly 7 degrees Celsius up there...brrrrr!  Why did we brave this cold?  

To see the cows come home of course! Every year the cows are taken to graze in the high fields during the summer.  This supposedly helps them make tasty cheese.  Then, the last weekend of September, they are brought back down to the valley for the fall and winter.  This is a parade/celebration where people cheer the cows as the farmers bring them through.  We watched as the stud cows had flowers on their head for decoration.  The ugly cows just got big bells.  What fun!  There was a great flea market and good food.  We had some amazing hot chocolate, vin chaud and tateflette (ask me about this -- Heather can make a mean tateflette now!).  

See the cows come home!

After we had enough of the cold we got back on the train and came down to celebrate Zach's birthday.  

Ok, so the chocolate cake Heather made was heavenly!  Zach liked it too as you can see.  The fun part of his birthday is I actually saw him get excited when we sang to him.  It was like he knew he was the center of attention AND he got chocolate cake!  What else could a little boy want?  More voitures of course.  

Zach's Big Day

The whole weekend turned out great.  Oh ya one other thing...as we went up the mountain on the train to St. Cergue we met this family from Wisconsin who had arrived the same time we had to Switzerland.  We started talking and we told them about Westlake.  Crazy enough they turned up on Sunday.  

There so many more details of what is going on here.  Meags went on two camps (one for school and one for the Youth group).  Meags and I are doing worship for the Youth camp in Les Diabeleretes in a couple of weeks.  I went to Greece.  This month I go to Munich and London.  It just doesn't slow down but I really like it this way.  

Take care and write us sometime!