Happy Wedding Stéphanie & Manu!

Saturday was Stéphanie & Manu's civil wedding... definitely a swiss wedding with all of the paperwork involved! It was very formal and quite quick. Afterward, we went to Stéphanie's parents' house for an apero.

-All of us in the Mayor's chamber, with the happy couple & their witnesses in front

- Stephanie signing the official document to be legally tied to Manu forever!!

-The happy couple outside the town hall after the ceremony

Sunday night was Jen's make-up birthday dinner party. Lots of people were out of town on her real birthday, so in order to celebrate her 32nd birthday, she decided to host a Twice as Sweet Party (get it 2 x 16???). Anyway, we all dressed up like we were 16...the boys didn't look much different than what they wear now....hmmm..... I didn't really have the proper wardrobe to dress as I did when I was 16, but I did find an old sports outfit from volleyball and even found my old Sports Walkman! I have no idea why it's in Switzerland, but I found it in the back of my nightstand a couple weeks ago and it didn't even have a tape in it! It was a good prop, though!

-group shot

-me & Joe
For more pictures, here's the link to my flickr photostream.

Jen's Birthday, Edelweiss & Marmots!

Happy Birthday Jen!

-yes, we're dancing....it was late!

Of course, like normal, we were at the Great Escape for Jen's 23rd birthday, the 1st of 2 birthday parties that Jen will have since a lot of people were out of town this past weekend. We had lots of fun and Jen even went into the Ripponne fountain and broke her toe!! See here for all the fun!

Saturday, Joe & I just hung out at home and relaxed/did laundry. Sunday, Jen & I headed up to Rochers de Naye, a mountain above Montreux, even though she had a broken pinky toe. I've been trying to go up there since June, but the weather has been a pain when trying to get up there on free weekends to take pictures of the Edelweiss at the Alpine Garden. Finally, even though the weather wasn't great, we headed up 2000 meters so that I could take pictures of Edelweiss that Margaret Wilson can use to finally paint our wedding present from Jess & Tom Wilson. They've all been very patiently waiting for me to get these pictures. Now that I have over 100 pictures of the chinese & swiss varieties of Edelweiss, I need to sort through them to send to Margaret. Of course, the swiss edelweiss was difficult to get to, so I was completely splayed out on the wall trying to take the pictures. Jen took pictures of me taking pictures...when I get it from her I'll put it up!

-Swiss edelweiss

And a lucky treat for us, all the marmots in Marmot Paradis were out to play when I finished taking pictures of the Edelweiss! They even ran down to the fence... probably looking for food. One lady next to me petted their noses, but once I saw their bit teeth, I decided that I didn't want to lose a finger to a marmot attack!

-trying not to get my fingers chewed off

-it was super cloudy and started raining just as I took this picture... isn't he cute!!

And here are all the pictures from our trip to Rochers de Naye.

Happy Birthday Roberto!
I mean... Dr. Roberto!!

My 100th blog!! Ethnic food, bachelorette party & hiking

What a busy weekend! Friday afternoon, Joe, Jen, Adrian and I went to the Olympic Museum (the IOC headquarters are in Lausanne) to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Afterwards, we tried out an Afghani restaurant in a neighboring town. It was really good!

Saturday was Stéphanie's bachelorette party, which, in french, is called the 'Enterrement de vie de jeune fille', which literally translates to the 'burial of the life of a young girl'. We had a blast! Stéph's high school friends planned a great day. I made her a 'Miss Bachelorette' sash to wear all day. I also made her a 'pocket-Maya-the bee' because Maya wasn't able to attend the bachelorette party.

-modeling her sash, necklace and portable Maya

We then went on a boat cruise around lake Geneva, ending up in Montreux for dinner at an Iranian restuarant. But, before we got to Montreux, Stéphanie had two tasks to complete.

1. Asking someone on the boat, but not one of the girls, to buy her an ice cream.

-what a great reaction!

2. Stéphanie had to ask the boat's captain if she could blow the horn on the boat. So, after sending a message to the boat's captain, he allowed us up to the bridge! In exchange for blowing the boat horn, the captain put Stéphanie to work, making her count the number of passengers getting off and on the boat.

-with the captain

After we got to Montreux, we went to dinner at one of Stéphanie's favorite restaurants where we gave her a 'survival kit' for marriage that Alexandra put together. You can check out the rest of the photos here!

On Sunday I went hiking with Jen and Adrian. Joe's knee still hurts, so he didn't come along. We hiked up to the Jura ridge, to the top of Le Chasseron, starting in La Combaz & finishing in Ste Croix. It was about 2.5 hours or so to the top, where we lunched with a view of the Alps!

-whole range of the Alps... Jungfrau in left side, Mont Blanc on right side

-the Mont Blanc

We also got to walk through lots of fields of cows.... one was wearing the loudest bell I've ever heard... I don't know how she hasn't gone deaf. I decided that it must be the pregnancy bell because she was huuuuuuge. You can see pictures of the cows, and other pictures from the hike on flickr.

fancy dinner

The long August 1st weekend was a well spent weekend of relaxation. I was planning to head up to the botanical garden Friday to take advantage of the holiday, except that it rained all day and was chilly. Instead Jen and I went to lunch and then I headed into work for a few hours since we ate nearby. And since it rained all day long, we decided not to venture out to watch the fireworks that night, but got to see some of Renens fireworks from our balcony. Saturday we had planned a group trip to Bern for a nice dinner, but by the time we figure out exactly who was going and called to make a reservation they were completely booked!! So Joe, Adrian and I scoured the internet and guide books looking for a suitable replacement somewhere around Lausanne and settled on a fancy restaurant in St. Saphorin, one of the small villages nestled in the vineyards of the Lavaux. Luckily they had room for 7 people and so we all dressed up and headed to St. Saphorin's for our very first dinner at a Michelin starred restaurant! Of course, we stopped by the town's very own caveau before dinner.

-Jacqui & I all dressed up on one of the quaint little streets of St. Saphorin

-Adrian in front of the Auberge de l'Onde... we ate on the 3rd floor.

Dinner was delicious and the desserts were amazing. I looked up the dessert chef and found that he has a blog and blogged about making the dessert that I had. Check it out!
It's all in french, so here's a picture for the not-so-adventurous types. Also, other photos are on Flickr... scroll down to find a link to all pictures... you should all know the drill by now!!

-mmm.....A rose flavored macaron and wild strawberries and sorbet

-Joe and I waiting for the train back to Lausanne