We are three years old!

Hello family, David and I celebrated our three-year anniversary this weekend in Geneva on Saturday and with a very exhausting hike this morning. I will tell the stories in chronological order, starting with Geneva. So we set out with the university bus at 8:45 in the morning for our "1 1/2" hour drive which was actually more like two hours, but it wasn't bad. Once in Geneva we found the tourism office and set out to see as much as we could. For the most part I wouldn't rank Geneva as one of my favorite cities because it was somewhat too modernized and there were a lot of items marked on their "to-see" list and once we got to the spot on the map there was nothing noticeable there... (this happened probably more than 50% of the time. I just wish there was better signage or explanations, or something.) However, as I usually do I will let the pictures tell the story of our adventure:

This is the first picture that David and I took in Geneva. We are not sure what this thing was, because as with most of the interesting places in Geneva, it was un-labled. However, it did make for an iconic photo.

This is the iconic geyser of Geneva. David and I didn't get a picture with it unfortunately because it got turned off soon after our arrival due to the high winds that were blowing through Geneva. But luckily I did get this photo!

Switzerland is know for making watches, so in one of their famous gardens you can find this "flower watch" which is telling the correct time. Plus it was really pretty.

This is St Pierre's Cathedral, which sits high up on a hill overlooking the city. This photo was taken from the cool little secret staircase that we took to get to the cathedral. The front of this cathedral is also amazing so if you want to see it I recommend you google it, because it was actually quite difficult for me to get a good picture of (too big) This was a really cool cathedral and was quite lovely inside. Also, construction of this church was started in 1150! And we got to see a chair that was sat in by John Calvin, which has been kept in this cathedral. 

This is a picture of part of the Wall of Reformers which is located in another park in Geneva. It represented many of the most influential reformers of the church. My favorite part was reading the old French "Lord's Prayer" because the spelling was amazingly different. For the most part though, these massive eye-less stone statues were kind of creepy.

Also in the park, David and I lined up with a life-size chess board. I had just made my move when David decided that he wanted to enjoy the rest of his day and for fear of beating me and making me upset we decided to continue on with our tour of the city. Sadly this is somewhat true, but I am mostly exaggerating. We really just thought there were better ways to spend our limited time in a new city.

Here are David and I sitting on a cannon in the ancient artillery "arsenal" of Geneva. My favorite part of this photo (other than the fact that it is really cute) is actually my feet. I sub-conscientiously had lowered my heels below my toes as though I were preparing to ride a horse. I think it looks incredibly goofy because I am on a cannon, not a horse, but it just goes to show that I have spent a long time riding horses. 

Hey Mom, this is to show off another possible candidate for my "ensemble of 6" bird pictures. But I also included this photo as an excuse to tell you that David and I set a record for the number of swans we have ever seen in one place in our lives. In this portion of the river as it entered into the city we spotted 31 swans swimming around and gathering food. As you can see there are 4 right in this picture, two of which were the first adolescent swans I had ever seen. Also a little bit down the bridge we saw 2 more swans... then two more. They made the lake super elegant.

A view of our walk alongside the lake (the lake is between me and the buildings on the other side). And this was a little sitting park that we enjoyed.

We walked all the way down the side of the lake just to get this picture with the naked man and the horse because we thought it would make a funny photo. Of course, when we got there David refused to take a photo with a naked man, so it is just me. Voila. 

So that was our very successful trip to Geneva. When we got back to Chambéry we had our friends Nicole and Greg over (they were on the Geneva trip too) and we served tacos for dinner and banana bread for dessert so that the four of us Americans could feel as American as possible. Then we spent a couple of hours playing Spades and had a great evening, but David and I went to bed thoroughly exhausted. And I will tell about Sunday in the next post...