Geneva Girls Trip

When one of your close friends moves away it's a sad adjustment.  But when one of your close friends moves to Geneva (and not across the globe) it's a bit easier to swallow.  Geneva's only 90 minutes from London by plane.  Trina invited a few of us to visit her in her new home near Geneva and to explore a bit of the region around her in both France and Switzerland for some Christmas market fun.  Our group swelled to 8 and included some of the best friends a girl could ask for.  8 friends from 6 different countries who've all made London home.  So grateful to know each of them.  We had a grand time together.  Trina was an amazing hostess and tour guide!

Coppet, Switzerland on Lake Geneva

Trina, Lizzie, Rachel, Rachel, Lindsey and Pau in Coppet, Switzerland

Charming Colmar, France

Strasbourg, France

Rachel, Lindsey, Trina, Me, Lizzie, Rachel and Pau in Strasbourg, France

St. Gallen, Switzerland

Rachel, Elisa, Lizzie, Rachel, Me, Lindsey, Trina and Pau in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Charming Gruyeres, Switzerland

Elisa, Rachel, Lizzie, Lindsey, Trina, Me, Rachel and Pau in Gruyeres, Switzerland

Halloween & Guy Fawkes

Seems like as the kids get older it gets tougher to get into the spirit of some festivities.  Almost caved to the fatigue factor this year, but as Dallin is in his penultimate year at home I realised I need to hold on to these childhood experiences for Trevon as much as possible.  So we decorated the house, carved pumpkins, went trick or treating, and went to the annual school Halloween party.  It was all worth it to see my boy smile.  He is such a good reminder of what is important and good in this world.

Surprised the kids with a Halloween cake from Hummingbird Bakery

Dallin even got into it!  

Trevon has found such a great friend living right next door, so nice to see them having so much fun together.  They really enjoyed trick or treating together, and our new neighborhoud is so much better at Halloween than our last one.  

Trevon dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite, his original costume plan, for the school party.  But realising almost no one in Europe knows who Napoleon Dynamite is, he switched to Vader for trick or treating.  I'm glad I thought to snap these photos with my phone.  He is such a convincing Napoleon.  

Madeleine and her friends came up with a pretty creative group costume theme, each a different social media app.  Kind of ironic, though, because Madeleine is not exactly a social media fan. 

I have come to love one of the strangest holidays around, Guy Fawkes Day.  It really is a fun celebration with fireworks exploding all over the London city skyline for several nights in a row around the 5th of November.  This year as a part of my birthday celebration Scott took me on a special Guy Fawkes fireworks cruise on the Thames.  It was really nice, and a great way to experience the impressive fireworks display at Battersea park.