Paris was fabulous!!!! In the beginning of January Seth and I went away to Paris for 3 1/2 days while Seth’s mom stayed with the boys.  When Jackson was 18 months old we went to Aruba for a couple of days (it was only an hour flight from Bogota so we couldn’t pass up the chance) and as hard as it was to leave him I promised myself I would make it a priority to have time with just Seth! It doesn’t happen often but when it does it is so worth it!

When we bid on Bern back in 2009  we talked about maybe getting to celebrate our 5 yr wedding Anniversary in a fun city like Paris. We never thought it would really work out! I think until the day we left it didn’t really feel like we were getting to go to Paris, just the two of us!!!

We ate our way through Paris. The meals were wonderful! We let Rick Steve’s guide us to the places the locals like so we didn’t have any particularly fru fru fancy meals but all were in unique little places that were jammed packed.  We had our first tastes of macaroons and enjoyed every chance to share a hot crepe with nutella and bananas.

We toured museums, walked the quaint streets, took an evening boat tour, went up the Eiffel Tower,  toured Notre Dame, shopped in Galleries Lafayette and just enjoyed being together.  Here are some of my favorite pictures. I am including some of the yummy food pictures for all of you foodies out there!

our hotel

macaroons

this is just to give you a laugh…we were waiting for a bus and I looked over and saw our shadows in the tree trunk. SO I told Seth to give me a kiss and snapped a shot! goofy I know!

Angelina’s

we didn’t get too many great shots of both of us because one of us was always taking it but here you can see us together with the Eiffel Tower in the background

on the train headed home after a great getaway!

It was fun with Seth’s parents visiting because we are getting to do more touristy things that we had been saving for when guests came.  Before Seth’s dad left we took a day trip to Gruyere where we toured the Gruyere Chateau and the cheese factory. It was a cute little town with shops and fondue restaurants. We packed a picnic that we ate around the fountain in the middle of town. Our fingers nearly froze because it wasn’t really warm enough to be picnicking! If I had been on my own I would have ditched the lovely picnic and cozied up to a pot of fondue in one of the chalets.

Here are a few pictures!

sporting his fox hat from Graham and Tina! So cute!

Jackson only agreed to a picture if everyone stuck their tongue out

I don’t think Owen totally has a Kolb nose but he tried to scrunch his in this picture to look like the men

clearly he would not have lasted long had he lived in the times of canons and castles

just pretty

what? no more cheese samples?!

we bundled up and headed out that evening just the adults in downtown Bern!

On Saturday we took parents to get a glimpse of some sun and the mountains. A cloud seemed to have settled into Bern and was having a hard time lifting. Since we arrived everyone tells us that on cloudy weeks the key to sanity is getting a little weekend time above the clouds. They were right. We drove from cloudy Bern with zero mountain views and arrived about an hour later at a mountain paradise.

We rode a gondola (not my favorite) up the mountain and first got off to check out Gimmelwald. Seth loves to follow Rick Steve’s lead. There wasn’t a whole lot going on in Gimmelwald besides chalets and a mini me cheese cottage. We bought some snacks there and walked around the tiny village. Then we got on the gondola again and rode up to the ski town of Murren. It was so much fun to see everyone getting around using sleds, skis, etc. We were the smart ones that tried to push Owen in a stroller. Next time we are renting a baby sled all the way!

We had lunch at a little restaurant. Most of us ordered hot ham and cheese sandwiches. When they arrived it was more like a hot ham and cheese sandwich covered with an entire plate of rachlette-type cheese. It was so yummy but my oh my it’s a good thing we got some walking in that day!

We took in amazing views, watching parasailers brave the cliff-side air space and watched the skiers fly down the mountain! It was truly above  the clouds.

our trusty guide

cheese shop

Owen took cues from the Swiss babies. when it was approaching naptime he threw his chubby arms out and passed out! Next time he will be in the sled!

Loved this cute vintagy looking poster for a boutique in town

I seem to be catching up from early December. This cannot be unblogged because it was an exciting moment in the Kolb household.  The second weekend in December our friends Nick and Kima along with their cute kids Ben and Erin made there way to Bern for a fun time of visiting and of course eating. Nick and Kima live in Zug which is about an hour and a half from us (I previously posted pics of when they came back in August).

Kima offered to bring dessert for our meal. Nicholas had been traveling all week in Bogota and was arriving the night before coming to visit. Never once did I even consider our dessert may be from Bogota. When people ask what we miss from Bogota it is normally our friends and some of the treats like Rausch cookies and Myriam Camhi triple chocolate cheesecake. Nick and Kima came with a bag of surprises that contained, you guessed it, Rausch cookies and Myriam cheesecake!   They were amazing! We all sat a little speechless as we ate every crumb of cheesecake, including scraping the sides of the container! Thanks for the fun treats Nick and Kima! Brought back fun memories of Friday night take away and Wii competitions!