Switzerland

4th of July weekend we took a trip down to Switzerland with about 10 families from our ward.  It was an AMAZING trip and we are still talking about it 6 months later.  Switzerland is the most beautiful place I have ever been.  The views are breathtaking.  I don't know how else to say it.  And the pictures do not do it justice.  We loved every minute of this trip. And everyone was pretty happy most of the time--so that always helps :).  Our friends, the Wellers, planned it out and we are so grateful for all their efforts.  We stayed at a lodge along the river in Interlaken.  It was sort of a campground, with small dorm style rooms and a kitchen and bathrooms for everyone to share.  We drove down on Thursday night and got in late.  Friday we took a 2 hour trip on a high speed train down to Zermatt.  We were hoping to see the Little Matterhorn, but it was really rainy/foggy that day.  Honestly the kids were more excited about the train ride than anything else.  The town of Zermatt was really charming. Quite touristy and expensive, but fun nonetheless.  We took a gondola up a little ways and hiked down.  Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun hiking that trail.  The kids stuck it out, and we only had to endure a few tears.  We bought some chocolate, and some other Swiss treats (a couple of sodas called Rivella and Almdudler)...had bread and cheese for lunch.  Yummy...  It was a fun day.

The next day we drove to the Gruyere Valley. To get there, we had to travel on a high mountain pass called the Juan Pass.  Seriously--most beautiful drive I've ever taken.  So incredible.  Once in the Gruyere Valley, we visited the Cailler Chocolate Factory.  That was super fun and we ended up in a room where we could sample as much chocolate as we could handle.  We were warned to bring water along, but even that couldn't keep us going as long as we wanted to!  It's amazing how fast you fill up on little bites of chocolate!  After that we went to a gruyere cheese factory.  Those samples were even better than the chocolate!! (in my opinion--although some of our friends gave me their cheese samples because I was the only one who loved them so much.)  I even bought my very own fondue set there!  The group went up to a castle near the cheese factory after our tour.  We followed the group up there, and then headed over to an Alpine Slide place 5 minutes away.  Nate figured it was probably the only time we would ride Alpine slides in the Alps!  That was probably the funnest part of the day!  The kids loved it, and so did we!

Sunday we all headed over to church to attend Sacrament meeting with the Swiss German Branch there.  With 10 families, we pretty much doubled their size.  They were so happy to have us, and the American missionaries even translated the entire meeting for us.  What a neat experience!  After lunch we drove up to the Lauterbrunnen, an area up the mountain with a bunch of waterfalls.  We were able to take a Gondola up to Murren, and then hike to Gimmelwald from there.  Again, amazing views and we were so lucky to have beautiful weather that day!  It was perfect.

Monday was our last day.  On our way out, we stopped at the Trummelbach Wasserfaelle.  They wouldn't let us go in with Isla, so I let Nate go in with Sawyer and Violet and I waited at the bottom.  He said it was cool but the kids were kinda scared cause it was dark and loud.  We continued the drive home.  The drive was so entertaining for us because everywhere we looked we had amazingly beautiful scenery.  We made another stop on the border of Switzerland and Germany at the Rheinfalls Waterfalls.  It was like a mini-Niagara falls.  Everyone enjoyed it, but by the end we had some crying kids and I think everyone was just tired and ready to head home.

The pictures are not in order--at this point I'm so late in posting them I don't want to take the time to put them all in order.  But we had such a blast on this trip and will never forget it!  The kids had friends to play with, trains and gondolas to ride, and chocolate to eat--can't complain about any of that!  And the adults enjoyed each others company as well as the beauty that surrounded us! Switzerland has all of our hearts :).