Spain and Switzerland!

We had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Barcelona, Spain and Geneva, Switzerland with my parents. Sandy and Ron were very kind to take Lily and Ryan for 10 days! We took Max with us and he was the perfect child the whole trip: on the airplane, at concerts, in the car. We could not have asked for a more perfect trip! And the kids had an amazing time at Mama Baer's house so it was a win-win! We felt so grateful to have been able to go because it was Jeff's dream to see his favorite soccer team, Barcelona play with Lionel Messi, and then we got to see where my parents served their mission in Geneva, which was a real treat. It's always great spending time with them, especially on a trip where the day to day schedules don't get in the way. So, here's the highlights!

9-13-14

We flew from Denver to Frankfurt and were going to meet my parents in Frankfurt to Barcelona. Jeff worked hard right up until we got on the plane, he finished at the last minute. It was a big plane and a full flight! My mom had gotten the bulkhead for us, which allowed us to use the bassinet. I have never seen a bassinet on an airplane before, but it was amazing. It was hard to get out and we had to eat our food on our laps, but flying in the night and not having to hold a baby makes the trip so much less stressful. We were both able to sleep and Max slept for 6 hours! I mean, you can't get much better than that. 

Max in his bassinet

The Frankfurt airport is huge and it took awhile for us to get to our plane so we were grateful for a couple hours in our layover. We met my parents and some GE friends of my dad's and then we were off. My dad went for an ISUOG conference but was asked by GE to speak specifically to introduce a new machine they were rolling out. 

Once we got in we got two taxis and made our way to the Hilton. It was a beautiful hotel and we were elite status so we had a very nice room and the concierge level, definitely not what we would have had if we had come to Europe on our own :) Typically hotels are pretty tight in Europe but with a baby we were so grateful for the space, it was awesome. We had a late dinner and Jeff and my dad got seafood paella (it was huge!) and then off to bed.

The next day we got to first experience our breakfast at the hotel. Let's just say that was one of the things we missed about leaving. The highlight was a breakfast churro dipped in some sort of chocolately goodness...mmmmm. 

We were tired but got up early and headed to the Sagrada Familia. While I was not overly excited to see it because the outside is a dark Gothic style, 

the inside was absolutely amazing. It is huge and light and magnificent. It makes you really in awe of people's architectural and design talents. One of my favorite cathedrals I've been in. Gaudi was really into light, but not too much or too little, just the perfect amount and the church's stained glass windows filtered the light through in such a lovely way and coated the floors in streams of blues or greens and it was so beautiful. 

Gaudi was really into nature so these columns represent trees

We also went to the tower and while we took the elevator up, we took lots of stairs down including some very narrow spiral stairs. It made us a little queasy being up there and we were very grateful my mom stayed down below with Max (as no one under 6 could go). 

Jeff is amazing and planned this trip so well and bought our tickets online and printed them so we waited in no line. As we left (we spent about 3 hours there) we saw a line that the taxi drive told was was a 2 hour wait to get in, yikes! 

We had wanted to go to La Rambla, which is a big shopping center, but we didn’t think we’d have time to do so before having lunch. My mom had the brilliant idea to drive by it and get a sense of it and that’s just what we did and it was perfect. We were very grateful we didn’t have to get out and walk and we can say we went and know what it’s all about--though Jeff did go visit the area another day.

We then had lunch, very randomly, with our old neighbors in California who we haven't seen for nearly 30 years, the Rimalowers. My mom just happened to find out they were here on Facebook so they met us at our hotel and we had a delightful visit. They still live in California so it was hilarious that we met up in Barcelona. I was best friends with their daughter Lucy and Nathan was friends with their son Ben. Cathi and George are such a fun couple. 

We all took a much needed rest while Jeff went to his first of two soccer games. He was so excited and wished he could speak Spanish so he could talk to his taxi driver about his excitement :) The score was 2-0, but Barcelona didn't score until near the end (only 11 minutes left). He said everyone was a bit nervous so it was a huge relief when the first goal was scored. When Messi assisted in a goal the whole crowd yells out "Messi" while moving their arms in a worship movement....they love him. He said it was neat to be there with the energy and the collective excitement or disappointment for a missed goal opportunity. He's excited to go back for another game on Wednesday. I was just so happy for him to have had this experience. He mentioned about a year ago how much he'd love to see Messi play in his prime and to experience what a game would be like, but we had no idea that dream would come true, thanks Mom and Dad!

We had a quick bite to eat with some of my dad's friends who are also speaking then headed off to a 4 guitars concert at this incredible music hall, Palau de la Musica. The guitar players were awesome and you didn't know guitars could sound like that. But on top of that they were so funny without even using words, we just laughed and laughed. The show didn't start until 9 and Jeff was so tired, but it was so fun and funny that he only slept a little :) We were so happy to go because the alternative at this hall was flamenco dancing, which I wasn't excited about, but the guitars were playing just tonight so it was perfect. And Max ate then slept through the whole concert so it was great. We noticed some people eyeing us while we sat down with a baby, but we knew he'd do great once he got in the ergo, and he did!

The musicians, they were incredible!

So far so good! We owe it all to Jeff for carefully planning everything and we have been so excited to see what we have seen so far. 

Max has still been the perfect traveler and is so sweet, but we talk about Lily and Ryan often and all the sweet things they do and how much we love them. It's nice to be away from your kids every so often because it reminds you how much they enrich your lives every day. 

9-14-14

Today we went to church in Badalona where we went to church when we came to pick Greg up from his mission. 

I didn’t understand a thing in Spanish, but it was fun to sing the hymns at least. Jeff understood about three words in each sentence so that was impressive, he got the general idea of people's talks. People came up to talk to us and it’s times like these when I wish so much that I spoke Spanish. I didn’t even make an effort to learn anything so next time I will try so that I can feel like I can understand a bit more. Two of the three sister speakers had to be given the “tiempo” sign because they went over. It was kind of funny because the boy who is the bishop’s helper gives it to the speakers and he looked kind of eager to use it. Then after sacrament one woman came over and grabbed Max who had just been sleeping very deeply. She bounced him and jostled him and talked a mile a minute without stopping for breath. We have no idea what she said, but we sure laughed a lot with her. I thought she was going to take the baby, but she eventually gave him back and went to class. I felt like it was this whirlwind of an encounter and poor Max was just at the whims of this very eager and energetic woman.  

We had wanted to see Josefa and Juan but we kept asking people at church about them and no one seemed to know them. We finally met a woman who remembered Greg (he had been at her wedding). 

Our huge helper! She saved the day!

Her husband visited Juan and Josefa since Juan is very, very sick and hasn’t left the house for 4 years. She was so kind because she called them and Josefa jumped at the chance for us to come over. Then she drove us to their house.

When we came to get Greg from his mission Juan picked us up at the airport in his van thinking he was just getting my parents and one other child. They were very surprised when most of the family was there too. We are still not sure how we fit with our luggage, but somehow managed. I remember eating at their house where Josefa made paella and converted the table into a huge one that filled up the room. Juan gave Jonathan soccer items and we had fun talking with the daughters Almudena and Juani. Their family was a highlite visit of that trip.

We had such a pleasant visit and I could actually understand quite a bit of what Josefa said because of her hand signs. She doesn’t look a day older and it has been 22 years. Juan has had tumor, diabetes, heart surgery, liver transplant and is very frail and doesn’t remember people well. He just wanted to play with Max and found real joy in seeing him.

We were glad we made the effort to see them and it felt just like seeing family. It’s neat how the gospel just bonds you to one another. My parents had helped them come out to Utah to attend Juani’s wedding in St. George and then they stayed at our house. So we were very close to them and there was a real feeling of love there. What a neat thing reunions are with kindred spirits. Your heart feels so full of gratitude and love as you think of what a blessing it is Heavenly Father gave you the opportunity to be friends with certain people and for your paths to have crossed.  

Then we went home, ate a late lunch, and sacked out for the afternoon because we were so tired. We had a true day of rest.

9-15-14

Today was our Antoni Gaudi day. We went to Park Guell, which was pretty cool. 

It’s a park that was supposed to be some private residences, but the project didn’t pan out and it became a public park. Our favorite part were the tile benches that looked like a wave and sat atop some columns. 

The view was great and the benches were all sorts of colors and so comfortable. 

The benches wrap all around this plaza

They forced you to lean back and relax and the tile was kind of cool on your back. I felt like I could have sat and read a book all afternoon. We then looked at the columns underneath and even we had to look up at the ceilings because there were circles of tile that added color to the different quadrants. 

Little bottle tops can be seen

It’s so impressive to see how much work was put into all of this and to be able to appreciate it now.

We went next to Casa Batlo, which is a private residence Gaudi designed. It was interesting and Gaudi definitely had a unique style.

Gaudi is not a fan of straight lines

The ceiling mimics an ocean wave

I got so hot and faint from being in such close quarters with a crowd and from not eating that I just wanted to go back to the hotel and rest. My mom and I went back intending to watch my dad’s talk, but it turned out that I didn’t go because we weren’t sure how Max would do so I just went home and slept for a couple hours. Max was so happy to lie down in a bed and we woke up, went to dinner, then got ready for bed again! Jeff on the other hand walked all over creation and put some major miles on his shoes. He went to the Gothic quarter of La Rambla and looked at store after store for the perfect Barca jersey. He finally found it, along with a scarf, and enjoyed going to a cathedral and seeing the roof. He also went to Casa Mila which is an apartment building built by Gaudi. 

These warriors are actually chimneys on top of the building. 

He had two extra tickets and he gave them away trying to not take anything for them, but the couple insisted. He rode the metro and I couldn’t believe where he got all his energy from. But he said it was nice we didn’t go with him because he did so much walking and it would have been hard with the stroller so it turned out just perfect the way it did.

Here is a cathedral he happened upon in the Gothic quarter and enjoyed a little tour.

We knew we wanted to go to Montserrat tomorrow, but weren’t sure how to get there. When we looked at different options the best one that came up was to rent a car. I would never have wanted to drive, but Jeff is up for it. 

9-16-14

This morning we got ready for Montserrat and Jeff was so excited to find out that we got upgraded to a Mercedes. It was a small Mercedes (we weren’t sure we’d be able to even fit our stroller and Jeff kept hitting his head inside the car), but it was a Mercedes none the less. 

The GPS was hard to figure out and the address wasn’t taking, but somehow Jeff figured it out. He was amazing at getting us to where we needed to be and was so calm about everything. We went 45 minutes out of Barcelona and went to some beautiful mountain towns. All of sudden you see these big rock formations that are pretty incredible. And built in the rocks is a Monastery and a little mountain town. The views were beautiful and the area in general was pretty neat. 

We also went to the Basilica and heard the boys choir which was beautiful. The cathedral was huge and filled beyond capacity. In the back of the hall was a black Madonna that people waited in a huge line to see and touch. I must say that I’m so grateful we don’t worship in halls like that. While I loved the music, I love the intimacy of our churches and their simplicity.

Max slept through the whole thing

We walked around a bit and enjoyed the views!

Then headed back to town to tour Camp Nou’s (the soccer stadium) museum. We luckily found a parking spot close by and first got a ticket for me to see the soccer game tomorrow. They found a seat for me right in front of Jeff and once it was purchased and I got to go there I’m very excited to attend. We got pictures with gold shoes, trophies, the pitch, and saw what a big deal this club is. 

Champion's Leauge trophies

Since my mom didn't go to a game, she wanted to know what it felt like to cheer on your team at Camp Nou

The official team store

Champion's league trophies

Jeff and his favorite player, Lionel Messi. He's won the Ballon d'Or 5 years in a row, which means he was the best soccer player for that year. 

And this Golden Boot is for being the top scorer in Europe

We had to stand with Messi too so we didn't feel left out

Because there is a champion’s league game tomorrow they had to close off some of the tour. So Jeff didn’t get to go to the locker room or the tunnel to the pitch, but luckily he knew that yesterday so he wasn’t as disappointed as he would have been if he had just found out.

We were supposed to go to dinner with my dad’s conference and it cost a lot for each ticket, but when we got home my dad had only done 1 of his 2 talks (it took him all day) so we went to dinner locally and it was the best Italian food we have had. A woman came up to my dad, who is from Australia, and told him what a wonderful speaker and contributor to the field he is. She has heard several of his lectures and thinks he does wonderful things so that was really neat for us all to hear. She wanted to do it in front of his family for us to hear. It brightened his day and made him feel good.

We are beat from the day, but tomorrow is our last day so we need to get packing tonight so we can enjoy the game tomorrow night. And then off to Swizterland!

9-17-14

We weren't quite sure how to spend this last day since were were pretty tired. But in the end we decided to go to the Salvador Dali museum, which was a bit of a drive away. It was really interesting to say the least. 

Dali was really into eggs

I can respect a lot of artists and for their vision and talent, but I'm not into his work. The museum was pretty tight to get through and we couldn't believe how many people were there in this small town. But I did think this was pretty cool:

Do you see it? It's Abraham Lincoln. Funnily enough I could only see it when I looked through the viewer on the camera.

Dali clocks

The best part was as we were trying to figure out where to eat, Jeff noticed a restaurant right by the parking garage. It was the same Italian restaurant we ate at last night and loved! So we were pretty excited about that. 

Once we got back I fed Max and gave him to my parents and Jeff and I went to the game. We weren't sure how Max would do but he did great as always! I wasn't sure if I would want to leave him or if I should take him, but my mom insisted and it was fun having a date night with Jeff. 

Our seats were the second row. 

While it was cool to be close to the players and the pitch, Jeff couldn't get a sense of the game so we moved around a bit. We were behind the goal when Barcelona scored, but we didn't love those seats so we moved again up higher. We were up pretty high but it was still a great view to watch. 

We thought it was so funny when we heard a little kid, probably Lily's age or younger, recognizing the players from so far away. He'd call out their names as they'd get the ball, it was impressive. 

It was a late night when we got back, but we had a great time and I was happy to have experienced that with Jeff since it was such a big deal to him to watch this team play. 

9-18-14

We were up early and made it to the airport early, which was very fortunate because Max almost didn't make it on the plane with us. We actually don't even know how he made it to Spain with us because he didn't have a ticket! Something got messed up in the scheduling either on American Express' end or Lufthansa's end, but it was a big deal to get it sorted out and in the end my mom just had to pay for his ticket and then sort it out later. And for the rest of the trip we had to get to the airport early since each time there was an issue with his ticket. 

Once in Switzerland we got a van and weren't quite sure we'd fit with all our stuff and our stroller, but Jeff and my dad worked their magic and put seats down and we fit! My dad used to go to the airport all the time to pick missionaries up and drop them off when he worked in the mission home. My parents haven't been back for 50 years and parts of the airport still looked the same. 

Before going to our hotel in Evian St-Bain, France, which was an hour away, we made some stops in Geneva.  

We had lunch on the lake with the jet d’eau that my parents remembered. 

We walked through a little park to see the big vegetative clock and enjoyed the pier. 

That clock was there 50 years ago

We went to the Reformers Wall, which has carvings of all the important Reformers of the Catholic Church (it’s pretty incredible what some people can do with stone!) which was right by the university. 

There was also an opera house across the street and my dad remembers going there with his companion for a show. I can’t imagine a  young Greg going to the opera.

We then tried to find our way to the mission home. The drive took us past the United Nations and into a very nice neighborhood. 

The United Nations

The broken chair outisde the UN. It symbolizes opppostion to land mines and cluster bombs, and acts as a reminder to politcians and others visiting. Thank you Wikipedia because we had no clue what this was for when we saw it.

We didn't think we'd get to see much of the house since the mission headquarters was moved three years ago, but to our surprise when we arrived the church's sign is still there, so they must still own it. And the property is kept in immaculate condition. There are two villas and my parents both worked their and lived while working in the mission home. My dad was the mission secretary over travel (he even arranged for missionaries to stop in a European city on their way home), the mission home district leader in charge of staff, grounds, and maintenance, and the assistant to the president in charge of member work. My mom was called to help be over the Relief Society and Primary throughout the mission. She worked with the mission president's wife and helped print their version of "The Friend" magazine. She was always so thrilled when the printers got it right. 

The second villa is just across and looks identical

Where these two first met 50 years ago!

Outside the office where my mom worked. The children (the mission president had 6) would often come talk to her through the window (or even climb through it) or come visit. 

What a big lawn to mow for the missionaries!

My mom really wanted a picture of this street name the mission home was on. So we had to circle around a couple times and we just hoped no one was getting suspicious of us. 

They shared many memories and experiences and it was just fun to listen to. They said it's still the same and it really is in a prime location. I have heard so much of this home that it was wonderful to actually go there and see part of their history. One funny story was when the 1968 Grenoble Olympics was going on the missionaries had an Olympic Exhibition since that was part of my parent's mission. My dad was the liason between the mission home and missionaries at the exhibit. He would transport slide projectors, books, and other materials, but to declare all of that would cost a lot of money. So when they asked my dad, "do you have anything to declare?" He'd say, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ!" and they'd let him right through. 

The drive to Evian-les-Bains was long with traffic, so we were very grateful we didn't go and then try and come back to Geneva. The hotel was another Hilton and gorgeous! We loved our rooms and were a bit sad to only be able to stay one night, but we sure enjoyed that time there. We overlooked Lake Geneva and the roof where the concierge level was looked out on the water too. 

Can you say not your average size European hotel room? 

I could have even slept in the bathroom it was so nice :) We ate at a wonderful restaurant that night at the hotel, but we were so tired that we probably could have done without food. But still, the presentation of the entrees was a piece of art. The French (Evian is in France) do take their cuisine seriously and it was delicious to eat and beautiful to look at.  

9-19-14

While today was a wonderful day of seeing the beautiful Swiss country side, it started out very sad. We ate some delicious breakfast (these breakfast buffet were so good!). 

Enjoying breakfast with Papa! 

And Granny Dot

and then Jeff and I strolled around town while my parents rested and got some things done. It's a delightful little town and we were happy to have some time to explore. 

I'll never look at an Evian bottle the same again

Jeff really enjoyed this. There is an artist who comes each year and makes weird sculptures out of natural items.  The main exhibit was gone, but this still remained in the middle of town.

Then we got back in the car and waited for my mom to come down. But after waiting long enough, Jeff decided to go up and see if everything was okay. When he arrived at the room she was sitting on a couch with her leg out, unable to walk. She had tripped on the little lip coming out of her room and fallen hard on her knee! She was on the floor but didn't want to be seen there so she crawled to the couch in the hall. She was just waiting for us to come because she didn't have her phone, she said she knew someone would come eventually. With all the walking we did on this whole trip (and we did a lot of walking on some very unstable terrain), she tripped coming out of her hotel room. We were so grateful she didn't have to spend the whole trip like this though and it was the last day. 

Jeff ran around this little town trying to find a knee brace for her and that helped some. She then geared up for a day spent in the car. The only problem was when my dad forget her leg was outstretched on his side and he tried to get in or out of the car with her leg sticking out. We drove around the lake and our first stop was Chateau de Chillon. My dad visited this in 1966 when his mom came to visit him on his mission (my mom actually met her too as she was visiting for a conference). 

My dad had taken my grandma when she came to visit him on his mission, but my mom had never been. We were sad she couldn't go in, but once we were there it looked like very bad terrain. The streets were cobblestone and there were so many stairs, it was a very intact medieval castle, so we thought it was best she didn't come in anwyay. Jeff and I raced through, but still got a very good feel for it and it was very cool. And the neat thing too is that I had gone through the castle when I went on a choir trip in high school, so it was fun to revisit it. 

Do you see that highway out the window? We couldn't believe how that was even built it was up so high and there is just one small road through town. We were impressed.

We went to Montreux, which is famous for their jazz festival each year and ate some lunch. 

We got some cute little trains for the kids on the side of the water and enjoyed eating on the lake. We then ate some delicious crepes with nutella and ice cream...yummy!

And Freddy Mercury was there too

Our next excursion was to find the house my dad lived in as a missionary in Vevey. He had a general idea where it was, by the train station behind a church, so we went on a scavenger hunt to find it. Jeff and he looked at the GPS and we tried a lot of different routes and then all of sudden it appeared! And incredibly it looks exactly the same as it did 50 years ago. My dad spoke to a woman there and she said the only thing that's changed is the windows. 

It felt like such an accomplishment to find this and it was neat to hear the memories my dad associated with it. It was as two man city and this is where he found Frere Donet-Monet, the former bodyguard to the pope who joined the church. His wife even asked her church leaders to come and prove the missionaries wrong, but it proved to him even more that what they were sharing was true. He insisted on paying tithing and his wife eventually joined a year later because of the blessings she saw with tithing. Uncle Jim also visited my dad here when he was stationed in the army in Germany, so we passed the train station that he came in to. Jim even went out tracting with the missionaries for a few days and wasn't even a member yet. My dad lived there and held church there and built a podium to conduct his first funeral (they only got money to build one because of the funeral). At the time it was just the elders and Frere Donet-Monet. Talk about a stark contrast for a new member to be meeting here when he has been to the Vatican! 

Actually 30 years ago my parents came back and the only thing they did on their visit was reach out to Frere Donet-Monet. He was not active in the church, his son had long hair and piercings, but my dad shared his testimony and reminded him of all they went through and what they felt. 

 A few years later, when we lived in Utah, a young man in our ward,  Elder Stohl, came back from his mission and told my dad he met someone he had baptized. He served in Paris and his companion's parents came to pick his companion up. The father told Elder Stohl that a Greg DeVore had baptized him and he thought he was a doctor in California.  Elder Stohl then told him that actually Greg DeVore was in his ward in Salt Lake and lived up the street from him. The son with the long hair and piercings was the mission companion of Elder Stohl! Isn't that incredible? What a wonderful way the Lord orchestrates things and my dad had this tender mercy to know that his words had pierced Frere Donet-Monet's heart. The son had changed and the parents had served several missions. I just feel good all over thinking about all of this. 

After Vevey we went up into the Swiss countryside and everywhere we looked we wanted to take a picture, it was breathtaking!

 I looked at the cows and sheep we saw and just thought how good they had it, to graze in a place like this. 

We were headed to the town of Gruyeres (like the cheese) and had some roundabout travel directions along the way, but we eventually found it. There's a castle on top of the hill and a cute little town that doesn't allow cars.

Same picture as below, but I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Church and graveyard view from the castle

No cars were allowed, but since my mom couldn't walk we accidentally drove through there so she could see.

 It's a tourist town, but still very quaint and fun. And it was good to have a destination to go to and enjoy the beauty all around us. 

We then headed back to Geneva to the hotel by the airport. This was our first glimpse of what our hotel rooms would have looked like had we not traveled with my parents. They were very tiny and it made us extremely grateful for the beautiful and spacious rooms we had! 

9-20-14
The next day we got to the airport early again to sort things out with Max and it was nice traveling with my mom since she had a wheelchair. We didn't have to wait in lines at the Frankfurt airport and got to take a break in the Lufthansa lounge, which was awesome. 

Max did wonderful again on the flight home and before we knew it we were home! The kids were happy to see us and had the best time ever with grandparents and aunts. So all in all it was a successful and amazing trip and we feel so incredibly blessed we got to go!