Two Years and 20 Weeks - Visitors

Jardin Botanique

M's parents organized a trip to Switzerland to meet their granddaughter in person, whom they had only previously met via Skype.  They arrived just shy of C's six week birthday and departed almost 2 weeks later.  It was nice having them here to help out with C, who had turned into a bit of a fussbudget.  Except for a day excursion to Annecy, France, they pretty much stuck around Neuchatel.

Even though, we had received C's passport and residence permit just before the grandparents visit, we decided to stay relatively close to home due to Miss Fussy.  Around town, we visited the Neuchatel Botanical Garden and the Latenium archaeology museum.  We finally took a 1-hour boat tour on Lake Neuchatel, the first time we had been out on the lake ever (not counting being on the Coop wine boat); the boat started at the Neuchatel port, chugged over to Portalban, and then to Cudrefin before heading back to Neuchatel.  It was a sunny day, so we enjoyed the weather on the top deck with the inappropriately-dressed (think MTV Spring Break in Cancun) teenagers sipping beer and sucking on popsicles.

Old Roman Wall with Watchtower; M's dad at Gate

Since M's parents' previous trip had included Rome, we decided to drive over to the Roman ruins in Avenches, to give them some familiar scenery.  We stopped first at the amphitheatre which was set up for another play, and then drove over to the Roman theater.  We walked from the theater up to the old gate to explore the watchtower.  We also went on the walk/hike to the Areuse waterfalls.  M and C visited the Natural History Museum and Fine Arts Museum with the grandparents as well, while K was at work.  

Lessons Learned:
1.  Not the best idea to try to go out to a sit-down dinner with a colicky 7 week-old.  Thankfully there were a sufficient number of adults at the table who could take turns outside with the screaming baby.
2. Cloth diapers seemed like a good idea, but without a personal washing machine they mayjust be a pipe (poop!) dream.
3. US passport generation outside the US is much faster than inside the US (at least in Switzerland).  Got C's passport in about 2 weeks!

Areuse Gorges