Yvoire, France

Only three weeks to go until the next Sill arrives, so we are sticking close to home. It was a beautiful weekend in Lausanne (finally) with lots of sun and temps in the mid-80's. On Saturday, we decided to take a boat across Lake Geneva to the French side of the lake, to a small, mideval village called Yvoire. There's not much to do in Yvoire, but the town itself is very cool, with lots of shopping and about one hundred ice-cream shops. I'm not sure how they all stay in business, but I think it would be impossible to visit the town and not get at least one ice-cream cone.

Today we went to the swimming pool near the lake and watched our maniacal son run crazy around the place. Once he gets excited, he has absolutely no capacity to listen. Upon arrival, he immediately started stripping his clothes and running towards the pool. You basically have to physically restrain him to keep him away from the water. On the plus side, he does seem to love swimming. He can now swim by himself using the water noodle or water wings, which is pretty fun to see. One thing I am starting to worry about is what sports Mason will want to play. Today, I brought along a football to the pool, and a round rubber ball. I asked Mason if he wanted to play catch with the football, and he gave me an emphatic, "Nooo!" Then he grabbed the round rubber ball, dropped it to his feet and began dribbling it around the park and kicking it back to me. My heart just about gave out on me. I guess I will need to start playing the NFL network and Major League Baseball a bit more around the house so that Mason starts to appreciate the finer sports in life!

Rome, Italy

Okay, so it has been awhile since we last posted on the blog. Things have just been a little busy lately. If you haven't already heard from one place or another, I accepted a job to stay in Switzerland for another two years. So, the last few months have been busy with returning to the US to pack up our things and send them overseas, and getting our house ready to sell.

Now we are getting settled again in Switzerland, and have just about a month until #2 arrives. So we know for sure now that the baby will be born in Switzerland. However, unlike the US, Switzerland does not grant citizenship automatically to people born in the country. So, he will not have dual-citizenship - which would have been kind of cool. Nicole is doing well with the pregnancy - we have been having very rainy and cool weather here, so she is probably the only person in Switzerland enjoying that right now. We found out today that the baby could be kind of large, so she is starting to hope for an early delivery.

Anyway, back to Rome. So Nicole is unable to travel at this point, but I had a three day conference in Rome last week, and I stayed an extra day (like the dutiful husband that I am) to see some of the sights. Actually, despite the fact that I look like a terrible husband for leaving my 8-month pregnant wife at home for the weekend, she actually agreed that she had less interest in seeing Rome, and so this was a good way to get it out of my system. After reading a book on Roman history and Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, and watching the awesome ROME series on HBO, I was excited to take a look at some of the ancient ruins and famous architecture all over Rome. The city definitely doesn't disappoint. It is every bit as loud and crazy as everyone says, but there is so much to see there it is hard to know where to start. In just about 24 hours, I was able to see St. Peter's at the Vatican, as well as almost all the Roman sights, and many of the famous piazzas and fountains designed by Bernini around the city.

So, our travel is pretty much at a stand-still from this point forward. I don't suppose we will be going much of anywhere until well after the baby is born (maybe not until we come home for the holidays). So, I guess that this blog will become the new baby posting blog in the meantime. I will try to post pictures as soon as the big day arrives. Hopefully sooner rather than later for Nicole's sake!