Copenhagen

Since Chase has a week off in February for Relânches, we took that opportunity to meet up with Boris and Laura in Copenhagen. It was quite cold, but we were able to make the most of it. Overall, Nate and I liked Stockholm more than Copenhagen, but it was still a worthwhile visit. Copenhagen was just as pricey as Stockholm or Switzerland, but we felt it wasn't quite as quaint and interesting as Stockholm was.

The first day, we walked around the city, making our way to Nyhavn and took a boat tour to see the city by water (including the Little Mermaid statue). The next day, we went to the National Museum and Tivoli Gardens. The last day, we walked around the city in general and went up the Roundtower. We had some traditional Danish dishes and enjoyed hanging out with Boris and Laura after many years apart.

On the boat

Around the Nyhavn

In Tivoli Gardens (there was this cool program where the kid could get a wristband, and with that, it would allow one accompanying adult to ride along. We got the wristband for Chase and switched off riding rides with him. Unfortunately, sometimes Chase was not into the "more scary" rides so that involved Nate and I strategising who would ride when to optimize the fun rides for us as well!

At the top of the Roundtower

Lida's 80th Birthday Party

Just as we'd done for my grandfather, we went to Kiev to be at the 80th birthday party of my grandmother. Unlike my grandfather's party, which was on a boat, this was at a very fancy hotel. There was good food, speeches, and dancing. Chase is very shy but, as always, he gets crazy on the dance floor and never wants to stop! We had a great party with all the family!

L: My mom and I; R: Sonia and I

L: Chase with his great grandfather (Zhorik); C: Chase with his great grandparents; R: Chase dancing up a storm!

L: Anton, Sonia, me, Lida, Ivan, Zhorik, Lyuba; R: Nate, me, Ivan, my mom, my dad, and Chase.

Edit: 

I forgot to include that we made two collages for my grandparents for their respective 80th birthdays: 

2018 in Review

[Previous years in review: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013]

This year was a busy year as usual.

We started off the year in the Midwest (Illinois) and ended it in the Midwest as well (Nebraska).

Between those two points, we traveled quite a bit:
- I traveled to Cambridge, MA in early March.
- We traveled to Stockholm for Easter in late March.
- We visited Ukraine in April for my grandfather's 80th birthday.
- I explored Lisbon and Porto in late June.
- We traveled to Vienna in mid July.
- Chase, my mom and I went to Lake Como in late July while Nate went to Munich.
- Nate and I checked out Amsterdam in early August.
- As usual, we traveled to Ukraine in August.
- I went to a conference in Brighton and visited London in September.
- I went to a conference in Sorrento in October.

Therefore, Chase has earned +2 countries for Sweden and Austria, so he's currently at 3 continents (NA, Europe, Africa), 12 countries (USA, Switzerland, France, Spain, Morocco, Ukraine, Great Britain, Mexico, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and Austria), and 9 states (MA, CT, RI, NY, NE, CA, NV, IA, and IL).

We also did some day tripping in Switzerland, specifically with my grandparents and a few others. Chase turned 4 years old and started school. And, finally, we commemorated our family in 2018 with some outdoor family photos.

Unfortunately, the crafting projects have been sparse this year. I knitted one hat, but forgot to take a picture of it. I obviously hope to finally get more projects done in 2019.

In terms of 2019, Nate will finally be graduating in 2019, so this may be the year we take the next step in our careers and lives. So, we'll see how that turns out for us. For now, we want to make the most out of living in Switzerland and being able to travel through Europe. 

As in previous years, I will leave you with an Instagram collage. Follow me on Instagram, or on Twitter if you don't have an Instagram.

Latest Family Photos

This year, with Chase growing up, I decided we should have family photos taken. We used the same photographer and our same local park like last time, but this time in the fall rather than the spring. It's crazy to see how much Chase has grown, also considering the pictures taken almost exactly 3 years earlier. Here is a subset of the pictures: 

Sorrento and Capri

In October, I went to a conference in Sorrento. This town in Italy by Mount Vesuvius is a town that Katie and I stumbled upon when we were traveling through Italy and Greece as 20-year-olds back in our college days. We love Sorrento so much and going back, I feel like it hasn't changed. Obviously, it is still quite touristy but since it was October, it wasn't too bad. It was sunny, beautiful, and warm. The conference was super duper busy but I did get a chance to take a morning run around the town. On the one free day that we had a the end of the week, I went to the island of Capri. Due to our disappointing visit to Lake Como earlier in the summer, I was ready to be disappointed by the island of Capri. Like Lake Como, it seems to be a very American destination. However, probably due to it being October once again, I enjoyed it so much. With Olia and her family, we went all around the tiny island and saw some incredibly beautiful natural sights. The weather was perfect and it was such an enjoyable visit. 

Mount Vesuvius in the bottom right picture seen from the area by the hotel. 

The north side of the island was where we arrived and departed. Such cute streets and passageways! 

We found a cute place in the south where there was a swimming hole. And these cactuses in the lower left put me right back in San Diego climate!

Trips Around Switzerland (Part IV)

[Previous trips around Switzerland: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part3.5; and Activities Nearby]

We've had a few more trips and activities around Switzerland through the summer and fall. 

Church retreat in Leysin

Lab retreat in Zermatt
We had the most amazing weather and did a hike up around the Matterhorn area.

Day trip to Zurich & Zug
We walked around the Zurich and climbed up the Grossmunster, from where we got some nice city views. Then, we took the train to Zug and walked by the lake with some good friends who live in the area.

Scarecrow festival in the our and surrounding towns
This involved a parade that stopped in a town up the hill from us where there was a huge community dinner. Then, the floats continued down the hill and were handing out candy to kids and adult drinks to the parents. Finally, there was a grape harvest presenting ceremony to the town officials and a huge drum and fireworks show. It was an awesome afternoon/night, especially for the kids who obviously loved it (although fell asleep before the crazy fireworks show).

Trout Path Hike in the area a bit north of us

Chase actually walked the whole way and the kids loved finding the trout signs. 

Olympic Museum

I already posted about this before, but this summer with Chase a bit older and my mom in town, we went to the Olympic Museum for real. It's quite a good one for grown-ups and kids alike, and right next to the lake in Ouchy. 

UK work trip

In September, I went on a work trip to the UK to go to a conference in Brighton. Since there were a few of us going, we decided to go to London the weekend before. Our last trip to London was quite disappointing, but this time, I enjoyed London a lot more. The parks were greener and more welcoming, and we even saw real sun for a while! We obviously walked around a lot and ate a lot of good food, but also visited the Tate Modern Museum and a few fun markets and areas. 

Brighton, on the other hand, was more depressing. As it was September and it seems to be more of a summer destination, most places were bare-boned or just closed. It was nice to get views of the ocean right from the hotel and the idea of the boardwalk was cool, but the rain and wind made it overall a sad destination.  

The only picture of the Brighton I took as there wasn't much of anything else there picture-worthy. The sky was like this most of the time.