Part One: Chamonix (with brief stopover in Geneva)

Skiing in the Alps has been something Joey and I have talked and dreamed about for at least 15 years (--Suzy is obviously the writer here). Needless to say, we were really looking forward to this trip and it exceeded our expectations, at least mine. Europe has not been getting the snow that Colorado has (--yes, we are a bit envious of that), but thankfully it had snowed before we arrived. Now, those of you who ski know that if you cannot have powder you hope for the sun, and there was no powder. But we got 5 glorious days of bluebird skies and SUN!

(Living in Berlin has made us realize how lucky we Coloradoans are with our sunshine. I don't think we've seen the sun since October, seriously; so we were just soaking up every ounce of Vitamin D we could get.)

The views were absolutely gorgeous.

We were surrounded by glaciers and looked at Mont Blanc from a new angle every day, with every lift and run, actually. All the skiing in Chamonix is above tree-line, so we would have to take gondolas or trams up and out of the valley. The skiing was really different than we are used to, because, above tree-line, the mountain is just wide open. Maps are almost non-exisistent, and not all the runs are even named. Another big difference is that there were no lines. Oh, and lift-tickets, at the window, were only $60 -what?!! For those of you who don't know, lift-tickets in Colorado are like $200 or more. Here was our view from our condo the first morning! We literally walked 5 minutes to the Grand Montets ski resort.

We met another colleague, Jen Kraus (--a friend from Colorado, too) and her family in Chamonix, and we skied as much as we could with them and the Williams.

Both kids and adults had a blast. We put in full ski days and then would head over to the Kraus's for games most nights! I hope you can get from these pictures some sense of how much we enjoyed being on the slopes again, and in those beautiful sunny mountains.

We easily put together our longest and most exhausting run of ski-days as a family, but the dual sense of home and newness just kept us going--well, and being with friends and, also, a little bit wiser about pacing--that helped, too. And did I forget to mention, SUNSHINE!

We also celebrated our nephew Carmen's 17th birthday. The french fries really are better in France...

Yes, we got in some good Apres skiing in the land that invented it! Just chillin' in the Alps with family and friends.

The Poco Loco restaurant was our favorite. Ate there once with only Scout, but made sure we brought the boys back to it a day or two later. I think our recommendations led the Krauses there, too. Oh, and Joey was happy to introduce the boys to the joy of baguettes. (Before leaving to Paris a week or so later, Kiefer declared he would buy a baguette every day--which he did.)

On our final day of skiing, Joey, Dirk (Jen's husband), and I got in a great final run off the tram at Le Brevent.

Now, as you can see, "Closed" in Chamonix has a different meaning than "Closed" on the slopes of Colorado. "Closed" in Chamonix means: "Good luck not dying--or getting lost." So that's exactly what we had to do, ski "under our own responsability", and I am so glad we did. The views were stunning, and it was a thrilling steep run.

So, goodbye, Chamonix. I hope to visit you for some trail running and biking in the summer time.

And thank you, Katy. What a great time we had.

P.S. To get to Chamonix, we flew in and out of Geneva, across the border in Switzerland, and we made sure to stay an extra day there on our way home. We visited the UN, although we didn't book a tour in time to go inside. Lake Geneva was cold, but awesome. And the Red Cross museum, with the Williams, was powerful. Oh, and Joey, who is hardly the chocolate connoiseur, says Swiss chocolate is the absolute best. It was good, but, I mean... Anyway, it was a cool, quick taste of another great city with family and friends, and, at the very least, Scout felt like she belonged.