Work Christmas Party

So we had our annual Emerald West Family Dentistry Christmas party this weekend. Of course it was a first for me. Natalie, one of our front office girls was kind enough to open her home and play hostess so we would have a place to party. It was pot luck so there was a lot of yummy food for all of us to enjoy, and enjoy it we did. Mmmmmm. Everyone from the office was there with the exception of a couple of our hygienists and one of our assistants. I brought Heather and Sheena along to enjoy in the festivities and while they probably felt a little awkward not knowing anyone, I'm glad that they could come and meet the people I get to spend my days with. We had an ornament exchange and a gift exchange and then on top of that the doctors got us these cute little glass snowman figurines with a gift certificate to the mall. As if taking us all on a cruise in February wasn't enough. :) I love my job, the doctors I work for, and the people I get to work with. I cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for sending this blessing my way. Here are some pictures of the gang, I'm sad to say I didn't get a big group picture, but that may have been a little difficult because one, we are a large group, and two there wasn't a whole lot of room for us all to bunch up and say cheese. :) I didn't get a close up of Dr. Hess, but he is in the last picture, on the right under the light, telling some story to Bill and Dr. Moss.

Bill and Dr. Moss
Laurie and Marilyn
Natalie (the hostess) and her sister Michelle

Sherry and her husband Randy
Jessica and her Fiance Nick
Kira and her husband
Stacy, Sharla and her husband
Stacy and her husband Jason

Me with my two dates and Colette
Me, Bill (one of our lab guys) Colette, and Stacy
Anne, Jacquie and Ellen (three of our hygienists)
I took three pictures of them and could not get Ellen
to open her eyes in any of them. Oh well.
Anne and her husband Brian
All the boys in the kitchen, bored while we did our ornament exchange.

Some of them eventually decided to go upstairs and watch Hunter, Natalie's

son play guitar hero. The kid is amazing! He was playing on the Expert level

and was hardly missing any notes.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving break this year. I had a five day weekend which was so nice and I got to spend some time with my family. We had Thanksgiving dinner over at my Aunt Shauna's home with all the usual Thanksgiving fixins. The only thing missing was the mashed potatoes and gravy. :( Oh well. Then we watched Facing the Giants, which was pretty cheesy, but had some good values and some tender moments. That was the kick off for Thanksgiving movie marathon weekend. Later that night Annie and I went and watched August Rush. It was pretty good, I liked the story and the idea of this kid that just hears music in anything and is super talented. The only downside to it was that it was kind of slow and I was expecting the ending to be a little more than what it was. We got out of the theater a little before one, and Annie wanted to go to the mall. Which I thought was completely crazy because 1. all the crazy people there fighting to get in. 2. I was dead tired 3. (the most important) Annie hates, hates, hates shopping. :) So I found it a little funny that she of all people wanted to go to the mall with all the other after Thanksgiving shoppers. I bailed out and Annie decided to go by herself, but that only lasted for about 10 minutes then she turned around and went back home. Friday afternoon we did some shopping, after most of the crazy shoppers had gone home then we had some yummy food at the Ram and watched the BSU/Hawaii game. It was a good game, but I'm sad that we didn't win. I guess everyone has to have their year right? Friday nights movie was The Princess Bride, but we didn't last more than maybe 20 minutes. Saturday was spent doing more errands, cleaning my room and just hanging out. Annie and I went with my mom to get some ice cream from Maggie Moo's and it was so delicious and fun to spend some time with my mom. Then we went to Hastings to pick out some movies. The list for Saturday night, 1. Fracture 2. Shrek 3 3. Lord of the Rings Two Towers. I really liked Fracture because it's one of those movies that's a little suspenseful, makes you think and has a twist at the end, but had one too many swear words. Shrek was hilarious as always, would recommend that one to anyone. After the first two movies we decided that we should build a fort for the last movie and it was sweet! I LOVE FORTS! We made it through the first disc and maybe 1/2 of the second disc of Two Towers before we fell asleep. Sunday ended the movie marathon with left over Thanksgiving dinner, Mmmmmm, and then The Lord of the Rings Return of the King. I'm still working on finishing the last disc. It was a great weekend filled with lots of good food, lots of laughs, good times, and good movies. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Me and Grandpa Barrus

Me and Grandma Barrus

Me and Mom
Me and Dad

Savannah and Clayne

Tyler and Daisy

Aunt Shauna, Mom, Grandma Barrus

Me and my cousin Savannah

Grandpa and Grandma Barrus

Proof that love has no age limit. Isn't it so cute?!
Annie deep in thought.

The fort that Annie and I built for our Saturday night movie marathon.

SWITZERLAND!

First things first, my apologies for not having blogged in a while, but I've been out of the country people. :) I also apologize for the length of this blog, but there is just a lot that I want to share from my trip. Considering that I took about 400 pictures, this is a really condensed version. :) My friend Heath and I flew to Switzerland on the 18th of October and we were there until the 26th of October, an early birthday present to myself. :) Thanks to him I got a round trip ticket for about $370 and thanks to me he got free room and board and tour guides. We spent part of our time in Switzerland in Herisau with a family friend, David Flueckiger and his parents. Then we spent one night in Toss with my Aunt Conny and then another night in Rorbas with my Aunt Susy. It was a wonderful trip, one that I will never forget, and I am so grateful that I was able to go. I loved getting to visit some of the places I visited as a child and seeing a few new places. I also had the best time being with my Dad's family again. They are such amazing people and I wish I were able to see them more often. My most favorite day was the day we had lunch with my Grandma. She is so adorable and quite the talker! From the moment we picked her up until we dropped her off at the train station she was just talk, talk, talk. I wish I could have understood what she was saying, but it was neat to just listen to her talk. It wasn't a long enough vacation, and definitely not enough time to spend in Switzerland, but it was amazing. I love it over there and it is such a beautiful country. Here are a "few" pictures of our adventure over there.

"It's fun to fly!"

Heath and I enjoying our business elite seats on the way to Switzerland.

We were spoiled with our own tvs, noise canceling head phones, pillows, blankets, four course dinner, and the best part, reclining seats with enough leg room to stretch out. It was HEAVEN!

9 1/2 hours from Atlanta

Sunrise over the Swiss Alps.

Getting into Switzerland at 8 AM

Heath enjoying his first ever bratwurst!

David took us to OLMA, in St. Gallen - A week long festival in October where the farmers come and show off their livestock and sell their produce. At night there are rides and all kinds of yummy food booths. Very similar to the fairs we have here.

Mmmm Ovomaltine! (hot chocolate)

I was so tired from the jet lag.

David, Ivan, and Rachel (David's sister and her boyfriend)

The little town of Herisau out my bedroom window

We took a hike Saturday all over the hills of Switzerland and had some pretty amazing views.

We hiked for about 3 1/2 hours! Needless to say my legs were a little sore the next day.

Ummm....don't ask.

David and Heath contemplating life and women.

This was a perfect spot for reading (only when it's warm though :)) there were three benches like the one the guys are sitting on that cirlced around this big tree and it was set on a hill so it had a beautiful view.

I love how green it is there!

Can't remember if this was a hotel or someone's house. We really liked it though so we took a picture. :)

The little village of Schwellbrun

I felt like a true Swiss girl having hiked all over those hills

Swiss cows! I loved hearing the cowbells outside my window. It was a beautiful sound, not the obnoxious sound that you hear at football games.

Lunch with the family at Cafe Tobler in Neuhausen

Uncle Bruno, Aunt Susy, Aunt Connny, Claudia, Daniela, Me and Heath

The Rhein Falls

Claudia, Heath, Me, and Daniela

Me and Heath on the boat to the falls

The streets of Schaffhausen

The Munot Castle

A fortress built back in 1564-1589

Obviously I didn't take this picture cause it's sunny and warm in this photo and cold in all of mine. I just wanted to show what it looks like as I unfortunately didn't take any shots like this.

View from the top

View of the vineyards and Schaffhausen from the top

Me with Schaffhausen behind me

Mmmm...fresh mountain water. Heath didn't believe me that it was safe to drink.

Didn't know I had my very own land did you? Yup, there's a train to it and everything. :)

So on the train ride home from Schaffhausen we had to swith trains in Winterthur. While we were there we decided to hit the bathroom. Yup, it's called Mc Clean and it was very clean, which was nice, but it was quite the experience to use this bathroom. First, it cost 2Fr. which is about $1.73 just to use the bathroom. Then on top of that the lady that was working there didn't speak a lick of english and she kept telling Heath he had to go to the urinals, but he wanted to use the toilet. Finally we got it figured out. Then she walked in on Heath, don't know why he didn't lock the door. When I got finished and was washing my hands, she came over and started talking to me in German as if I understood what she was saying. She asked if I was British and I said no American and she just started laughing. Not sure why. I thinks that the most interesting bathroom visit I've ever had, well minus getting locked in the bathroom. :)

This is what I woke up to Monday morning. Very beautiful, but BRRRRRR!

Cool side street in the town of Appenzell

I Love Cheese!

David's parents took us to Appenzell on Monday and to the Schaukaserei (Cheese Factory)

Louise, Me, Rolf

This was one of my favorite meals while we were there, Raclettes. It was so yummy. For those of you who don't know what a raclette is, we stuck cheese in our little pans that are on the plates and then stuck them in the grill to melt. Once the cheese was melted we poured it over potatoes and added some seasoning. Oh it was devine. You can also cook meats and other things on the top part of the grill while the cheese is melting.

Chapel Bridge in Luzern

Tuesday was mine and Heath's day to venture out on our own while everyone else had to work. We got a train ticket that was good for all day on any train, bus or boat and headed to our first stop Luzern. It was about a 2 1/2 hour train ride.

Heath and his Starbucks...of all the yummy food to eat in Switzerland that is what he chose for his breakfast.

The Lion of Luzern

Carved out of the rock in memory of Swiss mercenaries who died at the Tuileries in 1792

Me and Heath with the Lion Monument

Next stop Lugano another 2 hours on the train

The Italian part of Switzerland. David told us it would give us a good idea of what Italy looks like so we decided that we would check it out and boy am I glad we did. It was beautiful there, as all of Switzerland is. :) The best part though was that it was 61 degrees instead of 40 something like the northern part of Switzerland where we were staying. It was so nice to see the sun out and to take my coat off.

Walking down the hill from the train station to get to the "down town" area.

I love fresh fruit markets

Down by the water

Cute old men playing chess on the walkway

Just some artsy pictures I had to get in. It's a photographers dream down there. So much beauty to capture. These are three of my favorites.

Just waiting for Mr. Right to fill in the other side of the picture. :)

Waiting for the train to head back to Herisau. 4 hour train ride home.

Lunch at the Crazy Cow with Mutti and cousin Claudia

The food was so delicious!

Me and Mutti (Grandma Bitsch)

I loved getting to spend time with Mutti. Isn't she the cutest!?

Claudia took us shopping down the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich after lunch. (The 5th Ave. of Zurich) We had a nice little tour of down town Zurich as well as we made the loop down the street and back to the train station.

Claudia, Heath, Me

Marco? .... Polo! We had to explain to Claudia why we thought this was so funny.

Some views of Zurich

Last night in Switzerland at Uncle Bruno and Aunt Susy's house in Rorbas.

Me, Claudia, Bruno, Susy, Daniela