Aunt Joyce

My Aunt Joyce is a big part of what my Uncle Jay does. She helps a lot of the women in the army. She trust in the Lord and studies lots of bible verses for her children and husband and to help her with her job as a commander's wife.  She supports him and moves her kids around a lot. She has an awesome attitude and she is as sweet as she could be.  She is a great lady for this job for this important job. 

Colonel Voorhees

          My Uncle Jay is a very special person.  If you did not know he has been in the army for 23 years also he is a Colonel.  I am very excited because he is stationed in Ansbach, Germany. It is amazing he is now Commander of 12^th Combat Aviation Brigade.  That is the largest aviation brigade in the army.  The reason I chose to write about him is because he is  very patriotic and has God in his heart.  Do you know who his first meeting was with as the new commander this morning?  The chaplen, to pray! It is crazy of how much of a burden he is taking on.  But he can do it. He is just a classic example of what happens when you work extremely hard at something for 23 years.  We were just at his change of command and it was a very cool ceremony. I have attached some photos down below. Thanks Uncle Jay for loving your country and being willing to serve and for being a great role model to me!

Deutschland!

Somebody needs to pinch me.  Have I mentioned that while we will be here in Geneva, Geof's brother, Jay and his family (minus Hailey who will be at Longwood in the fall) will be living in Ansbach, Germany as Jay has just taken command of the Army Aviation base there?  Really?  I get all this and still get to be only about 5 hours from family?  It is a little much for me to grasp why God decided to give us this added blessing, but I will joyfully take it!

This past weekend we visited them for the first time.  Jay's Change of Command ceremony was Friday and then we drove to a nearby german village on Saturday.  The whole weekend was magical and such a privledge to share that huge event with Jay and Joyce, especially since Jake and Hailey couldn't be there because they are on a mission trip in Nicuargua.  My children were so impressed; and rightfully so as their uncle is now the commander of the largest avaition brigade in the army.  It is a "big deal" to say the least.  Here are just a few pictures from the weekend, more are on my facebook page if you are interested.

And for those of you counting (and we are), that is country number 4!

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of the Voorhees

Last week we took another "field trip" to the local mountain top.  Mount Saleve is a quick train/bus/cable car ride from us, so we packed a lunch and ventured to the top.  As usual, it was beautiful!

The view of Geneva from the top.

We hiked to the picnic area.

They even let me take a few pictures.

Nature boy.

Flower girl

This looked like a nice place for a little family meditation...anybody buying this?

This was more like it.

The lovely and charming Sarah who always gets us to the right bus.  We would be lost without her...literally.

Yvoire and Interlaken

While Amy and Kevin were here we went to two places that we had not yet visited.  Both were great day trips.
The first is Interlaken, which is about a two hour drive from Geneva.  It is beautiful and was our first venture into the "german" region of Switzerland.

The second town was Yvoire, France.  It is a beautiful little medevil village just on the other side of the lake.  To get there, we drove up to Nyon (about 20 minutes) and then caught the ferry across the water.

As Amy put it, most places we visit around here really look a lot like Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, only it's real:).

Finally, let me give a shout out to Sarah Beth who has come to help us with the children this summer.  She is loving, patient, resourceful, and tolerant-and that is just with me!! You should see how great she is with the kids!  Thanks to her we have been able to enjoy so much more of the area and beyond and I am so grateful she was willing to come and live with us for the past few months.  We are already starting to get a little nervous about what we will do when she leaves at the end of July.  Back to life with just mom...scary.

Slideshow From Rome

Click on the link below to see the pictures from our trip to Rome with Kevin, Amy and their family.  We had a great time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx5uY7wkaPE

The Heywoods Visit Geneva!

Kevin, Amy, Ella, Caroline and Thomas have been visiting us in Switzerland and we have a fun filled couple of weeks.  The kids had a great time playing together and we enjoyed showing them around Geneva.  We also had our lakehouse neighbors, Roger and Brenda, here for a few days.  We have been spoiled with visitors and have loved sharing this experience with our friends and family!

We visited the chocolate factory and our favorite part was the tasting room!

We were able to go out to dinner one night with just the adults.

Roger and Brenda

Geof and Amy

Downtown Geneva

Water balloon fight!

Geof doesn't mind cooking...

with the right equipment.

We rocked out to "Just Dance"

We skyped Mom

and took a lot of pictures

Ella and Caroline got to see Josh and Kate play ball.

And the girls ran a spa in their bathroom...which I hope to establish permanently.



They left this morning and it is a little sad around here!


Stay tuned- I'll have the pics from Rome, Yvoire, and Interlaken up in the next few days.