we drove from provence to a part of france i’d been dreaming of visiting – annecy lake in the french alps! we met my brother talmadge and his wife and daughter – who live in switzerland – there. it was such a joy to be with family, and we planned our meetup to coincide with the family reunion my parents and the rest of my siblings were having on the other side of the earth at the same time. both tal and i were heartbroken to miss the gathering at bear lake this year, and were so glad we could be together at a spectacular mountain lake, even if it wasn’t the spectacular mountain lake we love to go to every summer 🙂 i may have shed a tear or two giving my brother and sister-in-law hugs after all those months of zero physical contact with anyone outside of ian and our boys. and we had such a good time with tal and his family in annecy (which knocked our socks off with its beauty and charm!) – adventuring during the day and staying up too late at night talking. our boys adored being with their aunt, uncle and cousin. i heard moses and gabriel laugh more in these two and a half days probably than the previous two and a half months that proceeded.

we stayed at a neat little airbnb up on the mountain above the lake. here was the view from our balcony:

cousins reunited and sooo happy to be together:

we went to the town of annecy and wandered the insanely beautiful canals.

we got some gelato and then the dads took the kids to play on the grass near the lake while anita and i explored a bit more (and i kept stopping to snap photos!).

the town of annecy is right on the north tip of lac d’annecy. there is a playground right between the canals and the lake – jackpot! we played there for a while and took in the beauty of our surroundings.

some clouds rolled in and we headed up a mountain to a little alpine slide. do you think moses had a fun time on it, or no? 😉

the views from the ski-run-turned-slide-run were expansive and gorgeous!

back at the airbnb, we got the kids to bed and ian and i went for a little walk along the ridge looking down into more alps. the weather was so perfect and i felt so in love with my ian.

the kids loved watching the neighbourhood goats, with their bells around their necks, get herded to different pastures.

and also loved stories told by uncle tal.

we spent one morning at this spectacular beach:

that tower is for jumping off of into the water! ian and tal had a blast bailing off the very top! (if you look closely in this photo you can see ian about to hit the water!)

we drove around the lake to a different beach for the second half of the day. isn’t this so beautiful?!

moses loves his cousin so so much. they had such a blast together swimming in the cold water.

gabriel preferred paddling in the little stream that led down to the lake.

on our drive back to the airbnb, we happened upon this viewpoint and we were blown away. we had to pull over and take some photos.

on our last morning with tal and his family in the annecy area, we took the advice of the neighbours we had met that live below the airbnb and took a little hike to where a lot of paragliders take off. the scenery was glorious, and it was so fun to watch people run off the mountainside and fly! (i went paragliding in switzerland five years ago and i passionately tell everyone i talk to about it that it is the best thing i’ve done in my life besides marrying ian and getting baptized, ha!) it was a sunday so we also had a little church meeting together overlooking the lake and alps. it was lovely.

annecy was just dreamy! the lake, mountains, colours, and charm were awesome, but the best part was definitely being with family.