Luxembourg

We were lucky enough to have traded babysitting for a ward member's car the last weekend we were in Belgium and decided to take some friends with us to Luxembourg for the day. We had driven through the country before, but we specifically wanted to visit what is called "the valley of the 7 chateaus" and the WWII Bastogne memorial. While it is small, Luxembourg is a gorgeous country, encompassing the Ardennes (a small, but beautiful mountain region), lots of incredible castles, war memorials and history.


Kevin had wanted to travel to Bastogne the entire time we were in Europe. The battle fought here was a smaller battle in and around the Battle of the Bulge and is depicted in the television series Band of Brothers. The memorial is a tribute from the Belgian population as a whole to the American nation in honor of the 76,890 American soldiers who lost their lives during the battle.


The memorial was really beautiful and it was amazing to feel the gratitude the people felt for the Americans - kind of a different feeling than in other places in Europe we went. We even had some people thank us and ask us if we had ancestors who fought there! We also happened to see the Belgium Mission President, his wife and 2 of his AP's while we were there. It was fun to see people we knew in a far away place.


We went to 3 different chateaus, basically castles, during our day there. This was the only one we were able to go inside of, but each was beautifully nestled in the valley, with great big dance halls and bedrooms. I wish we would have been able to see all of them! There are also supposed to be some great singing monks in one of them that we were too late to see - we will just have to go back!


The castle we were able to go inside of had some fun depictions of how people would have lived during that time period and various artifacts they found there. Here are the boys in front of the suits of armor and Kevin in the stocks. While these ones were amazing, Kevin sticks to his claim that "they don't make castles like they do in England." While I agree with him, I think I would have much rather lived in these fairly newer, warmer castles than the frigid medieval ones in England.

In Honor of the Start of the 5th Season...

Obelis 20th Anniversary

Friday we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of our company! It was a total blast! I can't believe how much fun it was for Kevin and I to get dressed up and go to a real party together. I wish opportunities for fancy parties came up more often! We schmoozed, we danced, we dined and had a fabulous time. I even talked with an Israeli C.E.O. who asked me (in between his glasses on champagne) "So, you're a Mormon. What does that mean?" Wow, talk about taking me off guard! We ended up having a really great conversation though and he said he will come to church with us when we're in Israel this December!

Which reminds me that I haven't posted any of that information yet! The company we work for does a wide variety of things, but the heart of their business resides in 2 places: what Kevin does, and what I do. Kevin works for the commercial side of the company. Our office serves as the European Rep. for companies around the world - particularly in Israel where they have a harder time getting into Europe. Obelis will do the marketing, sales, orders, etc. for the company in Europe. One of the biggest companies we represent is called PolyD-Zine; they manufacture polypropalene (like a really nice, strong plastic) products. Kevin landed a deal for PolyDZine with Staples here in Europe to supply polypropalene office supplies to all of the Staples locations. Oh, only a 6.5 million euro a year deal!! The biggest one they have ever gotten!!! Hope we get a piece of that :) Way to go Kevin!!! 

I work for the part of the company that is completely Obelis. Any manufacturer who would like to place a product within the European Union is required to have a legal representative within the community - a European Authorized Representative (E.A.R.). So, we serve as the E.A.R. for these companies, helping them make sure their product complies with all of the necessary laws and regulations and acting as the contact point for the authorities - and a lot more. Recently, there have begun to be several key environmental directives which manufacturers have to comply with. Basically, we researched these and started a brand new company. I spent a lot of time dealing with one in particular that will make the most money for the new company, and our boss asked me to present on it at the big seminar they are having in Tel Aviv, Israel this December - all expenses paid! I said "well, I guess." :) And, since Kevin has done so amazingly well, they asked him to come to Israel to work for PolyDZine while I'm there. They also asked us to stay on at Obelis until Israel, but we couldn't miss Jackson's homecoming!

Anyway, though this seems long, it is really a very short blip of our lives for the past 6 months. We have absolutely loved our jobs and have learned and grown immensely. We leave for Israel the day after Thanksgiving and get back 1 week before Christmas. The only bad part is we don't know who will hire us for the 4 weeks we have in between! Call us if you need babysitters! :)

Switzerland - Hillyard Reunion '08

We were so happy and lucky (happy-go-lucky) to have Kevin's parents come visit us last week! It was amazing how wonderful it was to see family! We had the best time with them and were able to sneak away for a few days down to Switzerland to fulfill Lynda's dream of singing in the Alps - "The Hills are Alive!!" We got to see some amazing mountains, waterfalls, lakes - ahh, just the beautiful scenery. Not to mention the chocolate and cheese! Lynda and I have decided that it will be the first of many Hillyard trips to Switzerland and that we are going to have a big family reunion there when all of the grandkids are old enough - so in like 20 years? Just kidding!

We stayed in 2 places while we were there; the first was right on the French/Swiss border in a tiny town in the middle of the famous Mont Blanc mountains (the cool pen my boss used is names after them as a result of their constant "white top") called Charmonix. It was the cutest little town and you could actually see the huge glacier sitting right on the mountain. The second place was by the tallest Alp in Europe - the Jungfrau. We stayed in the little town of Lauterbrunnen right across from a giant cascading waterfall! It was magical! 

As wonderful as it was, we didn't get the best weather. It was quite rainy and cold, but that made for some whole new adventures! We decided to take a hike to go see all the new waterfalls the rain was making in the valley and went to the "Waterfall in the Cave." There was this huge waterfall that travels almost the whole way down the mountain in a cave! It was amazing, but we got completely soaked (even more soaked than we were from the rain)! While this picture does not demonstrate the waterfall to the best degree (see our Picasa album for better ones), it does begin to demonstrate how wet we were! Kevin's dad said it looked like I peed my pants backwards!

While the fog made skiing or even taking the train to the top of Jungfrau kind of a waste, we still decided to take the train up a little bit of the way. Kevin was so excited to see snow, I don't think I'm going to be able to get him off the mountain this season. Since it was still so cold up there and not much to see because of the fog, we spent a lot of time in the little shops at the train stop. This is Kevin and I getting in trouble because we were about to take a picture in these hats...we are both about to say "Oh sorry..."

Thanks for a great trip Hillyards!!

Belgian Birthday

We celebrated Sarah's birthday here in Belgium last week. Thank you so much to all the people who sent letters and kind notes to help with Kevin's present!! I think it is the best birthday present I have ever gotten and it meant so much to me to feel loved and at home, even though we are so far away! We had a great day, I got two birthday cakes both filled with amazing Belgium chocolate.

2 Year Anniversary - Paris, France

Kevin and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 9th of this month! I can hardly believe we have been married for 2 years, though in some ways it feels like we have always been together. Since we live so conveniently close to Paris, we decided to spend the weekend there for our anniversary. We were in Positano, Italy last year for our anniversary and Kevin keeps asking me how in the world we are going to top it next year! I think we'll always find a way...

So what do you do on a romantic weekend in Paris? Go to Disneyland!! Yes, we went to Disneyland one day. I think we were both surprised at how much fun we had. It was a little different having everything in French, and I was heartbroken when we discovered they didn't have a Splash Mountain (seriously??), but was surprisingly similar to the US versions.

This is us on the Tower of Terror - one of my all-time favorite rides!! I think I like it so much because it never fails to get me nervous/excited. Obviously I wasn't completely over my fears on this first run....

Ok, so in addition to Disneyland, we did some great stuff in Paris too. We have been there before, so we wanted to see and do things we didn't do last time. We went to the Sacre Cour Cathedral, some beautiful hidden parks and spent tons of time at the Versailles Gardens. Best of all, it was a perfect weekend for us to relax (I read "Breaking Dawn" in 2 days while Kevin watched the Olympics).

Welcome to the Hillyard's Blog!

We have finally succumbed to the wonderful, wild world of blogging! I always thought I would start blogging when we had kids, but after looking at several friend's blogs - I have gotten so excited about it and couldn't wait to start our own. Now I'm just sad we haven't been doing this the whole time! So, here it goes....