vive la france

well i am currently sitting at my registration desk at the mercure hotel, in beaune, france. i thought I would take some time (now that i finally have some!) to post some pictures and to write about my time thus far.



We departed Minneapolis at 3pm on Friday. There is a 7 hour time difference with France, it is earlier here, as it is East and the sun rises on French ground before Minnesota. So we basically flew and fastforwarded time so instead of landing at 11pm, we landed at 6am. We had planned to sleep on the plane so we'd 'wake refreshed' and ready to play in Paris. Well, we didn't sleep on the plane. Our little France jaunt was fun because we were in Paris and we stopped and the Louvre, walked along Rivere Seine, and we could the see the Eiffel Tower close by. Our TGV (fast train) ride into Beaune from Paris was 2 hours, and finally arrived at our hotel at 7pm. We met up with the other meeting organizers for supper at 9pm and we got into bed at 11. It was a super long long day(s), so we slept hard that night. On Sunday we put in a 13 hour day. And yet, with all that said we could not, for the life of us, fall asleep. We were up until 5:30 am. no joke. We slept in, didn't hear the alarm at all, and woke up to Roger's phone call. He was wondering where we were. We shot out of bed so fast and got into work mode but have felt crazy all day. But we're in good spirits. Tonight is a 'free' night, meaning there are no evening events planned. We aren't going out for supper, but we're going grocery shopping to bring some food and wine to our hotel room. We'll watch a movie and call it an early night. We're excited to have a quiet night. and HOPEFULLY sleep. I'm afraid that we're going to get sick, with all this sleep-loss.

Our spirits are high though our sleep levels are low. We miss our families like CRAZY but we have each other.

So I'll leave you with pictures of Paris.

he can see!

well, we decided the barrette and top-of-the-head pony tail were too confusing for people. I'd been asked, "oh, who is that?" by neighbors that would see owen all the time. Apparently when just wearing a diaper and barrette his looks change drastically and he's not recognizable.

Anyway. I cut his hair. He looks so grown up now! i can hardly believe it. Here he is!






In other news, we're super excited to get ourselves to Ontario. We'll soak up the family time, farm time, and from the sounds of it, some lake-front time. We leave Friday evening, with Daryl and Sandy, and we'll drive drive drive. We're stopping for breakfast at Mike and Brenda's - it will be great to see where they live, and to visit for a wee while. And so, I just have to get through another day of office work. woop woop!

see ya later oldie

dear old trusty car:
you served us well, taking us from minnesota to new brunswick to nova scotia to ontario. you drove so well, but now your final days have been set.

and so we've retired you from our family and now drive:



We love our new car, it's an upgrade and is 10 years new rather than 17. we just bought the car yesterday and so far i've driven it to work, and we took it to cannon falls. it's a beauty and it drives great!*


Tonight we tried to take a couple pictures together. owen was NOT into it. so this is what came out. some good ones, but keep in mind i've kept off the 8 that were terrible.

it's a garden day

owen has been IN LOVE with playing outside. i have no problem with this. today was a beautiful morning, though i can feel it's going to be a scorcher soon.

we have a screen door that leads to our outside step. owen always pushes on the screen, and he's pushed so much that there's now a portion of the bottom part of the screen that is not attached to the door. anyway, this is owen's drop-spot. he likes to pass things through this little hole; his cars, his water, his little yarn ball, etc.


owen and i like to sit on the steps together. he usually will take my hand, from where ever i am, and have me sit here with him.


and, since it was such a lovely day, i decided to photograph some of our garden.

Owen built this tower! I asked him to smile for the camera, and i snapped this once his smile toned down a bit - his smile was soo huge, and his eyes were closed! really funny.


We went the cabin a couple weeks ago. It was a relaxing time, the kids did alright, the boys fished a lot, jen and i read, went on a walk . . . it was a good time.



I like this photo because it shows the seriousness that Ry and Ben have when they catch a fish. Ben said, "i got one!" ... "It's a big one!" then ry went to grab the net. If you zoom in on their faces you can see how determined they are.

HIMSELF & our garden

i've been meaning to post some photos of our garden. We're all really excited about it! Everything is doing well, so far the squirrels have left things alone (they're the major predator here), and it's been not too hot yet. This is the view from our back door.


We're growing our tomatoes in pots, with mint alongside.


Yay Kale!


Mmm, red greens...


and here's a full view.



This past Friday Ry took Owen and Lillian to the park, while I was at work. It looks like they had fun!






Owen is very into building towers. He built this one completely by himself!


Owen climbed out of his bed all by himself this morning! I think he used his little rocking chair as a 'step'. But this is very much how he is these days: independent. He loves doing things by himself, and he will tell you, usually frantically, "no!" he does not need help. It's pretty cute, verging on obnoxious. We're constantly having him repeat, "No, thankyou" after he so rudely swats and yells No! He'll get it down.

new bed.