testing the waters

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Fete de Geneve, BBQ's, dinners--Summer in the city (and country)

Excenevex Beach

Long legs doing her thing :)

Checking things out

Our day started like this: colds and wind with a look of rain.

peek a boo!

Hi Mommy

looking for seashells

the sun came out after lunch, yea!

little fish

turned into a day of this, thankfully

everyone, run!!!!

amazing day with wonderful friends.

finished in the car like this :)

no nap for this big girl :)

Everyday has rained here. It really puts a damper on things. I am so thankful that we were able to have a day at the beach together and enjoy the sunshine. This beach is perfect for kids where the sand is soft and the water is shallow enough that they can really walk a while out and still touch. I kept thinking we were somewhere else by the ocean and then would snap back and realise that it was the lake and we were only 40 minutes from the house. Hopefully we can go again before the end of the summer.

The girls have new beds! I am thrilled to see these guys with their own beds as before we had Charlotte's bed turn into Emilie's and Charlotte was sleeping on the trundle. We kept the trundle, but now that is for guests and the girls can sleep together without hiding the bed in the morning. I am also super impressed that I built these beds myself. I think it took longer than the time quoted on the box for 2, but in the end I did it!!

Summer Fun......with cardboard boxes!

I have such great memories of spending time at my mom's store and just creating whatever I wanted with the extra boxes. Houses, spaceships, hiding spaces, endless possibilities. The girls spent forever playing with these boxes. It was really nice to see what they came up with.

Monday, July 21, 2014

There's a new bike gang in town!

Oh Paris.... I have missed you.

C dancing in the park

E waiting for the train at 5 in the morning. This is before she got motion sickness on board and I didn't pack a change of clothes. Learned my lesson that it is now, planes, trains and automobiles that make her sick :(

Pont Alexandre

Same bridge as above. This is when Emilie got her head stuck in the bridge. Talk about being scared.

I promise to take these girls back to Paris one day when they are older (and for better reasons than an Emergency passport)

Hello Beautiful!

Gamez crew eating crepes before the train home.

Watching the boats along the Seine.

One happy lady in the big city.

Well, I have been wanting to go to Paris but not quite how it happened. We were to leave Tuesday for Texas and Saturday night at 10 o'clock I realised that Charlotte's passport expired on her 5th birthday (3 months ago). Talk about panic. Luckily I had just spoken to someone who told me the embassy in paris can do emergency passports in an hour. I checked the website and it looked good, except there were no appointments left and we had to be the first people there on Monday to have a chance in hell of making it back to Geneva by Monday night. I packed and Alex came to pick us up to drive to his parents on Sunday. Woke up early Monday morning to take the train to Paris, get to the embassy and take the train back to Joigny, to then drive 4 hours home. We made it home at 8 that night had a quick sleep and woke up Tuesday to fly to Texas. With everything that has happened this year I never once thought about the passport expiring on her birthday (even though I knew that it was when she turned 5). Luckily it all worked out and we have a lot of really funny stories to tell from this day. Now I am in charge of getting new passports for her before our next adventure.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Endnote to a wonderful trip that went too fast

This is a pic of the girls at the start of our trip to Texas. They were so excited to get to Grandma's and see all of the family.

This is one of the last pictures from our trip. I think it sums things up. There is so much love here. It is amazing to see so many people take time to see us while we are there. This time we made it a very family oriented trip and only went to San Marcos to see Greer's new arrival Blythe. It just went too fast and we couldn't squeeze anything else in. When I see the love that people have for my girls, it is amazing to watch. It makes me question what the hell I am doing here, so far away, even if I don't think I want to live in Texas anymore. I have so many questions when I am there. Could I live here? What would life be like? Do I want to feel abnormal where I am supposed to feel normal? Is the education as good as where we are? What about ........and then I see the love that my family has for my kids and how they play with them and make them feel so special that it makes me want to forget about the questioning and think about what we are missing out on. This time leaving was my first time to cry. I think as the girls get older it is going to get harder. Knowing that we will only have these times once every year and for only 2 weeks is hard. I just wish everyone was a little closer sometimes. I am so grateful to everyone that took time out of their busy day/week to spend time with us and make my two girls feel like princesses. We love ya'll!