En Provence-part un

And off to France we went...

I think the highlight of the whole trip for Evie was when she got to play in the soft play airplane at Gatwick.


We flew in to Marseille, via Easy Jet. It was a great week for quality family time, starting with the flight over. That look that Jim is giving me is the 'don't ruin the moment' look.


We drove from Marseille to the village that we stayed in--Montaren--stopping on the way for late lunch in another village called St. Remy. St. Remy was full of beautiful shops and ancient drainage systems.


I was not in the mood to be photographed at the slightly posh pub-style restaurant where we were the last people to eat lunch.


Most of the roads in Provence are lined with these beautiful trees, which only is a problem when an 18 wheeler is taking up most of the road...


We were staying at the home of a very nice woman named Arlette. She lived in half of the house and we rented the other half. In her garden, Arlette has pet turtles ranging from very young to 13 years old. Evie was very happy playing in Arlette's garden, watching the turtles and pursuing the cat, Plume, who was not very interested in being pursued. I would like to take this moment to praise Finchley for his patience with and tolerance of Evie.



First things first--la supermarche! We had a large supermarket near us and Evie was thrilled to be able to drive her own car during our shopping excursions.


Evie is obsessed with stairs, so we had to develop an elaborate stair blocking system. This picture is just to give the Grandparents a heart attack. Mostly she wasn't climbing up and down the treacherous stairs.


The bathtub situation was a vast improvement on Venice. In her tub, Evie happily played with rubber duckies and splashed around.


Morning in our French home:


Better food was to be bought at the market in St. Quentin-la-Poterie (famous for its many potters) and we headed there on our second day.

We bought a giant bread!


My most major purchase at the market was a 10 Euro bright orange fleece (the only color option). It was cold and I spent the rest of the trip looking like I was going deer hunting, but it was worth it.

Something happened in France on the 4th of September, but so far I haven't figured it out. Jim just thinks they are having an international celebration of his birthday in all the cities of France. Fair enough.


There was much exploring to be done in Arlette's garden. While the weather was nice (and cold)we went out and played in the afternoons.

The swing was not baby friendly. I thought maybe it would be easier for Evie to swing on her stomach, but that resulted in a face plant (not fun). It worked out better when Jim was swinging her (fun).

She also perfected standing in the garden. She had a great hunter spotting her efforts.

We searched for gold in the back yard, but our most exciting find was unripe olives.

With Arlette's directions, we took a walk near our house. Montaren from above:


Hiking with my favorite accessory:

When we were heading down the hill and through the woods, we heard a huge crashing noise coming behind us. Figuring we were about to be attacked by a mountain lion or something, we took off running (like you're not supposed to do)...and then a mountain BIKER rounded the corner. We felt like such idiots and my running jostled Evie awake, which made her mad. It was pretty funny.

Provence is a lot like Tuscany, in that there are tons of olive trees and grapevines. Jim picked an olive,

scrambled up some rocks,

marveled at the sheer number of rosemary bushes growing on the side of the road,

and explored ancient stone structures:


The next day we decided to lock Evie up and go out on the town by ourselves. Just kidding! Really she was happily watching me hang the clothes on the line from her prison cell/the living room.


We went into Uzes, which was 4 KM from Montaren and has a great Saturday market, where they sell fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, fish and other stuff (hats, jewelry purses, toys, clothes).


Evie enjoyed a cookie and then some bread (she takes after her mama!) She had an audience throughout our lunch. People just are nicer when you have a cute baby around.


After lunch she taught me how to drive a truck:


And we had a wild ride on a see-saw.


When we got back to the garden it was time for a break!


The next day I woke up with some funk so despite the beautiful weather, we skipped going for the walk we had planned and, instead, went into Nimes. We started with a visit to an ancient arena. It was exhilarating!!!

Actually the most exciting part was the sleeping cat. The views from the top were also pretty nice and the ascent to the top was steep! Jim and I both got cramps in our legs going down.


Can you find Jim in this picture?


There was a nice park in Nimes, where Evie had a crawling break and we checked out some canals.


For lunch, we went to a cafe where there were no English menus and the staff spoke very little English, so I stumbled through with my incredibly bad French and was proud of myself for ordering what I thought was roast beef for Jim.

In fact, it was not. It was beef tartar, which is, actually raw...and served with a raw egg, which you mix into it. Being the good sport that he is, Jim ate it anyway. After he finished it we were informed that it was not JUST beef, but also horse meat. I'm pretty sure that if we had been in the privacy of our own home, Jim would have had a more vocal reaction to that information, but instead he just smiled and said "I just ate horse....raw..."


Some statues, post-traumatizing lunch experience:


And, some ponies (not for consumption) pulling children around the park :


Evie liked the pony. He was more her size than the last horse she met.

The end of Provence part Un. I'll blog about the rest as soon as I can!

In London with Jessie

I am here to report that although the flight back to London from Boston is a lot shorter, that also means that you have a lot less time for sleeping. So, haggard and sleep deprived, we stumbled through customs and onto the Gatwick Express. Jim met us at the train station and when we got home we lasted about two hours before we had to take a nap. Jet lag is a horrible, horrible monster.

After dragging ourselves out of our naps, we managed to motivate to go to a pub near our house--The Stag. We decided to keep sleeping once we got there:


And then we went back home and attempted to watch a movie, but mostly watched really bad reality TV. PEACE! (to be honest, Jim really tried to get us to watch a movie, but we had the jet lag...and it just wasn't working)


There were several things that made Jessie's visit to London less than ideal. First, jet lag. Second, torrential rain for pretty much the whole four days she was here. And finally, Evie got an ear infection. Despite that, we had a lot of fun because it doesn't really take much to amuse us.


On one of the less rainy days, we went to Covent Garden and I took Jessie to World Food Cafe, a vegetarian restaurant serving....world foods! We had quite a spread.


I don't have all the pictures yet, but on Jessie's last night in town we got a babysitter and headed to Primrose Hill. Jim insisted that we drink 'large' wines instead of 'small wines' and that lead to our posing for celebrity-style mug shots (taken by us and not the police) and generally being loud and silly.




We also apparently ate dessert and were so impressed with ourselves that we took a picture of the end result:

Anyway, it was a brief, but happy visit with Jessie in London. Next time we hope the whole passe can make it!

New England!

After too long, we finally managed a trip to New England to see the Boston/Vermont crew. Many babies have been born since our last visit, including Evie!

The flight to Boston is a lot more humane than the flight to Houston and we were there in an easy 7 hours. Evie was a star traveler as usual, and also was easily manipulated by Jack Black dressed in an orange outfit on Yo Gabba Gabba. I assure you that at home Evie barely watches TV, much less gets hooked up to headphones. Desperate times call for desperate measures.


Upon arrival in Boston, Danny picked us up from the airport and we had a reunion at their house. Jim met Ani for the first time and she charmed him into petting her white dog and allowing her to put a 'Dinner at 8' sign on his head, despite his jet lag.

Then she body slammed him and he had to go back to the hotel and pass out.

The next morning, Evie joined Lucas (who we also met for the first time this trip) for a hearty breakfast. Lucas was kind enough to share his Cheerios and now Evie is a Cheerio addict.



Avery and Jess came over to play, too! At first, Avery wasn't too psyched about being woken up and then held by me.


But later, she calmed down and although she still regarded us suspiciously, she seemed to accept us.

Then she got really relaxed and showed us her belly.


Reunion!


It was pretty rainy, but that couldn't keep Lucas down. He went out and played in it. Then he came home and stripped down.


One last hang out with Daddy before he went off to sleep and then back home. We missed him for the rest of the week!


Evie spends a lot of time looking out the window at our house. She finds watching people pass and Finchley and his rival Mouse (the cat next door) in the front garden very exciting. So the opportunity to look out of the window with Lucas in another country was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!


We said goodbye to Tia, Tio and Lucas and headed off with Jessie and Ani (and don't forget BANJO the Wonderdog!) to Vermont.


We stopped at a Leed Certified rest area, which I thought would impress Jim. I took lots of pictures of the toilet and the septic system (or whatever), but he did not show the enthusiasm I was looking for, so I won't bore everyone else with those pictures. Instead, here is Evie sprouting out of Banjo's head.



And a happy Vermont picnic with Jessie, Ani and Banjo (at the end of the leash).


This was seriously the most beautiful rest area we've ever been to (well, Evie hasn't been to many at all...it may have been her first! But I was very impressed.) Usually I don't want to hang out at a rest area for any period of time, but this one was scenic!


At the farmhouse in Vermont, there were lots of new challenges.

Stairs:


...and mastered that:


Embarrassing hats:


A bialy:


We were introduced to Steve's motorcycle (Ani, wisely, has not yet embraced it):


And we went for a slightly traumatizing hike. The first trauma involved getting into the backpack AND having to ride on Steve's back. He is SO SCARY.


Eventually we realized that the whole backpack thing wasn't going to work, so we resorted to the sling. Still too close to Steve, though. He's SO SCARY!


We paused for a serene picture on a beautiful log.






Jessie demonstrated her best Karate Kid/dance to rile up the yellow jacket nest that was INSIDE the beautiful log.


And we ran. A few minutes later, Evie burst into tears for no reason. A few minutes after that, we discovered that she had been stung. And 20 minutes later, when we got back to the car, we discovered that the yellow jacket was still in her pants. Fortunately it only stung her once, but then we started getting dive bombed by other yellow jackets, seemingly out of nowhere. After locking ourselves into the car and Google-ing yellow jackets on Steve's ipod, we found out that injured yellow jackets give off a pheremone that calls other yellow jackets in to attack. Sheesh. Needless to say I am now more than a little paranoid about bees and their proximity to Evie (although yellow jackets are especially evil, I think).

Hair envy:


And a REALLY good show:


We met Spirit, the family horse. Jessie coaxed him over with apples and carrots.


A horse head is really big...especially when you are a baby.


After all the country excitement, we decided to get urban and go into Burlington for pizza. There is no doubt that Evie loves pizza.



Ani was a pizza peeker:


And I got lots of Bagley snuggles (and good pizza):


Unfortunately, due to our pizza exploits, we didn't make it back to the farm in time for Banjo's first agility training course (HAH!) I hope someone takes some video footage when Banjo DOES make it to his course.

At the end of the week, Jessie, Evie and I headed back to Boston. Our flight back to London was on Saturday so instead of making a REALLY long day of it, we decided to split it into two days. We stayed at the Hyatt in Burlington, MA and were delighted to find this in the parking lot when we got there:

They were wanted by the front desk:


Whohoo! Girls Gone Wild!!!!!!!!


The next day, after an epic shop at Marshall's (which sadly ended in my getting not much because I couldn't fit anything into my already overstuffed suitcase) we headed to Logan and can report that there is not much to do at Logan in terms of hanging out and waiting for your flight. So we decided to whoop it up at Hoolihan's.

Whoop!


Whoop!


Poop!


On the flight, we were unfortunately seated next to the area where all the flight attendants hang out, so things were pretty busy and loud. Evie slept a little bit, but not much. Jessie and I slept about an hour. Despite our red eye flight, Evie managed to keep the plane happy by crawling up and down the aisles in her pink monkey pjs.

Thus ends the American adventures. Stay tuned for a detailed account of Jessie's brief visit to London.