Vive la France!!!

My goodness, have things changed. First of all, we now live in a different state. For anybody who knows our history, it's not surprising that our Labor Day weekend consisted of driving 12+ hours and moving to a new town. In our 4 1/2 year marriage we have lived in 8 different apartments in 4 different states. This was our biggest move to date, so needless to say we are tired of packing, unpacking, driving, and moving in general. (Is this a good time to mention that we're moving to San Diego next September?). But we have had some amazing experiences, met some incredible people, and we are so blessed to have consistent work, so we couldn't be happier.

It's also no surprise that we took advantage of our change of employment to go on another crazy vacation. Reece was actually super awesome most of the time,and we always had a cute photo subject. And thanks to a heavy baby/stroller combination, we didn't gain any weight, despite the combined efforts of delicious french bread, crepes with Nutella, glaces, and that delectable Swiss chocolate.

The best part of our entire trip, and in fact the whole reason we planned this vacation, was spending time with Ryan, Liz and Owen. It was SO SO SO SO wonderful being able to hang out with them and see their town and let Reece and Owen play together. Owen is such a good cousin and Reece learned a lot from him. He's now much better at eating hot dogs, really enjoys juice from a box and applesauce from a squeezable tube, and his language has really taken off since his Owen experience. Not his French, unfortunately. Actually, he's probably been speaking French all along and I just didn't realize it. The French people LOVED him, and Reece being fluent in French would definitely explain a lot. Anyway, it was also nice to talk to Liz, since I haven't had much of a chance since high school, really. Plus Paul and Ryan were constantly engaged in some boring conversation or another, so not only did Paul let off some conversational steam, but I had a fun person to talk to in the meantime.

We spent a few days in Paris, all of which we loved. As Paul said, "We kicked the trash out of Paris." We really did. We saw everything in all of our guide books, and then some. Then we spent two days in the Chateau de Cherveux, which I thought was in the Loire valley when I booked it, but apparently I was very wrong. Luckily Ryan and Liz were very nice about it, but we had a two hour + drive to get to and from the Loire valley castles. It ate up a good part of our day, but it gave us some quality time in the car. We drove through the Dordogne region on the way back to Toulouse and it was gorgeous. Then we forgot our camera as Ryan gave us a tour through Toulouse, and again when playing petanque in the park (two of my favorite things we did...mostly because I'm so amazingly awesome at petanque). We did get good pictures of our time on the beach and our great hike in the Pyrenees. Ryan and Liz were nice enough to drive across the border so I could say that I've been to Spain. We ate tapas at a bar there and they tasted terrible. But other than that Spain was nice. We uploaded all our photos to our Picasa page, so if the next twenty or so pics aren't enough, see the link on the right. Enjoy!

For any of you on the fence about visiting Ryan and Liz, I would definitely recommend it. We loved our time there and you can't ask for a more beautiful country or more fun hosts.

Posing on the Seine with Notre Dame in the background.

Our nightly hang-out. We were here until after 11 PM most nights, as we hadn't yet adjusted to the time change. Lots of people and beautiful views plus perfect weather. Even Reece kept saying "cool."

From the top of the Arc du Triomph. My, what handsome boys I have!

We hiked to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower and yes, I was wearing flip-flops. It was totally worth the hike, as it was WAY cheaper than the elevators and WAY faster too.

Napoleon's tomb. It's huge. Like....huge. It's two levels down from where Paul is standing.

This was at Versailles. We were tired and tried to take a shortcut and it led us to this pit of death. I can't be sure but I think the bottom was full of poisonous snakes and sharks. And yes, those are sharp spikes on the opposite side. Renaissance death traps.

Gates of Versailles. Super elaborate and over the top. So naturally it was awesome to visit.

Getting in some family time.

The Chateau de Cherveux where we stayed for two nights for SUPER cheap. I'm talking like 45 euro a night. Staying in a castle was a dream come true for our family and we're excited to tell Reece about how cool we used to be.

This was at chateau Chenonceau. I was tempted to do the same thing.

Chateau Chambord was huge and looked fake, but it was my favorite castle of the day.

Reece survived on these chocolate cookies on this trip. At least we know where he got those chubby cheeks.

Looking over the Dordogne region. So beautiful. We were there for only a few hours but we fell in love. Some day we'll take a hot air balloon ride over this valley. In our dreams.

The boys spent a good portion of the beach day building these castles, which had connecting underground tunnels and a reflecting pool. The little boys then destroyed them while the big boys were snorkeling.

This picture makes me smile every time I see it. We miss you, Owen!

Our hike in the Pyrenees to Lac d'Oo. The water was so incredibly clear. The little boys threw rocks in the water and looked at the polywogs while Ryan ran around to the waterfall on the other side.
So beautiful. I mean the waterfall.

This was the last of a series of pictures in which Owen's head pops up from behind as a nice surprise.

We strategically placed ourselves right in front of the waterfall. Genius.

Then after a couple of nice, low-key days in Toulouse where I had so much fun I completely forgot to take pictures, and then 9 hours of train rides, we made it to the Matterhorn near Zermatt, Switzerland. After last year's vacation, Paul's been dreaming of visiting the Matterhorn. And honestly, he's been dreaming of it since he was 48 inches tall and started braving the abominable snowman and bobsleds at Disneyland. So the long train rides were totally worth it. The mountain was absolutely gorgeous and the four hours we spent at Zermatt made for the perfect vacation day. We took the gondola to the top, played in the snow, ate lots of chocolate, threw rocks off the mountain, and all in all reveled in this Swiss bliss.


Zermatt from the gondola.

A unique experience only parents can enjoy.


Behind us is where the Jet d'Eau is supposed to be. We saw it the first night in Geneva, but winds were too strong this day. Made for a nice walk out on the water, though.

The best of Geneva. This is what Reece does when you say "Put up your dukes!"

In the end the best part of all of this was having time to spend together as a family. It's totally worth the time and trudging and tuppence to do it.

Yosemite!

We just got back from a mini-family reunion in Yosemite. We camped with Paul's aunt, cousins and brother and families. They're such a fun group of people and we had a blast. We uploaded our pictures onto our Picasa page. It was gorgeous and awesome and we loved it.

Our tent was very snug and our baby got much less sleep than he needed, but we had a great time and can't wait to go camping again. Reece LOVED it, especially chasing squirrels and cousins, and yelling at birds and adults.

Paul got a killer black eye while rafting.

It actually looked worse after a couple of days, but it's getting better now. The funny part was that he had an interview two days later. It turns out the black eye may have helped in the interview, though, because Paul got the job offer and we'll be moving to San Diego for a year in 2011-2012. We're grateful for the clerkship, but maybe not so excited about moving yet again.

Back to Yosemite:This was the only real hike we did, but it was definitely worthwhile. Reece slept for a good portion of the hike, and only woke up when we got to the waterfall mist. My quads were killing me the next day from climbing up the rocks with the baby pack on. Totally worth it, though.

So now that we're moving to Portland in 6 weeks, who wishes they had come to visit us? Don't worry, even though we won't be living here for a while, we are more than willing to come back to Yosemite and join anybody who wants to camp in the most beautiful national park in America.

Hop Up, Jump In!

Reece is a very physical baby. He loves learning new tricks and often gets frustrated because he can't quite master a task. He learns fast, though. His latest trick is jumping. Paul spent a good amount of time teaching Reece how to bend his knees, and often re-emphasizes that Reece needs to push off his toes. It's pretty cute to watch them interact. Reece loves his dad. He yells "daaaaa!" every time he sees Paul after a long absence. He'll tackle Paul if he catches him on the floor. And Reece loves giving daddy big kisses. This first video shows off my boys' latest war wounds. Paul got a fat black eye from our Yosemite camping trip and Reece got his face nice and scraped up. It also proves that Reece is not pleasant all the time. Just so you know, Paul got Reece addicted to jelly bellies (another special part of their relationship) and Reece is crying because I won't let him have any more.



Here's a sample of Reece's hopping techniques:

Happy Hollow petting zoo

Saturday we managed to sneak in some family time in between Paul's Blackberry's incessant ringing. We made our way to Happy Hollow petting zoo in San Jose. They were having an all-you-can-eat ice cream party, all rides and animal petting included. Turns out they shut down the ice cream booths early, so we didn't quite get all we could eat. But it was still pretty fun. Reece touched a lot of goats, donkeys, horses, sheep and cows. He also spent quality time with exotic parrots and guinea pigs. A good time was had by all.

So the goats kind of stampeded while we were in the pen. Reece held his own pretty well and didn't lose any fingers.

Reece has this adorable fake-ish laugh. When he's excited or surprised he curls his arms in to his chest and giggles, then my heart melts.

Other pictures that would have been great: Reece took his first carousel ride...and hated it. He rode the alligator but really wanted the monkey but didn't decide until it was too late. Then he saw his dad standing by the ride and tried to jump off to get to him. The funniest part was that as soon as we got off the ride, Reece pointed at the ride and growled, as if telling his dad, "Yeah, I conquered that ride." So he talks big, but he was just a big baby on the actual ride.

Baby Kisses

Baby kisses are the sweetest things in the world. And I have to say that Reece is a very good baby kisser. I mean that in both senses that yes, he is a baby and gives good kisses, but also that he loves to kiss babies...especially himself.

This first video is to show what a great baby kisser he is (because he's a baby and kisses well):



Anyway, as soon as he saw himself on camera he couldn't resist kissing his own adorable face. And who can blame him?



Then it just kept going. Because it was too cute to stop.



I would also like to mention that every time we watched these videos he tried to kiss himself again and again. He also waves to himself in the videos. He's very obedient and attentive.

MARATHON!

I did it! This is the stuff dreams are made of. Nightmare-ish type dreams, yes, but dreams nonetheless. But nightmare or not, I am officially a marathon finisher. It sounded kind of anticlimactic to me before the race to be a marathon "finisher." But now I feel like I've really earned that title. Here are a few notes about the race, because I'm too tired to put the whole long, boring story on here (you're welcome):

The race started in Aptos, CA (10 miles east of Santa Cruz) in the forest of Nisene Marks

• Elevation gain: 2500' in first 12 miles
• Then you run back down...that part was great
• You run on the Aptos Creek fire road, which is pretty well packed down and honestly not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting brutal hills like in the Muir Woods 25k, but this was milder than I thought.
• It was also longer than I thought. The last 5 miles were pretty tough, but I ended up running neck-in-neck with another girl and we pushed each other for a few of the toughest miles I've ever run.
• I talked to a guy on the way up the mountain who has run 27 marathons. This was his 6th time running this particular marathon. People are insane. He told me I was also insane for picking this particular race for my first marathon. I agreed with him.
• I never had any crazy goals for this race like "I'm not going to stop the whole time," but it turns out I didn't stop the whole time. I did pause at one aid station, but only because they tricked me. I thought I was at the turn-around, but I still had 1/4 mile to go.
  
• My best hope for a finishing time was 5 hours. That was a guess based on my other long runs and on the crazy elevation gain in this run. I am pleased to say that I finished in 4:43:??. The only thing that bugs me is that the guy who finished right in front of me kept stopping and walking up the hills. I passed him probably four times and he still ended up beating me. He even stopped to take a phone call in the last two miles. I was too tired by that point to pass him out of spite. I never thought my spite would fail me, but there you go.
• Reece was the only baby at the race. Paul was awesome and pushed the stroller 2 miles up the road to meet me and run the last two miles with me. He got some applause of his own while approaching the finish line (I sent him ahead of me because Reece kept wanting me to hold him), and it is fair to say that while I ran a marathon, Paul finished the marathon.
  
• While looting the food table afterward an older man (who was amazing) asked me, "You're the mom, right?" Then said, "Great job." Sweet! I got bonus points just for having a baby at the race. What that guy doesn't know is that a) Reece is almost 15 months old, and b) I have never EVER pushed Reece in the jogging stroller while running. Way too much work and my hat's off to women who do it.
  
• In the end, it was an amazing experience to train for, and run, this marathon (and I can now say that honestly because it's DONE!). I learned so much about how strong I can be and how to push myself beyond my limits, again and again. So if you're thinking, "Maybe I should run a marathon?" You're crazy. If you're thinking, "I should do a 10k, or go hiking in the mountains, or learn how to unicycle," then maybe you're less crazy and you should do it. I don't think I will unicycle any time soon. I have no hand/eye/butt coordination. This is turning out to be much less inspiring than I hoped. So maybe I'm not a very inspirational person, but you know who is? That guy who ran 27 marathons. Think about him and then go do something cool.
  

Kinda sad that even at the beginning of the race I don't look like I'm running (see above picture). It's the new trend in marathon running: don't actually run.

The buffet afterward (the only real reason we run, right?). The girl behind me helped push me through miles 21-23. Then she took off and beat me by several minutes. Dang.

My feet look nasty. They were so dirty and I didn't trip, nor did I run through any puddles. Just running on dirt.



First video is me running at mile 24. Like I said, the new trend is not actually running. I am sooooo slow.


Crossing the finish line. Yahoo!


Running necessity.

Barney addict

I never thought I would be the mom of a Barney addict. After confessing this to some siblings my brother Bryce reminded me that I am still in control of what he watches on TV. So I thought I could contain it. Suppress it at least. But there are some forces more powerful than a mother's intentions. You really can't stop the Barney train.

I love in this video how you can feel Reece's intensity. His little hands shake with excitement. Usually he dances along with the music and has a slightly more maniacal laugh. You can tell every time Barney comes on the screen, as the squealing increases. Hilarious.




And this one would have been a great sampling of his latest tricks, but he got too distracted watching himself on camera.