Signs of the Times

Today Lainey was playing pretend. She came out of her room dangling car keys (pretend Minnie Mouse ones) and said to me "I'll see you later". She walks into the living room and begins tapping her hand and touching her ear. I hear her say "goodbye". Then she walks by me again back into her room and as she passes me she says " I just sent my best friend an email on my iPhone".

4 -year-olds. Do they have an app for that?

Lainey Rides a 2-Wheeler!

Of our 2 kids, Lainey has always been the more athletically "gifted". Aidan is quite athletic now, but it took him a while to shed his baby chub and get coordinated. Lainey has always been a lightweight which I think helps her be more in control of her body. When she rolled over on the exam table at her one-month appointment, my pediatrician said "uh-oh, that one's going to be a mover and shaker. She'll keep you busy with sports and the emergency room!". Sure enough, we've done the ER thing a few times already and she's quite capable of all physical activities! Ballet, yep. Tennis, not bad. Gymnastics and yoga, very flexible. Swimming, easy peasy lemon squeezy as she'd tell you.

So I figured it was time to get on 2 wheels! Aidan only learned last summer, just after his 6th birthday, but here's our little 4 1/2 year old ready to roll! Granted, her bike is smaller than Aidan's, so that helped, but from the get-go she had the skill down. She could balance and roll without pedaling from the start. I only had to tell her once where to out her feet to start and she remembered. After just a few times of me holding on to her (and of course the prize of an ice-cream if she figured it out!) she got it! She can't start on her own yet, and doesn't go far (but that's just because she stops pedalling) but she's got the hang of it!!

I love this red top area at school. I taught Aidan here last year too. Very flat, big, enclosed and softish surface. The perfect place to learn!

We kissed those training wheels buh-bye!!

Last Day of Skiing

All season long, I've wanted to ski at Davos or Klosters. We had booked a night there, but had to cancel it due to the darn G8 summit. Skiing with all those politicians would have been a drag. Then we tried to go for a day a few weeks ago and the weather was crap. Finally, finally, finally on the last official weekend of the ski season, we made it!
We just went up for the day. We arrived in time for lunch at the top of Jakobshorn. I can see how this is a happening spot in high season. The British royals are known to ski here, but we didn't have any royal spottings. We did however find a cool place to eat lunch outside at 10,000ft! Aidan enjoyed the "entertainment" of hammering a nail into a big log. Huh? Not what you usually find to keep kids entertained at restaurants, but oh well. We supervised closely and all was good.

We ate our brats and ribs next to a breathtaking view. It was so bright up there, Lainey wore her ski goggles to eat in!

If one was without children, you could lounge about on beach chairs amongst palm trees in the restaurant-bar area.

We settled for a beer overlooking this area.

If you really wanted an experience, you could even sit in a hot tub up there!

After a successful weekend at Murren, we thought we'd all be able to handle the blue run. Jason, Aidan, and I were OK, but I think we should have let Lainey get her confidence back on the nursery slopes first. She was a disaster. But, we HAD to ski down, there was no other way down. I kept her with me, but she was tired and acting all of the "madame" she did for Addie in Murren. Whining, asking to be carried, etc. I think she was a bit tired, and a bit scared, but a lot just not into it. I may even use the word lazy at times. Anyway, it took us over an hour to get down a not-so-difficult blue, that I know she could have done a few weeks ago. Talk about a test of parenting patience. About 30 feet from the bottom, she refused to go anymore, so I took her skis off and made her walk down. Grr...she can be stubborn. I wonder where she gets it from?

By that time, Jason and Aidan had been waiting a long time and Aidan still wanted to ski. Jason took Lainey to the car where she promptly passed out and Aidan and I decided to ski all the way back into town. a 10,000 foot descent! I was exhausted from dealing with "madame", but he and I did it anyway. It was great until about the last 1000 feet where the snow had all but melted and the path was pretty flat. Parts of it was like cross country skiing on grass. Tough work. But we made it!

1/2 way down to Davos

Provence...in Detail: Our Home away from Home

We rented a great villa just south of Aix in Fuveau. We had plenty of room for both families, and finally on Friday, the weather cooperated enough to just stay at "home" and let the kids play in a fabulous yard. The kids were outside all day, playing soccer, climbing the tree house, swinging, and collecting garden stuff to make potions. They were covered in mud and grass stains by dinner time!

We parents also enjoyed the sunny day by having lunch with a nice Rosé on the patio and Megan and I did some shopping in Aix sans husbands and kids! The wild children, still for the first (and last) time!

Lainey on the swing

Backyard view

Cheers! It's lunch time!

Lainey and the treehouse

Late that night, we busted out the Pastis, the local drink of choice. Locals drink this stuff morning, noon, and night. They water it down to their tastes and preffered strength. It was FOUL! It tasted like black licorice gasoline. There is not enough water in the world to water it down enough to the point any one of us would drink a glass of it. Crazy Provençals! We will definitely pass on this treat and stick with your 4 Euro bottles of Cotes du Rhone wine!

Provence...in Detail: The Pretty Village Tour

After seeing lots of cities and Roman ruins, we wanted to see the Provence of books and movies. So, we followed a driving tour of the "pretty villages" that we found in a guide book. This drive took us through Bonnieux (where A Good Year with Russell Crowe was filmed), Menerbes (where the author of A Year in Provence lived), Gordes (an amazing tiered stone city), and L'Isle Sur La Sorgue (a city known for antiques). And, FINALLY, we found all the vineyards and tasting rooms we'd expected in France!
A (good) day in Provence for sure! A vineyard and tasting room. Kids played outside while moms and dads tasted a bit, and bought a lot!

I'm pretty sure this is the restaurant in the movie A Good Year. Very picturesque.

Can't remember now if this is Menerbes or Bonnieux

Menerbes-Life is Beautiful!

The town of Gordes is built into this rocky mountain. Very cool.

In L'Isle Sur La Sorgue. No antiques, but I did buy a beautiful blanket for Lainey!

Gelato along the river while Mommy shopped.

Provence...in Detail: Arles

Garden where Van Gogh painted

Roman Arena

Roman theatre

More arena pics

Not much to say about Arles. It was kind of a let down. The ancient Roman Theatre and Arena were cool, but I wish we could have seen bullfight. I agree with Van Gogh who painted there for a while. He said something along the lines of "Arles is underwhelming, but enough coffee and wine maks one able to paint here". I kind of think I'm over old Roman towns.

Provence...in Detail: Cassis and Marseille

We spent a warmish day in Cassis, a lovely town on the Mediterranean Sea between Marseille and Cannes. The sun was shining in the promised Provençal style and we even were able to take a boat ride! Here we are in the town and on the rocky beach. It didn't matter that it was too cold to swim. Everyone still at least stuck their toes in and played on the beach.

We took a 45 minute boat ride to the calanques, which are gorgeous coves. The ride would have been fantastic if it were 20 degrees warmer and less windy. The kids all really loved it, in spite of the weather!

Here I am before turning as green as my shirt. The boys however, declared it to be "the best boat ride EVER!"

Our friends, the O'Briens, and the rest of my family enjoyed the ride. Only I got a bit seasick. Typical.

We left Cassis mid-day and took a scenic drive well above the sea along some rocky cliffs. We had amazing views of the sea and surroundings. As soon as I can get pics up on Facebook, this one will be my new profile pic!

We headed into Marseille for dinner. I was on the hunt for boulliabaise but didn't want to pay top dollar. We visited little North Africa where I bought my tagine and then we ended up here for dinner.

Not exactly what I envisioned when I dreamed of Provence. Oh well, Lainey sure loved the ribs!

Provence...in Detail: Aix-en-Provence

Aix was more of a big city than we thought. It reminded us of Paris, but miniature. Lots of shopping and cafe culture. We wandered all through town, took a little train ride (my kids find these EVERYWHERE), and most importantly I found a Gap! I stocked up a bit on my favorites, but still the prices there when compared to the US makes me ill. I so cannot wait to shop this summer in the US!!! I will personally do what I can for Michigan's economy. But, I digress...

Aix is known for it's hundreds of fountains and for being the home of Paul Cezanne. He painted hundreds of pieces here and of Mount St. Victoire in the distance. One of the many fountains of Aix.

On the Cours Mirabeau, said to be one of the most beautiful shopping streets in the world. I can only imagine how beautiful it is when these trees are in bloom and form a canopy over the street.

The largest fountain in Aix at the entrance to the Cours Mirabeau

We left Aix to see what else was around, but unfortunately the areas surrounding Aix were just commercial areas and highways. The kids wanted ice cream because they'd gone at least 1/2 a day without treats of some kind, so Jason found a fast food place that had milkshakes. We figured we could manage ordering milkshakes in French since on the menu it said "milkshake" and all we had to say was how many and the flavor. Jason ordered "duex vanille milkshakes, un fraise milkshake, and un banane milkshake". I thought he did fine, but apparently the workers couldn't understand. He repeated himself at least four times, each time getting louder, but with a worse accent. Finally, the one worker calls another one over who tries to understand him, again with no luck. Then the guy says, "You speak English?" and Jason accidentally answers "Ja" (German for yes) just to confuse things even more! I was crying laughing and we couldn't stop laughing long enough to even order in English. Finally, we calmed down and got our 1€ milkshakes. At least it was a bargain!

The other excitement that night was the kids helping Jason build a fire. It was like they were scouts earning their firemaking badge. For the rest of the week, when we needed them out of our hair, we sent them to the backyard to collect sticks and pine needles. They were thrilled.

Provence...in Detail: Easter Sunday

We made it into the Aix area where our villa was on Saturday afternoon. After meeting up with our friends, checking out the villa, and a bit of grocery shopping, we put the kids to bed and began planning our week over the first of our many, many, many bottles of wine. Our first morning, was Easter so of course the kids were super excited to see if the Bunny found them and what he left for them. The crazy Bunny hid eggs inside and out, even though it was raining early in the morning. The kids rushed outside in raincoats to hunt for goodies when it was barely dawn!

I'm not sure if the Bunny or the kids left this trail of eggs...

A sampling of the 4 overflowing baskets left:

Lainey and Lucy didn't find as many eggs as the boys. Being younger and having wild-child hair makes it hard to keep up. But, luckily the boys were willing to share (after only a few hints from the parents)

Aidan sliding in to score an egg:

Happy and high on sugar!

Once all the Easter Bunny hoopla was done, we decided to see what sights were open. We went into Castoullet where the Lavander Museum is. There was also a really nice market going on. In Switzerland, the whole country shuts down on any given Sunday, but in France most things were open even on Easter!

In a few months this field will turn from green to amazing purple as the lavender blooms. Too bad for us...

While in Coustellet, we decided to have lunch at a cute little restaurant. We couldn't translate the menu completely, but we figured out that one of the menu items was rack of lamb. The other, we weren't sure about so we asked. We knew it was stuffed something, but didn't know what. The man said poisson which is fish. So I asked, blanc poisson? meaning "white fish?" He nods and says oui. So each couple ordered one of each meal, since stuffed white fish is usually really yummy. Not so much when the white fish is SQUID!!! I swear it stunk and looked like a condom stuffed with God only knows what. But, men being men, took one for the team and let the ladies eat the lamb. Jason and Damian ate most of the squid, but I don't know how. Even typing about it a week later makes me a bit nauseous. They managed to keep down the squid and we set off for St. Remy.

St. Remy was one of my favorite towns. Cute old town area, great shopping, beautiful architecture, and a carousel for the kiddos.

Look closely at all the teddy bears on the window ledges!

Lainey on her favorite ride anywhere!

After a bit of shopping and gelato for kids, our friends headed back to the villa, but we crazy American tourists kept going. We headed for Les Baux, which is a beautiful maintained ancient walled village. We drove up a windy road and stopped for a picture of the city up on the hill.

It was hard to get pics inside the walled town because the walkways were so small, and set up in a tiered fashion. We enjoyed walking around, and wished we had more time to visit the actual castle and watch a joust or something cool like that.