Californian Cousins

The Californian cousins have arrived! It's party time!

Pool party:

Cottage party:

And party at home:

Happy Birthday Will

It looks like Will needs some fattening up, so we made a chocolate cake iced with Nutella. The elders liked it!

We hope you had a great day!

See you soon !!

Swimming Lessons

This past week, Julia, Kelden and Zack had swimming lessons. We wanted them to have some time to practice in Grandpa's pool first and it worked well because it finally clicked in for Zack. He can swim! (At least he's starting to).

Kelden and Julia also did well, each reached a new level. Julia has to practice diving for the next level.

This is Kelden's back crawl:

And this is Julia's mermaid swim (notice how her feet are "attached" with a ring)

Let's keep practicing !

Vive la France

I wasn't going to do another post today, especially since I already posted la Marseillaise not too long ago, but Kelden insisted. He couldn't go to bed and wake up on July 15th without having taken the traditional picture and song video (I guess crêpes weren't enough to celebrate Bastille Day!). After seeing what happened in Nice, I thought: "Ok, let's do this. We're proud we're French, even if it can be risky nowadays."

They know "O Canada" better..not enough soccer game watching..

Why did they do crazy faces for a silly picture; they already had their shirts backwards?!

Oldies

While at my parents' I went through the old slides and had Keld scan some of them (mainly the ones with me on it). Since I'm into slideshows right now, here's another one.

More Paris

After the Eiffel Tower, we went to Notre Dame via City Hall. Keld was a little bit jealous of their workplace.

The kids fell in love with the cathedral. Or maybe they just fell.

We ate in the parc behind.

And then, more subway.

The subway is not my favorite part, but I have to admit that it's a lot cleaner with the non-smoking rule. I was able to appreciate more the history it can teach (like in that last picture, Julia is sitting at the limit of the old prison Bastille. On the other side there were actual bricks and everything). We passed through the Louvre station and Caroline told us to look. I now think we should have stopped and that would have been our museum visit!

The next day, we went to Sacré Coeur. We took the funicular so Keld could make it :)

We ate at a famous bakery (best Paris' baguettes 2012).

We then went back to Notre Dame via the famous bookstores of St Michel and walked a bit along the quays.

 Here, the kids are each pretending to be a monument. Kelden, Sacré Coeur, Julia, Notre Dame and Zack, la Tour Eiffel. In fact, Zack is being the Eiffel Tower on almost every picture (yes, that's what he's doing on the very first picture).

The Eiffel Tower

Since we said we were flying through Paris, Kelden has wanted to go and see the Aweful Tower. His dream finally came true.

As you can see, we took the stairs (cheaper and less of a line-up).

Keld stopped at the first floor. Everyone else made it to the second.

To get to the third level you have to take the elevator. I was worried I would get sick. There was a line-up too. But Kelden really wanted to go, so Caroline brought him up. Thank you!

The view is different from up there, but I would feel too dizzy. I don't think I ever reached the third floor. Last time I remember going up the tower was almost 30 years ago.

Not sure I'll make it in 30 years...

Paris

After Disneyland, we went in Paris with my cousin Baptiste and his girlfriend Caroline. She's from Créteil and is a lot more used to Paris than any of us. We met them under the Arc de Triomphe. They had just come back from their vacation in England (camping style, hence my cousin's beard).

The Arc de Triomphe is at one end of the avenue des Champs Elysées, the Obélisque and the (relatively new) wheel are at the other end.

We didn't go down the whole avenue but we walk for a little bit, with a pause at Mc Donald's.

There are a lot of shops but Keld was only interested in cars.

The boys stopped at Star Wars.

 We then took the subway to go see the Eiffel Tower. I have enough photos of that to do another post later.

Disneyland Paris

My friend Erika and her family came to see us while we were in Paris and decided to take advantage of our Disney expertise for a couple of days. Unfortunately, like last time they traveled to see us, they had some car problems. They almost didn't make it (their vehicles mut be allergic to us) but, after being towed, calling the insurance, seeing the mechanic, they decided to keep going and they found us in the park around lunch time.

We had already gone on a few rides, of course. My sister tried to convince the kids to follow her. They were too scared to go on the car (can you spot her?) so we went on the dog instead. However, they later decided to try the parachutes.

We were a little disappointed by what was supposed to be a special Frozen Fever. The parade was a bit too simple. At least you got to see Elsa and Anna, I guess.

I had prepared a slideshow but it is too big. I might put it on Facebook.