Boats!

It's August.  It's hot.  We are going super stir crazy.  And the sky looks very ominous and gray.  Chris suggests Kemah.  I confess, it's not what I had in mind... It's not really my favorite place.  And I really didn't want to drive all the way down there and have it rain on us.  But I went along with it, and I'm SO glad I did.

Genius.  Pure. Genius.  Oliver LOVED it!  The lighthouse:

The ocean:

The far-away boats:

And the close-up ones:

We had chips and queso and drinks at Cadillac Bar and watched the boats go by, then we played on the playground.  I'm telling you, pure genius.  The roller coaster was a little scary, but he talked about it (with fascination) for weeks afterwards (go figure!):

How did my baby get so big?!?!?!

Everything's Better with Daddy

As you've seen, we've been to the zoo a few times.  Now that we live less than 10 minutes from there, it's one of our favorite places.  But when Daddy came with us, that was the real deal.

Daddy and Oli played with the monkeys:


And as monkeys:

They viewed the rhinos:

And went off to the splash pad while Mommy fed Elliot (hence the change of clothes):

Most importantly, we visited the giraffes, Oliver's favorite:

And, just because they're darling, "Mommy G'raffe, Daddy G'raffe, and Baby G'raffe"

Love love love these boys:

4th of July, 2012

Oliver AND Elliot's first July 4th to celebrate in the US.  Though an American citizen, poor Oliver cannot be President and spent his first two 4th of July's out of the country.  This one, though, was fun for a lot of other reasons, too.  Momma Joy and Pop (who had come while we were in Paris to stay with Oliver) were still there, and my family came over for dinner, too.  We then all walked from our new house to Rice University to watch the fireworks.

Oliver was READY for the parade (as he called it - i.e. getting to walk with a flag):

Elliot wasn't quite as ready, though he at least was dressed for the occasion:

Once there, we had to wait FOREVER for the fireworks.  In fact, excuse me while I remind myself: The fireworks at Hermann Park do not start until nearly 11 o'clock. DON'T FORGET.  Anyway, we managed to amuse ourselves looking at stars:

Wrestling:

And playing with grandparents:

It doesn't get much better, does it?

Until the "firetruck works" (as Oliver called them for weeks later) went off.... "Too loud, mommy!"  Oh well, the walk was fun.  Maybe next year won't be quite as traumatic.

Rain Rain, Go Away...

Our 36 hours in Geneva were kind of a bust, other than getting to see some friends for brunch.  It rained the entire time, and since we were only there on Sunday, lots of things were closed.  Plus, it was WAY more expensive than I expected!  Oh well, so fun to see something new and be with Chris and Elliot.

We wandered the Old Town:

Noticed some familiar names:

Visited the cathedral:



Admired the dragon:

And pondered the Reformation's slogan: "Out of the darkness, light."

The exterior was a little difficult to photograph because you can't really back up very far due to the buildings around it:

But we generally enjoyed wandering the town despite the rain:

The park was really cool:

And the reformation wall was hard to miss:

Geneva was actually a very clean, modern city filled with beautiful old architecture.

I just wish we'd had better weather:

The lake was still impressive with the Jet D'eau in the center:
And the Swiss are still proud of their clocks:

We also attended a jazz concert that, again, would have been awesome except for the weather.

Can't say that it was my favorite, but brunch with Gina and Serge was great, and any excuse to see beautiful old buildings makes me happy. :)  Besides, after 10 days away from Oliver (and I'd never been away more than ~24 hours before that), I was pretty ready to get home.

Home Again

Do I really have the right to call Paris "home" after a mere 2-year stay?  Probably not... but I'm gonna do it anyway. :)  That's the new me.  Recklessly abandoned.  Or something like that.  I guess all those fabulous fan responses I received went to my head a little.

No really, thank you all for the encouragement.  I especially like the email I received from HT just this afternoon that read, "I just wanted to remind you that you said you would keep blogging if we said we read but you haven't yet :)"  Ha.  So you caught me.  Better late than never, though, right?

Anyway, back to Paris.  At the end of June, we had the fabulous opportunity to revisit that gorgeous, magical place.  Even better, we were able to see so many sweet friends whom we've missed TERRIBLY.  We were incredibly blessed to be able to stay at a friend's apartment (the only downside was that we didn't get to see her while we were there!). Though a different part of town from where we used to live, the apartment was a mere three minute walk to the river with this view of Notre Dame:

Does it get any better?!?!  Our sweet baby quickly learned what cold weather was (and finally got to wear something Oliver used to wear... they may be about the same season, but Paris and Houston have VERY different climates!):

He was an angel, by the way.  Continued to sleep through the night for the whole trip (only 3 months old at the time) and even slept for five hours on the floor of the airplane (since we didn't get the bassinet).  Incredible.  Anyway, our visit began with a rainy, cold picnic in Champs de Mars.  Though the weather left something to be desired, the company certainly did not.

So good to see my sweet friends!


Love this pic:

We spent the following evening at the Meiers, where Elliot camped out just as Oliver used to do:

Ah memories!

Man I miss these people!

The following evening we spent at the Philbricks, where Elliot and Matthew (only a couple weeks older) became fast friends:

Elliot really was amazing.  We came home most nights late (like close to midnight).  He stayed happy, went to sleep, and slept until 9ish.  Wow.


We did devote one evening to Notre Dame, Pita Grec, and this park.  Love love love.


And even enjoyed a view of the (finally!) refurbished Conciergerie sans scaffolding.  Very very cool.

I was so blessed to see my Bible study girls on Wednesday night.  Miss you all!

Also enjoyed an evening at the LePrinces' (I'm telling you, eating night after night with friends Parisian style... heaven):


We even got to celebrate Louis' first birthday:



Elliot, meanwhile, napped in the bathtub.  For the second time that week.  Awesome:

We really did have a fabulous time. Chris was able to spend good quality time with Elliot (something that has been hard because Oliver usually demands Daddy's attention when we're all together).

On our last day, we visited our old neighborhood:


Ate at our favorite boulangerie:

Even visited our market and talked to my old friends.  My heart hurts.  Someday...?  That afternoon, we tried to make our friends wedding.  Check out this church:


Unfortunately, the wedding was delayed (massive traffic jam holding up the groom's family... welcome to Paris), so we had to leave.  We did, though, get to give hugs to the bride and groom and tell them congratulations... then ran to catch our train to Geneva.  Only regret: the trip wasn't longer!