France!!!

Daniel and I and our dear friends, Monte and Cherie were able to travel to France for 2 weeks in June.  I have a million pictures, stories, and memories I'll always cherish, but here are some highlights:

Looking under an arch at a vista in Provence (probably one of my favorite places we visited!)

A courtyard viewed from a patient's window in the hospital where Vincent Van Gogh was treated for mental illness prior to his death (in Arles).

Lavender growing outside the Hospital in Arles.  This field would have been the view out of the window where Van Gogh lived when he was there.

Hiking around the Pont du Gard Aqueduct

A bridge overlooking Marseille.  We didn't originally plan to visit Marseille, but train strikes forced us to rearrange our plans, so we made the best of it :)

A centuries-old olive tree on Les Collettes, the farm (and the subject of dozens of paintings) in Cagnes Sur Mer where Pierre Auguste Renoir moved before his death. 

Enjoying Cagnes Sur Mer.  This was also the first day we had luggage, after the airline lost our one and only bag for a week! Can you tell I'm really, really glad to not be wearing the same clothes I had traveled in and worn for a week!?

Colorful, yummy radishes at a market in Annecy

"Europe's Cleanest Lake", Annecy.  It was truly the most stunning place I think I've ever visited... The green, granite Alps in the back ground, lush green grass surrounding it, crystal blue water, and dotted with old Swiss-style chapels and homes.  Just truly beautiful.

We took a bike ride around the perimeter of the lake.. about 21k or so.  It was just a perfect day all around!

Then stopped for a picnic of local cheese, bread, and charcuterie!  I dare say there isn't much better!!

A Visit to Gramps and Mimi's

We love to visit California in the wintertime!  It's always sunny, warm, green, and such a nice break from the winter in Denver (which is sometimes sunny, but not warm or green!)

My old, beloved haunt :)

 Enjoying a warm day at the beach flying kites!

 The girls decided to bury Gramps in the sand, but gave up before they got to his knees :)

 Zzzzzzzzzz.....

 Swinging with Cousin Reagan

 Cousin time!!

Bye bye Gramps, Mimi, and Sunny California!

Here's a sweet video of Luke playing ball in the front yard :)

A Visit to Grangran and Papa

At the end of summer we visited Tampa for a week and enjoyed the last chance to play in a pool for a while.  The weather was HOT, but perfect for being in the water!

Attempting to get a good photo of all three kids... hey- at least they're all facing the same direction!

While there, I was reminded exactly how much Luke looks like Daniel... they're basically clones.  This is a photo of little Dan, ca. 1981

Goodbye Summer!

Mohawk Lakes Trail

Playing a bit of catch up here (can you call it that when it's been 10 months since my last blog entry??), anyway, I'll just try to pick up where I left off and hit the highlights from the last several months.

Last fall my great friend Rachel came for a visit and we spend a girls' weekend in Breckenridge.  One of my favorite things we did was to take a hike up the Spruce Creek Trail to the Mohawk Lakes (Rachel and I didn't quite make it due to time -- we had spa appointments to get to... priorities :)).

Only 2 weeks later we were back in Breckenridge with my family and so much snow had piled up that even though we had plenty of time, we could only get within about 300 yards of the illusive Lakes.  Grr.  We tried to push on, but the trail was completely hidden and when we stepped out into a clearing (where we thought the trail was leading) and fell into waist-high snow, decided it was probably best to turn back.

(I was wearing a sling on my arm because I had to have a little minor surgery on my wrist earlier that week)

Oh well, maybe next time!

Baby Bump

I really haven't done much to document this pregnancy on the blog (sorry, Baby #3 :-/ ), but I did get brave enough tonight to have Daniel take a bump picture.  That inspired me to see if there were any others from along the way that I could go ahead and document, but alas, I only found two others!


Anyway, here is 18 weeks in a photo that was taken for work:

Here's 24 weeks (in Hawaii at Queen's Bath one afternoon):

And tonight, at 36 weeks:

Won't be long now :) :) :)

Fox Family Vacation - Part IV: Boone, NC

After a great week of camping, we drove south back toward North Carolina to Boone. We love visiting Boone and Blowing Rock-- especially in the summer when it's still cool and humidity-free up there!

Our friends Don, Holly, and Calli recently built a mountain home and moved there permanently, so we were excited to get to spend the weekend with them and catch up (and also sleep in a real bed!)

Their home and property is so beautiful and tranquil! We had the best time! Calli was so sweet to play with the girls and they just loved reading all of the books and playing with the toys Holly had saved from when Calli and her brother, Dylan, were kids.

We took a beautiful hike around their property and saw butterflies, wild blackberries, cows, horses, and all kinds of incredible vistas.

Swinging on the front porch with Holly and Calli

One afternoon I was looking out the window at the beauty around us and Ellie said, "Mom- this is a really pretty neighborhood!" Ha! Yes, and the 'neighbors' are cows, so they don't cause much trouble :)

Completely worn out after a wonderful week of vacationing!

Fox Family Vacation - Part III: Camping at Grayson Highlands

After our visit to Polyface, we drove southwest to Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. What a beautiful place! The drive through the Shenandoah Valley was gorgeous and the campground was perfect for our style of camping (read: they had warm showers in the bathrooms!)

We got our camp all set up and basically just enjoyed not having anywhere to be! Simple vacations are so nice sometimes :) The girls had stocked up on library books, so we did a lot of reading, napping, nature walking, eating campfire food, and just enjoying each other's company.

At the front of the campground there was a little swing set to which we made multiple trips for some afternoon playtime.

Of course, Ellie found the stage (I think she can sense if there is a stage within a 10-mile radius!), and as she is wont to do, put on a show for us. Campbell, as usual, got roped in to play the supporting role(s). Actually, one evening a couple of Americorps volunteers came a presented a show on the heritage music from the region. It was quite interesting and the girls enjoyed all the fiddle-playing.

Rosie Posie came along and for the most part she behaved herself. We joked that maybe we should just leave her up there... she was exhausted most of the time from all the sniffing and hiking. In fact, nearly every night before dinner, she would be sacked out on the entrance to the tent. Now, you'll notice I said, for the most part she behaved herself... She wouldn't be Rosie if she hadn't gotten into some trouble...

... As soon as we arrived, she bounded out of the car and disappeared into the woods. We called and whistled for her, but she didn't come back until we were already unloading things. As she trotted toward us, we recoiled in horror because she had apparently rolled in something dead. She smelled horrible! So, after only a few minutes in the park, I was elected to drag her to the laundry sink and wash the dead varmint smell off of her.

On Day 2, I cooked some of the bacon which we had bought at Polyface the day before and there was a ton of grease in the pan, so I poured it out in a little bed of rocks that was nearby. Rosie then proceeded to (unbeknownst to me, since I was still busily cooking breakfast) move the rocks from their place and roll her entire head around in the bacon grease. Needless to say, bacon grease doesn't wash out with water, so Rosie had the look of freshly slicked back hair for the rest of the week. At the end of the week, we took her to a boarding kennel while we visited our friends in Blowing Rock, and Daniel said she was going to have some serious street cred among the other dogs what with her smell cornucopia of: woods/campfire, dead varmint, and bacon.

Cooking my Polyface chicken on a make-shift spit.... it actually turned out really great! I had packed plenty of butter and a dried mix of herbs de Provence in anticipation of preparing it. Plus, food always seems to taste better when cooked over a campfire!

[lookin good]

The weather was wonderful for almost the entire week. We did have a big rain storm on our second-to-last night (thankfully everything stayed totally dry thanks to Daniel's high tech tarp-cover over our tent!). Unfortunately there was rain in the forecast for the entire next day (which was to be our last), so after we tired of reading books in the tent, we decided to pack up a few hours earlier than originally planned. The kids were bummed at first, but we got a hotel in town that had a pool, so they got over it pretty quickly!

One of the reasons we picked Grayson Highlands is because there are supposedly herds of wild ponies that roam the country side. We unfortunately didn't get to see any! Mostly this was because in order to get to the plains where the ponies like to frolic, you have to hike at least 2.5 'adventurous' miles. The girls just weren't able to to do it and carrying them wasn't an option with all the climbing. The Park had some awesome trails, but most of them (including a section of the Appalachian Trail) were too long or strenuous for 2 and 4 year olds. Next time, I'll do better research on the ability levels so we're not relegated to a 1/2 mile loop around the campground :)

The last stop on our vacation: Boone, NC to visit some great friends!