All Things Pink

With two little girls in the house most of our play revolves around princesses, baby dolls and almost anything pink! Justin is a great sport :).

Kitchen Play

Anna thinks she is hot stuff standing up!

Imported Goods

A serious taste of home! Jaclyn, you are the best!!

Cuteness

 "Thanks Great Grandma & Grandpa Gerlach for my cute outfit!"

 Tea time with Daddy while Mommy is at school.

I know I'm biased, but I think these girls are pretty cute!

Firsts

 At 10 1/2 months Anna has her first tooth (though it is hard to see!)

 Gracie is potty trained . . . and enjoying a "parfait" from Daddy as a reward!

And Anna loves to ride this new toy from Mimi & Pa!

A Day in the Life of Anna

This is what Anna is up to these days...following us around and discovering her world with her new mobility!

A Beautiful Day For The Park!

We had the most beautiful weather this weekend! It felt so good to spend time outside in the sunshine. We took a walk to a park and loved every minute of it!

 Yes, we are spoiled by such an amazing view!

A sweet little girl came and grabbed Gracie's hand to have her come play. And Gracie actually went with her! In the past Gracie just wants to watch the French-speaking kids play. She knows she can't communicate with them. Her little mind is processing so much right now.

I love these pictures because they show EXACTLY how their play time unfolded. Not a lot of interaction (or eye contact!), but hey it is progress!

And this is what our elevator ride looks like with our stroller. What you can't see is that our stroller takes up the whole elevator. It's tight, but we are so glad that it fits! We have seen a few double strollers here, but none that are side-by-side! We get lots of comments about our stroller when we are out.

Justin found some guys playing bagpipes in the park yesterday!

Current Favorites

Gracie's favorite book: Fancy Nancy (what you hear in the background of the video)
Anna's favorite word: dadadada
Anna's favorite activity: crawling

Riding to School

Our language school moved over the Christmas break, so now it's about a 15 minute bike ride one-way. Here are some pictures to help you visualize it a little better!

Our apartment building has a bike closet on the ground floor where tennants can keep their bikes. This makes it much easier than having to get the bike upstairs to our apartment!

 We rented this bike from the "Velostation" in town. All the bike rentals are this color of blue, so you know when you're with other students, as they tend to have these bikes too. Though probably not fashionable, they're very functional!

 The bike has a U-lock that mounts to the front wheel fork when you're not using it. Very convenient.

 The rear wheel has a lock, and the lock must be engaged to get the key out. When you ride around with the lock unlocked, the key stays in the lock. Makes losing the key difficult.

 This is a bike lane on one of the streets we ride on. Many streets have these dedicated bike lanes, and there are also numerous bike trails around too. But drivers here are used to bikes riding with traffic too.

 Here is a little bike signal at a stop light.

 This is a dedicated bike trail we ride on. Our bike has a little bell that we ring if people are walking and we need to pass them.

 We cross this street, then the bridge and we're out our school.

 It's a very modern looking building, very much different from the Chateau where the school used to be.

Another view of the bike!

Sister Love

Dress Up

Gracie got a dress up box for Christmas from her Aunt Jackie. We are having lots of fun playing princess these days!

Three Kings Day

This past week we celebrated Three Kings Day here in France. There is a traditional cake that most people here eat for Three Kings Day. A small toy is hidden somewhere in the cake. Whoever gets the piece with the toy gets to wear the crown! Gracie got the toy in our cake.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's House

On New Year's Day we took a walk to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house, a famous French philosopher and botanist from the 18th Century who lived in Chambery.

 Gracie and Aunt Jackie by the entrance to the drive way.

 The grounds were beautiful and we look forward to seeing them in the spring!

 The view of Chambéry

 Gracie enjoyed running around!

Gracie's favorite part of the walk



Hike to the Chateau de la Bathie

I (Justin) have been wanting to go up to a Chateau I've seen up on a mountainside. I finally got my chance.

We took the bus to the base of the hillside, then started on foot. Here's the view of Chambery.

The Chateau de la Bathie, which apparently is a castle from the 15th Century.

This narrow road is surprisingly heavily travelled!

The front gate. Unfortunately, it is not open to visitors.

Jamie (and her dad and sister) were good sports and hiked up too.

The cover of the bus map features this chateau, which is why I've wanted to go see it. This is where the picture was taken from for the cover.