Farewell, summer!

I've been waiting to be able to post "before" and "after" pictures of our big accomplishment of the summer of 2011 -- a major house remodel including all new floors, kitchen, and back patio. However, we are still waiting on a big design element, the backsplash tiles, so it will be a couple of weeks yet. So that will have to wait, but let me tell you... it turned out great and we are thrilled. Almost finished on time, on budget, and it looks amazing!

So, a quick update -- it was a HOT HOT summer in Texas, with almost 100 days of over 100 degrees, starting a month earlier than usual. This limited our ability to go outside SEVERELY -- e.g. it would have to be before essentially 8AM or in the water. We spent the summer in Dallas at Nani and Nani's house, for the most part, while work was done on our house, which did mean we had pool access. So, during the course of the summer, Rosemary got very close to being able to swim without a floatie. And Louis is certainly NOT scared of water -- at one point he walked into the pool, without skipping a step, and sunk straight to the bottom. Thank god for our sanity that Rosemary is a big rule-follower, and Louis didn't figure out the sliding glass doors to the backyard. In general, it was tough to be away from home for so long and we are particularly appreciative of having some structure back in our lives now that we are back in Austin with school for kids and for us, work, friends and other activities! But, of course, the kids loved being with their grandparents and seem to have a special affinity for Mamo who was at the house too for two weeks (while recovering from 2 broken ankles).

We met Julie's boyfriend David the week after we moved to Dallas. Rosemary and Louis stayed with Nani and Nana for a couple of days while James and I madly tried to finish packing up the house and moving out! I can't believe how many times we've moved -- although this one was relatively easy as we just had to move everything into the office.

The big highlight of the summer of 2011, other than the house remodel, was a two-week family trip to France! The occassion was a great one -- the marriage celebration of two of the best people we know, Becky Finkel and Murray Walker. We were pretty nervous about the flight and traveling for so long and so far with the kids but, I must say, it was an unconditional success. The kids were in heaven the whole trip (except the car parts -- we did put almost 1,000 miles on our rental car!) -- I honestly didn't think they would care that much if we happened to be in France, but I was wrong. I thought Rosemary's mind would explode the first few days in Strasbourg.

Of course... check out where we were... Below are pictures of the villa in the Cevennes mountains in the south of France where 20 of us stayed, courtesy of Becky & Murray. There were 7 children (most under the age of 5) and 13 adults, and, as you can see, it was an incredible setting. We spent our time eating, cooking, exploring the tiny villages nearby, hiking, swimming in rivers, and generally enjoying each others' company.




Rosemary was VERY taken with Henry, whom she had not seen since awe were in Chicago a year ago!
We spent the first few days of our trip in Strasbourg where Aunt Mo visited from Freiburg. The kids were SO happy to see her again, particularly Rosemary -- it was very cute. Rosemary stayed up during her nap furiously finishing a mosaic of a bird for Maureen to take back to Germany with her. We also all stayed up until 10pm every night because it was so light out! It was a very relaxed few days of wandering around the gorgeous city, eating sausage, going on the amazing turn-of-the-century carousel, etc.

Louis's first carousel ride (now he is hooked!)


We spent three really special days in St. Remy with my host parents, Patrick and Chantal. I hadn't seen them since 1997, when I spent the summer in Aix-en-Provence, and, the time before that, in 1993-4 when I lived with them for 9 months. They hadn't really changed -- they are retired but still very active, and they are close with Estelle, my host sister, who lives one town over with her partner Fred and cute son, Gabin (who is almost the same age as Louis). James was so nervous (as was I!) about going there, since they speak hardly any English and he speaks no French, but he was amazing -- very willing to try to learn a few words, very appreciative of how nice the Ghizzos are. Going back to St. Remy, I realized how much knowing them had positively affected my life.













The day before we left, Patrick and Chantal met us in Marseilles for dinner since they were on vacation in Aix-en-Provence.


In August, we spend a relaxing 10 days in Chicago where weather was unseasonably REASONABLE -- in the high 70s and mid 80s. It felt like heaven to go outside, and we spent all our time hanging out in the backyard in the kiddie pool, at the Park Ridge kiddie splash pool, at James's old elementary school playground, and even the BEACH at Lake Michigan! It was Louis's first trip to the beach... except maybe a day or two when he was less than four months old in LA... and he loved the giant sandbox. It even inspired us to get him a sandbox -- or rather, for James to build him a sandbox (which he completed just this past weekend). The kids and I rode the train from downtown Park Ridge to the city one afternoon for fun (which ended up being a little stressful for me, but they loved it) and got to sit on the second story of the train, we visited a lot of friends, and generally had a great time with Grandpa Dan and Grandma Mary.

This is Nani, exhausted after 2 months of babies living at her house! As Rosemary said when the grandfather clock struck 1PM one day, "It's drink time!" Thank god for that!