Christmas Vacation

 How did over 2 months go by since my last entry.  Didn't even see the last 2 months go by actually.  We had a really nice Christmas -- Christmas Eve was at our house with my parent-in-laws.  We went to late mass -- it was a beautiful and lively service, which was a nice change -- lots of singing and music.  Christmas day was at my brother-in-law's new house.  Unfortunately for their first Christmas, the twins got nasty colds and we pretty miserable -- poor guys :(  Fun, food and family basically sums up the day.  I sneaked back home to try calling and skyping.  Unfortuanetly I couldn't get any lines out to England, but I did catch a lot of my family on skype and it was fun seeing everyone.

The next morning w left early to head to the Pyrennees mountains in the south of France.  I was a 5 hour drive -- the girls did well since they have lots of new toys to play with and new dvd's to watch.  We stayed for a week and it was so nice to get away from everything.  The weather was amazing -- lots of sun, not too cold and we actually picnic-ed in the snow almost everyday.  I actually didn't bring my camera with me much, I usually just had my little video camera with me that also takes pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet since I still need to charge the battery.  So we went sledding, visited the little mountain towns, went cross country skiing, checked out the look English pub and Alison, Teddy and I went for a 3 and a half hour snowshoe hike.  We enjoyed the area so much that we book the same little appartement for next year at the same time but only for 5 days we can get back for new year's.  One of my Christmas present was paragliding, which I have always wanted to do.  It was just so amzing gliding over the mountains, seeing the snow capped peaks and the lakes was just undescribable.  Since I do need to get ready for work I will leave you so pictures I just downloaded..

The snowman we made the first day

Leïla loved the snow -- last time we went to the mountains in the winter she was 2 and didn't get to enjoy it much

Sisterly love -- resting up after sledding for hours

And then they went back at it

A beautiful waterfall near the "pont d'espagne" -- the bridge to Spain

A tired Alison after the snowshoe hike

At the summet on our hike

Same

 Catch out the sunburn -- it was so sunny that day and it was really warm

*Sigh*

I swear I do want to update and keep up with my blog but I just haven't had the time -- stick with me -- it will get better this winter and since I have made it through my first year of business made I will slowly figure out how to better organize my professional/personal life 

So here is a quick run down of what has been going on over the last 6 weeks or so.

A quick pictures of our nephewsat wedding I was doing in early Sept.

Sami's 7th birthday

A picture for hubby's grandmother's 85th birthday -- her 6 greatgrand children

 Leïla's very late and quick 4 year old session.  These haven't been properly editted yet

 Such a Leïla look

 We had a great visit from my dad and stepmom -- the weather was perfect the whole time they were here and we all loved having them around.  The girls loved having extra playmates! :)

On my birthday Alison and I went by train to Paris since she was flying back with her grandparents for her first solo trip.  Since I was already in Paris I figured I would try my luck flying stand-by to see my first niece that is already 4.5 months old.  She is just the most precious thing and even though I only stayed three days my bro and sister-law showed me around Toronto and I got to love on their sweet little girl.

They are nut cases!

Flew back to Paris where hubby met me and he planned a "surprise" weekend in Paris for my birthday.

We saw the Eiffle tower all lit up at night and we had an amazing dinner cruise on the seine and saw all the parien monuments lit up.

The next day we did some showing and walked through the Luxumboug gardens and then went to the Musée D'Orsay

And on Sunday before we left we visited the Opera house -- I had never been there but it was so amzing.  If you are ever in Paris it is a "must see"!

 our hotel was in walking distance of the Sacre Coeur.  The weather was perfect the whole time!  We were really lucky since fall here is usually rainy and yucky!

We got back in time to take Sami and Leïlka trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Alison just got back yesterday and is suffering from serious jet lag but she is still trying to get all her homework done for tomorrow.  Next week is only a three day we followed by a long weekend.  We will be going to Carcasonne with a group of friends -- I will have to work some but it should be fun just the same.



Birthday Girls

Updates in pictures!  Wow -- it is already September, where did August go?  and July for that matter!

August is a big birthday month, and it is also the month when a lot of French are on vacation.  So Teddy had 3 weeks off, we were gone for one week and during the other two weeks he was a stay at home dad!  He was surprised that he didn't get as many projects as planned done during those 2 weeks.

So this is where the pictures start :

The Aug b-day girls while were were on vacation near Toulouse

Leïla swipping Sami's sunglasses

Our family portrait for 2010 -- I always do one while we are on vacation -- this was on the hill right behind the house we stayed in!

Aug 16th -- Leïla's 4th b-day!  Opening her present from Grandma and Grandpa

Blowing out her candles while wearing here flamigo dancer costum (you see what we got her in my next post along with a video)

Aug 27th -- Alison's 10th b-day! She just opened her present from Grammy -- and new leotard fro gymnastics

Trying it out

And again!

I did make her cake (bought Leïla's :( -- bad momma!)

Blew out all ten candles!

Sept 2nd -- back to school.

Alison is now in 6th -- junior high already!  The first day there were one 6th graders

Sami and Leïla left for their first day over an hour and a half later.

Leïla's in pre-K and Sami is in 2nd grade

They all had a great first day -- Alison just loves junior high -- she is so happy.  Sami is glad to be back with her friends and Leïla just went on like school never staopped!

I have been working no-stop -- three more hard weeks and then things should slow down.  In less than 10 days will be my businesses 1 year anniversary!  This year has flown by.  If you want to see some of my recent work (mostly weddings) you can go to my business blog http://jillbrochardphoto.blogspot.com/

Vaction Part Two

Hey I kept my word and came back to show some more pictures from our trip. 

So on Wed we went to Toulouse -- "la Ville Rose" -- the Pink City.  I was totally expecting it to be Pink, but it is more red.  The majority of the buildings are made out of brick, which isn't that common in most of France.  I wondered around the city, when to the Cathedrale, and took a boat ride down the Garonne and the canal system that runs through the middle of the city.  We had lunch in a nice little restaurant.  Teddy had cassolet, which it the typical dish from Touslouse.

      

    

Thursday we visited a couple of the small towns and we went to visit a Chateau that was built in 1545.  In the chateau there is a picture withe the Queen mother and Queen Elizabeth with the owners of the chateau, which was pretty cool. 

Wondering out in the countryside

Just to prove that I'm here too!

Thursday we drove down to Spain, but the weather was pretty iffy all day.  It drizzled on and off and it was pretty chilly.  The clounds we low down on the mountains.  But we had time to do some shopping -- got Alison a backpack for school and of coarse various aperatifs to bring back (kinda like dutyfree shopping for us!)

See how low the clouds were!

So today is our last day -- we want to do a little hike with the girls this morning and this afternoon we want to take them to a lake to swim, play, etc.  Tehn tomorrow morning we will be driving back home.  Supposed to be a 5 and a half hour drive, but there will be a lot of traffic so it will probably take an hour or two more.

Bad bad blogger!

I have been so bad about updating.  Wedding season is killing me, the days are long, days go into weeks and . . . But we are doing some fun things -- though I tend not to take my camera with me since I'm not working -- I know bad momma now!

So this week we are on vacation about an hour from Toulouse.  We are out in the countryside.  There are 3 other girls the same age as Sami and Alison that are staying at the house next to ours.  All of the kids have been playing in the pool together and have been having a lot of fun.  

Just a quick run down of some pictures I took of the girls today (except for the first one which I took a week ago at the beach) 

I love this shot -- it is finally getting easier to get a picture of all three together!

We went to a lake that had a sandy beach, but unfortunately the girls couldn't go in the water -- the lake didn't pass its quality control for the afternoon so no one was allow in.  They had fun just the same on the beach

Always doing some type of gymnastics!

 

She has some killer eyes -- I was actually going to darken them because they looked so fake and freaky looking

Such a typical Leïla face!

Hopefully I will have some more pictures to share from our vacation over the next few days.

Tomorrow we are off to Toulouse for the day, them hopefully a day in Spain too.