new hometown

Besançon has an ancient Roman fortress overlooking the city, called The Citadel.  Here we are about to go visit way up there.  About a thousand steps up.  Or at least it felt like it.  And far below, to our right in the photo, is, according to our dad, an ancient Roman recycling bin with ancient Latin grafiti on it...

 

thankfully, the beetles did not cut their way through the steel handrails until Grace had the chance to bolt a good 23 meters away... (you should see the mosquitoes here!)

forest

after we fought much traffic to get out of Besançon, the French forest was growing dark, and seemed slightly forboding.  Until we looked up and saw what looked almost like a heart-felt welcome from the trees themselves!

my little party

with my little pony...

drought in Texas

 

Eight feet lower than usual just means-- more beach at the lake!

can you see it?

 

we wrote a secret message in SPARKLER!!!

hearing loss

We discovered that the predilection for auditory confection doesn't only apply to chocolate bunnies...

 

we tried

 

this is actually the best you can do with playmobil's advent calendar. There was no baby Jesus. So we had to make do. And yes, Joseph looks a little older than normal. But you would too, if you saw an angel face to face!

grandma got revenge

 

remember the ol' goofy song, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer"? Well, we just learned... that incident will NOT repeat itself!

orbit

 

they said we could swing her!

more tradition

 

we thought he was just hanging lights... but, little did we realize...

Christmas tradition

 

and you're probably wondering if I ate the WHOLE thing... ;)

4 mph

 

Daddy, can we please put a mowing deck on this puppy? Pure bliss!

warrior badge

 

okay we're not in scouting, but my good friend, Ben, and I, deserve some kind of badge for making this cool stuff that really works... tears paper targets in HALF! (someone even called the police on us!)

park it

 

remember when you were a kid? seems like it was only yesterday...

feeling crabby

 

this guy didn't stand a ghost of a chance against 2 boys with a stick.

if everybody had an ocean

 

you just wish you could surf like me!

winter

'

our friend, Winter, the dolphin with a tale to tell. (You should see her movie!)

beachy-keen

 

it was cloudy. it was cold. but it's got this giant sandbox with water!

yellowfin?

 

I wish I wish I knew what kind of fish!

for the birds

me thinks he thinks i have something to eat-y...
but all i can offer to him is a "tweety"

 

good boys and girl

 

We were so good this year, that even our little Sis, when Santa asked, she replied, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Not kidding. She does need them, gotta admit.

hog wild and a long car ride

Disclaimer: We are under the influence of cousins and uncle, and not necessarily responsible for our actions! And, we did eat lots of turkey...

birdie family portrait

 

watch the birdie!

a glass act

 

new glasses!

highly unusual

 

caught this one out in the wild. Apparently it was a disagreement over calvinism. Or something nutty like that...

look at that noggin'

 

As you can see, on this particular day, I was feeling quite melon-colly.

getting to the root of the problem

 

We were busy branching out, but then were informed, "This photo session has been truncated..."

Go Rangers!

 

we also like the Melissa Cardinals.