Normandy

We have spent an amazing week together here in Normandy. The first couple days were hot, but then the cooler winds blew through to make space for some fires in the fireplace. Last Sunday, on the drive over, we met my parents, Claire, and Matt in Rouen. One of our favorite French cities. We had a great lunch next to the abbey church and took the cathedral tour through town to celebrate Easter. After another couple hours of driving, we made it to our beautiful home for the week. A traditional Normandy farmhouse.

My parents bags still hadn’t arrived, so on Monday, to our surprise, we found a store that was open to buy some clothes. Even managed a bit of grocery shopping - one of our favorite things to do in France. After that we went to a park by the ocean in Cherbourg full of old Nazi bunkers.

On Tuesday Amelie and Grandma were pretty wiped out, so they stayed home while the rest of us took in some sights from WW2. The weather was warm, so Abigail had a lot of fun finding seashells at Utah beach.

On Wednesday we did a bit more shopping and took things easy. Thursday we went to the other peninsula and saw the ocean. Huge surf and a lot of wind. Quite the contrast with the warm and glassy Utah beach. We had an amazing lunch with a great view of the Atlantic.

On Friday Naomi and I relaxed at the house with the girls while the others went to Mount Saint Michelle. Probably spelled that wrong, but it is the real world version of the city of Gondor from Lord of the Rings. Impressive place. On Saturday we had another nice lunch in Carentan and got Claire and Matt sent off to Paris. Today we are heading to our next house near Tours.

Prepping

This week has been about tying up loose ends and getting ready for France! Everything is going smoothly for the Belgian party (Mom, Dad, Claire, and Matt) except for some missing bags. Mom and Dad's checked baggage still hasn't shown up. Hopefully they find it before Sunday when we head to France!

I finished up the storage bench job yesterday with the final delivery, and started on designing the next project for them. A countertop and storage system for their laundry area. Nice to have steady clients!

Naomi did a ton of laundry and lots of cooking yesterday. Prepping two days of food for eight people and getting it all to fit in the car is tricky. We will be packing everything up today, and leaving really early tomorrow morning so that we can meet for lunch in Rouen.

We sure were lucky to have yesterday off of school! It has been a busy week for me, dealing with the cleanup of all that cheating. Kids took pictures of the math test and shared them with everyone else, so it has been quite the mess. I guess as teachers we gave them too much freedom and trust.

Made some burgers out of a vegan ground beef replacement from Denmark...they were tasty!

Bed thief.

Abigail tried to copy Mommy's drawing...she sure is learning fast!

Snow?!

I know it happens in Michigan sometimes, but getting snow here in the middle of April is pretty strange. Yesterday it was snowing away! Didn't stick to the ground, but still. We haven't seen it snow here in two or three months. The tulips are almost finished, and our apple tree just started blooming!

Yesterday we had our annual Easter egg hunt with our friends that have twin boys. Haven't seen them for a while. It was a lot of fun. Naomi is sick, so we didn't have the energy to make a nice dinner. Just stuck some frozen pizzas in the oven.

Tomorrow I will finish up the big storage bench project. That will feel good to be done with. Clean workshop before France. We have Friday off of school, so it is also nice to have an extra day to prepare for the trip. We are really looking forward to it! Today we are heading to Amsterdam for Naomi's Dad's birthday party, and to meet her half brother from England for the first time.

A conversation Abigail and I had yesterday:

Me: Abigail, if you could be any animal, which one would it be? (I figured she would say a seal because that is her favorite)
Abigail: A unicorn.
Me: You know those aren't real, right?
Abigail: Yeah.
Me: What would you do if you were a unicorn?
Abigail: Fly on rainbows.
Me: Oh, really? Where would you fly to?
Abigail: Switzerland.

Three of four.

Planning a BBQ - should be warm and sunny on Monday!

Four of four.

King's day games at school.

Snow?!

Easter egg hunt.

Two Weeks

Two weeks from today we will be heading to France for two weeks. A bit of a family reunion. We are all really excited! Except for maybe Claire, who says she hates France, but she is just afraid to admit how great it really is.

We have a lot to prepare before we go. I need to finish up a woodworking job. Making good progress, but there is still quite a bit to wrap up. Today we will get the backyard cleaned up because it is will be sunny and in the 70s. Perfect weather. There was a snowflake on my phone for later this week though. How is that possible?

Our little tomatoes sprouted nicely. I think we will plant another round today as well. The seeds are doing better than I expected. I also fixed up my mountain bike, so maybe I can take that for a ride today...

A walk in the woods can be more fun than a playground.

Weird brown slime in the water.

Naomi discovered some bugs in our Japanese maple...

Sunshine

The sun came out yesterday and the day before. It was warm enough to be outside without a jacket. Even turned off the heat yesterday. What a treat! We planted some tomato seeds, and they all sprouted very quickly. Thanks Dad!

The girls have been enjoying their new bikes a lot. We rode to the hardware store yesterday. I also was able to finish up two of the four storage benches and deliver them on Wednesday. Happened to get a base for an outdoor table from the clients. Should be pretty easy to put together a top!

I will try to get as far as I can with the next two storage benches. Aiming to finish them before we go to France. We are leaving in three weeks!

Two storage benches down, two to go.

Springtime at the castle.

Putting the new bikes to good use.