Back in Bordeaux

Well, after a pretty eventful last week in Colorado that included the first blizzard of the year...

...we made a rather uneventful arrival in rainy Bordeaux. We are settling back into the Maison Mercure and trying to decide where to look for more permanent residence. But, Owen is extremely happy at the Observatory since our house overlooks two giant tower cranes that are building new apartments nearby. Here are some photos from our first few days in Bordeaux:

We arrived on Halloween so here is Owen in his conductor outfit. Jet lag prevented any real celebration but we still had a good time!

Walking around the neighborhood. Yes, baby stroller came to France too. :)

On the carousel in the Jardin Publique.

And, last, I couldn't resist. Here is a picture of Owen at the playground at the Jardin Publique last week (right) and a picture of him from Bordeaux a year ago (left). If he wasn't walking and talking now, you'd almost think no time has gone by...

Also, I have started a new blog, http://bordeauxraymonds.blogspot.com. My plan is for it to be more of an "adventures in the life of an American family in Bordeaux" with information about toddler-friendly activities and other assorted day-in-the-life things for foreigners living abroad. Whereas, this blog will remain the primary place to post pictures and family news. It may be quite burdensome to keep 2 simultaneous blogs going - especially since I still don't have daily access to internet - but we'll see.

A+,

Marisa

Catching up with the Raymonds

Ok, so after promising to be better at blogging, we have failed to post anything since July. Shame on us.

In brief, here is the big news from the past three months: WE ARE MOVING!! Sean has been offered a position at the Universite de Bordeaux in France so we are packing up our stuff, selling our condo, and moving in 18 days! Oh my goodness!!

We've been trying to get Owen ready for the big move. Sean's been teaching him some key french words: vache (cow), foin (hay), and, of course, trop chaud which means too hot and is the name of a book we picked up in Bordeaux last year that Owen really likes. We've been reading it in English for the past year but Owen is now adjusting to our reading it in French too. Such a flexible child!

Other than that, we've been trying to enjoy our remaining time in Boulder. Last weekend, we went to the zoo and Owen had a great time. Here are some cute pictures:

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I also took Owen to Cottonwood Farms to play in the Hay Maze. The camera battery died but here is one cute picture I managed to capture:


Owen is also learning lots of new skills. For example:

1) YOGA


2) Pillow diving


3) Imaginative play (usually with trucks)


4) Smiling on command


He's really fun! You are all welcome to come visit us in France to see for yourself!

Hungover baby?

"I had too much to drink last night and I think I'm going to puke all over my cheerios"
-- what Owen might very well be thinking

Vandalism!

I had never stumbled across wet cement, ripe for the picking, in my life .... until last week when I was walking with Owen to the playground. How could anyone resist? Well, I couldn't. Despite the orange cones hanging yellow "stay out" tape around the cement, I got in there and wrote boyo's name in big letters with a stick:



Then we went to the playground, swang on the swings and slid down the slides, and saw a couple of construction guys pouring more cement. Luckily, there were not onto us. But, it seems that they noticed our little act of vandalism and tried to sandblast it away. Unfortunately for them all that did was to make the OWEN in the ground stand out more! (as Owen's shadow noticed a few days later:)




As anyone who knows me knows, I am not one to go against the grain and commit random acts of vandalism! (And as anyone who really knows me knows, that last sentence is a load of crap). But I am super pleased with myself for carving boyo's name in the ground in a place that we hang out a lot and in a way that should stick around for a few years at least. Take that, mr man!

over & out
Sean

More pics from Owen's photo shoot

Here are more pictures of Owen from the Bruz Wear photo shoot:

These are the original shoots (ie no cropping or photoshopping!). I have to say, Owen is quite a cutie! And he LOVES trucks!

Owen: a model child?

Even as a fetus, Owen has always been quite photogenic (see his "Blue Steel" impression from August 7, 2007). So, when a local clothing company (www.bruzwear.com) needed models for their catalog, I signed Owen up.

The shoot was on July 2nd. We met at a nearby playground. Sean was already in Seattle and Owen and I were headed to the airport after the shoot. Unfortunately, Owen decided to get up quite early (5am!) that morning so by 9, he was quite cranky. But the photographer was wonderful and she was able to capture a few good shots of the little guy...


For those of your with small children, I HIGHLY recommend Bruz Wear pants! Not only do they have cool patterns, but they are super durable and practical. The patches on the knees are actually knee pads! Owen's first pair of Bruz Wear pants (as seen in many of the pics below), are hand-me-downs of hand-me-downs. That's how long they last!

Ok, enough of this commercial break. We now return you to our regular scheduled blogging.... :)

Marisa

Lots of new stuff!

Hi everyone

We have become quite bad at updating the blog! Right now Marisa and Owen are both taking a nap, so here are a few cute things from recent times...

Owen was sick when my dad and I tore down and then rebuilt the fence (May 16). Marisa took care of him -- she let him chill on the couch and then watch us at the window, with food by his side at all times:




We have also started taking boyo to the pool quite often and he loves going on the big big waterslide!



We haven't been hiking with boyo that much because it's a little tricky to pull off, but we did a month or so ago, and he was even pretty happy in the backpack! It was really muddy and we didn't go that far but it was a fun time (may 24).



Owen was pretty cheery and he looked pretty cool with the Eldo/Bear Mountain backdrop.



One last story for this post: I decided the day beforehand (the day before Memorial day, that is) to run in the Bolder Boulder, a 10 K road race that is run by about 50,000 people every year. I caught a bus to the starting line thinking I would be get there about 20-30 minutes before my wave, but there was humongous slowdown and I got there right as my wave was pulling away. So, no stretching for me! Still, it was a fun time and I think it may have been the longest I've ever run (on purpose, anyway). Marisa and Owen took the bus down to meet me after the finish line, along with Ken and Megan, who are really fast and finished before I even started.



They gave us all a free can of low-calorie beer -- a nice thought. Later that day we hit the Rockies game with Craig -- they got blown out by the Dodgers but it was still a fun time. At one point Owen wanted me to read him some books as he couldn't really follow the game. But when the Rockies started coming back he broke out the rally cap and got really excited!






All right, Owen and Marisa are both awake so I'd better go!

meow!
Sean

ps - There were humongous ground sloths and beavers as big as black bears in North America up until about 10,000 years ago! I would love to see some of those.

16 months going on 16 years...

Owen is growing so quickly these days, it is hard to keep up! He is quite the sophisticated little guy...

He eats with a fork:

Yummm... banana kabob!


He cleans up after himself:

Ok, really he just likes brooms but despite the lack of a role model, he picked up this one pretty quickly and we are very encouraging of this behavior! :)

And he's already asking to borrow the keys...


More later...

Boulder, CO April 17, 2009

No joke... today we got MORE snow!!  So much for Spring!  The snow has been falling since last night.  It was wet enough to make a snowman which, of course, Sean did...

(Marisa added the mustache)

Not fazed by the wetness and cold, Owen still wanted to go for a ride on his favorite toy ever:

Afterwards, Marisa was able to bribe both boys into staying inside with the promise of fresh juice.  Ok, it was Sean's idea but it was still fun (and tasty)...

Owen being Owen

Owen has entered the fun, playful stage. He loves kicking and throwing balls, going for rides on his fire engine, and flinging himself backwards onto the couch or some other surface (he's still learning that it hurts if that surface is hard), running around naked, trying to squeeze through tight areas, and pizza. Oh, and we taught him to throw his head back when he laughs. We'll have to capture a video of that because it's too cute. But here are some other cute pics and videos of Owen being Owen...

Spring Snow and Vovo's Visit

The past few weeks (ever since the Emmers left), despite the fact that the calendar says it's Spring, it has been a veritable winter wonderland in Boulder.  On March 26 we got 18 inches of snow in the "blizzard of '09".  Sean was away and Owen's Vovo Yol was visiting.  Owen and I both got a snow day and we had lots of fun (and some not so fun) moments...

The next day, the sun came out.  It was a beautiful bluebird day...

Sean came home Friday night.  By Saturday, much of the snow had melted so we took Vovo to Pearl Street:

And the snow keeps falling!  We've had two more days of snow since (not enough for a snow day but enough for sledding and snow-swinging!  Though, I think, deep down, we're all ready for the warm weather!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Ogden, UT with John Armstrong

Last weekend, the family headed off to Ogden, UT to visit John and Weber State University.

Utah is beautiful! Just look at this photo from the plane:


Owen loved running around the rental car area at SLC International Airport.


On Friday, Marisa and Owen went to check out the railway and car museum at Ogden's Union Station:



They had real trains too...

but Owen was not a big fan. I think they were too big. He's used to toy-size trains.

While we were playing, Sean was giving a public talk at WSU


On Saturday, John showed us some of what Ogden has to offer. There's Lindquist Field, home of the Ogden Raptors (the Rookie League affiliate of the LA Dodgers):

And a super fun Children's Museum. Owen had a great time at the museum. He played with the life-size chess set (he was a pawn but he took the black knights and king down!)


He worked hard in the Oval Office with President Obama ("now, where do they keep the crackers in this place?!")


And he played with John:


We took part in celebrating the Children's Museum birthday with some cake.


Ogden also has an indoor skydiving center but we thoought Owen might be a little young for that! :) Though, I think Owen's favorite place in Ogden was our hotel. We highly recommend the Hampton in Downtown Ogden!

Owen is a walking machine: Eldo

About 3 weekends ago, Owen decided that crawling was for babies! Literally, overnight, he went from a "I'll walk when mommy and daddy are there to cheer me on" to "I'll walk when I feel like it and I feel like it all the time!"

Exhibit A: We planned a hike in Eldorado Springs. Owen was all snug in his backpack. Within 10 minutes he wanted out...

Quick lunch break.... mmm.... peanut butter sandwich and bananas!

Then it was back to walking!

Kitchen Adventures

Owen has recenlty become highly interested in the kitchen and we have spent lots of time with him there, mainly playing, watching us cook, or keeping him away from the wine rack.

He loves checking out the fridge -- it's like a magical kingdom of food to him (and to me also, but I am the king!). He is surprisingly good at taking smaller jars or yoghurts off the shelves, and he usually puts them back close to where he found them. He also tries to climb up as far as he can but so far he still can't reach the top shelf or two. I let him play in there for about 10 minutes one morning while I was getting things ready to take him to day care and he didn't make any mess! In 10 whole minutes! He must get that from Marisa's side of the family....



The boyo is also very keen on the dishwasher. He likes to take stuff out, mainly from the silverware thingy, and he also likes to climb up on there and check things out. We have to remember to get any sharp stuff out of there quickly so he can rummage through the rest like a bum sifting through a stolen purse -- he kind of looks like a bum in the photo on the right, doesn't he?



But he is often helps me unload the dishwasher too:


Marisa set up a sensory game with black beans and play-doh and a broken toaster.


Here is a movie of the action:


Finally, he likes playing with the pots and pans.




Over & Out

13 Months Old!

Today our little Tomato is 13 months old! WOW! It's hard to believe. He is so much fun. Yesterday, we took him to the Denver Zoo (because it was a warm day, 60 degrees! And we've been listening to Raffi singing about going to the zoo for the last several weeks). Owen was tired but still managed to amaze us with his enthusiasm and curiousity.

Here are some pictures from our excursion:



The animals were enjoying the beautiful winter day too:

Walking and Talking

Owen has started doing some walking on his own up to 10 feet or so at a time. Here are a couple videos of the boyo in action:






Owen's blabbing has also increased drastically both in volume and craziness:

Stock Show

Sean and I have lived in Colorado for 4 years now and we've never been to the National Western Stock Show. But now that we have a native Coloradoan for a son, we figured this was a perfect time to check it out. Owen is at the age where he is learning animals sounds and likes to play with his Old McDonald tractor so it seemed like a great place to have a fun family outing on a beautiful January day.

When we first got there we saw a big train. Owen was mesmorized...


And it just kept getting better...
We saw baby animals:


and fancy cows...


Owen got to ride a pretend horse:


and a real tractor...


It was a really fun day! Can't wait until next year's stock show! Owen will be old enough for pony rides!

Owen's birthday!

Here are a few cute photos of Owen and his birthday cake, which was chocolate and shaped like a tomato. (We also had a big people cake made out of the same stuff.)

Nice: Nov 17-20

The week before we left Bordeaux, we went to Nice for a few days. The purpose of the visit was for Sean to collaborate with Morby at the Observatoire de Nice (which is awesome and was designed in part by Eiffel). There was an Air France strike that ended Monday night but our flight was Monday afternoon, so we were quite nervous about the trip! Luckily, our flight was operated by a subsidiary so we were all set (but see all the cancelled flights on the board!). When we got to the airport, Owen did something for the first time -- he walked on his own while pushing the stroller around! He did this nonstop for about a half hour before we had to head in to the gates:



We stayed at a "nice" place in downtown Nice, near the Place Massena. Here are some photos of our trip...






Marisa's maternal grandmother was a Halevy and Sean's paternal grandmother is called Memere ("Mim"). We found them both in Nice.

Owen's is 1 year old!

A year ago today: "Holy crap, we have a baby!"

Today: "Holy crap, we have a one-year old!"

Christmanukkah

With Hanukkah starting on the night of the 21st and Christmas on the 25th, it was quite a hectic holiday season!

Despite the small size of our apartment and our limited time for decorating, I think we did a nice job of making our stove festive. The Santa on the top of the tree was made by Marisa in 1981 and Owen made his own stocking at daycare (you can see it handing on the wall - it's the small red one).


We spent the weekend of the 20-21 up in Breck. Owen had some congestion from the dryness and didn't sleep well, but that didn't seem to slow him down too much in the morning hours (though his parents are a different story!). He enjoyed playing in the snow and even took his first steps (he stands on his own and will take a few unassisted steps when he is distracted enough but otherwise still prefers to cruise or crawl to get from place to place) or ride/push his new bike (a hand-me-down from Pancho and Coco):


For the first night of Hanukkah, we lit the candles, played dreidl, and Owen got a new set of toy car keys. Sean and I will hopefully never have to look for our keys under piles of Owen's toys again! Woo Hoo!


On Christmas morning, Owen (as usual) was up early and seemed eager to find out if Santa came. He wasn't too pleased to find that Daddy was still tired...


He seemed to enjoy opening his gifts and have sausage balls (a Raymond famiy Christmas tradition)


(this last picture shows Owen playing with a birthday gift from Roshini and Judd. Due to a FedEx error, Owen's gifts from Vovo and Grandpa didn't arrive so we let Owen open one of his birthday gifts. Roshini and Judd - THANK YOU!! Owen LOVES the magnetic farm and played with it for a long, long time!)

Then, it was up to Breck again to spend Christmas day (and the next week) with Nan and Pip. About an hour before we had planned to leave, Owen got fussy and had a low-grade fever. Assuming it was due to teething, we gave him some tylenol and bundled him up for Breck.

Nan and Pip gave Owen "Yertle the Turtle" and enjoyed watching his reaction as he opened the gift...


Unfortunately, Owen's low-grade fever became a full-blown fever (104 at it's highest) by Friday and we ended up at the Breck Medical Center for a diagnosis of a throat infection and confirmation that the amoxicillan he was on last week for the ear infection didn't finish the job. So, it's more antibiotics for this kiddo. But, we hope that he will be sickness-free in time for his birthday on Thursday!

Holiday Greetings!

Owen Bear - UPDATED

We bought this hat in France because... well, how could we resist? He looks so cute!

And this outfit was given to us by Damhnait. It's a little small but still ridiculously cute too:

A day in Sauternes: Nov 8

1In my (Sean's) opinion, one of the highlights of our time in France was our trip to visit some chateaux in the Sauternes region. We went on Saturday, Nov 8, with three visitors: Yol, Jonathan and Petra. We rented a giant car, the Ulysse, so we could all fit inside. It was open house weekend in Sauternes so there were a bunch of chateaux open to the public. For those of you who are not in the loop, Sauternes is a town about 30 km south of Bordeaux where they make some famous sweet wine that is very tasty to drink with Roquefort cheese or foie gras. We drank a lot of Sauternes while we were there. Here is a picture of Jonathan and Petra in front of the Maison Mercure before we headed out.


Our first chateau was not that exciting -- a chateau with pretty good wine where Petra bought some foie gras. We hung around a bit and then headed out. But when I took a look at their vineyard, it seemed like there was something weird hanging out on the vines... Then, all of a sudden, about 10,000 birds flew off the vines at the same time.


For the next half hour the birds swirled across the sky in crazy patterns. Sometimes they would settle on a big tree for a minute, then something would spook them and they would take off again. It was spectacular! We have some videos but they probably won't come out well in low-res so if you want to see it let me know.

We kept watching the birds on the way to our next stop, the chateau just across the street, called Chateau d'Armajan des Cormes (in the background of the photo of Owen and Marisa below). We got a full tour from the nephew of the current owner, most of whose family lived nearby and helped with the winemaking.




We had a really time at the chateau-- we got to look into the bubbling vat where the wine was fermenting, we saw the barn and the tractors, the vines and the barrels. Then we got to taste a few different bottles of their Sauternes -- the best was one that fruity and light and not too sweet. Very nice stuff and a fantastic visit -- Owen enjoyed walking around the vines! Here are some photos from chateau d'Armajan des Cormes:






We were getting pretty hungry so we drove around a bit and finally found a chateau that was making food as part of its open house. I can't remember the name of that chateau but they made some great magret de canard (grilled duck)!


We hung out for a little while then we decided to hit one more place on the way back to Floirac. We chose the last place based solely on its name: Clos Dady! This place had pretty good wine but we had tried so many by that point that we were kind of Sauternes-ed out. They did have some nice art on the wall in their barrel-room:


By this time, Petra and I had gotten into the mood for red wine, as Clos Dady also made some reds. The guy who was showing us around told us that the 2005 "clos des remparts" was fantastic -- one bottle was on display as if to be tasted, but he told us that they were all out. Petra decided to just buy a bottle of the 2006, but I became intrigued by this apparent paradox: how could they be all out of a wine when they had a bottle on display? So I told the guy I wanted to buy the display bottle of the 2005. He ran this idea by his boss, but she wasn't confident of the quality of the display bottle since it had been standing up for a while rather than being left on its side like any well-behaved bottle. Trying to make her point, the boss-lady told me that she didn't even have any of the 2005 in her own cellar. I was not deterred and kept asking for a bottle of the 2005. The guy finally had a little chat with the boss-lady and they decided that it wouldn't do any harm to let one buffoon (me) have one of their secret and apparently prized bottles of 2005. So, after about a 20 minute debate, the guy went into the cave and brought me a bottle of the 2005 -- great success! I was overcome with a feeling of great self-satisfaction -- I had somehow persuaded these folks to give me a bottle of their most prized and secret wine, and I was surely a master of humankind! Petra thought me a complete wacko but I didn't care. It wasn't until we got home that I discovered that they had actually given me a bottle of the 2006! Those bastards! The bottle from Clos Dady ("clos des ramparts") is the fourth from the left in the photo below, and the chateau d'armajan des cormes is the fifth from the left.


We ended up going out for a fun dinner in Bordeaux with J&P -- all around a super fun day!


ps - I actually found Clos Dady Sauternes in a liquor store in Boulder after we got back... No way I'm buying anything from those scoundrels!

Visitors from Utrecht: Nov 6-9

Marisa's cousins Jonathan and Petra came to visit us in Bordeaux from Utrecht. We had a great time!

They had quite an adventure getting to our place. Trying to avoid the traffic delay
that resulted in the Guajardo's spending too much time in the tiny Saxo, we told Jonathan and Petra to take the bus from the airport to the center of town and we would pick them up there. Well, apparently, buses don't go any faster in traffic so, they had to wait a long time to meet Owen too.

Owen was excited to meet his cousins and he showed off his Halloween costume. Petra and Jonathan brought Owen a Miffy and Friends toy (think the Dutch Hello Kitty - except a rabbit). Petra played with Owen on the floor:

Then we went into Bordeaux and Owen gave Jonathan and Petra a brief history of the Miroir d'Eau and showed them his new shoes:

The weekend turned out to be an "Open gates" weekend in Sauternes, a town that makes sweet wine, about 45 minutes south of Bordeaux. So, naturally, we had to go. Sean will fill in the details of this day in a separate post.

After our day in Sauternes, Vovo babysat for Owen so the cousins could go out to dinner in town. We found a tasty little restaurant and had a great dinner and some very yummy wine. A bit tipsy, we boarded the tram home:

Owen meets Santa

We are still quite behind on our postings so for those of you who don't know, we are back in Colorado now. We left France and went to Florida for Thanksgiving (there will be a blog about this because we had SO MUCH fun! Thanks Max & Sue!) and then we flew back to Colorado on December 2.

So, there will be more posts soon but I had to post this picture of Owen meeting Santa at the mall last Friday. From the look on his face, you may think that our son has already learned about and is disappointed in the commercialism of the holiday season. But, in reality, it turns out that he had a pretty bad ear infection that we did not know about until several hours later (he woke up from a nap with a high fever and we ended up in urgent care).

But, enough blabbing. Here is Owen and Santa:

SNOW!

Being a January baby, there was snow on the ground when Owen was born. But he was so little and as first time parents, we really didn't give him a chance to explore. So, when we woke up last Tuesday (12/9) to 6 inches of snow, Owen looked out the window and thought it was the greatest thing in the world:

So, we put on his snow suit and took him outside... clearly, he wasn't as impressed from close-up.

Visit from Vovo: Nov 3-10

Vovo Yol came to visit for a week. We really enjoyed having her here and Owen loved the new books she brought. Here is a really cute picture of her and Owen enjoying a picnic at the Observatory:

Oct 31-Nov 3: OZ meets MJ

The Guajardos came to visit from Copenhagen! It was so much fun to see Nanda and JJ and it was adorable to watch Owen and Mathilde play together. At only 10 months old, the two babies seem to have already developed so much of their personalities and it was so much more evident when seeing the two of them together than what I have noticed watching Owen over the last few months. Mathilde is 2 weeks older than Owen but her vocal skills are light-years ahead! She knows how to point, shake her head “no”, and trumpets like an elephant on cue. Owen, on the other hand, is obsessed with walking around, anything with wheels, and stomping on everything in sight. But, despite their differences, you could tell that the two of them enjoyed hanging out.

They had fun reading books together and playing on the floor:




We ate pizza at Ragazzi de Peppone and hung around Bordeaux:



And, on Monday, before their flight home, we went wine tasting at some nearby chateaux with my mom who flew in that morning:



As for the adults, we had a rally good time too. It was great to see our friends! And I enjoyed talking discussing parenting and parenthood. We are struggling with many of the same issues, most notably getting our kiddos to eat…


… and sleep!

It was very helpful to share ideas and to hear the advice that Nanda was getting from the midwives/doctors and her international friends in Denmark. It’s interesting to learn about the cultural differences in parenthood. For example, in France, we have seen 5 and 6 year old children with pacifiers whereas in the US, even giving a pacifier to a baby is controversial. In Denmark, Nanda was telling us, the midwives were telling her to feed MJ butter and olive oil to help with constipation and increase caloric intake. I read a quote on the internet after the Guajardos left that I think is important for us high-maintenance, well-educated, first-time parents to remember: We are not raising a child. We are raising our child. As Nanda and I discussed, it is important to remember that advice is just that – a suggestion of one way to proceed. But, advice isn’t the law. And Owen and MJ are clearly happy, healthy, and loved kiddos who are doing great – despite our anxiety. (Now, if only I could recall this in my anxious states!)

But enough about the kids, as fun as it was to watch and play with them, it was great to put the kids to bed and have some “adult” time to catch up, eat some tasty duck a la JJ, and drink some tasty wine. We were sad to say good-bye and are looking forward to seeing our friends again soon!

Picnics

One of the great things that we have been able to do in France is to have family picnics. Because Sean works so close to home, we often go for picnics to La Burthe (a city sports park just a mile or so away) or on the Observatory’s campus during lunch. But, we have also had many picnics at Bordeaux’s Jardin Publique and Jardin Botanique. Sometimes we would bring ham sandwiches and cheese and saucisse seche, and a few times we stopped at Peppone for pizzas and wine and took them to the Jardin Publique. Here are some of our favorite photos from our tasty and fun outings. They are not commented, but you can see what a picnic is made of: eating, playing, laughing, stopping O from getting into our food, then getting tired and whiny and going home.







Owen is usually pretty clear when it's time to go home:



In addition, we have some cute videos that we have taken on these adventures. We want to share a few. This one is from the jardin botanique in late September:


Here is one of Owen showing off his soccer skills at la Burthe:


These last two are from a picnic on the observatory campus, near the director's house. Owen goes nuts from time to time as you can see. And, as much as Marisa wants him to say "mama", he can't stop saying "dada". Hooray!





It won't be picnic season when we get back to Boulder so we will have to improvise....


over & out

First Halloween!

Halloween was our first (and only) American holiday that we had to celebrate in France. There is really no French equivalent, though the French are learning about the American customs and we saw several stores with spider webs, skeletons, witches, and plastic jack o’lanterns in their windows for several weeks before. Sean went to buy some food on Halloween itself and all the ladies at the cheese counter were dressed as witches – a good show!

Franck and Valentine had never carved a pumpkin so we bought 2 small, “jack o’lantern” brand, pumpkins from the Auchan (the French version of a Super Target or Walmart) and they came over on October 24th. Owen was already in bed so the adults carved the pumpkins.


Ours is the one on the right, we called it “Pumpkin Owen”. If you look closely, you will notice the 2 bottom and 3 upper teeth. Very realistic. ☺ Even Owen seemed to do a double-take when he saw it the next morning:


Sean and Franck made a “spooky” movie (a short feature) starring Franck and Valentine’s pumpkin. In case it doesn’t make it to the big screen, here it is:


Then, we ate pumpkin seeds and popcorn while watching the Big Lebowski.

Owen, as usual, was ridiculously cute. While I don’t think he fully grasped the concept of Halloween, he was more than willing to put on his costume and play around:




And here’s a cute video of Tigger taken a week after Halloween when Owen modeled his costume for Jonathan, Petra, and Vovo:


Back to the real Halloween, the Guarjardos arrived later that night (more pictures of their visit are coming!) but, unfortunately, MJ and Owen were both too tired to put their costumes on again so we don’t have a picture of them together. Maybe next year somewhere else in the world!

Alex and Laura visit: Oct 17-20

Alex and Laura came to visit us all the way from Beijing a few weeks ago. Owen was super confused at seeing Alex because he looks so much like me. For the first few hours they were here, Owen would look at Alex and then at me and have no clue what was going on. It was cute and weird at the same time.




We only had a couple of days together so we did our best to show them aroumd. On Saturday we went to Bordeaux and walked around town. We went to the place de la Bourse, walked by the miroir d'eau and also to the old part of town.




IT was a nice day but quite chilly, so we stopped at H&M to get Laura and Owen some warmer clothes. We got Owen a super cute bear hat!



We had lunch at one of the most delicious places in town, an italian resto called Peppone -- or in this case its offshoot, called Ragazzi da Peppone. Alex and Owen had a little heart-to-heart talk about bread and such:



The fair was in town and so were some police demonstrations so we checked that out and then we walked across the bridge and almost the whole way home. One thing of note is that on friday I found fresh porcinis ("cepes" in french) at the store on Friday so we talked about cepes a lot with A&L and ate them at several meals as well. So tasty! (Note that it is not unlike me to get highly obsessed with various food items).


On Sunday we ventured back to the big sand dune at the Dune de Pyla. near the bassin d'Arcachon. As usual, Owen loved walking and crawling around in the sand:



At the beach, there is always time for girls and babies to quietly reflect while big boys get attacked by their vicious older brothers who probably want to remember the days when they could beat us up, although those days are long gone!




This time, we walked back down the dunes to the ocean, where Owen got to splash in the water for a few minutes. Uncle Alex volunteered to porter the Tomato all the way back up the hill while we lagged behind with all our stuff:




Another fun time at the beach! (And more cepes for dinner if I remember correctly, on top of Giovanni Rana's excellent chevre + caramelized onion raviolis).



It was great to see Alex and Laura and we will be sad to miss them at christmas.



over & out
Sean

Chatel-Guyon: Oct 14-17

Sean had a conference in the middle of France, a 4-hour drive from Bordeaux, in a town called Chatel-Guyon, close to Clermont-Ferrand. Not to miss out on the fun, Owen and I tagged along (besides, not knowing how to drive a stick shift, Owen and I would have been stuck at the observatory for 4 days if we hadn’t gone). Sadly, going to Chatel-Guyon meant that we could not go to Zurich to see the Block family but we promise to visit them stateside in 2009!!

Chatel-Guyon is one of the many towns (or so we’ve been told) in central France that center their tourism around the local thermal baths. Unfortunately, we did not partake in the baths. Sean was in meetings from 9am-1pm and then 3pm-7pm, so Owen and I had a lot of fun walking around town.

We walked to the top of the town (not sure of elevation) and had a great view of the whole village:


Owen stopped to walk the last stretch:


In Colorado, we don’t get to see leaves in their fall splendor. I enjoyed looking at that while Owen slept:


It wasn’t all work for Sean and his colleagues. Owen gave Morby a lesson in crawling:


And Sean took Owen for a walk in one of the town’s many parks:


On the last night, we went to St. Nectaire, a town famous for its cheese about 1 hour away from Chatel-Guyon on twisting roads. At the ferme (farm) Owen was introduced to a 2-day old calf:


And we watched them make the cheese:


Then, we had a fabulous dinner at the farm’s restaurant, that included some delicious steak with cepes (porcinis), which have become Sean's favorite food. Owen was more interested in playing than eating…


Owen was a champ, playfully staying up late. Though, we had a hard time getting up in the morning for our long drive back to Floirac:



over & out

Silly French Rules

It turns out that the French have lots of rules. Not that there aren't a lot of dumb rules in the US -- I (Sean) make a point to break as many as I can without incurring a significant risk of ending up in prison. After 7 weeks of being here, we have experienced a few really silly ones. For example:

1) In the Bordeaux region, the only grapes that are allowed to be grown are merlot, cabernet and cabernet franc. Growing other types of grapes, at least for use in wine, is illegal!


2) You cannot take photos at a public pool. I guess they are trying to protect all the pretty women who come to the pool to do water aerobic from all the sketchy men who want to take their picture. Of course, in order to get into the public pool, men have to wear a Speedo suit so, I guess the lifeguards wouldn’t be able to tell the sketchy men from the ones who are their to swim. So maybe it isn’t a silly rule afterall. In any case, we managed to capture a few pictures of Owen enjoying the pool before we were scolded:


ps - Email me if you want a photo of me in the speedo. Meow!

3) The shopping carts are locked and you have to pay (though it’s refundable) to get one. But, if you ask nicely, or if you are standing near the piled-up carts digging through your change purse, the nice man who watches to make sure no one steals the carts will give you a plastic euro piece to use and keep. We don’t have a picture of the token but here is a cute one of Owen hanging out in the cart:

Paris, October 4-6, 2008

Because we still don’t have internet and phone in our house, we have not been updating our blog often and we apologize to Owen’s loyal fans for this. Wow! It’s almost Halloween, which means October has flown by! We have just under a month left in France. We can’t believe it! We have very mixed feelings about going home but that’s another post (one that may or may not ever be written).

The purpose of this post is to catch you up to date on the travels of the Raymond family over the past month.

First, there was Paris. Really, this trip HAD to happen because 1) the scrapbook that Marisa’s friends made at her baby shower last December has a page for a Paris visit and 2) how could we be in France and not have a picture of Owen at La Tour Eiffel?! So, we headed up for a long weekend on the TGV.


In Paris, we stayed with the Basile family: Paul, Finnoula, and “the cubs” at their beautiful apartment in the 3rd Arrondisement. Sadly, we took very few pictures of the Basile clan. Here’s a cute one of Owen and Zach:


And, Owen really liked the large mirror that the Basile’s have in their hallway.


Thank you Basiles for your hospitality!!! And, Zach and Omadine, keep us posted on any more visits from the Giant Tooth Mouse!

Coincidentally, Joe and Sarah Slater were in Paris the same weekend and we happily met up with them for a tour of Le Louvre.


We had lots of fun imitating the statues in the Antiquities section and the painted ceilings:


…and, of course, we took Owen to check out the Mona Lisa:


For the most part, Owen was in awe of the beautiful art


After the Louvre, we had lunch with Joe and Sarah at a Parisian café (it was raining so we ate inside). Then, Joe and Sarah left to explore more museums and the Raymonds headed off for La Tour Eiffel! We walked all the way there – about 3 miles or so – in the drizzle. But it was worth it.


As you can see from the pictures, Owen was ridiculously cute:



The wind was too strong to go up to the top


…but we still had a great time hanging out at the bottom.

It was an awesome weekend in Paris! The only thing we were unlucky with was the trains -- our train to Paris was delayed by more than an hour and we missed the return train when the Metro was delayed.

over & out!

Recent adventures

We have been having a lot of fun doing a lot of things but haven't had much time to write about them since we have no internet in the house. So, here is a little recap of some of our adventures....

We went to a harvest festival in nearby Latresne and ended up having some wine, playing with new toys, and eating tuna and salmon sashimi with bread. On the way home we passed a farmstand with a pretty hilarious name, which has become my new motto:




Owen gave himself a prune goatee:




We also went to the Dune de Pyla, the biggest pile of sand in Europe. From the top you separate the Atlantic ocean from a big pine forest that was planted by Napoleon. Owen cralwed around on the sand like a locoman. We went with Franck and Valentine and also had a tasty picnic on a nearby beach.




Another time we went to Saint Emilion, one of the famous wine towns in the area. A very pretty place full of grapes, people selling fancy wine for a lot of cash (the most expensive bottle we saw advertised was a 1945 Petrus for 8300 Euros), and castles. Owen got to see his first dungeon (untiil he turns 18 and isn't a minor anymore, at least)!



We checked out a wine cave that had some impressive slime growth since the 1995 harvest was bottled. This was the Clos des Menuts




Afterwards, we bought some really good cheese, a baguette, and some foie gras and has a little picnic in a vineyard right next to town. Diagnosis: delicious!





Then we went for a little walk and then drove home to Floirac via the scenic route. That's all for now -- more stories to come. I'll leave you with this super cute photo of Owen and Mommy among the grapes: