Fun in town

Hi! It's Marisa. I came up to Sean's office to call home and decided to put up some cute pictures and a video we took of Owen on Friday in Bordeaux. We went
into town to open a bank account so Sean can get paid (very important, I think) and we spent the afternoon walking around. We walked through many squares (and it wasn't hard to imagine Uncle Max and Aunt Susan sipping some wine and eating moules frites at one of the many cafes in the area). Then we wound up at the Place de la Bourse and found some fountains for Owen to play in. He was SO EXCITED to play in the water that we almost weren't allowed to leave. For those of you that have met Owen in person, this may sound strange to you, but he got fussy when we tried to put him in the stroller to go home.

Anyway, enough text, here are the photos:

Owen at the Place de la Bourse fountainA really cute picture of Owen and Sean that is in the running for my favorite photo of my boys ever and will likely be added to my screen saver in Colorado.

Owen playing at the Miroir D'eau (Mirror of Water) across from the Place de la Bourse:

There's a video to come... I will post it as soon as I can but right now I have to run back to my boys.

Big hugs to everyone at home!
M.

Hello from Bordeaux

We had a long long trip last Tues/Weds! First we flew from Denver to Frankfurt -- Owen had a special bassinet attached to the wall in front of us and he managed to sleep for most of the way! Then, we had a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Frankfurt airport is one of the worst in the world for chilling out -- there is almost nowhere to sit down except at cafes and such where having a baby with you is a bit less pratical. Eventually we found a place where I took Owen outside on an observation deck to watch planes land -- quite fun!



We arrived in Bordeaux at about 6pm last Wednesday evening (Sept 10). Franck picked us up at the airport and took us to our home for the next couple months on the grounds of the Observatoire de Bordeaux, in Floirac, just out side of town. We are staying in a house called la "Maison Mercure", which is wonderful. Owen has been crawling like mad on the wood floors, and his new favorite thing is a tunnel made from a big cardboard box that he crawls through at will:


He has also been pulling himself up to standing about every 5 minutes, on anything that is about the right height (a foot or so off the ground), although in some cases we need to hold down anchor so he doesn't end up on his head ... again.


We spent the next few days getting used to our surroundings. We spent one day walking around in town -- Owen got up on his feet by a nice fountain. We also had some great pizza and our timing was very lucky because there was a big downpour but we were protected under a canopy.




The next day (Sunday) we headed to the beach at a town called Lacanau-Ocean. It was Owen's first time touching the ocean! He loved the sand and the waves but was not a big fan of the wind (it was pretty chilly) so we had to wrap him up in warm clothes shortly after getting him all wet.


We had a picnic on the observatory grounds the other day -- awfully scenic! There are some deer who are always around, but they are super skittish.



We have been eating very well -- lots of wine and cheese so far.



So far things are going great and we have only a coupe of gripes -- one ouchy one is that there are quite a few wasps nearby. Marisa got stung the other day and Owen has come scarily close. We are trying to figure out how to get them to stay out!

more to come
Sean

ps - We have no internet access in the house and no telephone either so blog posts will probably be written mostly by me (Sean) from my office. Meow!

Photos from East Coast trip 1

Ooof! We are way behind on posting so here are photos of some of the people Owen met on our fantastic East coast trip.

The first chunk of the trip was a little road trip from Boston up to Maine, then down through Mass and then to "the Barn" near Hancock, NY. Our rental car ended up being a big red SUV with a weird new carseat that had some sand in it (and a lot of drool on it once we were done with it):




First, up in Raymond, Maine, we saw Mim, Suzie, John, Lillie and Danielle.




Then we went down to Andover, Mass, and hung out with Scott, Jenn and Garin (Garin is exactly 1 year older than Owen and he can wink!).



On Sunday afternoon some people came to say hello: Dave and Colleen, Paul and Renee, Yeti (forgot to take a photo of Yeti -- sorry!)




Then on to East Longmeadow where we saw Helen and Don, Patti, Ronnie, Allison and Chris, Mike and Amy, Danny and Elise, Dennis and Ida,







Happy birthday Patti!



Continued in Part 2....

Photos from East Coast trip 2

......Then, after Owen's longest drive (almost four hours) and a roadside stop or two...


we made it to the Barn, which Grandpa Steve has spent the last many years turning into a palace.


This is the view from upstairs, coming down to breakfast:


Owen got to play in a swing with Vovo, and Grandpa Steve showed him the tree that was planted in Owen's honor!


He got to see his first chicken roasting and play with a sweaty Daddy



Due to unfortunate sickness (lots of snot and coughing from Tomato and a nasty sore throat for Mommy -- and later for Daddy) we headed to the city a day early. While we were there we saw Barbara and introduced Owen to Zabar's!


The highlight of the trip came on Saturday at a family reunion in Long Island, where Owen went into a swimming pool for the first time. Great googly moogly, Owen was excited!


Good thing we have a waterproof camera to catch Owen from all angles... (the photo on the right was taken looking up at Owen from underwater about 10 seconds after the photo on the left)



You can see just how bonkers he was in the pool in this movie.


The next day, Mommy and Owen headed back home, and Daddy met up with his buddies Chris and Andrew for their yearly baseball trip. This was just a short one to see the Mets and Yanks before they move to new stadiums next year. Here is a photo of us at Shea stadium:



Great trip, very special to introduce the little guy to so many of his friends and family!

over & out
Keepers of the Tomatito