School was officially let out on Friday October 18th at the end of the day. But I was not excited. Not relieved. Not yet-
Friday was Kristin's big speech, and Saturday was Noah's birthday.
Sunday I took Kristin and Ben to the Grand Bivouac and walked around. We did a scavenger hunt and then it began to rain harder so we went home. Noah did crafts with Flambeaux to help pay for their spring trip.
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| Crafts |
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| The view on the way home |
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| He's twelve! |
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| Scavenger hunt in the rain…. |
And then? Rest. Finally rest. Sunday after church, Monday, part of Tuesday and Wednesday I could rest, read, and relax. Tuesday we worked on a video to send home to play at churches or on youtube as an update (not finished with it yet…). Wednesday the kids packed their own suitcases, I packed mine and got the food, sheets, and towels to take with us.
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| Waiting to make the video |
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| Chris and our friend Dan Leathers who helped with the film |
And Thursday we got to go on a little trip.
First stop: Vif, just south of Grenoble and home of PATOU! Patou was my family's exchange student in the 1980's when we were in high school. She stayed with us 2 summers, looked at colleges with us and helped take me to college. How good it was to see her again! The last time I saw her was in 1991 at her home in Martigues, France with her parents and siblings. How good it was to meet her husband and children. We had a wonderful lunch of raclette - a yummy regional speciality.
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| first course |
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| Patou in the kitchen |
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| Add caption |
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| All the kids like mine craft... |
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| All the boys with their moms |
Then we drove on to Entrepierres, near Sisteron. BEAUTIFUL drive.
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| Bridge on the way |
Entrepierres was an abandoned village that someone bought and is now a missionary retreat center.
http://www.pierresvivantes.org/welcome/
It was just what we needed!
We took day trips, cooked our own meals (I made tartiflette one night!) and had a family UNO tournament.
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| Built sometime in the 1600's |
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| pont de la Reine Jeanne |
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| Just up the road at Entrepierres |
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| They think they can climb all the way up... |
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| Kristin took this one- |
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| Less wildflowers- now crickets... |
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| Mushrooms |
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| A favorite French sign |
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| Sisteron |
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| Geocache |
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| The view from the citadel in Sisteron |
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| The chapel Sisteron citadel |
Citadel
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| This walk was to see the ichthyosaurus fossils. They were boring. But the fungi were cool! |
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| After a long drive from the ichthyosaurus hike to what we thought was the road back to Entrepierres, and after backing up on a hillside that was in someone's yard, we passed this post office again. The road goes on both sides…. |
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| An abandoned church |
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| The church on the outside |
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| Forcalquier |
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| Provincial outdoor market in Forcalquier |
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| The chapel at Entrepierres. It is a Catholic chapel and they still have services every once in a while |
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| Our room. Entrepierres |
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| Our room |
We checked out on Tuesday and drove to Nice!
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| On the way to Nice |
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| The water was so green! |
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| Pebble Beach in Nice |
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| Sea glass in honor of Janice Sharrett |
We stayed in a little town Cap d'Ail, between Nice and Monaco and cooked our own dinner.
The next day we saw Monaco. Mostly we did the aquarium, walked around, saw the local carnival and had pizza for dinner.
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| For Chris's dad the firefighter! |
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| The aquarium from a park nearby |
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| They could chose one activity- game or ride. Ben now knows the games are not a good choice! |
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| These two rode a crazy round and round upside down thing. |
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| Fall |
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| Fish market at Carrfour in Monaco |
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| Sunrise- the last of vacation |
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| Menton Beach |
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| Behind the car- |
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| Monaco from below |
Halloween. The day to drive home. France, through Monaco and then we stopped in Menton, France for 30 minutes for the kids to go to a beach again in the warm Mediterranean sun. Then Italy, France, and Italy again, always heading home. We saw beautiful sights, stopped for lunch in a small town and had our picnic on a bench.
And then, on the last set of mountains, we took the mountain pass (not the 50Euro tunnel) and halfway up we hit FOG. This is the kind of fog you read about in books. Thick, cold clouds. We couldn't see more than 10 feet. We passed abandoned buildings, tunnels to nowhere, and followed the white line on the pavement. Spooky Halloween.
But when we got to France the fog lifted:
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| Entering France |
It's good to be home. Rest some more. Do lots of laundry (hard to dry on rainy days). Glad my doctor adjusted my thyroid medicine. I stopped having headaches.
Yes we did homework every day while we were gone. My teacher assigned us a book to read in French. I wrote a 600 work paper about it. We had limited internet access. It was a good week!
Class started again Monday the 4th.
Now we get up, have breakfast, get kids to school (some days Chris takes Noah early - the days he has to be there at 7:40), walk, ride bikes, or on rainy days, drive to school. Get kids at noon, Clean breakfast dishes. Review the morning's lessons, get the kids to class at 1:30, go back to school. At 5 get the kids again, go home, make dinner, rest, get kids in bed, do homework. Sleep. Repeat daily.
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| A tongue twister to give relief from the multitude of types of pronouns |
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| Classmate Melissa Molsee gives the devotion Monday morning |
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| Learning French culture |
PS If you read to the bottom, Mike Sharrett Jr. is selling our van for us- here's the link if you are interested or know anyone who is! Pray that is sells soon!
