Randomness

This cracks me up.  I found this for sale at our NATO grocery store.  Gone with the Wind ice cream anyone?  I had to buy it.



I think that this must mean that Payson is going to be brilliant.  She can smile and keep her pacifer in at the same time.  She has skills.



We went on a day trip this past weekend to several beer towns in Belgium.  Brian's instructions to me when we were getting ready were "Liz - This is not a photo op.  No matching clothes, no cute clothes.  Just jeans and t shirts."

My silly husband everywhere is a photo op.  Look how beautiful the Scourmont Abbey that brews Chimay is.  Here we all are dressed just the way Brian likes us.

A message from Payson

I may be all smiles now but being a six month old is hard.



I really, Really,



REALLY,



want to get to where my sisters are.



My mom says I am not allowed to be mobile until I am at least 9 months or older.  What is up with that?



I guess I will just have to settle with working out my frustration on the drums for now.

Normandy Region - Un

From Versailles we were about two hours away from the Normandy Region of France.  We woke up early the next morning thinking we would go straight to the D-Day beaches.

Our GPS had other ideas.  We were getting low on gas and two gas stations we stopped at were out of gas and then our GPS led us to two different gas stations that were non existent.  Not only that but when we finally found a gas station, it would only take credit cards (no cash) with a smart chip (I loathe smart chips but I won't go into that).  Living in Europe makes you appreciate simple things like pay at the pump gas stations that work.

It all worked out in the end though because we ended up in the cute town of Caen. (where we finally found gas with zero miles left in our tank.)



After going around in circles and visions of getting stranded on the side of the road, we decided that we should stop in Caen and walk around.



We had a great lunch of croque monsieurs and then



we headed over to the Caen Memorial Museum.  It offered free childcare and all veterans got in free so we had to at least check it out.  So glad we did!  Brian and I were able to  brush up on our WWII history, while Carolyn and Sidney played.



From here we drove to where we were originally headed that morning, the town of Arromanches,



where we got a great view of the Port Winston Artificial Harbor. Here is a close up of the Mulberries (football-field-size cement blocks) that created the harbor.  This makeshift Harbor was created on June 7, 1944 and within 6 days of operation 54,000 vehicles, 326,000 troops, 110,000 tons of goods had crossed the English channel.



We decided to call it a day after seeing this and find a place to eat when we happened upon Port-En-Bessin.

(Check out that sweet ride to the far right of this picture.  I don't think that I ever mentioned on here, but shortly after Payson was born we realized that we were going to have to have a bigger car.  With our options being limited over here we had to upgrade to the mini.  I thought I would loathe driving a minivan, but it makes my life so much easier that I have gotten over it.  I am all for anything that makes my life easier these days.  And it made this road trip so much more enjoyable.  Anyway there she is.)



Port Bessin turned out to be a beautiful stop!  The water was so pretty and it wasn't that crowded with tourist.



The French eat late and we had an hour to kill before they would serve food, so we enjoyed a drink while Sidney got to watch a little Max and Ruby (thank goodness for our Ipad).



Carolyn spent the hour looking for fish and making a new friend.  I swear she makes a new friend wherever we go.



Finally though, it was worth the wait and I got my mussels and Brian got the fruits de mer platter.  Throw in some local cider and you have one of our best meals!

Versailles

To break up our drive to Normandy, France we decided to stop in Versailles for the evening.



Although I knew that we were visiting it in the summer, and I had read that the day we were visiting was one of the busiest days, I don't think I was fully prepared for the mass of humanity that was there that day.



We decided to skip the line for the Chateau and walk the grounds instead.



Classical Music is played throughout the Gardens.  It was beautiful...







You would think that my children would be checking out this gorgeous fountain..



but really they were fascinated by the fish and ducks in the pond.  It always amazes me that the things they get most excited about are animals and



of course flowers.... things they could find anywhere.  They could care less about the old beautiful buildings around them.  Hopefully one day they will appreciate where there momma and daddy have taken them.



On a side note, in less than a month my baby will start Kindergarten. You would think that I would be jumping for joy to have one less little one at home, but I really am having a hard time. I can't believe she is growing up so fast.



She is so excited though..."counting down the days" excited.  I love that I am getting photo bombed by my five year old in this picture.



After walking around the grounds, we walked back to the Chateau hoping the masses of humanity had decided to go home.  This picture does not do justice to the line to get inside.  To the right are all the people who are lined up...it was crazy.



Needless to say, we did not go inside.  Brian's solution for me not getting to go in was "Honey, I will take you to the Biltmore House."  My solution: I think I need a girl's trip to Paris before we leave here (And I don't mean "girl's trip" as in me and my daughters...I mean an adult girl's trip just to clarify in case my husband is reading this).

Half a Year

Guess who is a big 6 month old??



Although it is not my favorite thing... Payson is definitely a fan of baby food.  Just don't try and give her cereal that has zero flavor or anything green.  Everything else she loves!



And the lucky little world traveler got to spend her 6 month birthday in France.  More pictures on that trip, but here is a cute one with her Daddy at a cafe in Versailles.

Look at that head of hair too!  She has the darkest hair of all the girls and the thickest so far.  Such a pretty baby, I am not biased at all.

Soccer

Soccer season has been over for a while but I realized I never posted any pictures.



Here is Carolyn's team photo but half of her team was missing this day for some reason.  I love the little boy on the end who didn't want his picture taken.



And here are a couple of pictures from trophy day.



Always Carolyn's favorite part.



In the Fall, Carolyn will actually start to play games not just have practices.  She is very excited!

NATO Airshow

The NATO base celebrated 30 years with an air show in June.  Here the girls are posing with Brian in front of the AWACS.  Do you see the line of people behind the plane?  That was the line to tour the plane.



Luckily Brian was able to sneak the girls on and we didn't have to wait.  I stayed down with Payson and got these cute pictures.  Carolyn was all about being in the cockpit.



Can you see Sid?  She wasn't too sure she wanted to look out the window.



The parade of nations that work on the base.



Carolyn had a good time waving at everyone in the parade.



Sid decided she would be shy and was happier laying on her Daddy's shoulder.



The great thing about this Air show is that every nation had their own food booth set up.



We had a great time eating Salmon from Norway, gyros from Greece, pastries from the Czech Republic, Noodles from Thailand and drinking Moose Milk from Canada.



The American booth was serving hamburgers and hotdogs.  We skipped those but we



did support our roots by purchasing cotton candy and lemonade in Red Solo Cups of course.



Just a picture of Payson to prove she was there that day.  She is still such a great baby!



Before this day I had never been on an AWACS.  Later in the day we went down to a separate display so I could go on the plane.  There wasn't anyone on this plane so the girls had a great time trying out all the roles.  Here Carolyn is the pilot and Sidney is sitting in the Navigator seat.



Then they moved to the back of the plane and they tried out being Air Battle Managers.



Finally we have Sidney as the pilot and Carolyn as co pilot.  I would let them fly me.  It was a great day.  I really enjoyed finally getting to see the inside of the plane that Brian spends a lot of his time in and that has moved me around the world.