A certain je ne sais quoi

How was the trip to Paris you ask? Here are some hints.

The kids were with my parents in California.
We spent and lived like aristocrats. 
Great weather.
Pastries at every opportunity.
Vivian and I celebrated our 3000 days anniversary.
Both Carrie and I celebrated a birthday.
Chris navigated the city and the language like a local.
Bikes were involved.

Jen!

Jen came all the way to NH to visit!  We had such a good time with her.  My kids love her and we had many good adventures.  Highlights include
-Being asked to pose for a picture for the website at sugarbush farm (no sign of the picture yet), and getting paid in cheese and crackers for our work
-While canoeing, we saw the Dartmouth crew team putting in their boats and I hear Jen behind me, "Uh, stop the boat."
-Camping right on the lakeshore
-Picking up Jen from the airport without any kids and eating some lunch, without any kids

One Year Old!

Oh what a difference a year makes.  Gwen Sophronia has grown so much since June 7th a year ago. Now she's crawling and standing and pushing around a pushcart.  She tells babbling nonsense stories.  She loves to slide and swing.  She will eat almost anything on her plate.  But will throw half of it on the floor anyway.  She gets excited to see animals, loves water, and likes to flip pages of books, especially the hymn book.  She still prefers her mommy but tolerates the presence of strangers.  She is a great sleeper.  We love you baby girl.

April/May

Just catching up on some recent pictures.

Milestone videos for grandparents

How do you get a resistant kid to ride a bike? Convince him that he's part of an undercover mission and that he'll have to practice in secret while dad is at work and never talk about it until one day he just hops on the bike and ride off. We went to the track so we could try out the bike and then he just rode away. I was surprised and Levi made sure I knew that it was all part of a secret plan to trick me. What else is he hiding?

In other news Gwen is almost 1 year old. She can pretty much stand on her own and walk with some assistance but she spends most of her time crawling instead. Is she just trying to trick me too?