Bike Ride

Every summer Seb and I go for a long bike ride (20miles) and this year was no exception. Except that it was cooler this year than last. Felt like October.

 Anyhoo, on our way out of the city we saw this young deer running around this fenced in area right next to the Caen expo center. If you look very closely you can see the deer in this shot…middle right. I talked to a man who was working here and he said the deer has been trapped in there for three weeks! Anyhoo, just thought I'd share. Anyone think about unlocking and leaving the gate open?? Just a thought….  

 So on to the bike riding….

and horses along the way….

and old markers near the railroad tracks….

and good scrap metal fences….

and picnic preparations. 

This guy must have smelled our lunch

 because he was all over our blanket and basket.

Taking a break on the way back. 

Put us down for another run next summer.

What is it??

 It is round, and kind of looks like Mickey Mouse.

If you action the finger holes teeth come out.

Any guesses?

I am sure you know Mom…..

 I had to laugh because we stumbled upon this the other day at the store and thought of you. Our soft boiled egg cutter. 

The results were a bit mediocre. Not sure if that is because Sebastian was doing the cutting (and not applying the proper pressure) or if it is just mediocre.

 (And our standard smacking the egg with the back of a butter knife works just as well. Stay tuned.) Anyhoo, for €4, we thought we'd give it a try.

Dinner with the neighbors

Our neighbors' good looking birds and plastic cheeseburgers.

Here is Seb playing around with the boxer's cheeseburger toy.

 We had some of our own, the real deal.

Coming and going….

Who knew there were 7 elevens in Copenhagen. Not me.

 Who knew Coke had personalized their bottles. Not me.

Homie and Heidi knew.

Here we are at O'Hare and Seb is being a news reporter 

(due to the news truck parked behind him).

Get it? Talking into the microphone?  

And here we were in Stockholm on the return leg. 

After being awake for nearly 24 hours we thought we'd be funny and look for our luggage as it was being loaded. There was a shadow so it was hard to tell, but we couldn't see our purple suitcase. 

Funny, ha, ha, because after arriving in Paris the joke was on us. No purple suitcase! Ha, only 2 out of 3. On the up note, the lost suitcase was delivered to our door this morning (three days later) with some customs stickers on it from Turkey. I'd be curious for the suitcase to tell me about its travels. I guess I'll just have to imagine. And enjoy having our stuff back. Oh, that Colectivo coffee is going to taste good. 

First on the list….

Get into the pool with my cousins and goof off. 

Thankfully Aiden is a super good sport and didn't get upset when his older cousin (who shall remain nameless, but you'll see) almost kicked him out of the pool and cracked his head open.

It was a wonderful vacation with lots of scrapes, bruises, mosquito bites and almost ripped ears, but no one's head was cracked open. So much for needing that worldwide health insurance.

Second on the list…..

after all of the other second things on the list 

was a trip to the ZOO.

 Aiden, Sara and Rebecca were up climbing just like the monkeys.

On our "sky safari" ride. 

It was pretty high. 

Just ask Lynn, she can vouch for me…

I was holding on pretty tight.

Feeding the sting rays.

Go Lilly!

Batter up!

Looking good at Nick's 8am baseball game. 

Aiden looks a bit tired, but hey, what Aiden wouldn't do for his cousin! 

The West Salem (Nick's) team

 Then the BREWERS game that very night. 

Baseball, baseball, baseball!

An extra big thank you to Mark for the squeaky clean tickets!

And Lynn for our 1st ever tailgate BBQ.

Here is Seb watching the giant video screen of the game that is going on right in front of us. 

Blasted video screen, it sucks you in.

A smoke and some pizza

After all that smoking, 

 the kids needed a good pizza with Grandma. 

Grandma gets a thumbs up!

Keeping cool...

After a good game of basketball (fisher price style)

 some custard was in order.

 Aiden sporting his school photo smile 

plus the additional chocolate goatee. Too cute.

Lilly may by young, but she knows to keep her custard far away from Sara.

Grant Park

Great idea by Grandma to take us to Grant Park. 

It was super hot and a walk in the shade was much appreciated.

The cesspool in the foreground was full of still water and scum. When we left the beach (and the free moving actual Lake Michigan water) we saw dogs and children swimming in it. Yuck! 

The water was FREEZING and Sara went all the way in!