Chaka Khan Park

You may start to get sick of all of my garden pictures but I can't help that there are so many lovely gardens here in France.  Jeremy and I aren't really museum people, which is good since you can't really take a lot of pictures in museums anyway!  We had a friend recommend this museum/garden to us and decided to check it out this past Saturday.  It did not disappoint!  The actual name of it is Musee Albert Kahn...but it was easier to call it the Chaka Kahn park or Genghis Kahn park.  This little garden was lovely....

This is for Taylor....who spent endless amounts of time taking close-ups of flowers when we were in Europe together... 

We had to pull down the green leaves around this flower to get a good shot!

So you can tell that it was all lovely, but then we walked into the best part of all...it was like a dream when you are a kid!  In America they would have many fences around the water but in France, they just don't care about law suits...and thank heaven for that!

There are actually two Japanese bridges here

Then I discovered my new favorite tree of all time.  Pictures really don't do it justice and if anyone knows what kind of tree it is I will be ever so obliged.  It had long, long vines of leaves, not really leaves on branches.  When you walked under the tree it made a complete canopy or tent around you.  I really wish they would let you have picnics under there...  Now next time I get one of those pass around books from Elementary school with all of your favorite questions, instead of putting "Dogwood" as my favorite tree, I am going to write "Kahn canopy tree."

View of my favorite tree from the top of that red flower overlook.

Stepping stones across the water

We left a little shout-out in the guest book...he he!

Spring Has Sprung

I promised my friend Sara that I would post a couple pictures of our house once everything had begun to bloom so here they are.....

This is the entrance to our house, there are even more purple flowers now

The back yard

So green, I just love it!



These pictures are from the same park a few weeks ago with the peacocks in it...The gardens seem to change so much every week.  Now there are flowers galore, I steered clear of the cat area...

Coming to America

Jeremy and I sang the Neil Diamond classic "We're Comin' to America...Today" for about 7 days before we left France.  We were excited to go to Cali, see friends and family...which is exactly what we did!  We first went to San Francisco to obtain our Visas.  We had all of the documentation, including extra things they didn't even ask for and when we were being interviewed they decided Jeremy didn't have enough pages in his passport.  The paper they sent us asked for 4 clear pages, which he had...but the French are tricky and said he needed 4 consecutive pages.  So we immediately left there to try to find the passport office and see if Jeremy could get more pages added in the next 4 hours.  To make a long story short, we were able to get more pages for Jeremy's visa and FedExed it to the French Consulate about a block away so we could have our visas mailed to us in the two week window we were in the States.  We also saw some new things in San Francisco this time including a new park, new place for Dim Sum and visited our favorite restaurant E Tutto Qua!  Unfortunately, I got a cold and could barely taste one bite while we were there...oh well!

Dim Sum..the biggest pork buns ever!

I think it was called Mission Park, but I already forget.  It had a great view of the city!

Shout out for Kristie and Trevor!


The next day we went to Monterey, one of our favorite places.  As we arrived there was a farmer's market and we immediately had some Root Beer.  It's amazing how you crave things when you can't have them....  The whole reason we went there was to go whale watching and that was an adventure to say the least!  Right after we bought tickets, we went down to the dock and Jeremy said that we made a mistake because it was too choppy.  Since I had never been sea sick before, I told him to be positive and I was sure it would be fine....let's just say I was not right at all.  About a half hour into the trip we started eating Ginger Chews because we felt queasy and about 2 1/2 hours into it we ran out....Yep, I let it go three times off the back of the boat.  I thought the trip was two hours but we got the four hour ride, it was pure (you know what!)  Jeremy seemed to hold it together but just barely.  I felt dumb when the guide came down to me when we finally saw some whales and told me they were on the other side of the boat.  I told Jeremy I wouldn't turn around even if they began walking on the water, I was just trying to keep it together.  Needless to say, that wiped us out for most of the day and we took a little nap and eventually ate some dinner!  This is my face after the ride....at my expense and Jeremy's delight...

The day after we flew to San Diego...what Jeremy refers to as "The Garden of Eden."  It is hard to argue with that since we could put on flip flops and have the windows down.  The first day we went to the temple in the morning, Jeremy got a hair cut and we just enjoyed being outside and together.   We also took a long walk on the beach...Long Beach, we were in heaven!

The next day we took a long walk/jog along the bay, explored Coronado and had lunch and then drove the PCH through Laguna Beach and Newport Beach and met our friend Jeff Jackson.  Jeff took us to a little taco dive, which was delicious...esp. since we hadn't had Mexican food in a while!  We then stayed the night at his house and sat on the beach the next morning.  Jeremy and I then had our flight but after a series of mishaps, we missed it.  So we were both embarrassed and secretly excited to be able to spend another evening with Jeff.  We went to church with him the next day and had a lovely time...and made our flight to Utah!

We were both sad to leave Cali and excited to be back in SLC to see everyone!  We stayed with Lyndee and Jim and got to see Jaxon and the girls play soccer.  I enjoyed Jocelyn letting me cuddle her while she scowled at Jeremy!

The end of the week we were able to stay with the Finlinsons, I think I was so excited to see everyone in Utah that I didn't think to take any pics.  I loved seeing all the cute babies of Marianne, Erin, Christy and Annie...and some of our cute neices and nephews!  They are all growing up too fast!

For the last part of our American tour, we surprised my mother for her birthday and went to Pittsburgh.  The first evening was spent with Michael and Kerri and they made us steak, which was possibly the best or second best steak I have ever had!  Then, on Sunday morning we showed up in my home ward and surprised my mother before church began.  We had been planning on it and we celebrated her birthday a week early so we could be there, I was glad she didn't catch on!

Rico and Erin

Michael and Kerri

The dessert bar...we had mini chocolate bundt cakes, petit fours and chocolate covered strawberries

Gram and Dad

Us...

The Fergies came over for dessert and I didn't take one blasted picture....I'll catch them in Ocean City!

The next day we went to the track meet that dad started at Ringgold.  It was re-named the Scott Frederick Mid-Mon Valley Track Classic.  We all bought t-shirts and cheered for him.  It was a great honor for him and we were proud!  That evening we went to Red Lobster and celebrated!

The next day we flew back home, after some shopping of course.  We love America! God Bless America! American the Beautiful...you Americans don't know how good you have it!

Vaux le Vicomte Chateau

A few weeks ago Jeremy and I checked out another nearby chateau.  We were tired of the cold and just wanted to see some green.  We seem to have a curse when we go to see these chateaus and it always seems to be cold and rainy.  This day was also a bit chilly but was fine when the sun shined...which it eventually did by the middle of our little tour.  We no longer go in the big chateau because they all look alike but we love exploring the grounds.  This place was no exception, it was fun to walk around and see all of the beautiful budding gardens! In the summer they have a dinner in the gardens and light the entire thing up with candles...we are very excited to check that out in a couple months!
Enjoy the pics!

You can't just order a burger at a chateau...only a steak..medium, with a bearnaise sauce!

The front

View of the gardens from the back of the chateau

The back of the chateau

Jeremy in front of an aquaduct

If you look behind me you will see a lovely stone bridge

The aquaduct, which they used for all of the gardens and ponds

Neptune...I think

One of the many paths to the chateau, still unpaved.

We walked to the top of the big hill in the back of the chateau to get this lovely view

One of the great things about France is that they don't kid-proof everything.  I know some of you parents would be nervous but you can imagine what they would do in America to these lovely steps and terrace...I'm guessing big, ugly orange fencing with huge signs of the danger of falling.

With the sun finally out