And just like that, she's a teenager

Happy 13th birthday to Abbie! Hard to believe that she has made it from tween to teen. She says that it was a good birthday. We started with brunch and then went to the mall for Rock of Ages Mini-Golf, which I think that we all enjoyed.

The general consensus is that she definitely looks older than she did a year ago. After mini-golf, we went to pick up her new bike, which was just in time because she is starting a week-long biking camp tomorrow.

She did some biking in the afternoon and then we just had a laid back dinner at home. She had wanted to go out for ice cream for her birthday, but the line was too long, so we settled on cake at home. That didn't keep Chad from making it interesting, though. He bought some relighting candles and we had a pretty good laugh about them until he started to get concerned about burning the house down!

As you can see, we all survived, and the cake was actually pretty good. Cheers to having a teenager in da house! :)

France

It has been way too long between posts, but we have been busy! After school ended, Abbie had a few weeks of downtime before our big three-week trip to France. As you can imagine, she was excited and was busy gearing up by making sure that she had all the supplies that she needed for her camera and all the money that she wanted to bring with her.

Lunch overlooking the Mediterranean!

I don't know that it is possible to have a bad trip to France, so not surprisingly, it was a great trip. We started off in Paris, then took the train to Avignon, picked up a rental car and headed to a tiny town called L'Isle sur la Sorgue. From there, we moved on to Aix-en-Provence, then to Cassis, then to Annecy, then to Beaune, then back to Paris. As you can imagine, we saw a ton of wonderful things, but still only saw such a small portion of the country.

Documenting the trip

Abbie LOVED the trip. When we got home, she told us that she would rather be sleeping on a hard floor somewhere in France than sleeping in her own bed at home. :) It was a good way for Abbie to practice her French, but I think it also made her realize just how little she actually knows. Her best conversations were with young children who were entertained by her limited knowledge. :)

Making a French friend

This sweet girl in the photo above is one such kiddo. Abbie met her on a boat ride down the Seine and they chatted away the entire time. As you can tell, the girl just loved Abbie. So cute!

As you can imagine, we did a ton of activities and took a few day trips. In Paris, Abbie insisted that we tour the Catacombs, which we did. It was pretty cool, both temperature-wise and experience-wise. There are a lot of bones down there! In Aix, we went to Cezanne's studio, and took a day trip to Arles, which has Roman ruins. The photo below was taken in Beaune, which is in the heart of Burgundy. We went to the Hotel-Dieu, which is a hospital that was built in the 1400's. It was really impressive.

Looking tall in front of a small door

Also in Beaune, we went to a winery (Chateau Pommard) and toured a mustard factory. Both were interesting. Below is a photo of the girls making their own mustard, which, it turns out, is shockingly easy to do.

Making mustard

Of course, the problem with a big trip to France is that it ends. Fortunately, Abbie had a relatively soft landing. The day after we returned to the US, she went to spend two nights with her friend Eleanor. Tomorrow, we are heading up to Minnesota for our usual summer activities there - camps for the girls, work for us, and cooler temperatures for sure!