Mid-April Beach Day

Happy Spring!

Mamie and Daphné.

Les Frères Petrignani.

Sebastien.

Maïna and Pierre.

Tonton photobomb.

Pain au chocolat on the beach, nothing better!

Love this moment... these expressions... these goofballs have my heart!

Love Linz

Surfing

A couple weeks ago, my brother-in-law took me surfing in Italy!  It was so good to get back in the water.  It's been over a year since I last surfed!  Ahhhh!!!  Needless to say, I was so thankful that Sebastien took me along!

Putting on a 4/3mm wetsuit is never easy.

A board that Pierre (Daphné's Papi) found in the street.  Seb fixed it up AND personalized it with some fancy blue duct tape.

Wave check.

Seb brought his water camera - yay.

Fun perspective of his buddy on a stand-up paddle (SUP) board.

Those long boards can catch almost anything!

There's me, the hunchback of the Med.

So thankful to have such a cool brother-in-law!

Laughing and surfing go together.

Seb's friend Yann.

SUP and me paddling into a wave.  Didn't catch that one, but I got a few fun ones this day.

And a glimpse from the car.

Sebastien is out there with the SUP.  See him?

"Thank you God for sunsets.

They are Your very special way

To say goodbye to every day."

(from Daphné's "Baby's First Prayers" book by Muff Singer)

Panoramic.

Can't get enough of this place.

There's nothing like surfing in God's creation!

Seb.

Mural.

Sand.

Ok, one more.

And here we are post-surf happy faces... me, Sebastien and Yann (not pictured : Pascal) 

And a big thanks to Tonio, Mamie and Papi for watching Daphné so I could go.

Love Linz

Pre-Austria Photo dump!

Hey guys, well, our family of 3 plus Papi and Mamie are off on a 10-hour road trip tomorrow to Austria!  Tonio and I met at this Calvary Chapel Western European missionary conference in 2009, so it's a special place for us.  We will be introducing Daphné to a new place and some new people.

Before we leave, I wanted to update you on what we've been doing.  I call this a photo dump.  There is no theme, just the last pictures I had in my phone and in my camera.

Enjoy!

Sleepy girl with her pacifier and Pompn bunny.

Fountains.

Nectarine after the fountains.

Not bad for a small person.

Beach time.

Little surfer girl.

Another rough night.

Daddy's girl.

The cousins be like, "S'up?"

Beach picnic with Tonton.  Daphné sleeps.

Voilà.

Collecting rocks already.

Dressing herself.

Out at Mamie and Papi's house.

Stand-up paddling.  Seb.

Me.  Oh, how I love being on the water on a board.

Tonio.

And here's the 3 of us!

Rowyn and her French Tonton Sebastien.

She's got her peeps all contained.  We call Daphné a sheep herder, because she loves to have all her people accounted for.

Happy birthday Robi!  He let her help blow out the candle.

Big girl walking.

A visit from our friends in Grenoble.  Thomas, Maëva and Clément (10 months-old).

Glamour shots on her favorite slide.

She's so happy she can now walk around the park.

Here she goes!

Ah, how I love this little peanut.

Gidday up Lion!

And here, she was just standing in the middle of the park with her shirt up, patting her belly.  Ha.  Funny girl.

(And if you're interested, you can see the old blog post about Austria in 2009 here.  No, I didn't post pictures of Tonio... at that point, we were not really even a "thing", though I do believe we both knew we liked each other... girly giggles.)

Just for fun... here is a picture of us 2 days after we met.

So thankful I met this man!!!

Love Linz