I have been friends with Amy since my Junior year of high school and I have known her since middle school. We bonded in 11th grade over our mutual hatred for our math teacher…my hatred in particular. :-) And as long as we’ve been friends, I’ve always been invited to her family’s picnics at the lake for memorial day, 4th of July and Labor day. I go as often as I can because really her family has become like my second family over the years, and I love them.

Plus, isn’t it just gorgeous there?

This is Amy’s nephew, Baby Gary, the star of the family. :-)

Amy’s mom…we all know where Amy gets her laugh. hehe.

Brianna is 10 now and I remember when she was a newborn just home from the hospital. Insane! Makes me feel so old!

Jason enjoyed the lake with me this year too. :-)

A storm came in and everyone worked together to get everything cleaned up before taking cover in the trailer and under the awnings.

There was a little slip and slide action for Baby Gary in the rain.

Amy’s grandmother.

And of course…some fireworks. Although, they were a little close for comfort. :-)

All in all, the picnic was super fun and we can’t wait for the next one.

Ahhh…Paris! Even though none of us speak french, and we spent waaaay too much time staring blankly at waiters, I still loved Paris. When we got to Paris from London, it felt like we had just arrived in Europe. It has that feel to it that England just didn’t have. I loved walking through the neighborhoods and seeing the Eiffel Tower! I would go back in a second, but first I’d buy Rosetta Stone and learn to speak french…to avoid the staring blankly thing.

This little tour group from England just cracked me up. All the women were wearing these stripey shirts. Maybe like Marcel Marceau? Is that right? I don’t know, but I thought it was adorable.

Sailing ships in the fountain at the park? I dont’ know, we didn’t get to stick around to see what the plan was. I love these little sail boats though.

Orsay … we went to the Louvre too, but I much preferred the Orsay. The craziness around the Mona Lisa behind glass was really just insanity though.

First view of the Eiffel Tower. :-)

Notre Dame.

This church was incredible. The walls were made entirely to house this beautiful stained glass. The crown of thorns used to sit on that pedestal up there. Now it’s in Notre Dame.

View from Sacre-Coeur.

Jason doing some sort of Austin Powers impression.

All of us on top of Sacre-Coeur. haha.

Moulin Rouge

Eiffel Tower in daylight!

Amy really excited to be on top of the Eiffel Tower. I think this is one of those things that, as a first time tourist in Paris, you have to do. But I would not do it again! The lines were pretty miserable and I think I would have been just as happy to sit under it and take it in.

Last view of the Seine on the way to the airport.

And one of me concentrating really hard to get what I want in the background of a self take, and forgetting to smile. Also, that’s not what I had wanted in the background. :-)

I’m so glad the trip ended on a good note with pretty Paris and good weather. Although, it made it tough to come back.

au revoir (one of the 4 french words i know. hehe)

Here are a few more photos from the trip…England.

The Roman Baths… We went to this spa in Bath that is supposedly water from the Baths. It was an awesome spa…but I was a little disappointed that the water was kind of chloriney…I guess they’re afraid of people getting dysentery and things. Fair enough.

There were these cool boats on the canal where some people lived and supposedly some are restaurants too.

Some of the boats had these flower pots on them…I’m guessing they don’t move so much anymore.

Stonehenge. Way more impressive than I’d expected. The whole thing is just bigger, and knowing how far they moved all the stones (from up to 240 miles away), but not knowing why is pretty weird.

I thought Jason sort of resembled this mannequin. He said he disagreed, but he posed for this photo without too much protest, so I think he sees it at least a little.

Horseback riding. Hallelujah, it stopped raining just long enough for our hour ride. Phew. That’s Amy in the background there.

The famous Big Ben…or Big Ben is in that tower or something like that. I think they said on one of the tours I was on, but I don’t remember.

Jason enjoys some Wagamama

Wagamama self take…one of like 8.

Amy loves the self-take. This one she’s doing with her friend Emily who was studying in Bath and was nice enough to take us around a lot. Take note that Amy is chopping off half of her head in this photo. Nice skills. :-)

A few photos of stuff on our walk around town…

I like how Amy’s head is half in the cup. haha. Cider is yummy in the UK.

Big Ben.

Paris to follow…