Old enough to drink

If I was into that kind of thing...

But I'm not, so here's what we decided to do on my birthday instead of visiting the local bars.

Breakfast in bed made by my cute husband. Banana pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream and a croissant and hot chocolate. Yum!

Streamers by my door just like my mom always does! Thanks Teresa!

Presents from Kent. He picked out that adorable purse all by himself! And he gave me the kitchen tools I've been longing to have ever since I got my own kitchen. I have a ladle without holes in it! Hooray!These presents were all sent to me. I got the cutest earrings, necklace, and a bath and body works candle from my mom, and my little brothers and my sister gave me homemade birthday cards, my favorite! And my Grandpa Murray gave me a willow whistle (that's the stick with the green ribbon). He makes those every springtime, and we always go with. But since I wasn't there this year, he sent me one. Thanks everyone! We had a picnic indoors because it was raining. And this picture is really bright, I know.
Kent took me on a Jeep ride down to the lake and we climed around on some rocks for a while.

Danny and Teresa took me to dinner at Cool Hand Lukes. John and Libby and their girls came too. What a fun birthday! Oh, and that's just water I'm drinking there. :D

Whew!

We're here! And I finally have internet!!! What a crazy couple of days it has been. But I think I like it here. Okay, so I guess I'll just start at my birthday and work forward from there.

Oh what do you do in the summertime...

When you're living in San Antonio, Texas?

I've been doing some research. We're leaving for Texas in 3 days. What are we going to do when Kent's not working? And what am I going to do while Kent is working? Here are some ideas:

Rivercenter Mall

San Antonio LDS Temple

World Famous Schlitterbahn Water Park

The Riverwalk (shopping, restaurants)

Little shops and marketsThe Guenther House Mill (tours, shop, and restaurant)

The Alamo

Tower of the Americas
(Kent's been to the restaurant at the top and says it's incredible.)

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

Natural Bridges Wildlife Ranch (A drive-through safari)

Fun! I'm really excited about this move. Everything we've heard about San Antonio is great! I think we'll like it there. It's always hard on me to move. I don't like change. But this should be good. I'm excited to get off on our own again. It will be great to get to know a new place.

This month is such a special one...

It's birthday time for me.

Today Teresa took me to the Fresno Temple and we did a session. It was really neat, since I haven't been in a small temple before. It is a beautiful temple. After it was done, we went birthday shopping! It was so much fun! And I found some really cute things to take with me to Texas. I'm so excited to wear everything. I love getting new clothes. It definitely gives me a high, and I feel so cute and happy wearing my new things for like the next few weeks. As much as I like new clothes, however, I'm usually not much of a shopper. I don't like spending money at all, especially on myself. I just feel so guilty thinking about all that money... But that's why birthdays are so much fun. I can pick things out for myself without feeling guilty about it.

My birthday is on Saturday, and I need to think of something simple and fun that Kent and I can do. I like simple things for birthdays, like a picnic or something. I'll have to think about it. It can't be anything too big because we have to leave early Sunday morning for our drive to Texas. We're driving to Phoenix the first day, to a little place called Ozona, TX, the second day, and then on the third day it should only take us a few hours to make it into San Antonio. It will be a long, long drive, but at least I can wear cute new clothes on the way!

Run, run, run

After too many weeks of lounging and overeating, Kent and I decided it's finally time to start working out again. Every day when Kent gets home from work we lace up and run the mile loop around Blue Oak Drive. Now let me get one thing clear: I hate running. And there's a couple of reasons. First, I feel like I'm going to die when we get to the second half of the mile and start going uphill. Someone really needs to plant some trees on that side of the loop. Also, we run at about 3 or 4. The hottest time of day. I've inherited a lovely thing my mom and I call the "red face gene." My face is redder than a fire truck for at least an hour after I run. So not only do I feel like I'm going to die, but everyone who sees me is very concerned about my health. ("Is she going to be all right? Her face is really red." Etc.)

BUT, I love the sore muscles because it means I've actually done something. And I am excited to see how much farther I can get each day before the "I'm going to die!" feeling sets in. And it is deliciously nice to be able to jump right into the pool at Kent's parent's house as soon as I get back. I like having a goal, and it has been fun to see how motivating and positive my sweet husband is. He's awfully cute when we're running. And I'm really, really, really proud of us for running every day. That's why I'm actually making a post about this. So, we're going to keep it up. Although we will probably not continue doing this exercise at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. It's just way too hot.

Gastronomie

We had some exciting and interesting meals in France. It was always an adventure deciding what to order, and we usually had our French/English dictionary out, passing it around the table. There was a lot of "What do you think this means?", and "Would I be safe ordering this?". Well, I took pictures of some of our particularly memorable meals, so here they are! I'm only missing a picture of the raw ham platter we had one afternoon, and there was also a restaurant in Carcassone that had the most incredible lasagna we'd ever tasted.



This was one of my favorite meals at a restaurant right on the Mediterranean. Grilled Salmon and "American Fries." The salmon was heavenly.


A "Mixed grille" plate-chicken, duck, nearly raw steak, stewed vegetables, and two sausages. One sausage was really good, and the other one didn't make it into my mouth. The smell alone was more than I could handle.


Eating my favorite French sandwich: slices of ham (lunch meat style, not raw!), Swiss cheese, fresh tomatoes, "salade" (lettuce), and butter on a baguette style sandwich bun. Mmm!




Raspberry sorbet on the left and Rose Petal ewe's milk ice cream on the right.



Cassoulet. And I don't see any macaroni or noodles in there, do you?


Voila!

Canal du Midi

Pictures!! These are a bunch of pictures that Teresa took. I have more that I took as well, but they're on the other computer right now, so maybe I'll add more of those later.


(Oh, and I know it looks like I only have one shirt to wear in all these trip pictures. I actually had about five, but I guess I liked to wear the red one most. :D We only took carry-on luggage so we didn't have to worry about losing it, so I had limited options, and apparently we only took pictures on the day I wore the red one.)





Kent waiting for our turn through one of the 64 locks



This is the pileup of boats waiting to get through the seven lock stretch.



Early morning reading inside the boat

For more fun pictures and stuff about our trip, go to here and here.

Whew!

We're back from our fabulous vacation. I don't even know how to start writing about it. It was wonderful. The countryside was beautiful, the boat was cute and cozy, the villages picturesque, and the French cuisine was...an adventure. :D I guess I'll just give you a few of my highlights. Our first hotel in Castlenaudry was adorable! Vine covered, with windows that overlooked the canal, and quaint little rooms. I think Castlenaudry was one of my favorite places. We stayed there the first night and day before we picked up our boat. It was a cute little village with a very peaceful and laid-back atmosphere. We ate probably my favorite meal there in a fabulous restaurant; we ordered the region's famous dish-cassoulet, and Teresa bought me a beautiful cassoulet pottery dish. The view out our window in Castlenaudry The three girls got to sit back and relax the entire trip while the boys did all the work driving the boat, navigating through locks, and finding places to buy us some crossaints for breakfast. We had a blast laying out in the sun on the front end of the boat, just chatting about all sorts of things while our hubbys tied off ropes and steered the boat. Our boat was so cute! Teresa made a sweet little centerpiece each day with wildflowers we picked from along the canal. I LOVED the beautiful trees and farmland we passed. It was an unbelievably beautiful place. It was fun to chat with all the other boaters we met along the way. There were so many friendly people from all over the world. Waking up in Castlenaudry the first morning--I haven't felt that relaxed and at peace in a long time. All of our jokes about the "poo water." The boats on this particular canal have no holding tanks for the waste water.... that's all I'm going to say. The mini-lesson that Heidi gave us on Sunday about Lehi's dream and the fountain of filthy water. It sure was applicable! The peaceful Sunday morning on the river, and doing our own mini-church meeting. Kent and me walking with our bikes (because I'm out of shape) along the river and just talking. Our silly hand signals and ways to get the waiters to come back to us in the restaurants. The French don't believe in fast meals! We were always in there for at least an hour or two, waiting to get le adicion (sp?) (the bill). The strange rocking sensation we felt every time we were sitting in restaurants. The river was calm, and we never felt sick, but as soon as we got off the boat it just felt weird. It was so fun to play games every night in the boat, laughing at Kent and Sam and their competitive teasing. And there was some story about Kent and ducks that those two giggled about the entire week! Pastries. Mmmm... Kent and Sam pestering each other by either shaking or turning upside down the flan containers. Kent likes them shaken, Sam likes them upside-down. I see no difference between the two actions, and I did a lot of eyebrow-raising at their antics. Shopping in Carcassone with Heidi and Teresa. We went up to the castle and spent a few hours in the cute little shops inside the mideval village. Having a "Bad Hair Week" because the boat's electricity had to be converted and our converters blew out and the hair dryer on the boat was really pathetic. So we just let our hair dry in the wind as we sat on the boat. Sleeping on the boat and being scared by the shadows of the cats that climbed aboard and walked around at night. The VERY loud rumbling of the boat when one of the guys put it in reverse. The exciting time we always had ordering our food at restaurants. No one spoke English, and we didn't speak French, so we were never sure what we were going to get. The best example of this was the last night in France, when Sam ordered something that the waiter could only explain as "tiger", holding his hands up to show how big it would be. :D (This is what he actually got. We aren't sure what the 'tiger' part was.) Eating all sorts of new and different things. To name a few, I ate a gizzard salad, lots of duck meat, TONS of baguettes, ham that was completely raw, and ewes milk ice cream that was flavored by real rose petals (it tasted like I was eating perfume!). Danny trying to "smuggle" a peice of raw ham back to the boat in Teresa's purse. Heidi's pasta salad that saved us from starvation after the raw ham incident. Love how they spelled Ice Cream. Ice Scream. That totally changes the meaning of a dessert. :D Trying to find flavored yogurt every time we went into one of their unbelievably tiny grocery stores. Even the "supergrocers" and "mega" stores were only about the size of a gas station convienience store. I wonder what they'd do if they saw a Costco. Touching the Mediterranian Ocean! It was so much fun, and I could go on and on talking about it, but I like looking at pictures better, so I'll make a slide show of my pictures later today.