Week Full of Fall

We had a week full of fall activities!

Adeline's class had a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Full of pumpkins, hay, goats, ponies, and buddies.

We finally planted our winter garden.  Adeline was helping by stacking rocks around the base of the plants.  Not sure how she thought this was going to help the plants but kept her occupied for a good bit.

With the cooler weather we have had to start wearing our slippers and hats in the morning!

The highlight of our week was most definitely the State Fair!  This was Adeline's second trip and Lillian's first.  They (we) loved it!

First stop was the Ferris wheel.  Lillian was excited at first but quickly became a bit nervous.

Within 30 seconds of walking through the gate, Adeline saw a girl holding a big purple teddy bear.  She was set on winning one of her own.  Luke saddled up to a water gun game and played 6 times but could not win the bear (to the left in the picture below).  The girls were very patient while he tried to win it but they began to become VERY restless when he could not win it...

So we wandered to find another game that had the purple bear as a prize.  No luck...

So we went to find some food...always a good distraction...

No cotton candy, no funnel cake, no deep-fried twinky.  Just give this girl a bag of mini doughnuts and she is happy!

Adeline was asking for ice cream...only took a few minutes before "I can't feel my fingers."

One stop by the bungee bouncer.  She is really using this as a chance to see all the purple bears from the sky.

Finally, on our way out we passed a game that Luke knew he could win.  It only took him one try to win Adeline a nice pink puppy.  She was content.  Lillian was ticked.  So he headed back to the same game and won Lillian a purple cow.  Phew!

Love this time of year!

Bonjour!

We went to France!  Many of you already know this but some of you may not have known.  I am going to make an exception and make the Mini Murray blog temporarily a Big Murray blog. 

One of my close friends from college got married at a chateau outside Paris the last weekend in September.  Luke and I decided to add a few days on to the tail end of the wedding trip to round it out to a week long vacation.  It was wonderful!  Neither of us had ever been to France so this was a trip of a lifetime.  We took a bunch of pictures and it has taken me a week to go through them and pick out a few favorites.  Well, a few has turned into a lot.

My Mom always insisted that if you take a picture of a landscape, picture, field etc, you need to have someone standing in the picture.  This has been passed down to me, must be in my blood.  All week I would make Luke hop in all the pictures so that it would have someone in it.  This will make sense when you see the pictures...

We got there at 6:00 am and of course we could not check in yet.  So we headed to breakfast around the corner.  We had the first of maaaaaaaaany croissants.

Next stop was Notre Dame.  

Still no nap at this point!

The geraniums?  They were everywhere!  The window boxes were incredible, on every single corner.  This was the view from our hotel room.

On our way to dinner we stopped by Laudree and got a box of macaroons.  You may think that he is posing with the macaroons but he is actually in mid bite.

We also stopped by the Lock Bridge.  Small world...the people that took this picture for us were from Asheboro, NC!

We had dinner with a view!

Friday we were off the the wedding.  It was wonderful! The bride is the tall beautiful blond in the middle.

A group shot with some but not all of the college friends and husbands.

Our weekend was spent at this gorgeous chateau.  This was the view from our room.  Unbelievable.

Our accommodations

Friday night, rehearsal dinner

Saturday we had free to time roam about and take it all in...like the moat.  Yes, there was a moat.

The boys went off on a boat ride.

The view from the bride's room (Luke is the speck on the far right).

Luke took the ladies on a row boat ride too!

Saturday night: THE wedding.

On our way out we took a quick shot of the creek around the property and the black swan.

Sunday we were off to Burgundy, specifically Vault de Lugny.  This was our home away from home, for two days.

We had a day trip to Beaune. A few highlights...

Burgundy is known for its truffles.  The owners of the chateau where we stayed even had a truffle dog, named Dubble.  This is what the black truffle looks like!

This place was a piece of heaven on earth.  There were lots of buildings on the 100 acre property that dated back to 1500.  We spent our last afternoon exploring the grounds which included the dungeon.   Little did we know that it would give us such beautiful views.

AND, as if we were not already loving our  time there, they had a gorgeous garden.

Oh!  And there were peacocks and sheep.  Just wandering around.

The last full day we headed to Vezelay on our way back to Paris.  This was a beautiful hilltop village...

with a view!

Then back to the city.  At 6 pm we raced to the toy store at the royal palace gardens in search of gifts for the girls.  Mission accomplished and we stopped by the fountain for a picture.  Notice the man sleeping on the woman next to the fountain.  They were both sound asleep.  Only in Paris.

 We had only a few more minutes of daylight and Luke decided that we had to see the Eiffel Tower, up close.  I was content in seeing it from a distance, a large distance (had something to do with the boots I was wearing at the time).  He had me convinced so we set out (on foot!) to see the Eiffel Tower. 

We passed the Arc de Triumph....

and the Louvre.

 We stopped for dinner along the way but finally we saw the monument. We definitely worth it.

It was an incredible trip.  Start to finish!  The girls had a blast with the grandparents (pictures to come) which made it easier for us to be away.  I am thrilled to be back with the girls but would give anything for a chocolate croissant right now!