Some Things America Just Gets Right

Every now and again we run across something that reminds us that there are just some things that America gets right and are not easily reproduced. Things like gourmet hamburgers with bottomless fries, or gooey chocolate chip cookies. Well, we discovered something else that we can add to that list: corn mazes. I wanted to shake things up a bit a couple of weekends ago and do something that felt like fall, so I found a corn maze not too far from us.

Notice the dying corn and the overgrown weeds

There were some fun bouncy things to play on for the kids and they did enjoy it, so I guess that makes it worth it.

Living in a Butterfly House

A funny little phenomenon started to occur after we returned from our summer vacations. We leave the windows open a lot to keep fresh air coming through our appartment and a few weeks ago we started to notice catipillars in our house. Not just a couple of them, but a ton! Jaxon was so excited and would play with them for hours upon hours. Everytime he came home from school, whether for his lunch break or in the afternoon he would always rush to play with his catipillars. He would build houses for them out of blocks (preferably where baby Jonas couldn't break them)

Here is Jaxon holding one of the catipillars. It was all very fun, except for when one unwittingly would sleep with Jaxon and get smashed or Jonas would get his hands on them and pull them apart. But still, I think the little bit of nastiness was worth the hours of fun for Jaxon.

After awhile we started noticing cacoons all over the place and then before long, butterfliesstarted showing up in the house, mostly in Jaxon's room. A couple of days ago he came home from school to find 4 butterflies flying by his window! You can kind of see them in this picture.

Jaxon has learned to be very careful with butterflies and not touch their wings.

It has been really fun to have butterflies showing up all over our apartment, it's a little like living in a fairy tale!

Dancing King

This baby cracks me up! He really is a dancer and lately he has taken to dancing to everything: good music, bad music, the sound of the metro or any other engine, any humming. This was in Inverness, Scotland and he was getting kind of whiny, so Daniel gave him his cell phone playing music. Needless to say, he was thrilled and danced the night away.

We know what to get this kid for Christmas...an Ipod!

This was in Shetland, and once again Jonas was getting kind of whiny after a long day of driving. Someone had left a cd in the car; it was a bunch a obscure 50's music that didn't interest us much, exept that Jonas discovered his favorite song: It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To. He quickly perked up and the kids had a blast dancing in their seats to this song about 50 times in a row.

Daniel was the only one able to risist the party.

Day Trip to Paris

We had split up with my sister, Tracey, and her family while we went on our trip to Scotland and they went to Italy, but we had the chance to go up and meet them in Paris the day before they flew back to the U.S. Since it was such a short trip we focused of visiting the Eiffel Tower, which Jaxon has been dying to do and hang out at Luxembourg Gardens for awhile.

These boys basically ran up all 680 or however-many stairs

And this is why you take the stairs...no line.

Little romantic moment at the top of the Eiffel Tower

Jonas cruising around Luxembourg Gardens

Enjoying some fairly expensive barbapapa

Jonas really enjoyed it, it was his first time

In the metro station preparing to say our final goodbyes

A day trip to Paris can be exhausting!

It was so much fun to spend one last day with Tracy, Robert, Nate and Alex. We had such a good time with them this summer, it is sad to see it end!

A Slow Ease Back into Civilization...

Our next stop was Orkney to admire more neolithic leftovers. Here we are at Skara Brae, a neolithic village.

There were tons of seals hanging out in this cove, so we hung out and did a little seal watching. Looking at this picture, I just want to add that in packing for this trip, Daniel initially had me pack our swimsuits and snorkeling gear... Luckily he had me take it out.

The Ring of Brodgar, kind of like Stonehenge but supposedly better because you can get up close and personal.

Jaxon appreciated that the lightning knocked this stone down.

The Standing Stones (a lot of creativity in that name)

Enjoying Apple Crumble Orkney ice cream. Mmmmm...

We decided to rent bikes for one day to bike across Mainland. The kids really enjoyed it for the most part. Daniel quickly realized that biking uphill while pulling 60 lbs. behind you with 25 m.p.h. headwinds isn't as easy as you may picture it in your mind. But he survived and we plan on doing it again...somewhere less windy and less hilly.

We spied on the Scottish wedding at the church which was a lot of fun. And I think Jaxon wants to take up the bagpipes now.

Our next stop was Inverness, where are primary purpose was to go monster hunting at Loch Ness. However, we really enjoyed Inverness itself and got to see some highland cows.

On a boat on Loch Ness.

Jaxon was pretty brave at first, but then he got a little nervous looking out for Nessy.

At Urquhart Castle. Daniel still hasn't figured out how to say the name right.

Wandering around the Inverness Islands.

Jonas taking a nap during a mild rain storm.

We were only able spend one day in Edinburgh, which I thought was a total shame once we got there. It was such an awesome city: great castle, great museums, great parks, and since we were there in the middle of their huge music festival, there were tons of street performers and lots of chaos; the stuff I really like. Or maybe I was just happy to have finally made it to a place where people definitely outnumbered sheep and cows...and it was warm enough to take my jacket off.

Jaxon practicing for his street performing act

And then back to southern France to warm up