Mont. St. Michel

We have been wanting to go to Mont. St. Michel for a while now.  I actually saw this place on Pinterest and told Nate that we had to go here!  It was built in the 700's and has been an Abby and a prison.

Now, it is a giant tourist town.  

We all enjoyed mussels for lunch!

We needed to fuel up for our hike up to the Abby.  There were a TON of stairs!

More stairs!

At the top!  These jackets didn't stay on for too long!

It would be fun to see the view when the tides are in.

We spent about two and a half hours exploring and then headed back to Granville (where our hotel is).  

Snuggling on the shuttle!

 

I took so many pictures!  This place was breathtaking!

We walked around looking for dinner.  We found this place called Au Pirate.  This place had to be great!  No, we ordered drinks and then realized they stopped selling food at 4:00.  So, we gulped our drinks and found a sandwich place.  

This may be the nastiest beach ever.  It's worse than Galveston!  This is our hotel. 

Unintentionally, we headed to the beach as the tide was coming in.  

The boys liked running from the tide.  

We have had a great time seeing the beaches of Normandy!

Normandy, France

 We drove to Rouen, France last night.  This morning we got up and headed to Les Andelys.  The castle of Richard the Lion-heart is there!  I had to see it!  

 We were on a tight schedule so, we stopped and took some pictures from the neighboring hill top!

 We've only seen the Seine from Paris.  This is definitely a different view from Paris!

 Next stop, Omaha Beach!  

 Lincoln did not understand why we were at the beach in our coats!

 Nate and I were amazed that the soldiers had to get to the top of the hill through this mess!  

 The cemetery was a sight to see.   

 Here's a Caldwell from Texas.  

 Next stop was Pointe du Hoc.  This place was cool!  The boys brought their frisbees and loved throwing them in the wind.

 The soldiers had to climb a 100 meter cliff to get to the top.  The area is filled with craters from the bombs.  

 There were about ten bunkers and Lincoln LOVED exploring them.  

 This crater was enormous!  

 This is the cliff they climbed.  I can't imagine doing that!

 Some paragliders flew right over the area.  

 Next stop, McDonalds.......then Utah Beach.  

Tomorrow we are off to Mont. St. Michel!  

Field Trips

 Ethan had his last bowling field trip on Thursday.  Nate and I both were able to attend.  Not only have these kids bowling skills improved tremendously, their scoring has improved so much!  Mr. Woodfork kept the screens off and the whole class kept score on all four teammates for two games! 

 I was impressed!

 Little bit and I went to the zoo today for his field trip.  It was a whopping 37 degrees this morning!   We had a bit of sun, lots of rain, and some hail during the day.  We were freezing by noon and everyone was ready for the bus to show up!

 This zoo was pretty cool, though!  We saw a seal show, a bird show, and lots of cool animals.  

 Funny enough, the highlight for our small group of kids was the meercats. 

 In this picture, they are imitating the meercat!

 Mrs. Hall bought each kiddo a small stuffed animal  Lincoln asked if she bought a meercat.  

He cracks me up!

Here the fellas are hiding out from the rain and hail on the playground.  Mrs. Hudnall found the reptile house and we all hid out in the warm reptile house until the bus came!  Despite the yucky weather it was so fun to see how these guys have grown this year!  They have become such good friends!  I am so glad we have TWO more years here!

Burg Eltz

 Germany is COVERED in rape seed right now.  It is used to make canola oil. 

 It's gorgeous anytime you see it, but when the sun hits these fields it's blindingly gorgeous!

 We stopped a few places to take pictures!

 As you can see, the fellas could have cared less.  They barely looked up from their DS' to smile at me!

 We made it to Burg Eltz for the second time.  The last time we came it was closed!

 The Eltz castle is privately owned by the 33rd generation of the Eltz family.

 The weather was great today!  It was partly cloudy and then ended up sunny by noon.

 Nate and I think this one reminds us of Hogwarts.  The boys disagreed.

 "Hey Mom, check out the river."  

 We ate lunch at the castle.  Unfortunately, LOTS of places in Germany only serve water "with gas."  Lincoln can NOT drink any carbonated beverages.  "They are too spicy."  

But, he can drink hot coffee with no sugar.  Go figure!

What in the world are we going to do when we move back and don't have castles to see on our drive home?  We don't even know what this one is.  CRAZY!