Warm Spring Sun in Troyes

There are few places I enjoyed on our trip more than the medieval town of Troyes. We didn’t spent a lot of time there but we really enjoyed getting out of Paris and into a smaller town. The old town of Troyes is home to many half-timbered structures which are a joy to take in, photograph, walk in, and drive through. We found a place to sit down and eat both savory and sweet crepes and these were probably the best crepes we had on the whole trip.
This day and the prior day were important as they marked the huge transition from city (NYC and Paris) to the countryside and small towns. This transition, along with the warm spring sun, felt like stripping the stress of the large cities off like an oppressive winter coat at the advent of spring.
We scrambled to get our clothes dried (see the story about our stay in Troyes here) while eating and exploring the city. I was walking back through the Place Marechal Foch on rue Urbain IV to pickup our car when I took this photo in front of this restaurant.
What struck me at this moment was the light on the facade of the buildings, the people waiting to eat, and that dude in the tan leather suit.

Warm Spring Sun in Troyes

Warm Spring Sun was taken handheld on May 9th 2017 near the Place Marechal Foch in Troyes, France using the Fuji X-T10 and the Fuji 18–55mm lens at 26mm, 1/400s, f/9, and ISO 200. Editing was performed in Lightroom to square the architecture and make the light a little more uniform.

Walking Among Trees

Among my favorite things are the many trees in Paris. After grabbing a few pastries from an eclectic pastry shop, we walked into the gardens from the Rue Auguste Comte (from the south) through these large rows of squared Horse Chestnut Trees (at least that is what I think they are). These trees are so full and green. It is wonderful to walk along them. It was pretty rainy during our visit so this little glimpse of blue sky was welcome.

Walking Among Trees

Walking Among Trees was taken handheld on May 5th 2017 at the South Entrance to Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, France using the Fuji X-T10 and the Fuji 18–55mm lens at 18mm, 1/420s, f/5.6, and ISO 200. Editing was performed in Lightroom to darken the sky slightly and lighten the shadows of the tress just a little.

Summer Summary

Here's just a quick(ish) roundup of all our summer antics.

Caroline got married to Scouts. Luckily the officiator was able to squeeze in his speech just before the runaway groom took off.

Nate got an exciting summer haircut. It's not supposed to be a heart...but there was a miscommunication.

 

We went to the OKGO concert in Ogden and it was rad. Our kids are huge fans of their music videos. The confetti cannons that shot off regularly were much enjoyed and we all sang at the top of our lungs.

Umm...when did we get a teenager??

Bear Lake camping and wave running with the Snow family is always a lot of fun. Our kids are speed demons.

For my birthday we went mini-golfing, walked around the International Peace Gardens, got pastries from Gourmandise Bakery, explored Gilgal Sculpture Garden, and bought flowers.

I took the kids to BYU campus to visit a few of the museums there that don't  necessitate a trip all on their own. Then we got super creamy ice cream, of course.

As far as my kids know, this is the famous liger from Napoleon Dynamite.

Eclipse-alypse 2017

Rob and Nate decided to hightail it up to Idaho to spend a couple of days camping in the path of totality. They loved it, even though it took them 7 hours to drive home + getting rear-ended (no auto damage to us).

The girls and I had fun mini-golfing and watching the semi-eclipse with neighbors.

Other antics:

Cousin Twins. They look, sound, and act like they were grown in the same womb.

Rob is super excited about his new sun shade. I, however, get in the car and take it down as fast as I can before anyone else sees that it belongs to my car.

No explanation needed.

Foam Day!

Caroline's favorite new accessory.

Nate's gotten into fishing and wishes he had more chances to do it.

That's our nutshell!