hot air. sunkissed hair

MY SUMMER

I'm gonna be that nerd and spell out my summer in letters {if that even makes sense} but I guess you'll get it in a sec. :)

M

stands for:

Minne Mouse in Disneyland! My dad's entire side of the family went on a 4 days trip to Disneyland. It was a blast to be there with so many people. Its always a wonderful time at the "happiest place on earth!" 

Y

stands for:

Yummy food and drinks. All summer long I have been eating and thats about it. Oh and drinking. :)

S 

stands for

Sun Valley. Our adventures on Bald Mountain. 

U

stands for

Up in the South Hills camping. I LOVE camping.

M

stands for

My friend I've known since I was 3 got married! I loved being in her wedding.

M

stands for

Memories at Bass Lake.

E

stands for

Enjoying a beautiful hike in the South Hills.

R

stands for

Reading Reading Reading. First of all I was introduced to the amazing website called goodreads.com & then it was history. I've read some great books so far: The Hunger Games, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Water for Elephants, Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, The Source of All Things, Hector and the Search for Happiness, You Can Heal Your Life, Eat Pray Love, Something Borrowed {it was ok}, A Reliable Wife{not good}

haha but the rest were great!

So there you have it! A little recap of my summer although its not over yet...My next trip is to McCall and then I am headed on a road trip to San Francisco which will become my new home!

Ciao!

Katie

Provence

{our little house}

{the neighbors}

{lavender ice cream..incredible stuff right there}

 

{Gorde}

Ahh the land of lavender. One of the best smells in the world. Am I right? YEP. im right.

So we arrived in Provence and immediately went to a little town called Rochegude where we settled in to our little lavender house. SO adorable! All the houses were once again...AMAZING! All of them had colored shudders and colored doors with flowers in their windowsills. I wanna live there so bad!

We took a bunch of road trips around the area and MY main mission was to find blooming lavender fields. Thats literally all I wanted to do. So we searched and searched, drove all around the countryside and finally we came upon magnificent lavender fields and man was I happy! What a beautful sight it is to see an entire field of purple {instead of green} for a change! Wow...totally fell in love with the area. 3 of my favorite places we went in Provence were Gorde & Vaison la Romaine & Sault (great little towns).

Overall the trip was incredible! We stayed for 4 days and then headed back to Paris to catch our flight back to the US of A and of course to our wonderful state of Idaho :)

Alsace region

After 5 days in Paris we adventured on to the Alsace region of France. Here we met up with our foreign exchange student (Jean) and his family. We had a WONDERFUL time with. They took us all around the countryside, made dinner for us, took us wine tasting at an authentic french winery, and took us to an auberge on top of a giant mountain. 

The architechture here was incredible --it looked like Disneyland or something--but it was all real and people actually lived in these towns {blew my mind}. One of my favorites was Colmar, which had a place called Little Venice. We got to ride on a little gondola down the river to view the town.

I totally totally recommend visiting this area of France--totally beautiful and worth it all the way!

Next stop: Provence region!

Versaille

Versaille. Home of Marie Antoinette.

This place is INCREDIBLE, extravagant, and totally breathtaking. Just the gardens alone are about 100 miles long....(not really) but check out how far these gardens stretch...and yes they reach past that 20 mile pool (not really 20 miles). 

But, this side trip was freakin' fun. I totally recommend Versaille as a side trip if you go to Paris.

These last 2 photos are of Marie Antoinette's getaway as if her palace wasn't big enough.

Next stop....Colmar in the Alsace region

Finally PARIS..

Finally I decide to post about my trip! But, I have to do it in tidbits because of all the pics I took and places we went. So I am starting with our 5 days in Paris..which by the way was MARVELOUS.

C'etait genial!

Oh. and I must say that I totally came back from France having learned how to say Comment tu t'appelles? (what is your name) & Quel âge as-tu? (how old are you) & then of course I would answer saying "vingt deux ans" (which of course means 22 years old).

I felt so cool...haha

Not really though because my sister would go up to people and speak perfect French and then as soon as I would open my mouth they would immediately switch to English. So much for trying to act cool..

Ok and I also wanted to mention that I learned to eat. AND eat I did. For days. All kinds of things from crepes, cheese, cantaloupe w/ proscutto, baguettes, cheese, cheese, and more cheese--they call cheese fromage--doesn't that just sound better?
And then we ate foie gras (duck liver), frogs legs, and escargot. What an adventurous family we were!

But, it is safe to say I came back 20lbs thicker.

So 5 days in Paris we managed to see the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur (first picture), Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre. We did a boat tour on the Seine with my sister's host family's, a few huge 8 course dinners with them, music festival, awesome food (again more eating), Monmartre area, & of course picnicking in Paris's amazing gardens.

It was a wonderful trip and we stayed in the perfect location.

Next stop...side trip to Versaille!