Mama's Home!

In the beginning only Bonnie and Daddy were going to pick her up, because Bonnie was going to a town not too far from Marseille for a test, and Mama and Daddy would wait while she had it.  But what we didn't notice until forty minuets before we left was that we had seen the wrong hours.  So we decided that everyone would go to pick her up.  Then we would come home and have lunch, and then Bonnie would leave for her test.  Everyone was busy.  We had to do wiping and dishes, get everyone ready, and clean up the house, all in forty minuets.

The drive was about an hour long, and when we got into the airport we saw Mama's back turned to us, going in the direction of the telephone, seeing as we were late.  Daddy called, ''Daniels!'' and I called,

''Mama!'' and it was only then that she saw us. 

It had been ten days, and when Olivia found herself in Mama's arms all she did was to lie limp and hold onto her.  Mama said that it had been too hard to be separated from her baby for so long and that when they went to Greece for Bonnie's graduation trip they would have to take her with them.  Bonnie didn't like that idea at all.

Adventures with bikes

About two weeks ago Josiah, Sterling and I went on a long bike ride. First we went by car with the family to St. Jean. We picnic a lot at St. Jean, there is a huge tree we eat lunch at , and after that, while the grownups talk, us children climb up the gravely slopes to the right and slide down amid the small stones. It is a place people go on pilgrimages to, and there is a shrine for St. Jean and a whole story about him. After the shrine, we take a gravely path to the giant tree. On the left there are the woods and big hills, where we go hiking.

After all that, the others went home by car, but Josiah, Sterling and I decided to ride home a roundabout way. First we went up to a set of gravely paths, and Josiah tried to help me to get over my fear of mountain biking by telling me to go down the steep paths without getting of my bike. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't, but thankfully I didn't get hurt.

Finally we were riding on a narrow path with a hill going steeply down on the left about ten feet. Sterling wasn't careful enough, and when the path went down a little so it was easy to go over the edge, he did exactly that. Suddenly there was a ''help! help!'' I swung around to see Sterling going almost straight down, with big rocks on the bottom. There wasn't enough time to think, and next thing I knew Sterling had leaped clear and landed, safe and sound on the other side of the rocks while the bike lay on the ground. Josiah was off his bike and down the hill in a second, and I was so glad that Sterling had, in those few split seconds, jumped clear!

It was hard work getting the bike up, and Josiah looked at it and said that a thingamajogle,( I have no idea what it is,) was bent but hopefully it would get Sterling home. A good thing was that that path was the end of mountain biking and that to get home we only had to ride down ''Roques Sur Pernes'' and then ''Chemin des Traversiers'' to get home. Even though the way down ''Roques Sur Pernes'' was straight down Sterling's bike kept giving him problems, and at ''Chemin des Traversiers'' it became impossible to ride. Thankfully, though, on our ride up to the paths Josiah had wondered what would happen if we tied his and my bikes together and he pulled me. It had worked perfectly, and  on the rest of the way home Josiah towed Sterling.

~Aspen

We have some guests over for supper, I can hear them talking to Mom and Dad in the background. They are talking about... recipes! The only thing that the French can not stop talking about.

During a three hour meal, two hours are used to share recipes. The remaining hour is politics. It is really interesting to see even the men arguing over if it is two, or three carrots. And to hear the almost insulting remarks. "Well you are from Alsace, and I don't know what they do up there. But here in Provence, we use leaks!"

Josiah

Skiing

We caught our first train without any adventure at all. The second train ticket however had the wrong train

number. Oh well, we arrived safely at Annecy--picking up Joel on the way. And at Annecy we met David who

brought us to le Chinaillon.

The first night we ate a very good supper Marie cooked for us, and went to bed. The next morning it was snowing

and it kept on snowing roughly ten hours. In the morning we went to some friends' house who had lots of skis and

chose our skis. In the afternoon we went skiing for the first time, and did more falling them skiing.

The second day I did a little bit better, and the third day, after skiing, we made a snow slide. The fourth day I did

much better, and did blue and red slopes for the first time.

That night, the blue slope I had done in the morning was lit up, so we decided to go night skiing. That was fun, but

not adventurous enough for the others, so we went skiing on a slope that was not lit up--which was very scary

especially because the snowplows were going to come in a few minutes. Afterwards, instead of going home we

took off our skis and played in the snow 'till after midnight.

The next day we went to the Gidets' house in the morning and napped and played mafia in the afternoon.

The sixth day was the last day of skiing for me and the second to last for the others. At first I was doing much

better than before at skiing, and did harder slopes than before but on one of the hardest ones I had an accident.

It was not really on the hard slope that I got hurt, but where it joined an easy one. It was very bumpy right there

and Bonnie was in front of me to my right, trying to ski backwards. She couldn't stop herself though, and not

noticing how close I was swerved in front of me. I couldn't stop myself in time, so my skis went right over

Bonnie's. Neither of us were going fast enough to fall, but my leg got twisted and stretched and then got stuck in

that position. Happily we were with Sophie who skied down the mountain with me on her back. The next day we

went to a doctor who put on a cast. And the next day we went home.

~Sterling.