Metz, France

Metz, beautiful Metz.  Just a simple one hour drive from our house.  A perfect date-day.  It's actually our third visit there (Jesse on his own first, then us as a family) but this was by far the best.  When we went as a family it was much colder than we'd anticipated so no one was dressed appropriately.  I think we only stayed for an hour before getting back in the car!

As I've been documenting, the whole potty-training business is quite demanding for me.  So the girls and I needed some time apart.  My new bud Shawna watched Double Trouble at the last minute for us and it was such a blessing to get to go to France with My Love.  Only My Love.

If I could describe our trip in five words it would be food, peace, shopping, husband, and pictures.

Food:  I think we'd only been there about 2.5 seconds before we devoured some of these beauties.  Apart from snacking and taking pictures of food, we also bought brie, fresh bread, and wine (all local) to enjoy as our dinner when we got home.  It was the best dinner ever.  Jesse melted the cheese all over the toasted bread.  YUM.

Peace:  We just wandered.  Talked.  Took pictures.  Argued (but only a LITTLE this time, we promise!)  Talked some more.  Ate some more.  Took some more pictures.  It was just what I needed... to relax and recharge and not hear the words "Pee-pee Momma!" for almost 24 hours!  When I picked the girls up in the morning I was genuinely happy to see them.

Shopping:  Mostly window shopping.  But we have a favorite tea shop there, so we got some fancy-pants mirabellen tea (very French) and some "Christmas Tea" that I can't decide if I want to open now or wait till it's closer to the holidays. Decisions, decisions.  Oh, and I got a cool pair of cozy-warm pink socks.

Husband:  I love this picture of him.  And I love it when he wears aviators.  Reminds me of the day I first met him... when my first thought was that he looked like Brad Pitt.  Which he's probably going to be mad at me for saying ;o)  But it's my blog.  And he's my husband.  And I sure do love him a lot.  

Pictures:  It's not easy for me to wear the Mommy-Hat at the same time as the Photographer-Hat.  Usually because I have a kid strapped to my back or I'm carrying a diaper bag or pushing a stroller.  Sometimes it makes enjoying my photography a bit challenging.  So to get an afternoon in a cute French city with just my camera... ahhhhh.  It was lovely.  I also really liked playing with some different edits of my pictures.  What do you think of them?

This was the sunset from behind us as we drove home.  Shawna watched the girls overnight so we didn't have to rush back by baby-bedtime.  And we just talked and ate and enjoyed some wine.  I think we might have watched a movie but I can't remember... we're getting kind of old these days so we tend to fall asleep pretty early.  LAME.  And I was also working on the finishing touches of Thing 1 and Thing 2's costumes.

In the morning I let J sleep in since he had to work that night.  And I went to Shawna's and had coffee with her while she totally lifted my spirits by gushing to me about how well my girls behaved and ate and slept and went pee on the potty ;o)  It was a great visit.  *thanking God for another great friend*

So that's Metz in a nutshell!  I'm kind of kicking myself for not buying some fancy French tea for Christmas gifts for all our relatives.  Sorry, gals (and guys!) maybe I'll actually put my head on straight next time we visit France!