Settling In

So we had a big move back in July. And between unpacking, seeing Andrew safely into his new job and flying off to visit my mom, we hadn't had too much of a chance to settle in yet.

As soon as I got back though, I set about making it feel more like home and nestling in, and you know what, it was good to be home -- even if said home had only been our home for a few weeks!

I thought the small-town life would be a difficult adjustment but so far it's been just lovely. Certainly it's a little frustrating that I can't just run to the store when I'm out of something (mostly household products) since we only have a small neighborhood grocer in town. But you adapt and learn to plan in advance -- and you love Amazon Prime even more!

And we have a little farmer's market in the summer, plus a farm store that carries nearby local produce through Halloween and it is delightful. FINALLY some good peaches!

Adelina particularly enjoys the library... for its literary value, of course. Ha! Ok, when we're there she just wants to play with all the fun toys, but I've started checking out a few board books for a week or so at a time and it's nice to have a few new ones in rotation. She's finally starting to "read" on her own sometimes, and it just warms my heart to look over and see her so interested. I can't wait to share my love of reading with her as she grows up!

Other than that though, who needs "things to do" when you have a family anyway? Andrew is busy at work, I'm busy with Adelina and our soon-to-be baby boy, and we get to actually hang out together on weekends. Honestly, it's been great, and I'm starting to really like this place. We're starting to settle into this new SAHM routine, and Adelina is working on "independent play," A.K.A. "don't interrupt mama with a request every five seconds" ha ha. She's getting great at it and I'm so encouraged, because heaven knows I'll need a little extra space with this baby on the way!

We have a library and a little museum, nice places to walk, and we've been really well welcomed by our ward so far. People out in the community have been really friendly too in general. A few people in particular have made some real efforts to reach out and befriend us and I am so grateful for that. Heck, we're even starting a Power of Moms Learning Circle this month!

Walking to church :)

Our post office is the cutest historical building -- check out those sweet mailboxes!

We went to our first high school football game -- go Rangers! -- the week we got back from D.C. and it was really fun. There were a lot of people there and even though we lost badly it was just a fun atmosphere. The hint of fall in the air didn't hurt either :)

A friend from Casper who is very close to a sister in our ward here had given us Rangers gear for Adelina and baby #2 before we left -- so thoughtful! -- so we fit right in ha ha.

Another thing about this place is that while it may be small and rural, it's actually a lot closer to a lot of interesting places than Casper was. There, it was a minimum 4-hour drive to get to a big city or point of interest, whereas here we are not even an hour and a half from Bear Lake, not too far from Yellowstone, close to several other western Wyoming towns, and about an hour+ from the soon-to-be-dedicated Star Valley Temple! And go figure, Adelina's sitter and her family just moved not too terribly far from us so we'll get to see them soon as well! I felt so bad about tearing Adelina away from her "second family" of sorts, I'm glad we'll get to continue that relationship in real life. Oh and the best part: we're only 2 hours from Salt Lake City, and 6 hours from St George! (which is a good thing considering baby #2's poor club feet that will require a lot of medical care in SLC -- I'm so grateful we are this much closer to world-class specialists)

Two weeks ago we decided to take advantage of those fleeting last moments of summer and go meet up with a friend from France at Bear Lake. She is married to an American and now lives in Logan so it's fun to have French friends nearby!

It was the PERFECT day, and I was a little nervous about spending so much time on the beach but Adelina was in heaven -- for four hours.

We severely delayed naptime that day ha ha. But it was worth it. And look at those sweet little friends!

We came back tired and a little sun-dazed, but so happy for the good company and peaceful sand and water. With that... I'm pretty sure summer is officially over. Bring on fall!

A little tour

I know you're all thinking "Sure, Lydia, you'll get a job any day now... which is why you've been there for nearly two months." No really I promise, it's just around the corner, I just need to be patient :)

So in the meantime, I'll give you a little photographic tour of our current home. Well first, Andrew's first day of work!

And now: the Miller House. We live with 5 other people -- it's all kinds of fun. The house is actually pretty modern inside, other than the complete lack of air conditioning... yeah, it's miserable on hot days.

I'm convinced this dumpster actually has my name on it, underneath that sticker.

And on into the backyard:

Dock #1 and dock #2. The one on the right is pretty nifty for getting the raft into the water. The one on the left... was a failure.

And our makeshift fire pit! Andrew's eagle scout skills have come in quite handy since living here.

Meet the roommates (well, mot of them)

Well that's it for now ladies and gentlemen, have a lovely evening!

No place like home

So. We visited another apartment unit today.

It was really ugly. The outside is actually nice, the grounds are lovely and well-kept, there's a pool and it seems like a nice place, but the apartment? Hideous. Ugly, dark brown cabinetry and woodwork everywhere, and one tiny window for the entire living room/dining room/kitchen area. The fixtures are all straight out of the 70s and don't even get me started on the kitchen.

But it's cheap. And clean. And much cheaper and bigger than the other place that's brand-new.

Being a responsible adult is lame.

Christmas

This Christmas was really wonderful. My entire family hasn't been together in one place since the Christmas after I left for BYU, so as you can imagine it was pretty special. My mom and sisters got in a day before my dad, and through an (un)fortunate set of circumstances we ended up with a rental van with enough seating for the whole clan, so we all drove up to pick him up at the airport on Christmas Eve.

He was our best Christmas present :) But that doesn't mean we weren't concerned when his suitcase full of my aunts' gifts didn't show up at first...

No worries though, it had arrived on an earlier flight and was waiting for us safe and sound. We packed into the van and headed to Temple Square. It was beautiful, and very cold. Probably the coldest day of the whole visit actually - it's crazy how warm it was!

Everybody loved it, my dad especially. Although I think he was mostly just thrilled to have his whole family together again.

These Las Vegasites/Bordeauxans aren't used to the cold...

Marina got tired/cold feet or something so Andrew became a horse and carried her around.

Once we were thoroughly chilled we piled back in and drove home, munching on Christmas-colored pistachios (those silly Americans...). So at this point you're probably thinking "wait a second... don't you guys live in a one-bedroom apartment?" How perspicacious. We are lucky enough to have some awesome neighbors that left for the break and agreed to let us use their apartment as base #2. They live just below us so we had everybody in the same building. It made coordination quite nice, although getting that many girls out the door quickly is always difficult no matter what...  anyway. We listened to a Christmas story and then Andrew got so tired he had to be carried into bed. How many Defranchi girls does it take to drag a full-grown man a few feet? 

 

Then we woke up the next morning to a delicious (if I do say so myself) Christmas morning breakfast. Gourmet hot chocolates made with syrups and whipped cream served in personalized cups (I was most excited about that part to be honest) with warm croissants, french bread, Nutella, jam, cheeses and more. Hey, we know how to do breakfast in France!

Then off to church. The meeting lasted a little long for my taste, but hey when you have presents waiting under the tree anything is too long! Although I did appreciate the meeting. We had a stake sacrament meeting and the Stake President asked the wives of high council members to speak - without their husbands gasp! It was a really neat idea. 

I even snapped a stealthy shot. He he. Sylvia can sniff out a camera from a hundred miles, so of course she managed to pose.

And back home for the opening of the presents! With stockings made by yours truly...

You know you've made a good choice when you hear squeals of joy... Success!

My dad labeled his gifts with picture puzzles... this one spells out Lydia ("lead" + "dix" (ten) + A)

After that, we did all kinds of fun stuff. Good food and lots of cooking...

I tried my hand at my first Pulla and I think it came out pretty beautifully!

Andrew built a fort for the girls

And we took plenty of family photos. I got individual shots with each of the girls and of course we did group photos too. That's where a tripod comes in handy.

Webcam sessions with the rest of the family back home...

More cooking:

We're French, it's what we do. We also played outside, hiked the Y, saw bridal veil falls...

Of course, Andrew brought his pellet gun and hid in the bushes/rocks to get at us...

And finally it was time to take everyone back to the airport :(

We came back to our suddenly-empty apartment and felt kind of... lonely. But the semester started up so fast after that we didn't have time to be lonely for too long. We're so glad to have had such a wonderful family vacation though. What a perfect Christmas!