Everyday adventures in Spring….

Life here at the start of spring has been about the everyday adventures and celebrating the small moments that I tend to miss when I let life speed by.  As the flowers start to bloom I am trying to be conscious of slowing down and appreciating everything around me.  Life is truly beautiful when we allow ourselves the time to experience it and keep our minds and hearts focused in the right direction.  Sometimes that can be hard when I have a morning where it seems like everything is completely upside-down and backwards but if I just change my view and increase my patience it's all of a sudden right side up and sometimes better then I could have imagined.  The first small moment that I have grown to love so much over these past few weeks is sunday tennis lessons.  I know you are thinking what…really?  There can't be anything that exciting about taking kids to their tennis lessons? Well for

Sunday Fun-day!

  me that hour has become a very special time with a amazing little girl.  While Luis and Maxime are working on their forehands and backhands Olivia and I are exploring.  We get to just walk around and talk about anything and everything we see.  You would think it would get boring being at the same place week after week but we always find something new to see by taking a different path, or sitting on a different bench or just walking backwards instead of forwards.  I just love watching the world through her eyes as she grows.  Hearing her talk about new things each week and ask questions reminds me how quickly these little ones get big.  At the age of 3 and some change I feel like everyday she does something new that she couldn't do the day before or is experiencing something for the first time.  It is so beautiful to watch and I am grateful that I get this special hour just the 2 of us in this beautiful setting by the sea to experience moments that might seem small but are such a huge blessing.  She also has helped me to see more then I would have seen in this place had she not been with me.  I probably would just bring a book to sit and read and never see some of the beautiful things that she finds for us to look at.  She

We did it…Climbing the rock pier!

reminds me that there is more to a beach then just sand….if you dig you will find treasure and that flowers are "So pretty to see with our eyes!"  I am so thankful for the beauty this little girl brings into my life each week.  The other little lady in my life inspires me also.  My strong, ambitious Maxime encourages me to do things I don't think I can do or just wouldn't do with out a bit of a nudge.  As you all know she was my skiing teacher and definitely pushed me to try what I wasn't sure I could do.  One of the latest adventures was climbing to the end of a rock pier.  When we got halfway I said maybe we should go back and she looked

Love this little girl who pushes me to be stronger!

at me like I was crazy and said "oh, come on Sara, you can do it".  This little girl whose half my size is stretching her little legs to the max to get from rock to rock with out even thinking of giving up till we are at the end is telling me don't complain and do it.  How can you say no to that…so on we went.  We got to the end and then realized that the tide had come in a bit (which was one of my fears) and our path back was not so clear.  I got nervous but it didn't even phase Maxime.  She just pushed ahead, with a bit of hand holding on some tricky rocks and made it back to the beach dry and happy.  I, on the other hand, soaked my converse

Balloons make everything better.

and most of my pants but was still happy and loved this small moment that effected me in a huge way.  It helped to remind me that caution is good but sometimes I need to balance it out with the fearlessness of a child to have a great experience.  Maxime is daily helping me to become a stronger woman.  Now lets talk about the bus ride.  For weeks the kids have been talking about riding "my bus" into town.  It is my bus because a lot of times I will take the city bus into town instead of driving. We have been so busy on the weekends that it kept getting put off but finally we had a saturday with nothing to do so we packed up, counted out our change to pay for the bus and walked to the stop at the end of the road.  Oh man were they excited.  It was so precious watching them pay the bus driver and then carefully select their seat.  Who needs amusement parks when you can just ride the bus.  Almost as exciting and the line is much shorter to get on.  When we got into town Luis pushed the button for our stop and we all hopped off.  Each one of us had our thing we wanted to do while we were in town.  I needed to return something to a shop so we started there and they waited patiently for me to have a lengthy discussion with the cashier

Snacks on a bench to end the day…Happy kiddos!

to get my money refunded.  I honestly think part of the reason she did it was I had the kids with me who were so well behaved.  Maxime had brought some of her own money with her in the hopes that we could go to Claires (yes the accessory shop) to get some more of her bands to make bracelets with.  But in route to Claires we happened upon an ice cream shop and being that it was sweetie day we made a decision to have an ice cream to get our energy back up and continue on shopping after.  With ice cream in our tummies we braved the main shopping road  where the kids got balloons, Maxime got her loops and we

This view never gets old…love where I live.

added in some culture by going into this beautiful church that is in the middle of the shopping district. Shopping completed, returns completed, and sweetie eaten we headed back to the bus stop and waited for the bus.  We ate a quick snack on the bench and the kids counted out their money again for the ride home.  All in all a wonderfully successful day.  All these tiny adventures don't seem like much when you talk about doing them but I find they give so much joy when you do them.  Doing life here is never boring…it's full of small moments that bring joy to my soul.  I am feeling happy and content with the path I am on here and grateful I am surrounded my some great kids who inspire me.  With easter break now upon us and visitors arriving the next blog will be full of more big and small adventures.  Stay tuned…..