Sunkissed

When I tell Danish people that I come from France, images of the sunny Provence and the warm waters of the Mediterranean sea very often come to their mind. They get really excited and tell me how lucky I am to have lived in such nice climate... haha yeah, right, La Mayenne is really famous for its warm climate...how I wish :D

Oh, it's not that I don't love the countryside where I am from, but in all the reasons why I love it, the weather doesn't usually come first in mind. Heck, it probably wouldn't even make my top 100 list!

... Until you get weeks like we got last week during our vacation.

It was all SUN SUN BABY, and it made us forget about all the rain -past, present and future!

Hanging out at the beach with the Gardais clan....

...and we also had the pool variation of that :) A nice afternoon, as simple as that. Relaxing. Having no plans and nowhere where we have to go. Being silly and laughing until our bellies hurt.

Just enjoying good time with friends....and my favorite of all girls :)

And to top it off, we finally got to meet little Louise, cutipie that she is!


I watched her little feet go around in the grass and her eyes twinkle from so much joy splashing in the pool for the first time. Let me tell you, this little girl is oh-so-well loved, and I am going to love to see her grow.

And Pam, Matt and Louise got to meet Olivia for the first time :)

Pure bliss.

Drinking wine and taking the time to enjoy it for all it is. Hanging out in the shade when it gets too hot for anything else and starring at the blue blue sky for hours to the sound of crickets. Kissing baby soft cheeks, bellies and feet.

Sunkissed skin. Sunkissed hearts. What else in the world could you possibly wish for?

Let's be completely honest - we lucked out on the weather. But hey, it was just nice, for that time, to feel like the sun always shines in Gorron.

Drinking it all in

...and I am not talking about wine, people :) - Although I wish....but I am still breastfeeding so that will have to wait a bit more!

No, I am talking about our trip to France.

We usually only come back for 3 or 4 days at a time, planning to do more things than we could possibly fit in Mary Poppins' bag. But not this time. No no no. This time, no running around left and right to try and fit it all in our crazy schedule. This week is all about sipping it all in, enjoying the small things at my parents instead of running around like mad people.

Here's a little sneak peak at what we've been doing so far.

Never-ending lunches by the lake. Because, why would we want to rush eating when everything around us is just so beautiful and quiet?

The lakes are our hanging-out spot, a retreat just 15 minutes away from my parents. Oh how I could imagine a beautiful little country house right there for the summer... someday, who knows?



Watching them play together. Nils loves to make her laugh, and she gives him all the love that can possibly fit in that little heart of hers.

We built a little "house" made out of branches so that they could get away from the heat. They just hung out there, the two of them, playing, looking at their roof of leafs, cooling down in the shade. They were drinking it all in.

Swimming like little frogs in the pool. Summer hats and sunscreen, little legs wiggling in the water, screams of laughter, water splashing all around. Ha, how I love thee.

Evening BBQs with good friends. Somehow they remind me of my childhood, I think because my parents' have always loved having people over for evening BBQs in the garden at our house. These long evenings are just special to me.

Like last Wednesday's night with the Poullains. Friends that are like family.

The sun doesn't want to go to bed, and we don't either. We chat and laugh until late in the night, passing around plates of grilled meat and roasted potatoes and fresh summer salads.

We pretend that none of us have to get up to work the day after. Because it is so good to just get lost in the moment.

All of this, people, is just the pure essence of summer :)