Monet's Gardens | Giverny, France

My in-laws visited us a couple weeks ago and we took the opportunity to visit several beautiful places near us in France. As I'm able to go through the photos, I'll be updating this blog with all of our adventures.

The first place we visited and perhaps my favorite, was Monet's Gardens in Giverny. It's just over an hour away from Paris and well worth the visit!

As we drove to the town of Giverny, we found ourselves passing through several charming villages. While we were a little worried that we might be getting lost or that our navigator wasn't working properly, it was still neat to see all of those little towns.

When we arrived in Giverny, there were many signs that pointed the way to Monet's home and gardens. We parked and walked through the town a bit until we arrived at the house.

Tickets were 9,50 Euros per adult and children under age 7 were free.

We entered the gardens first and they were beautiful! Tons of flowers everywhere.

From the gardens, we followed a trail that led us down to the lily ponds. London (age 2) was very excited to see some lily pads (we had recently watched the Princess and the Frog... She kept saying that she would turn into a frog when we got to the lily pads).

The water garden was breathtaking as well. It's said that when Monet was alive, he had a full time gardener who would pick out every dead leaf from the ponds to ensure it's beauty.

This is also where Monet's most famous paintings took place. Here, he began to play with alternating light and reflections caused by his water gardens.

She was a little sad that she didn't turn into a frog when she touched a lily pad, but recovered pretty quickly. ;)

After seeing the water gardens, we walked back up to the house and explored where Monet used to live.

One room that stood out to me was the kitchen. I wished I would have gotten a picture of it, but it had a huge stove and multiple ovens along with copper pots and pans. It was just gorgeous!

I also enjoyed looking at the sitting room where there were duplicates of some of Monet's work. It was interesting to see how his style changed a bit as he got older.

We had a wonderful time at Monet's Gardens and I can't wait to go back!

For more information, check out http://fondation-monet.com/en/.

Adeline Newborn Photos

On February 20th, we welcomed our second little girl, Adeline, into our family! The delivery went great and both of us were/are doing well. :)

I really wanted to make sure that I got a few newborn photos of Adeline so after we had been home for a few days, I made sure to snap a handful. Here are some of my favorites:

She would only cooperate swaddled and I didn't have my normal chunk of time to take newborn photos (or the energy)  hence all the similar poses

Isn't this headband so pretty?! One of my friends made it for me (along with a variety of others) and I just love them.

London has been such a great Big Sister! I've been so proud of her through all of this.

Favorite.

Crystal Cove State Beach

My family and I went down to Crystal Cove State Beach Saturday afternoon. It was so perfect. Our little girl, London, is becoming more and more "grown up". It's been neat to see her want to explore more. She had a blast looking for birds and lizards and her favorite part was playing in the sand with her toes. It's great that she loves the beach as much as we do.

Recently I got some new editing software that I've been playing around with. It's been tough, but I'm beginning to get used to it and learning how to use it. I edited all these photos with the new software and I think they came out pretty well, don't you?

Daddy/Daughter Pictures

We went to Crystal Cove State Beach today (down by the cottages) and took some Daddy/Daughter pictures. I absolutely love taking pictures down here. There are so many different backdrops and colors and it really helps to make the pictures pop.