Sledding in Montreal

Frenchie and I had the pleasure of spending some time with Frenchie's family while we were up in Montreal. One of the activities involved a fun filled afternoon of good old fashion sledding. Frenchie and his cousins of course had to find the steepest slope to slide down. It was quite fun to sit at the top of the hill and watch as 4 of the cousins (including Frenchie) sled...ok toppled down the first hill :) We all had a blast watching them go down the hill...what was even more fun was watching them all realize that they needed to find a way to get back up the steep hill. After his cousin found a path up the hill that was less treacherous than the paths the others were exploring, the fun started as more and more cousins decided to try the hill. With so many people going down the hill, a 5 foot drop ended up developing due to all the snow being pushing away revealing the true depth of the hill. Unfortunately, after a while so many people went down the hill that so much snow was removed and a large stump at the bottom of the 5 foot drop revealed itself and that was the end of that spot.

Frenchie and his cousins were not ready to be defeated. So it was on to the next "perfect" spot. After finding a new location, Frenchie and his cousins were able to design and reconfigure a sledding spot that was less dangerous...ok minus that tree at the bottom that a lot of us slid under :) Here is the video of Frenchie and his cousin showing off their "design". There is a point where we catch some air but because the hill is so deep you cannot see it in the video.

Here is Vincent and myself getting ready to go down the hill. Normally when I went down the hill I would close my eyes and scream. This time was no exception except we stopped my sooner than expected. When I opened my eyes we were under a pine tree...we had veered off course a little bit :)

Here's Frenchie with his cousins who were definitely no strangers to the snow!

It was absolutely crazy how much snow had fallen. People kept asking Frenchie and I if we had snow shoes as you truly need snowshoes to successfully walk in this much snow. Frenchie and I dared the snow without snow shoes and wow was that a work out! If you took one small step off the path half your body would sink to your hips. Then you have to do the Army crawl just to get yourself out! By the end of the afternoon, I found it more effective to crawl along the snow!

I had an absolutely blast up there! Thank you to everyone who was at the party. I had so much fun hanging out with your family and I cannot wait to see you all next year!

Welcome to the world Emile!

Frenchie`s sister Gen and her Fiancee Eric are proud to introduce Emile to the world! We planned our vacation around being able tosee the new baby. Emile was expected to arrive the last week of January but was born Friday January 23rd at 10:22 pm. Emile was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces!

The proud parents of Emile!

Mommy and Emile having a quality moment!

Grandma with Emile!

Stay tuned for videos of Emile!

Fairy Tales do come true!

Where do I begin....This post may be long but completely worth it!

Right now are up in Montreal, Quebec thoroughly enjoying our vacation. Monday we were on our way back from our friend`s house Bruno (which should only take an hour to get back) and I noticed that it was an aweful long hour so I started questioning Frenchie. ``It`s about time you noticed`` Frechie said as we had already passed his mom`s house. Frenchie then went on to explain that we were going to take a quick trip to Quebec City and then come back that night so it was going to be a very late night for us.

When we got there, Frenchie was trying to find a certain parking spot and I was starting to get a little fustrated as I was missing such awesome photo opportunities of all the architeture. Finally we found the spot that Frenchie wanted to get to, so we got out and started walking around. It was absolutely frigid out that night! On top of it being minus 19 outside, the lakes and rivers keep the humity high so it felt twice as cold! Dave kept walking around like he was trying to find a certain location. I kept thinking to myself, ok Kaza dont get mad at Frenchie cause its cold and we keep going in circles! So I kept my mouth shut and tried to take in all the awesome sites. The streets are very small and very georgous as this is a very small part of the city, called Old Quebec.

So as we are walking around I kept thinking about a postcard from Quebec that Frenchies dad had three years ago. The postcard had 4 pictures on it and the 4th picture was the cute little church just nestled in the snow. The picture on the postcard had me intranced for many hours as I was thinking that would be the most romantic place for Frenchie and I to get married. However considering how cold it was and how determined Frenchie was to find whatever he was looking for I was not going to push the topic of trying to find this random church.

So as we walked around the corner there was a building to my right (I saw ìt out of the corner of my eye but didnt fully look at) and another set of buildings that I though was absolutely beautiful and I contemplated taking a photo but I knew Frenchie was in a hurry so I decided not to. I then noticed that Frenchie stopped walking and was turning his head as if he was trying to get some sort of direction as to where to go so I took the opportunity to look around more closely. He told me, `look at the church!` So I turned to my right to get a better look at the building that I had passed by. There in front of me was the church that I had seen in the postcard and since we were there in the winter time the church looked EXACTLY like the photo and instantly I started crying as I was so happy to see that church in person.

While I was delighfully gasping at the site of THAT church, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Frenchie was digging the breast pocket of his coat. Frenchie took my hand and got down on one knee and told me never to change, that he loves me so much, and `Will you marry me´. Of course the answer was yes!

When we came back the next day we were not able to go into the church as it was locked but that church is now OUR church and we are already dreaming of the days that we get to come back and stand in front of that Church.

Frenchie also told me that we were going to be staying in the castle (Le Chateau Fairmont to be precise) that Frenchie was trying so desperately to find earlier in order to park the car.

The night could not have happened any more perfect. A girl`s dream to have her prince propose to her in a romantic city that she has been dreaming about for 3 years and to spend the night in a castle - an absolute fairy tale!

So we found ourselves a little resturant - mostly to warm up as our excitement was hindering our apetit :) While walking to the resturant and in the resturant we talked about the events that lead up to the proposal. Frenchie asked me if I had any idea that it was going to happen. I told him that on the way up (after he had told me that we were going to Quebec City) my mind started to race as everything was falling into place for the perfect proposal:

1) Before we left his mom`s house for Bruno`s house, Frenchie told me to bring an extra set of clothes. His reasoning was in case we went sledding at Bruno`s, I would need another change of clothes.

2) We were talking about the voicemails on our cell phones while we were driving and Frenchie mentioned that we could not check them now but we could when we got back to his mom`s house. Frenchie mumbled under his breathe, I won`t be able to check it at the hotel either.

3) As we were driving I was looking at the directions Frenchie had written down and even though my French is no where near perfect I knew that from those directions we were going to some where way too specific.

4) We got to Quebec City much later than we had first thought, however, this didn`t seem to bother Frenchie as it would have on other occassions. We also kept driving around and passing MULTIPLE parking spaces - my thought- Let`s just park and WALK to where ever he was trying to get to!

However, I convinced myself not to excited even though it would be the perfect opportunity :)

It was the perfect proposal and perfect start to our vacation.

A little taste of what is yet to come...

Hope everyone had safe and joyous holidays!

Stay tuned for more holiday blogging!

Felicitations Frenchie!

Congratulations Frenchie!

Frenchie can now say that he is an alumni of Mankato State University! On December 13th Frenchie graduated from his 4 year excursion in college.


We had such a wonderful day as my parents and Frenchie's parents came to see him accept his diploma.



It was absolutely wonderful to see the joyous look on Frenchie's face and the same expression on his father face!

This video is pretty cute. Frenchie didn't realize that I was taking video and not just a picture:

Honey, I am so proud of you! You have worked so hard and I am impressed by your motivation and determination. I love you!

Happy Birthday Honey!

For Frenchie's birthday I threw Frenchie a birthday party with the family.

We of course had a cake so here is Frenchie and Petit blowing out the candles:




Here is Frenchie unwrapping a present and putting his foot in his mouth:

(listen closely to the conversation)

Thank you to everyone that came! It is always a blast when you come over!

I am back!

Hi everyone! We have not forgotten about the blog! The fall has been crazy with plenty of milestones to tell you about.