Hiking in the Alps, Caves, and Concerts!

As per usual, I've waited until I went on a grand adventure before updating my blog. So here are photos of the past few days, including a exciting new food additions in the house, a concert, and lots of hiking. Plus, a ton of France being gorgeous, of course.

This is what it looks like when I return to the house every morning after my run and workout with the nike training app :) it makes the constant uphill run enjoyable (less awful).

Berry hands. 

Nicholas eats chocolate wrapped in bread for breakfast every morning. That's it.

I played fetch with this dog on a farm we visited. He would never bring the stick all the way back...

I'm still diligently working on my foot tan.

New food news! This just in! Avocados in the house! So excited to eat these. It's the little things ;)

Yesterday I went with Guylaine and Audrey to a concert. Guylaine sang in the choir. It was awesome! One song was funny because I didn't realize they were singing in English because their accents were so strong! We laughed about it together :)

Right after Guylaine and Audrey played in this cool orchestra. It's so awesome to listen to orchestras live, and they were really good! They played Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and it was amazing. 

After, everyone from the chorus brought food and had a big dinner. I talked with so many people and everyone was so friendly! It was great practice for my French :) and I helped teach the kids some English. They kept having me say French names with an American accent. I had a really fun time.

Today we went for a hike! For a very long time. It. Was. Amazing.

We first had a picnic by the river.

That's not a dead body there, just Étienne during nap time.

Stashed our stuff in the car and got started!

Imagine doing lunges for 4 hours. That's what the terrain was haha, good thing I was doing lunges every morning last week! 

The view kept getting more breath taking as time went on!

Nico got up close with the first waterfall

The path had these convenient handholds for the super dangerous areas. 

Étienne took 35 photos to get this one (iPhones are confusing to people who don't have them, haha!) but thanks for the photo!

This is how we cooled off. Dunk your face in the melted ice water of the alps. If you can still feel your face, it's not hot anymore ;) After a bread water fight, we continued on. (Having long hair is a definite advantage for water fights)

Then we went into this big cave with our flashlights and explored for a bit. I love caves!

Nico loves them I'd guess from this photo! 

I couldn't get good photos from in the cave because it was only lit by our flashlights and not a great photo environment. But it was so cool! And we all turned off our lights for a bit. Now that is dark.

The view a bit higher

We joined another family after I offered to take their picture and we were going in the same direction. We had them come with us to the cave since they didn't have flashlights.

Their son was very well behaved and kept up with the fast pace without ever complaining. I was impressed!

The hills are alive with the sound of music! It took Nico a billion times to figure out the panorama. But he got it! It felt like the top of the world up there with the wind gusting around. So great.

Stopped for a drink on the way down. We were all thirsty because we RAN down most of the mountain while hooting and hollering. It's a bit easier on the legs to run down a slope than to walk, so we ran! So fun, but I almost lost my phone while running. (didn't)

Almost at the bottom, Étienne and Nico 

made their way across the river the hard way, while I watched from the convenient bridge... ;) The awesome waterfall looked great in the background.

Not a fun part of the day

We stopped to try to help this guy who crashed off the road on the way home. His thigh bone was sticking out above his knee and there was blood everywhere. It was intense because we couldn't get any of the doors open and then the car started smoking. It's a terrible feeling, not being able to do anything to help besides hoping the can didn't explode. Once the ambulance arrived, we continued on our way. I got the blood off my hands from his bloody car keys and didn't freak out! But I just wish I knew that he was okay and that the van didn't explode and that his family is okay because I saw that he was wearing a wedding ring.

But the night was still amazing because everyone is so great here. We each handmade our own personal pizzas. With our blobs of dough, we manhandled it into the crust and put what we wanted on it! It was a great ambiance full of mistakes, laughter, food, and competition. Mine was the prettiest ;) I put onion, garlic, mushrooms, olives, and ham on mine. So. Good.

All in all, a very fun and exhausting day! 

Goodnight!

Ps, this took a couple of days to post due to internet issues...