Benjamin swimming with S&T

One of Benjamin's requirements for college was to be able to swim. He joined the swim club at Missouri S&T and they participate in meets with swim clubs from other universities. 

This one was at SLU in St Louis. 

Cité de la Langue Française

 Our friends Dominique and Mathieu came over for dinner, and they suggested we visit the newly renovated Château de Villers-Cotterêts, Cité de la Langue Française, beforehand. 

We thought the guides were overestimating when they said it would take at least two hours to visit, but they were not. We didn't even quite have time for everything in two hours! If you speak French, it's well worth the visit!

inside the courtyard

the "ciel de mots"

there were a lot of word games to play

the "word sky" lit up at night

Normandy Thanksgiving

 We happened to be in Normandy the weekend after Thanksgiving to work on the house, so we celebrated Thanksgiving while we were at it.

Mmmm look at that spread.

pecan pie

banana pudding

Not the same as Thanksgivings in Madill, but we did what we could!

Disneyland Christmas

 Well, not quite Christmas yet, but Frédéric's work lets us go to Disneyland as a Christmas present. Since Benjamin wasn't here, Noah invited a friend. 

More flying lessons

 Noah even manages to squeeze lessons in before school. As we head into winter, which usually means rainy weather, not ideal for visual flight rules, he's taking advantage whenever he can. He doesn't start school until 10 a.m. on Wednesdays, so he got a flight in this morning. 

Sun wasn't even up yet.

He flew with a different instructor this time, who also thought Noah was ready to fly solo - unfortunately for Noah (and fortunately for his concerned mother), you can't fly solo until you're 16 years old. 

Incidentally, he hasn't yet taken his driving theory test, so he can't practice driving a car yet, for those keeping score at home.