Alan's Graduation at Le Sénat in Paris

The American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy graduates of 2009.

After two crazy and eventful years in Paris, the hard work finally paid off! Alan finished with two Masters degrees - one from AGSIRD, and the other from the University of Paris.

Alan playing with his new graduation gift

Au Revoir Paris

We are so sad to say goodbye to Paris, but Eloise is taking it the hardest....She insists on crawling around the house and barking (well, yipping really) like a french poodle.

We left Paris on Thursday and took the Eurostar train to England to spend 6 days with Alan's parents. We're having a wonderful and relaxing time here and have tons of pictures that I'll post eventually. I still have to post the rest of our last 2 weeks in Paris. Please pray for our transatlantic flight to Atlanta on Wednesday!

More with President Obama

Here are some more pictures that were taken by the US Embassy Photographer (you can click on each picture to see it better)

"Eloise in Paris...that's what you are!"

So, did I mention that my husband just got his masters in strategic negotiation? (He did actually graduate on Thursday, but we'll upload those pictures at a later date). Well, President Obama was going to be in Paris this morning for a very quick meet and greet at the Ambassador's residence before heading off to Normandy. We were glad that we could roll out the red carpet for Tom and Lisa's visit to Paris!
More pictures to come...

Photoshoot

eloise is wearing my mom's baptism dress

Giverny, France

Alan and I took the train up to Vernon and then rented bikes to tour Giverny and Monet's house and gardens. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of Eloise here, she stayed home with Grandma. We had a great day sans bébé.

Alan on the Japanese bridge. He had to fight off the herds of septuagenarians to be in the photo by himself.

I was very impressed with these GIGANTIC leaves. I have no clue what type of plant it is....tina any thoughts?

This is Monet's waterlily pond with a view of the Japanese bridge. Unfortunately, we were too early in the season to see any blooms on the waterlilies. It was an incredibly gorgeous property nonetheless!

I'm particularly proud of this one. I've been trying to teach myself how to use our new 'fancy' camera. A friend taught me how to play with the manual focus.

Claude Monet's pink house with his enormous garden out front. I loved every inch of it!