Welcome to harmony's Roundeo.

I think this album finishes up our Summer months of July and August! Wow, that was a lot of posting and neglecting my kids! We went to Chamonix France with the Cowan's one Saturday. It is home to the tallest mountain in Western Europe. On clear days we can actually see it from Geneva. It's beautiful up close too. The glaciers I thought were the coolest thing and the way the clouds hover and cling to the mountains. We were actually here for a really cool event that we didn't know about. "The north face ultra trail du mont-blanc; sommet mondiale de la course nature". which means that a bunch of people raced many many miles over many days through the mountains on foot: hiking, climbing, running. A Mountaineers Race. I'll add comments later, for now I'm actually going to do something else wtih my life!
http://www.chamonix.com/page.php?page=0&r=accueil&ling=en; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Blanc

And I got to mountain bike in the mountains! I didn't have time or energy to do anything spectacular, but it was a lot of fun.

had to check out your collages. very very cool. and wow you guys have been up to a lot this summer! so awesome you did so much!

LOVED THIS! I really really love street art/music and the whole village atmosphere where people are all out and stuff is going on. This was a whole percussion group dressed in silly costumes and doing awesome fun stuff.

the setting of this village, Chamonix, is just awesome. glaciers, mountains, river, and blue sky and sun all day.

the finish line for the mountaineer race.

These people are amazing! So this guy is coming in from doing like a zillion kilometers. Unfortunately I no longer remember the exact amount. but it was unfathomable to me and impressive. they took 5 days and slept only 6 hours!

So, I have to say one more thing about this race thing. This is Drew looking very calm and cool. Cado is below with the red hat and sunglasses, and he was not exactly calm and cool. He was quite excited by this race. And this is what I mean: He says to me, "Why can't we do this?" I said, "well, we could, but it would require a lot of dedication, hard work, practice, I mean these people dedicate their whole life to this, this is what they do!" Then begins at least 1/2 hour of crying and falling apart over not being able to do this. With him saying things like, "it doesn't look hard to me! I could do it. Why can't I do it?" I am proud to say, that normally I fall apart also when he's like this, but this time I stayed calm. I tried to just say, Cado, I think you would be great at this, you could do this someday, if this is your dream, go for it...." stuff like that. He of course took his time getting over it. It can be hard to understand the passion, anxiety and discontent of Cado, but I think he has always been someone who wants more, who is not content with what he has (this is not 100% true 100% of the time of course) and also he really loves and needs praise, and appreciates fanfare and glory and heroism. Everyone was cheering and there was this grand music and it was exciting, etc. He wants to be part of that. He's a passionate, sensitive, always wanting more kind of person. This is at times the great challenge of my daily life! But it is also what makes Cado wonderful and special and exciting to be around. He is so full of energy and has such big plans and ideas. I know that if I can be the Mom he needs I can help him to turn all of this into good things. I also asked him, "do you want to go running wtih me in the morning sometime? it's not the mountains, but it's a start." He said yes. So he actually did join me on a morning run! He was so cute, and did so awesome. I didn't change my pace, and he was perfectly fine.

Genève played on these steps/this ramp for hours I think. She loved going up and down the ramp.

Oh my goodness! Look how big she's gotten! She's so pretty... just like her big sister. They all have your gorgeous eyes, Harmony!

Well, Geneve & Paisley I mean, haha. Those bright blues!

see the glacier. Dad Roundy, maybe if you zoom you can tell me if it is receding or proceeding. I think receeding.

we did a little hike. It's amazing how long a little hike is with kids!

You can take a gondola up to that peak and have a great view. Brent did it. Do you see the tiny structure on the peak? It's the gondola building.

Gelato is always always always a welcome and yummy treat.

See, there she is on the ramp again. We ate lunch here, then came back later after our hike and ate ice cream here.

really cool live "statue" of a mountaineer.

He posed Cado like this. cute.

Girls not so keen on this whole thing! Check out their face and body language.