Moran Family Fun

We've celebrated Jared's birthday on the road for two years running. I think it would kind of stink, having to squeeze a little bit of birthday fun out of a day when you're on vacation. This year we visited Versailles, drove halfway across France, got our car stuck in the mud, and managed to fit in a celebration at the very end of a long day. But I guess he can also say that every year for his birthday we take a fun family trip? We drove halfway across the country on Jared's birthday because we were headed to our next stop, Houlgate, a small town on the English Channel. Houlgate was a good base for exploring the Normandy region and just a really charming little town. We learned from John Kennedy a long time ago that the best way to get to know a new area is to go for a run. So Jared and Abigail got up early our first morning there and went on a reconnaissance run to see what there was to see in and around Houlgate. They came back with all sorts of interesting i...

We only spent two nights in Paris and then we headed off to Normandy, otherwise known as the only part of France Jared is excited to visit. After our day exploring the city, we slept as well as we could in our tiny little travel trailer before heading out the next morning to spend the next five nights in a different tiny trailer in Normandy.  We decided to stop along the way at the Palace of Versailles. Versailles is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and we always love those so it seemed like an easy one to check off our list. Well, for the first time, a UNESCO Site was a letdown. Yes, I'm going to complain about visiting Versailles, something that we were blessed to be able to do and I fully understand that many, many people would love to have the opportunities we've been given.  It all started with an email from the palace informing us that we'd booked tickets to the Palace on a day that was expected to be extra busy along with some suggestions for what we could do to...

Spring Break 2018 was a French adventure! We drove and drove and drove some more before finally arriving in our Paris lodgings late in the evening. It was definitely poor planning on our part to start our travels on one of the busiest travel days ever. Our Chunnel crossing was delayed for over an hour so by the time we made it to our Eurocamp in Paris it was almost midnight. We got settled as quickly as we could and got some much needed sleep before heading out early the next morning for a full day in Paris. Thanks to the internet and travelers who are willing to share their wisdom, we had a good idea of how we could fit as much in possible in the one day we had to devote to the city of light.  We'd never stayed at a Eurocamp before and probably won't again.  The price was right but these trailers were so tiny! There was barely room to navigate between or around beds. A quick bus ride to the train station followed by a comfortable train ride into the city center and...

During the wintertime life in our household slows down quite a bit because we like to hibernate a little and spend our time inside where it's warm and cozy. In March we wake up from our long winter's nap and life starts to starts to get busier and busier as we move toward the end of the school year. I sent my mom an email with a bulleted list of the things that were going on in March and thought it would make the perfect starting point for a long overdue blog post.  Abigail and Emily had tryouts for their school's varsity soccer team. The sports teams at our high school are in a constant state of rebuilding because there are so many students and even teachers and coaches moving in and out each school year. The soccer team is no exception as this year they had an all-new coaching staff and almost half of the players were new to the team. They both made the team, which is awesome because it would have been really tough for a while at our house if only one of them was ch...