My English friend David Sandles (who also appears on my friends page) turned 50 in April 2003, and we decided to surprise him by showing up unannounced at his birthday party in Vancouver, BC.…
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Through no fault of his own . . .
It’s a big number, 50, and in honor of Ian’s getting there pretty much intact (give or take a few brain cells!), Marie-Hélène decided to throw him a party. Thank you very much…
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2002: zoom zoom!
We’re not really sure why, but somehow 2002 did not merit an annual update for friends and family. Well, maybe we do have an idea why! We started writing an update in…
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Children have a habit of Fooling Around!
The children fooled around effortlessly, like puppies, making adventures out of nothing and drama out of less. For many years, roughhousing was key, a simple joy to be shared. But they had…
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Xmas 1994-2001: it’s Christmas!
It’s Christmas!! The expectation would build in our house like an impending storm in a film. The preparations started early, and the excitement built. In the Stock Brun Berhaut household, Christmas was…
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2001: the good old days!
9/11/2001: us in America In 2001, after what was for him an interminable wait while Alban played on his team week after week, Charlie started at age 6 playing soccer in the local under-8 soccer league.…
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New York City
The first step on our emigration from France to Santa Cruz in June 1997 was a British Airways flight from Paris to London Heathrow and another on to JFK in New York. That…
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Halloween
Halloween is one of the USA’s more recent and successful exports to Western Europe, but to really get into the spirit of the thing it helped us to live in the US. Beginning…
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Homework
Okay, so homework was never really a hobby, not like soccer, swimming pools, Disney, Halloween or other real childhood pleasures. It was an institutionally required activity. As such, it was unlikely to…
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Swimming Pools
Here’s Alban at Disneyland. Is this boy happy, or what!! By the way, Alban does not want to convey the impression that he cannot swim. He can now. When this photo was taken, in…
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Bisous!
As we guys of the male gender know (thank you, Dave Barry!), there are moments of warmth and affection which simply cannot be avoided. This shot, of Alban wincing in the vice-like grip…
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The short, sweet life of Edgar . . .
Marie-Hélène and I disagreed on pretty much everything, when you think about it. She is the soul of discretion: I have a big mouth. I rarely worry about what others might think:…
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12 days in Florida . . .
This summer vacation in 2000 started with a flight from San Francisco to Memphis, and on to Orlando. It was no ordinary flight . . . . We all want to thank Northwest Airlines, and…
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Disney Rides
It’s true. We realize that four Disney pages is a lot in a family photo album. But nothing that you can buy gave this family more pleasure during our early years together than The…
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Residents of Disneyland . . .
Check out the sweater! When our older children were regular visitors at the Paris Disneyland, they each had Disney sweaters, and wore them if we could arrange that. I had one too,…
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Photo Albums: the genesis of Ian’s memoirs
This website started out of my hobby of putting together themed photograph albums every two or three years. The hobby started in 1979: I graduated from UC Berkeley that year, and the first…
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2000: Y2K without incident
For our family as for the world, which had been dreading some bizarre kind of computer meltdown with the start of the new millenium, Y2K passed pretty much without dramatic incident. Accordingly,…
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“Everybody’s going surfin’, Surfin’ USA ..”
And if you don’t recognize that Beach Boys tune, you clicked here by mistake! Everybody went surfing except the parents, that is, and except Alex who was only a year old. Charlie,…
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Moving House
Sounds easy doesn’t it? But it took more than three years for our furniture to move from La Bellanderie to Santa Cruz. Why? First and most importantly, Tison S.A. the furniture moving company based in Coignières (78),…
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Young Tom (1989-94)
Tom was born in Paris in the same week in 1989 that the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Bay Area. The World Series was in progress, with the players on the ball…
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Young Nick (1986-1994)
Nick is a Leo with Leo rising. There you have it! Although he was born in Manhattan, he was moved to Paris when only six months old in February 1987. This was his…
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Young Daphné (1987-97)
Daphné was born in August 1987 in Malestroit, Brittany, during Marie-Hélène’s summer vacation at La Grée. Maman loved to get away from the hustle and bustle of Paris. La Grée is located near where…
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Young Alban (1989-1996)
Several of the photos on this page were taken before our family blended, when Alban and Daphné lived in Paris with Maman and Pierre Brun, their dad. I found them in Marie-Hélène’s own collection…
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Young Charles (1995-9)
Charles was born in August 1995 in Malestroit (the nearest town to La Grée) at the end of our summer vacation that year in Brittany near Brocéliande. Our little world gelled around Charlie from his…
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Young Alexander
Né en janvier 1998 à Santa Cruz, Californie (toujours le bébé!) Toujours le coquin aussi ! On dit “toujours le bébé” parce que maman a annoncé la fermeture de l’usine, un fait déploré mais…