Dominican Republic

Francis and I try our best to vacation somewhere new every year. This year we chose to visit the Dominican Republic! We stayed in La Romana at the Sunscape Resort. This was our first all-inclusive vacation and, I have to admit, it was awesome. The place has a 24 hour buffet, 4 restaurants, bottomless drinks, and every single type of entertainment you can possibly think of. We have no self control so the limitless food and drinks definitely helped us pack on a few pounds for the trip home.


Here we are at the bar right after the afternoon rainstorm:
Here is Francis relaxing on the Bali bed:


Look at that Caribbean water!!!


And for a good laugh, here I am doing the AM Water Aerobics (look for the uncoordinated one):

The "Crazy" One

So, everyone has that one "crazy uncle," right? Well, that is my fabulous uncle Yannick. He saw this blog and quickly pointed out that, although this blog is great, something is clearly missing.

Let me introduce you to Yannick:

For those of you who do not know, he is the ultimate prankster. Here he is at our April 1st wedding in San Francisco (so many people thought he was a homeless wedding crasher)....

....and here he is in Ploermel. Looks like the same guy got invited to a family dinner :)

We miss everyone in France and hope to see them all very soon!!!

Road Warriors

We just got back from spending the weekend in Sacramento. What an eventful weekend...

Saturday morning, Francis starred in his 8th cycling race, the Specialized/Sierra Nevada Criterium!!! He was kicking ass and in a great position when he got taken out unexpectedly in the very last turn. He skidded to a stop and took off a good chunk of skin but is OK otherwise. He took it like a man. His bike is in the repair shop ... I think he's more bummed about that than anything else :)

Here he is at the start line as an official Team BEER rider.


Baby Avery Lee Sheffield (born on June 9th) was there to cheer Francis on!!!

We spent the evening playing Cranium with Mom and Dad Mainguy. Girls vs. Boys. It was a nail-biter... but the Girls pulled through in the end and WON!!! Mom made some crab and filet mignon. Dad poured the wine. Good times.

Sunday was Father's Day. Francis, Dad and I went on a bike ride in the AM and then we all went to Scott's Seafood for brunch. It was excellent and we were all in food comas and worthless afterwards.

We head back up to Sacramento for the 4th of July weekend...

A few things....

Maya, the amazing Weimaraner!

Camping in Arrowhead last summer

Here we are on our honeymoon in French Polynesia

Beautiful Santa Barbara with rare snow-capped mountains

The Avila Family's First Post!

This is our first official post!

I wanted to create a blog for all of our friends and families from around the world...

We are currently a 2 person (+ dog) family, but we're working on changing that to a 3 person family!