Paris – Day 1

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Ah, Paris!  We were so excited to go to Paris.  It was our top pick when we were deciding where to go during our 2 weeks in Europe.  And it did not disappoint!  Even the 5 hour drive to Paris was exciting . . . . it was our first drive through the German and French countryside, and wow, was it gorgeous.  Perfectly manicured farmland, green rolling hills, red poppies lining the highway and cute little picturesque towns all with an old church surrounded by matching houses (white with red roofs).  I kept thinking, “This is how I always imagined it to look like, but it REALLY does look like this . . . . everywhere you look!”  I wish we had some pictures from the drive, but it’s hard to take clear shots when you’re driving the Autobahn at over 100 mph (seriously scary at first, but amazing how fast you get used to the high speeds:).  You want to know what else is scary?  Driving in Paris!  No rules, just go where you want to go.  And be aggressive!  Haha . . . . good thing Chris has had some experience driving in Paris before!  We arrived in Paris around 1:30p.m., parked the car in a garage for the 3 days, and took our stuff to the great little apartment we found online.  It had 3 bedrooms, so each couple had their own room, and it only cost us $60 a night per couple.  Not bad, eh? 

Our view from the apartment!                 

We then headed over to the nearest Metro station to figure out our transportation for the trip.  We bought 5 Metro tickets per person (because they were cheaper if you bought them in sets of 10) and used our first one to head on over to the Louvre!  (More about the Paris Metro system later:)

 

This was one of the first pictures we took in Paris.  We had just barely started walking from our apartment, saw this cool fountain, and so took a picture in front of it.  Little did we know we’d see tons of cool fountains in Paris!  There’s really nothing special about this one:) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before heading into the Louvre, we grabbed a little something to eat for lunch.  Our first taste of Paris!  I loved the food there.  Everything we had was so good.  Dan started off with a crepe, we each got a chocolate croissant, and I got a slice of pizza.  “Mmmm, this is soooo good!”  I said, as I was trying to figure out what was on it.  “Oh, did you get the salmon pizza?” Chris asked.  “Um . . . . yes, I guess I did.” 

Finally at the Louvre!  Ahhh!!  I was really excited about coming here.  Before the trip I had gotten a book from the library about the Louvre and although the art is amazing and fun to see, what’s even more fascinating to me is the history of the beautiful building itself, which was originally built in the 12th century as the royal palace.  I know this is the nerd side of me coming out, but I want to know the history behind what I’m seeing and visiting . . . . it just makes it all the more meaningful, and interesting.  So here we go . . . . into the Louvre!  

The famous Winged Victory of Samothrace (190 BC).     

And the Venus de Milo.

As you can see, we take our art very seriously.

I love this picture Scott took.  We had an hour and a half in the Louvre before it closed (definitely not enough time) and we were trying to cram in as much as possible.  Including reading aloud the history of the art we were seeing (Chris), taking notes (me), figuring out where to go next (Elisha), taking pictures (Lisa), and Dan just trying to take it all in.  We sure know how to multitask!

The Mona Lisa!  There were so many people in front of her, this is the closest we could get.  It’s quite humorous actually.  (How many people were there, not the painting:)

Chris reading to us about the Mona Lisa.

This oil on canvas is The Wedding at Cana (1563) and is MASSIVE!  It’s quite amazing.   

The Louvre closed at 6:00, which we were a little bummed about.  We could have easily spent more time there.  We only really went in one wing, and there are SEVERAL wings.  But it’s completely closed on Tuesdays, so we had to just see what we could see in the time that we had.  Below, we are standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel which is right in-between the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden.  Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, the centerline of the grand boulevard Champs-Elysees, and the Arc de Triomphe at the Place de I’Etoile.  So we decided to spend our evening walking this 2 mile “grand historic axis.”              

Here is the Luxor Obelisk in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris.  The obelisk was given to France as a gift from Egypt in 1829.  This thing is 3,300 years old!  It’s probably the oldest thing I’ve ever seen . . . . and it’s HUGE!  How did they even build things like this back then?

Walking down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which is known as “the most beautiful avenue in the world!”

 

 

Cool drinking fountains! 

 

 

 

 

                                                         Lots of high end shopping on the Champs-Elysees, but unfortunately, we had no time to shop.  Lisa and I wanted to just slip in this store for a “quick look around”, but the line just to get into the store was SOOOO long!  Bummer!                                                          

Finally at the Arc de Triomphe!     

We bought a 2-day Paris Museum Pass before going into the Louvre, and that covered the cost of going to the top of the arc for some awesome views of the city.  And we climbed our first of MANY spiral stair cases we would climb in the next 2 weeks!

Views from the top!

The roundabout around the Arc . . . . this gives a little glimpse as to what the driving is like in Paris.  See how there are no lanes?  You just drive wherever.  Controlled chaos is how I describe it.  What you can’t see is how fast they’re all going:)

It was getting kind of late by this point, and we knew how we wanted to end our first day in Paris . . . . so we headed on over to the Eiffel Tower! 

We got dinner at Chris and Lisa’s favorite place to get crepes . . . . the stand right below the Eiffel Tower!  I got nutella with bananas and Dan got nutella with strawberries. . . . so good!  I mean what could seriously be better than eating crepes under the Eiffel Tower??

We walked across the river to Trocadero Square for some night shots of the tower.  I was taking some video footage of it all lit up, when all of a sudden thousands of white sparkling lights starting flashing all over it.  There was a collective “OOOOOHH!” from the crowd and I got goosebumps.  It was just so fun standing out there taking it all in!  We were in Paris!

Europe Trip

Ok!  We came home with over 2400 pictures from an AMAZING 2 weeks in Europe, so get ready for picture overload!!  It’s kind of overwhelming to think about blogging the whole trip, but I know we are going to be so glad to have it all documented . . . . so here we go!

Let’s start at the very beginning . . . . a very good place to start.  (haha . . . . more on the Sound of Music later:)  It all started a year ago when the Johnson family (Dan’s sister) moved to Heidelberg, Germany for 3 years (Chris is a radiologist in the US Army).  My grandmother grew up in Germany, and I have always wanted to visit, so we knew we wanted to go while the Johnsons were living there.  We decided that this spring would be the perfect time to go.  I wouldn’t be pregnant and James is old enough to leave (14 months).  We asked my mom if she would be willing to watch our kids and she said, “Are you kidding?  I’d be thrilled!”  Ok, then . . . . all that was left was to convince someone to come with us:)  I talked to Scott and Elisha during our Christmas trip in Vancouver and by February the four of us had booked our flights!  Yay!

Dan and I had so much fun planning and preparing for our trip.  We spent a lot of time reading travel books, deciding where to go, looking for hotels, researching sites we wanted to visit, etc.  At one point I said to Dan, “I think we’ll be spending more time planning for this trip than we’ll actually be there!”  But we loved the anticipation, and it was so much fun doing it together.  And before we knew it, we were off!   

On Friday, May 20th, after Dan got home from work, we drove the 4 hours to my parents’ house to drop the kids off.  Two weeks in Europe sans kids definitely sounded fabulous, but it was still sad to say good-bye to them.  Luckily the kids were so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s for 2 weeks, so it made it much easier.  Our flight was bright and early out of San Jose on Saturday, May 21st.  We had a layover in Dallas, where we met up with Scott and Elisha for the long 11 hour flight to Frankfurt.  It was so fun meeting up with them and going on this adventure together . . . . it was the first time to Europe for all 4 of us!

We arrived in Frankfurt at 7:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. our time) and needed to stay up all day (through our night and then some) in order to get on Germany time.  And this is all going off our 4 hours of sleep the night before at my parents house.  Needless to say, we were soooo tired.  We took a little 2 hour nap at the Johnson’s house before going to their 1:30 p.m. Heidelberg Ward. 

We BARELY made it through Sacrament Meeting, so we thought it was best if we skip Sunday School and take a little walk around town:)  Haha . . . . we were really just anxious to get out there and walk around Germany!!

We walked across this metal bridge over the River Neckar. 

The Johnsons live in this great little 4-story duplex . . .  although it’s much larger than it looks.  They have plenty of space for all 6 kids, lots of storage room, and comfortable accommodations for all kinds of guests:)

A view down their street:

The view the other way, towards the fields.  Their house is on the left.

Beautiful farmland surrounds their little town of St. Leon, about 15 minutes south of Heidelberg.

Sunday evening was spent hanging out at the Johnson’s house . . . . eating dinner, tickling little nephews, learning the Johnson’s new favorite game, Dominion, trying to stay awake, skyping our kids, and getting ready for our 3 day trip to Paris!

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was great.  Dan and the kids made me waffles for breakfast, gave me homemade cards, got me flowers and a balloon, got me a sweater and necklace from Ann Taylor, and made a delicious roast dinner.  I love Mother’s Day!  Because I love being a mom, and I’m so blessed with 3 adorable little kids.  And I’m so blessed to have such an amazing mom and mother-in-law . . . . Happy Mother’s Day!  I love you both:)

We also got to participate in the family Skype call with Elder Brian Walton!  There were 6 households involved in the call.  So fun.  Especially good to see and hear Elder Walton . . . . he has less than 2 months to go!

After School

The girls have gotten into a little after school routine lately since the weather has been so nice (we were in the low 80s today:).  Right when we get home from picking Annie up from kindergarten, the girls ask for a popsicle as their after school snack.  They take their popsicles out back and swing on our little porch swing.

They love to be together again after spending a few hours apart . . . . how’s it going to be for Leah next year when Annie is in school full day?

Then they usually spend some time marking up our patio with chalk.

Today they drew the characters from Despicable Me.  Do you see how Annie brought the DVD case out to copy?  Leah is working on Vector, with his orange warm up suit on.

Annie drew the three little girls in the movie.

And a minion!

Then they take a spin on their scooters!                                                                       

Oh how we love warm weather!!

On a different note, we hit another parenting mile stone as Annie was invited to her first slumber party tonight.  Really?  At six years old?  Are we already to that point?  I’ve had conversations in the past with good friends about slumber parties and many of my friends have a no slumber party rule.  I decided awhile ago that that would be a good rule for our family as well.  It’s kind of funny, because today I was thinking about how as a youth my leaders would always tell us to make hard decisions ahead of time, so that when we are all of sudden put in a situation or faced with a difficult decision, we will know what to do.  For instance, we decide ahead of time that we will never drink alcohol, so that when we are faced with that decision, it’s not a matter of deciding what to do.  We already know what to do . . . say no.  It makes it easy.   Now I’m not trying to say that if I had allowed Annie to go to this slumber party that that would have been some terrible thing.  I mean how much trouble can 6 year olds really get into?  But having made the decision awhile ago that we’re not going to do slumber parties, it made it easy for me to immediately explain to Annie that I would let her go for most of the night, but when all the girls start to go to sleep, I’ll come get her and she can just sleep at our house.  Consistency is what matters through the years.  Having family rules and sticking to them.  I went and picked Annie up at 10:00.  I felt a little bad because they were just starting the movie, Tangled.  But she had been there for 5 hours, and she is only 6.  It was definitely kind of weird having her gone all night on a Friday night!  Like a little glimpse into the future:)  And one more funny thing . . . . as I was doing her hair to get her ready for the party, she seriously asked me if she could put on some makeup!  Ahhh!  Don’t grow up too fast my little Annie!  (BTW, cousin sleepovers will be the exception:)

A Tender Moment

I yelled at Leah today.

About something so dumb like getting her second pop tart of the day right before dinner without asking me and about how we eat way too many snacks in this house and about some ridiculous idea of how we are going to get on a strict eating schedule like the kids I used to nanny in San Francisco and about how our pantry is just a free-for-all snack shack. 

I made her cry.

And then a few minutes later I was still feeling so bad about it that I went into the pantry and ate some Easter chocolate.  No joke.

I came out and discovered she had found comfort in her blanket and Annie, who was curled up on the chair reading The Friend.  She looked so sweet.  They both did. 

And I cried.  And then repented.