Paris!

Ah, Paris…my new favorite place.  Picture this: me & ry, our car, 4 hour drive to Paris, 2 days, no kids,  & a museum pass to all the great spots.  If you can't visualize that, I'll spell it out for you: F-U-N!  And great food.  And a nice little break from traveling with kids.  And a GREAT aunt & uncle named Stephen and Afton who were willing to watch our kids.  You get the picture?  Good, because I can't post any.  But I CAN post a slideshow of all the fun stuff we did together…


In 2 short days we will be on a plane to Texas.  Traveling in Europe is fun, but living here is also super inconvenient.  I can't wait to be back in America and live the easy life!  No more worrying if stores will be open, going to 4 different stores just to get the basics, or worrying about parking or having to bike home from the grocery store in the rain.  I never thought I would see the day when I missed going to a place like Wal-mart, but I totally do.  All. the. time.  AND I miss the sunshine.  There is NO sun here for the majority of the day.  It is really starting to mess with me.
On the other hand, making that flight is sort of like having a baby.  The whole 9 months I won't even let myself think about the delivery part because I hate it so much.  I try to block out the awfulness of it all until I simply can't ignore it anymore (like the night before my delivery) and then the anxiety just washes over me.  That's how I feel about flying to America with 4 little people.  The 9 hour flight over here was SO AWFUL and my kids were actually well behaved.  Having to be crammed in a public place like that for so loooooooong with strangers is not my cup of tea.  Add to that falling asleep next to people you don't even know, then being woken up to be given snacks and food that you don't really want…wow it really IS like being in the hospital and having a baby!  But if I can just keep my eye on the prize of being in America for 3 whole weeks (my proverbial "new baby"), I know it will all be worth it.
Did I mention that I will be flying back to the NL with the littles ALONE?  Yeah, Ry is going back 1 week early to work.  That flight will be the hard one.  Guess I will just have to start planning our next trip to look forward to.  I am thinking Croatia & Greece when my MIL comes to watch the kids.  That sounds like a good sequel to Paris, right?

*Update: I figured out how to beat the system, so now I can post all of my favorites from Paris!  Before you judge me for posting a plethora o' pictures, let me remind you that Paris is like picture-taking paradise.  Everywhere you look, you see something interesting or iconic, so lay off me for being a little snap-happy.

 The Louvre...

Me and my girl Mona

Ry's favorite

 Champs-Elysees...

Arc de Triomphe…

I am sure we climbed at least 1,000 steps over the weekend!

 The Eiffel Tower...

Cliche, yet necessary!

Taken from the top of Notre Dame…I love this picture!

Notre Dame…

The Locks are for Lovers!

One of the best things we did was take the time (and money) to sit down and savor an authentic French brunch.  We are officially fans of French cuisine...

 This is the WWII Deportation Memorial.  Each tiny dot on the walls is a crystal representing 1 Parisian Jew that was deported during the war, there are over 200,000...

 Doing some thinking...

 At Napoleon's tomb...

Ry got really into Napoleon on our trip.

We need to go back and take the kids to Eiffel Tower, at least so they have that memory.  And we will definitely go back with whoever wants to visit us and make the drive over.  But, I am so glad that we got the chance to experience Paris, just the 2 of us.