Catching up on May

I've worked so hard to get the posts done from Paris that I've fallen behind on what has been happening at home. It was so great to come home to the kids! They had a wonderful time with their Aunt Lisa and then out with cousins and Aunt Theresa and Uncle Doug in Sequim. In fact, when we called from Dallas to say we'd pick them up in the morning, instead of hearing "oh Mommy, hurry!", Katelyn says, "Ok, Mom, but can you go R-E-A-L SLOW!". That's our Katelyn!

Shortly after our return the kids got their school Sweatshirts. They looked so cute!! I wanted to get a picture and this is what I got! Thanks for ducking, Ian, so we could see Minnie!! :)

On May 17th, Emily and Erin had their Dance Elite Dance Recital! Here they are with our good friends Arden and Beth Tobey. Beth helped backstage and helped the Girls get ready to perform. Erin and Arden were in Jazz, Ballet, and Lyrical. Emily did a Musical Theatre number, "Le Jazz Hot". They both did really well! It was so fun to have Jen, Freddy, and Bridgett come see the show!! Thanks alot!!

This is Katelyn and her Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Kim Bielski, on our Field Trip to see "Cinderella" at the Edmonds Theatre. She is an awesome teacher and Katelyn loves her alot!

I was very excited to get to go on the field trip, too! We got to ride the bus together! It was so fun!

On Saturday night, we took the kids over to Willis Tucker Park. They have a new water area that looks like it is lots of fun!! Unfortunately, something had broke, and it wasn't working! :(

That didn't stop Katelyn from finding some water to play in! :)

Ian was just as happy to play on the playground. He loves the merry go round and the spider web!!

On Memorial Day monday, we took the kids to see "Prince Caspian". We all loved it!! Highly recommend it!! Then Spencer took them back over and the water was working! YEAH! It was a bit colder, but that didn't stop them from playing for a good 15-20 min or so! They came home to a nice hot bath! :) Good memories!

Tuesday Morning-Time to Leave

Tuesday morning, Spencer went out and took one last stroll before saying 'goodbye'. Here are a few final goodies.



Cafe that Hemingway, Picasso, and others frequented.



St. Germaine (neighborhood church)



Little garden spot by the Institute of France



Spencer wiped out after his wonderful 'vacation'.

Our Last Evening in Paris

After the Louvre, we started to walk over to the Marais District. We came upon this amazing cathedral, St. Eustache. We had to check it out! As we got closer, I noticed the hearts in the stained glass and many other interesting little details. They were conducting a small mass at the back of the cathedral in "Mary's chapel". So cool!

We kept walking past the Pompidou Center. We showed Mark where we attended church. We walked through the Jewish District and into the Marias Neighborhood. We got a few more things at our favorite chocolate shop. We found the Place des Vosges and sat and enjoyed some of our tasty snacks. My favorite were these thin oval chocolates topped with hazelnuts, pistachios, and a bit of orange rind. OH, SOOO GOOOD!

The Place des Vosges was beautiful. It was so great to "People watch". We saw friends meeting from work, moms with kids, and of course Parisian lovers holding each other. It was a very friendly, comforting atmosphere. We sat and talked and just enjoyed being there!

We had a fantastic dinner at a restaraunt just outside of the park. It was delicious French cuisine. About 2 hours later, we left and enjoyed our walk home. It was a wonderful, relaxing night!

Monday at the Louvre

Monday, our final day in Paris

Monday morning, we enjoyed our last day to "Sleep in". We got up and went shopping for souvenirs. We found some yummy chocolate and some cute t-shirts for the kiddos to go with some things we got at the Cluny Museum. We met Mark and headed back over to the Louvre to check out the Denon Wing. (Spence could barely contain himself-3 times in the LOUVRE!! WHOO HOO!)
I know Spence had his favorites, but these are mine (and I'm typing this blog, so there!) You always have to wonder what the artist meant for his/her painting. I'm sure that the reasons they touch me vs. others are quite different.

Christ bestowing the "keys" to Peter.





I love this one of Mary with Jesus, Elizabeth with John, and Heavenly Father watching over them all! With this painting and the next, Spence and I wondered about their portrayal of 3 separate beings of the Godhead.



I just think they are wonderful!

Sunday Evening Concert

Sunday Evening, we went back over to St. Chapelle for a wonderful Concert. It was a mixture of one violin soloist, 2 other violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 bass, and a harpsicord. They played Vivaldi's Four Seasons (I think :), they also did the Pachabel Cannon (really, really fast!) It was a really great concert and the sound just swirled around in the room! We got to leave by a door not used during the regular tours. It had some amazing engravings on it, and I loved the color! We left and had a yummy dinner, walked around some more, (had to 'work off' dinner!) then grabbed some Gelato at our favorite place, and headed back to our apartment! What a great day! (Can you tell I'm running out of steam on these posts??? :) Hope you're not!

Beautiful Sunday at the Cluny Museum

As we walked home from church, we had to stop and take some pictures as we were crossing the bridge at Rue d'Arcole. A very nice Frenchman offered to take our picture when he saw Spencer take one of just me. The people here have really been very engaging and kind! We went "home" to the apartment and changed clothes. We had a bite to eat and joined Mark and off we went to the Cluny. We had walked around it many times during the week, and we were excited to be going inside. They had a lot more excavated of the "Ruins" portion of the Museum. We had learned earlier in the week, at the "Crypt", that one of the main roads from the Time of Roman occupation ran straight down under the Cluny. Very interesting! Enjoy the pictures!

New Friends from Sweden

Sunday morning was gorgeous, and I must say it was hard to get up and ready for 11:00am church ! (We are now such nocturnal beings!) Church was held in a building about a block and a half away from the Pompidou Museum. We made it in time for Sacrament Meeting, and was surprised to find them holding a special English Speaking one. In the picture above, the doors behind the family opened up and that was where we had the meeting. The chairs poured out into the courtyard. It was fast Sunday, and we got to listen to people from all over bear their testimonies. We sat next to the cute family above. Afterwards, we were talking as we stacked up chairs . We learned that they are the Euwann and Karin Krylborn family from Stockholm, Sweden. I told that my fathers family was also from Sweden. We started talking and found out that they have children very close in age to ours and that her husband also works in Investments! They seemed very sweet! We exchange emails and addresses and we hope to keep in touch! We were so grateful we took the time to attend and to really see that the Gospel is the same and that there are people all over the world who really are just like us!

Saturday Night tour of the Seine by boat

We had decided early on that we wanted to take a boat tour on the Seine River, and that it had to be at night! We thought that after walking around Versailles all day, Saturday night would be perfect. Luckily for us, Mark had his new Apple "Air"(which I love). We were able to get almost 1/2 off the ticket price by ordering online! There weren't any seats up front, so we were in the back by the engine. But Mark recommended sitting on the side so we wouldn't feel the heat or noise so much!. It was a very pleasant night and everything was all lit up and pretty. I think the most interesting part was watching the people having picnics and parties on the banks of the Seine. We even saw a bit of dancing. I wish I had gotten a picture of that! I learned a little about where the Parliament lived, and that we had taken the architectural design for our White House from one of the Buildings there (I don't recall the name.). She also pointed out the "oldest building" still standing and talked about the Conciergerie. It was very nice.

By the time we got off the boat it was probably 10:30pm or so. But the night was still young! We walked and explored some more and just talked and enjoyed being together. It was a great day!

Our Saturday at Versailles

We had such a wonderful day at Versailles! We couldn't have asked for nicer weather! No jacket needed!! We took the RER train straight from St. Michel to Versailles. There was some disagreement in our travel books and our Museum Pass on what was covered. (Rick Steves wrong??? NO WAY!!! :) Actually, he was wrong. ;) But, he redeemed himself by telling us in his book about a tourist info place to go to BEFORE you get to the Chateau. We were able to get all our tickets, find out that yes, our pass covered the Domain de Marie Antoinette, and get a very good map of the place!

There were a million people in line there for tickets, then a separate huge line to get in. Unfortunately, the special entrance for pass holders was under construction and they told us to get in the huge line. NO WAY, JOSE!! We decided that we had all seen the Chateau before, but hadn't had time to really enjoy the grounds, so off we went! All I can say is "WHAT A BACKYARD!!" It was so fun to just imagine the dressed up ladies and men having parties, going for boat rides in the Grand Canal, and hunting in the woods. It truly would take a carriage ride to get these primped up people all around! It was quite a hike!

We walked down to the Grand Canal and then Eastward towards the Domain de Marie Antoinette. (probably 30-40 minute walk). We enjoyed that area a lot! It was so much "less" in glamour than the main Chateau. Plus, there weren't as many tourists! I really liked the "Hamlet". It reminded us of the little French town in "Beauty and the Beast". But we were disappointed that it looked like a movie set. There wasn't anything inside the buildings and not much to the yard areas. It was a pretty view though.

There were loads of people sunbathing and riding in boats on the Grand Canal. They didn't seem to all be tourists. I think the locals were out enjoying such amazing weather! When we got back to the Apollo Basin, they had the fountains on. That was one of the reasons we waited for Saturday, as they only come on on the weekends. We took pictures and sat around the fountain and ate some snacks. (It felt great to sit!) It was fun to watch the families. (We were missing our little ones a lot) Then we turned around and there was a wedding party coming up to take pictures in front of the fountain. I think we just have to see a bride every time we visit. Last time we watched a wedding party in the Eiffel Tower Gardens. Very beautiful brides!

We walked around to the West of the Chateau. Here were some very beautiful gardens with very vibrant colors, with more grassy areas and smaller sidewalks. I tried to take some close up pictures of the flowers. I'm not that great of a photographer, but they were beautiful. We couldn't help but think how long had some of the trees been there. Could any of them have been part of an original garden? I don't know. We saw the Colonnade and walked up to the Orangerie. Wow is that pretty. The sun was starting to descend and the lighting was amazing for that area. I really enjoyed seeing that! We walked back to the train and delighted in sitting. I wanted to close my eyes, and did a little, but I was really afraid that I would sink into oblivion and not wake up at the right stop!

Needless to say, we got off at St. Michel and went back to the apartment for a little rest and dinner.

Friday Night "Louvre"

(Isn't that a cool picture!?)

Friday evening, Spencer and Mark went back to the Louvre. I think they really enjoyed having 'brother' time. I know I would have felt that way if my sister or brothers were there. I truly enjoyed my break time, too! :)

Here are a few pictures of the areas that they saw on Friday.













These last 3 are my favorites. I love the view inside the Louvre. These last two of course hold fond memories of Venice!!
Next is VERSAILLES!!

Friday afternoon-Tuileries Gardens and L'Orangerie Museum

We got off the Metro and walked into the Tuileries Gardens behind the Louvre. We were searching for the Creperie stand Brian and Emily Nedry had recommended to us! Unfortunately, as we looked around all we could find were ice cream stands! We saw this beautiful tree with purple blossoms and I had to have Mark take a picture of Spence and I. I think it is my favorite picture of us from the whole trip! thanks, Mark!

We walked through the gardens, hoping to find the Creperie, but was out of luck! The L'Orangerie is in the South west corner of the Gardens. Rebecca Davis told us before we left how dissappointed they were when they went that the L'Orangerie was still under construction. She described Monet's paintings within. We were very excited that it was open for us! We had seen a smaller version of Monet's "Water Lilys" at the Orsay museum, and at first I was slightly disappointed. (I had expected huge room size paintings) These were big, but we'd seen bigger at other museums. Then I sat and read about how even as Monet was going blind with cataracts, he planned these 6-foot tall canvases for the Orangerie. There are 8 of the canvases of his garden and pond at different angles and different times of day. Monet worked on these for 12 years!! The last 3 years, he had more energy as he had an eye operation. He didn't live to see them installed in the Orangerie. Isn't that cool! I found as we went to different museums, the more I knew about the history of the artist and the paintings, I enjoyed the experience so much more! In the gift shop here, I was finally able to show Mark a piece or Torchon lace that was in a book. No luck in finding the real thing, though! We enjoyed the rest of the museum, too. In fact, Mark said it was one of his favorites!! More later...

Friday morning-Les Invalides & Eiffel Tower

We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day! YEAH! We had to get ready by lamplight in the bathroom as I had blown a fuse the night before with the hairdryer! :{ Mark was very ingenious in finding a lamp with a long enough cord to reach the kitchen and give us light!

We took the Metro over to Les Invalides and enjoyed the Soldiers Chapel (have video, no pictures) and Napoleons Tomb. We had a ton last time of the tomb itself, but I forgot to take one this time. We found the 'Musee des Plans Reliefs" on the very tip top floor of the East Wing. (Spence and I were out of breath after the climb! We are so out of shape!) Mark loves models of places and cool buildings. This has 17th- and 18th- Century models of French cities. Some were very cool. You could figure out the best way to defend the city and such. I believe it was a model of Mont-Saint-Michel that was really cool! I swear it reminded me of Hogwarts! It is basically just this tiny island in which this entire walled city encompasses. It just seems to go Up and Up and at the very top is the Abbey. It was really very interesting!

After we took the elevator down... :)... we walked over into the Rue Cler neighborhood that we stayed at in 2004. We showed Mark the lovely little church ,St. Jeans, that Spencer had found in his wanderings last time. We sat on the steps and chatted about what life would be like living in Paris. These boys always discuss living abroad. It would be quite an adventure!

We showed Mark our little Bed and Breakfast we stayed at, "Hotel du Champ de Mars" and Doug and Theresa/our favorite little Creperie in the Rue Cler Street Market. Then we continued on just a few more blocks to the Eiffel Tower. We got some really pretty shots, but chose to walk straight through the large mass of people. Even as we walked through, they made an announcement that one of the lifts would be closed for awhile. It was very warm (doesn't that sound wonderful!!), so we got some ice cream. It was fun to eat and watch all of these tourists with tour groups having to stand in these horribly, long lines. Not just for the Eiffel Tower, but for the boats on the Seine. We really enjoyed just planning everything ourselves and going where and when we wanted to!

At this point, we looked at a few souvenier shops and we started to get some ideas of what we wanted to get the kids. Next, we went to an "Asian and Oriental Art Museum" (I know it has a cool name, but I can't think of it). It was really neat, but I think at this point each of us thought his/her feet were going to fall off! Spence and I kept finding each other in different rooms and finding the best seats to enjoy our views. Thank goodness for the Metro!! more later...

Thursday-Labor Day in Paris

Thursday, May 1st was Labor Day in France. This meant that most Museums and shops were closed. This made us reevaluate our plans and we ended up with a wonderful day! We started off walking around to the back side of Notre Dame and crossing over a bridge to the Isle de St. Louis. Spencer and I spent our last night here 4 years ago. Its a pretty ritzy neighborhood. We found a great chocolate shop there. We also looked in a marionette store. The puppets were amazing, but the owner/artist was interesting in his own right. Thin, long legged, pointed nose, wild, wiry hair- he was awesome! The prices were pretty "awesome", too! We had to try some ice cream at a shop called "Berthillions" (per Rick Steves). Personally, I thought the gelato shop by our apartment was much better! On the bridge connecting the two "Isles", a street performer was juggling and balancing bicycles and yelling at the crowd. We stopped to watch for a while. Spencer was so enthralled, he didn't notice when Mark and I moved on! Next we found the "Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore". I really enjoyed looking through it. We found a cute story called "The Red Balloon" about a little Boy, Pascal and his balloon. You might have seen the little movie about it.

We took a little break back at the apartment, then off we went again! :) We walked over to a church called St. Sulpice. It was quite a large church compared to its surroundings. It was beautiful inside. One statue that you'll see in the slideshow really touched me. It was in a little side chapel called "Sacre Ceur". It was a statue of Christ with his arms outstretched and He looked to be standing on a round object ( I believe it was the earth). He had such a loving expression on His face. I know I felt the Spirit.

We continued to the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens. We tried to get into a Private party or something and was very politely turned away. The Gardens were beautiful and very full of families on this holiday. People were playing tennis and sailing little boats in the pond. They had pony rides for the kiddos and you had to really watch where you stepped! :) Spence and Mark walked through an "Earth Day" type exhibit. I took the opportunity to sit and put my feet up and enjoy watching some cute, young, Parisians play tennis! :) We sat for bit, but it was amazing how fast time was flying. We walked out the back under some very cool, rectangular cut trees.

We walked over past the Pantheon, which was closed, and stumbled upon what I consider my favorite church, St. Genevieve Cathedral. It was big, but not massive and I loved the winding staircases. I guess St. Genevieve is the Patron Saint of Paris and this is where her remain lay. They have a special side chapel just for her that is much more ornate than the others. There is a picture of Pope John Paul II kneeling in her chapel. It was just a beautiful place.

Mark was meeting a friend of his for dinner, so Spence and I got a private date night. It was very nice. We walked down and saw where his family had stayed over 20 years ago, The Hotel California. Then wandered over some streets and found a little Roman Orthadox Church. What was funny was they had some Clippings with some pictures of their Priests and one of them looked like a twin to "Gandalf" from "The Lord of the Rings". (no offense to him, of course!) We went to a plaza by the Sorbonne that Rick Steves had recommended and had a lovely French dinner. We sat outside and besides the cigarettes, had a very nice time. I asked two cute girls that were passing to take our picture, they were fun and very loudly demanded that Spence kiss me! It was interesting over the food, but a cute memory. We enjoyed our special date together immensely!

Wednesday night at the Louvre

On Wednesdays and Fridays the Louvre stays open later, so Spencer and Mark headed out to enjoy a few hours. The Louvre is Europe's oldest, biggest, and many say greatest museum. It is in the shape of a U and has 3 wings, the Richelieu, Denon, and Sully wings. Spence and Mark decided to spend time in the Sully wing. It contains French paintings and an Ancient Egyptian collections. I believe they paid a little extra to go into a special exhibit called "Babylon" with a lot of Mesopotamian art. Spence said they really enjoyed it! Many of the pictures above are of the courtyard all lit up. Very nice! I enjoyed my time with my feet up immensely!! :)

Wednesday Afternoon in Paris

After d'Orsay Museum, we rode the train back towards Notre Dame. We got some Crepes from a nearby vendor and had just got comfy on the bridge over the Seine, when the heavens opened and it started pouring! Everyone was running for cover! We found a place under some trees, and between them and our cheap 5 euro umbrellas, we stayed relatively dry. It proceeded to start hailing, and we couldn't help but laugh as we huddled together. After about 10 min or so, it began to let up and we went down to the "Crypt" to get inside somewhere. I honestly thought this was going to be about mass graves of priests or something. It actually was a history of the "Isle de la Cite". It had a lot of archeological information that I thought was quite interesting until it got into what minerals and such the ground was made up of . :) We found some chairs and I laid my head on Spencer's shoulder as he was reading this 'terribly imprortant info', and I actually fell asleep for about 5 minutes or so! He swears there were no weird snores or snorts!

When we came outside, the sun was shining and it was beautiful! It was so nice to see the sun!! We went over to one of our favorites... St. Chapelle. We actually got a few hostile glares as we walked right passed the people in this line. It was great to share this with Mark and to see him enjoying it so much! It was also wonderful that the sun had come out as the Upper Chapel has stained glass on all sides and it is so beautiful all lit up. There is only chandelier lighting in there, so the pictures are always interesting colors. The colors inside are actually very vibrant and amazing!

Afterward, we walked around to the backside of Notre Dame and checked out the Jewish Deportation Memorial. During WWII, the French deported most of their Jewish population. We have all heard of the big concentration camps...Auchwitcz, Dachau etc. But they had a map that had red dots that showed all of the little camps all over Europe. There were so many!! Basically, these camps didn't have ovens or gas chambers, but they would literally work these people to death. Spence and I both were so touched by this place, we were disappointed that Mark didn't get to see all of it!

After this we headed back to the apartment for a little rest. Spence and Mark went to the Louvre that evening, but me and my feet were done for the day! As always, more to come...

Musee d'Orsay

Our goal for our trip was to try to relax, so one thing we did do was sleep in! :) I think Sunday was the only day we left the apartment before @ 11am or noon. So, Wednesday, we left the apartment a little before noon and walked down to the Orsay Museum. On the way we purchased our "Museum Pass" from a "Coin Museum". We highly recommend getting this as it not only gets you in to almost everything you could want, but it enables you to not have to stand in line. It was really quite a rush to walk past people who have been standing there forever and walk right inside to things! Both Spencer and I love this Museum, especially the Impressionist Artists. I always just feel good after going through those rooms! :) Last time we went, we only had about an hour or so to walk around. We had tons of time and I even sat down and read through Rick Steves tour information for the museum. I learned alot!

We have so many photos, I hope you are enjoying them! More coming up!

First day in Paris

Well everyone, we are back! We had such a wonderful time! We enjoyed mostly gorgeous weather, beautiful sites, and wonderful company! These pictures are of our first evening in Paris. We took a wonderful long walk from St. Michel over to the Sorbonne, down and over the Ponte Neuf Bridge to check out the outside of the Louvre, and back up to Notre Dame. It was raining a bit. (We felt like we brought it with us! It was beautiful in Seattle while we were away!) We loved our little apartment and its location just a couple of blocks away from Notre Dame Cathedral. Enjoy these first pictures... I'll post more later...