spontaneous vacation

eric has been flying to san diego for work for a few months now (just part time, he still has to do his job here) and so we went out for two weeks over 4th of july because we miss him so. it was super fun, but also exhausting, and it is so great to be home.

legoland was kind of cool, at least the amazing things that they build out of legos, but i think we were all a little too old for the rides. the most exciting thing to calvin and jack was the gift shop.

jack, erin, annie, clayton

del mar beach was great, the water was warm, and this was probably the nicest day we had while we were in socal. (that little guy was a neighbor who only had big teenage brothers and was excited to have some younger kids to play with. his family comes out and stays in a condo for six weeks every summer, talk about fun!)

at the wild animal park, this baby bird was trying to learn how to fly, but got tired and landed right in the middle of the sidewalk. his mommy kept bringing him food, but we were afraid he would get stepped on if we left him, so we babysat him until the security guard came.

getting to see the animals in a more natural setting was fun. i especially loved the baby elephants, there were at least three tiny guys (relatively speaking)

sea world was amazing! i wouldn't let the kids sit in the soak zone, though, because the temp was only in the low sixties. there was a lot of cool educational stuff too, besides the shows.

jack

we did the beach again, because i was too tired to go back to another park. so we missed the zoo, but we have a great zoo here, so we didn't feel too bad.

calvin, jack r., jack e.

on the way up to norcal, we stopped off in valencia and saw Eric's Uncle Bob and Aunt Anne, their son John and his wife Ginger, and their two boys, Jack and Justin. our Jack and their Jack are only a few months apart in age, so they have a lot of fun together.

annette, moi

in Hollister, we stayed at our good friends the Anderson's who were out in Utah (thanks again, Caroline!) it was so nice to have a home base and to be able to do laundry! it was also great because they live right next door to the Dickson's, who are also awesome!

kayla, erin, corey

Annette and Loren fed us and let our kids sleep over every night! Erin had so much fun catching up with Kayla, and Calvin and Jack couldn't get enough of playing with Corey and Bradley!

calvin, erin, tyler, caleb, jack, sam, annie

on saturday we drove up to Eric's parent's place to spend as much time as possible with Grandpa. Dean's family came down from seattle, so we got to hang out with some cousins!

annie, mercedes, reef

we went back down to hollister for more fun with more friends, here we are at the beach in santa cruz with the Sowards! the kids were a little shocked to find the water a bit colder than in san diego county, though!

calvin, beau, jack

tuesday night is family night at the santa cruz boardwalk, which means all rides are $1, so we went and hung out there, it was a lot of fun, i can't believe we never went there when we lived there. well, yes i can, we had 4 tiny kids, so that would have been torture. we stayed way longer than we should have (i got a parking ticket) but it's just so hard to say goodbye. i'm sad that i didn't get any pictures of Brandon and Tiff's new little guy Cruz, he's adorable.

we miss you guys a ton! it was so fun to see you all!

"Beautiful Place"

when we moved here, we were excited to be so close to so many historic places, and swore we would take weekend trips to see some of them. this is the first time we've ever gone to Nauvoo, and we met Eric's brother John and his wife Tina and their kids.

we had so much fun! we realized when we got there that we had only had to stop once on the 7 hour trip, thanks to the fact that we no longer have any babies! Yay! no diapers or car sickness or feedings! it was great! and thanks to movies, pretty uneventful.

the weather was cold. i thought it would be perfect, seeing as how it was the second weekend in may, but it was in the low 50s and windy. brr. and i had a touch of the flu on the way out and that evening, but thank goodness, no gross stuff. just a fever and tummy ache.

what an amazing place! it's hard to believe that the early saints built it and then left it in a manner of a few years. at one time it was the second largest city in the state, after Chicago.

its so fun how they have these cute missionary couples running everything. we made rope, saw demonstrations on candle-dipping, weaving, barrel-making (did you know that Joseph Smith, Sr. was a cooper - made barrels), baking (got a sample!), brick-making, wagon-building, horseshoe making, gun-smithing. all taught by these wonderful senior missionaries. i think it would be a fun place to serve a mission, but Eric says no, and here's why.

thursday evening we got to see a show - "Rendezvous" - which is put on by the missionaries. the senior missionaries. it tells the story of old nauvoo in song and acting. a little cheesy (to quote a song, "willingly, because we have to") but fun and well done. and EVERY missionary participates. even if they don't do that sort of thing. so, Eric's hoping that when the time comes, his mandarin chinese fluency will get us sent somewhere else.

the temple was amazing. i can't believe the hard work it must have been for the early saints to build the original, only to have to leave as soon as it was done.

we saw Joseph and Emma's home, their store, and many other buildings. we walked down Parley Street to the river, which is where the wagons lined up, waiting for their turn to get on the ferry and go to Iowa. it was cold, but the saints left in February in zero degrees, without enough food, clothes, etc. to make it through the winter, let alone across the plains to salt lake they had had to leave their homes so many times before. i'm sure it took a tremendous amount of faith to leave everything and start over again.

we stopped at the Carthage jail on our way back, but it was closed so the missionaries could attend church. we'll go back this summer to see it.

our weekend in Nauvoo was a much needed spiritual boost - i'm so thankful for the sacrifices those early saints made.

these are not my pictures - i forgot my camera. i found them on the internet.

New Year's Family Reunion

We got together over New Year's with Eric's family in Southern California. We rented a beach house near Dana Point, it was incredible, we walked out the back door, across the sand and right to the ocean. All of Eric's brothers and their families came, as well as his mom and dad.

We went up to Burbank on one of the days and an old friend of Tina's gave us a tour of Walt Disney Studios. It was really amazing to see all of the old memorobilia and the way they draw the animations.

A few days later we went to Disneyland, and it happened to be the only cold and rainy day we had while we were there. Within 15 minutes of getting there, we ran into our friends, the Dickson's, from Hollister! That totally made my day, to be able to catch up with them and hang out together all day!

On New Year's Day we had Eric's cousin Mark, his wife Lisa, and their daughter Amanda over for a barbeque, as well as Mary's sister, Anne, her husband Bob, and their kids, Angie and Dave and John and Ginger, and all the boys. That night we saw the most amazing sunset - we could see Catalina and San Juan Island silhouetted against the beautiful sky.

Mark lives very close by and makes custom surfboards for a living. He took the guys and some of the kids to his shop and they got to see how the surfboards are made.

The hot tub was the biggest hit with the kids! It was constantly full of little people, and about the middle of the week the pool guy had to come do a complete clean out (apparently, everyone under the age of 8 should wear a swim diaper!) Gross!

It was such a fun and relaxing week, and it really made me homesick for California!

Paris - Days 2, 3 and 4

Let's be realistic. I'm never going to get around to writing a post about every little detail of our trip to Paris, so instead, here is my top ten (in no particular order, cuz I don't believe in order:)

1. Hot chocolate. Not like the watered down Swiss Miss garbage we have here.

2. Notre Dame. Amazing and awe-inspiring. To think it was built in the 1100s when most people were living in straw huts!

3. The Metro. What a fabulous way to get around! Fast, cheap, clean, and lots of fun people watching! We were serenaded by a baritone horn, 2 violins, an accordian, and the Hari Krishna's!

4. Traffic circles. Scary but amazing.

5.The Eiffel tower. Unbelievably high! We took the stairs! The light show was incredible, as was the view from the top!

6. Gyros. We had them for lunch twice. And they put french fries in them!

7. The Conciergerie. A medieval castle, it was the prison that Marie Antoinette (among others) was held in during the French Revolution. The architecture was stunning!

8.Croissants. I think those are on my all time top ten list, but they're way better over there.

9. Crepes. Yeah.

10. 4 days of hanging out with my best friend with no kids around. Awesome.

The Metro

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Gargoyles - Notre Dame

Atop the Eiffel Tower

Chocolat Chaud

(look, they even gave me my own little pitcher which had 3x more hot chocolate in it!)

Our hotel room view

Les Invalides - Military hospital/museum

Napoleon's Tomb

Arc de Triomphe (and Eric)

Seine

Nutella crepes!

Conciergerie

Great Hall in the Conciergerie

Female prisoners' courtyard at the Conciergerie

Conciergerie

Notre Dame

Paris, Day 1

Le Metropolitan (our hotel)

We arrived at our hotel around noon, Eric had meetings all day, so I was on my own. I was excited, but very nervous - how many times in my life have I been in a foreign city whose language I don't speak? Well, okay, a few, but never by myself. And, don't forget, I'm a small town girl. I barely qualify as a suburbanite. So, I was intimidated, to say the least.

Sina had loaned me a few guidebooks and pointed out the sights that she would most recommend, so I tried to narrow my afternoon down to the things Eric would least like to see. We also were having camera issues, so I needed a new memory card and to have my phone looked at. I couldn't figure out why I had no service. This only added to my anxiety.

I walked down to the Eiffel Tower, only about 10 minutes away, and easily viewable from the hotel. I figured if I started there, I was less likely to get lost. I couldn't believe how huge it was!

The view out our hotel room window!

I decided Eric wouldn't want to go shopping, so I headed up to the Champs Elysees, a gigantic street (wide enough to march an army down) which is the Rodeo Drive of Paris. But again, I was too intimidated to go into any of the stores. So I walked, and walked and walked.

Champs Elysees

I ended up at the Place de la Concorde, which is an enormous traffic circle (traffic oval?) at the center of which are two giant, gaudy fountains and a monstrous obelisk, surrounded by huge palaces and buildings. It is also the place where the guillotine was set up during the Revolution. I was amazed at the eight or so lanes of traffic whizzing around it.

Place de la Concorde

Directly across from the Place de la Concorde is the Tuileries, which are huge gardens in front of the Louvre, rows and rows of trees. I walked around a bit, then decided to walk up a few streets to the Opera, the setting for Phantom of the Opera. I walked around the Opera, but couldn't see a place where they give tours, so instead I sat on the steps and marveled at the architecture.

Tuileries

Paris Opera

I decided at this point that I better start looking for my memory card, which meant I would have to talk to someone. I got directions to an electronics store called Darty (thank goodness I had the sense to have the lady write it down, when she said it, it sounded more like Dotty). I headed up the road to the Place de la Madeleine, which is a large classical styled church - it really looks more like an ancient Greek Pantheon. I walked around and around and around this silly plaza, not seeing the store, then tried all of the 6 or so side streets that feed into it, asked more people for help, still couldn't find it. FINALLY, I found a cell phone store (apparently the only US wireless provider that has coverage in France is T-Mobile, in case you wanted to know). The lady there told me that Darty was downstairs - in the subway station. OHHHHH! So that explains why I walked around for 2 hours and still couldn't find it! Silly me!

La Madeleine

Well, apparently, XD cards are not sold in Paris, so that was a waste of time. So, still no cell phone and no camera, I took a cab back to the hotel. I watched Spongebob in German - I think the Spongebob theme and German were made for each other, no?

"Spongebob Schwammkopf"

- and then we went to dinner with Eric's coworkers at a cafe across from the Trocadero - a plaza with an incredible view of the Eiffel Tower. A bum came along (only in Paris do the bums wear a sport coat and slacks) and told Tom, "Give me your moneys!" To which Tom replied, "No." The guy then proceeded to tell us in broken English to go back to the island, to Dublin. I had never thought about it, but I guess non-English speakers can't tell the difference between an American accent and an Irish one. Huh.

Well, the food wasn't very good, but the hot chocolate, well, let's just say, the trip would have been worth it just for that. It's different than our hot chocolate - it's quite bitter - not very sweet at all - but very rich. And they bring you extra sugar that you can stir in. Hmmmm....

Not my personal hot chocolate, but similar!

***I did not take these pictures - except the one of the Eiffel Tower - as I did not have a camera yet.

Je suis Lydia! Un, deux, trois .....

That's about all I remember from French 101 in college. And I never moved on to French 102 or 202 or whatever. Which is a pity, because right now, it might be helpful to parlez vous francais.

Luckily, English is taught in school all over the world now, so most Parisians speak a little. Because I don't even know what to order for lunch. I guess I could walk into le petit boulangerie and ask for un baguette, but I might get a little tired of eating nothing but bread for 5 days. I guess there's always ratatouille and escargot, duck l'orange, and don't forget croissants. I don't think I COULD get tired of croissants.

It will be an adventure at the very least! Eric has meetings on Thursday and part of the day on Friday, so I will be on my own. I'm kind of scared! I haven't been alone in over 13 years! Least of all in a foreign country! And I have to ride home on the plane by myself!

Growing up, I never imagined I would ever get the chance to travel much, so I never made my "When I Go to Paris, I Have to ...." list. I've been cramming for the last week and will read some more guide books on the flight.

Those of you who've been be sure to send me your recommendations!

Au revoir!