J'aime Paris

Day one (Friday, October 8th)

Arrived at 8:30 a.m. Paris time & took a cab to Hotel Rochester Champ Elysees one hour later.  SO much traffic.  

Tried to check in, but we were too early.  Dropped our suitcases off and walked to Julien, a pastry shop right by our hotel.  Got an awesome croissant,a chocolate croissant and two espressos.  Sat in the shop and slowly enjoyed our treats.  Walked to the famous avenue, Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. Found a little brasserie for a baguette sandwich and a panini to go. Went back to our hotel, very tired and jet-lagged, sat in the courtyard of the hotel and ate our lunch by the fountain.  Finally got checked in around 1:30.  Our room couldn't be any more perfect.  A king bed, small balcony, great smelling linens, nice bathroom & a small fridge.  Oh, and the flatscreen doesn't work.  Perfect! :)  Jeremy says the room is huge according to European standards.  Then it was NAPTIME.  We took a little nap, then we freshened up and headed out again towards the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River.  We decided to take a Bataeux Mouches river cruise.  Very touristy, but we got a good feel of everything in the city.

Got off the boat and walked towards our hotel and found a little place to eat.  After much diliberation, trying to decide between the risotto and the steak, Jeremy decided to instead order “fresh beef”.  I tried to order something but the French waiter who knew very limited English said, “no, no, no”.  So he ordered for me.  No idea what I was going to get.  Turned out to be quiche with pine nuts, tomatoes and chicken and a great side salad.  Jeremy’s turned out to be RAW minced steak, aka steak tartar.  Not good.  It looked like a formed, uncooked hamburger patty about to be put on a grill.  Jeremy described it as looking like Alpo.  He and I both tried it, soon to realize what it was or wasn’t…moved it around the plate a little…and then politely covered it up with a napkin.  He did, however, eat most of his fries.  They did bring ketchup, I guess that is a myth that the French don’t eat anything with ketchup! 

On our walk back to our room we went to a little grocery store and got some wine, cookies & Leffe beer.  Too tired to really eat or drink any of it.  Went to bed at 8:30!  Slept like babies (horrible expression!)  Here are some of my  pics from day one! 

Typical Paris brasserie

My very first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! I'll never forget it

This is the boat that we took on the river 

Sunbathing on the banks of the Seine

The most beautiful city...

In my next life, I want to come back as a Parisian and live here.

Notre Dame

Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral

Getting married in Paris...how fabulous

I love doors.  Especially when they are in Paris. 

Anticipation...

Jeremy and I just celebrated our 10th year anniversary.  As luck would have it, he was scheduled to go to France for a work trip in October.  Mmm, good timing, huh?  

We will be in Paris for a week.  The only thing I am nervous about is, what if I enjoy not having to cut up grapes so much I won't want to come home???  

 

Where did September go?

I'm sitting here thinking where the heck did September go?  Seemed to go pretty dang fast in this house!  We started the month out by going to a Iowa game down in IA City.  I have no pics of this wonderfully fun event because the really overwhelmed mom in me forgot my memory card to my camera.  It was a blast, the weather was perfect and I even managed to get a little sunburnt during the game.  We played Eastern Illinois and we kicked butt!  Kaden got to go along again, he is quite the Hawkeye fan!  His dad couldn't be more proud!  After the game, we drove up to the lake.  It was a long, tiresome haul, but it was worth it!  We spent a few days there and then it was time to pack it up and say goodbye until next year...always kind of sad to say goodbye to our favorite place.

A few shots from the boat.

I had to get some shots of Addie in her little white halter beach dress!

Addie was really interested in getting her daddy's shoes on (she loves shoes!) but then decided it wasn't really all that it was cracked up to be!  Look how huge those shoes are compared to her!

And the event we have all been waiting for...

SCHOOL!  

We were all ready for this blessed event and to get back to our old routine.  Summer is great, but it does get long!

Hudsen is at a new preschool this year.  We thought a change would be good for him (sometimes CHANGE can be good...ha ha).  He goes Tuesdays and Thursdays all day.  So far, he really likes it!  It is very hard for me to believe that at this time next year I'll be sending my baby boy on the bus to Kindergarten.  Where does the time go?  

My birthday was SO great this year!  My awesome neighbor/friend Kristie took Huddy and Addie for about 6 hours.  I had lunch with Jeremy downtown at Victoria's, got my toes done with my walking partner and neighbor Julia, my bff Monica brought me a TON of my favorite carrot cake and chocolate cupcakes and a super cute tee, Kaisha brought me an unexpected gift.  All that and the b'day cards, gifts and phone calls made a very special day!  OH!  And my boys picked out some pretty fancy p.j.'s for me. ;)  I was really feeling the love!

As for this little girl, she is still busy as ever!  We are having lots of fun with her and also amazed at how different girls are from boys!  She just stuns us with her talking!  Sentences at 18 months?  That NEVER happened with our two boys!  She really misses the boys while they are gone.  For the first 2-3 weeks of school she would look at me and ask, "Huddy?"  I would answer, "he's at school."  It only took her a couple of days to say, "Huddy at school." :)

FOOTBALL SEASON HAS BEGUN!

My little boy is starting 3rd grade tackle football...let's all say a prayer!  (I'm nervous!)

I miss a lot of shots of my kids...

but I captured Addie walking around with her baby doll...

and a rare moment of playing quietly.

boo boos...

This pic is one of my favorites of my baby girl.  This was taken Sunday, before the big "accident".  

Notice the greenish-yellow bruise on her forehead?  She took the opportunity (while we all turned our backs for 2 1/2 minutes) to climb the staircase to the upstairs.  Needless to say, she fell all the way down landing on the tile floor.  Not the best day at our house...

The good news is that she is o.k.  :)

Sno-Cones...get your Sno-Cones!!!

The boys begged me everyday for a week starting last Monday to have a sno-cone stand.   Hudsen got a cute little sno-cone machine for his birthday from Uncle Zach and thought they could make and sell them and "get rich".  So, I told them Friday afternoon they could do it.  Kaden spent some time at his buddy Matthew's during the middle of the week and got him excited about it too.  Friday afternoon finally came around and they got to work setting up.  This is just a picture from my phone and it was taken before Matthew got dropped off.   Of course, Monica got better pictures.  Her post and more pics can be seen by clicking on the link below.

http://thewillitsfamilytribune.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-this-economy.html

Our fun summer days are coming to an end...one week until school starts.