Paris!

 Sometimes things just all come together at the right time. Jeff is always traveling for business and he goes really crazy places. I can't go with him as there is no one to stay with the kids but this is not a problem as I don't have a deep desire to visit Angola or Nigeria. But then Jeff had a business trip to Paris. PARIS!!! While Grammy was here. Wow. Mom was more than happy to stay with the kids for 5 days and I got to go with Jeff. We dropped the kids off at school on Monday morning not knowing that I would actually get to go as my visa was lost and I couldn't leave the country. They called at 9:30 am Monday morning to tell us that they had found it and it was in PE! That was a crazy day.... visa pick-up, another visit to school to hug and kiss the kiddos because I hadn't said good-bye that morning, thinking that I wasn't going, getting Mom all the info she needed for a successful week with the kids and packing like a maniac! But we made our 2:30 flight and headed to Joberg. Every flight out of SA seems to be a red-eye for some reason and we got to Paris the next day around 9am after a quick re-routing through Switzerland. We had a quick refresher at the hotel, and then I went on a lightning shopping trip as the airlines lost my bag. But can you complain about having to shop in Paris? I think not. So off we went for dinner on our first night.

We ate in this cool but touristy restaurant that was a restored to the early 1900's with all this stained glass and it was really beautiful. The food was heaven! La Fermette Marbeuf I think it was called...

 After that we did a little walking loop of the city. Paris is so amazing at night. We didn't make it too far after spending the previous night on an airplane though. Sleep was calling!

 The next day Jeff had to spend at his conference. So I took off and explored. Love the way the tower peeks out at you everywhere you go and you get these cool new perspectives...

 Jeff also had a business dinner so I signed up for a night bike tour. It was CRAZY!! We sped all over the city from 7-11:30 at night in a pack of 18 seeing everything, weaving in and out of traffic with NO HELMETS! The most challenging part was after we stopped for a cruise on the river boats, polished off like 10 bottles of wine together and then had to finish the tour on bikes. It was like an Amazing Race road-block!

 Carl, our awesome tour-guide and a cool old church.

 Back of the Notre-Dame:

 One of the "Love-Lock" bridges. People pledge their love, put a lock on the bridge, and then throw the key into the water. In some places it's collapsing the bridges!

 We saw this message on a bridge a few days later:

Funny story: when we picked Grammy up at the PE airport Aug 21 Sasha was so excited that she left her library book. When Jeff and I flew out we decided to look for it really quick and we FOUND the book!

Because we are, of course huge dorks we decided to take the book to Paris with us and to document it's travels. My bike tour companions were very much into helping me with this project:

To see the rest of the Half Moon Ranch Album click HERE.
We had an amazing evening and saw so much of the city. A bike tour of Paris is something I highly recommend... but not with kids. I would have had a coronary if Ted was on a bike in that traffic!

The next day Jeff was still busy and had another evening planned so I was on my own again. It was time to visit the last DISNEY park on my list!! I can now say that I have been to all of them. Until Shanghai Disney opens in 2016 of course...

 I spent the whole day, commando style and even stayed for the fireworks. It's a really nice park, but definitely lacks that magic "something" that you get at WDW. It may have something to do with the cast members being a little bit less into it. Crowds were light and I got to ride everything I wanted to in both parks several times AND spend a lot of time just ambling around, enjoying the scenery, music and people watching. That was one thing I did love about Paris Disney, there are a lot of spots in the park where there's no ride and you're just meant to explore Tom Sawyer Island-style. It was a blissfull day!

 On Friday I got my husband back... we had printed out some really great walking tours and decided to do a blend of Paris in the 17th Century and Paris in the Middle Ages. We traipsed all over and saw some great stuff. Then we entered Notre Dame...

 ....just as a mass was starting!

The sound in the cathedral was amazing!!
 I felt kind of bad though for church-goers that have to deal with tourists at every service.

 After that we had a light lunch. Heaven!

 And the best ice-cream in the world!! I tried salted caramel, pear, raspberry and rose, and dark chocolate. It was divine! There is a line here all day long.

 Then we were walking around the Ile de la Cite and came across this amazing little place:

It was incredibly charming and the owner saw us oogling his establishment and let us come in. The inside was even cooler than the outside! It's the oldest building on the island apparently.

 For our last night we moved out of the hotel near the convention center to a cool little place right up the road from:

 And that night we went to dinner at a place called Robert et Louise  It was SO cool. In the Marais in an old part of the city. They seat you family-style and cook all the food over this wood fire right in front of you.

 It was really great.

 Then we just walked around a bit more. In Paris there's cool things around each and every corner.

 On Saturday we had to leave but we didn't fly out until 11:30PM so we took a trip out to Versailles. That place is epic!

It took us 3 hours just to tour the gardens. There are a million different sections and each is about 5 acres and themed differently. It's mind-blowing.

But Versailles is just waaaaay over the top after the millionth ridiculously ornate room I totally got why the French people started beheading the aristocracy. Please Louis, you could have also maybe built some public works projects dude... enough is enough.

We had an outstanding getaway but we were ready to get home and see Grammy and the kiddos. The best part of the trip was that we had AMAZING weather. It was perfect each and every day and there was a cold, rainy front coming in right after we left. The first raindrops actually started to fall as we entered the Metro to go to the airport. It was as if Paris was sad to see us go!

Back to Winter

We got back from the USA and it was the middle of winter. Cool, rainy and windy! We decided to tackle some projects but first we had a very special birthday to celebrate! Her resolution for the year is no more broken bones! I swear the ASPCA would have us on a very short list for animal cruelty!

We decided to start working on our running costumes for Marathon Weekend. Teddy helped even though he is not running in a costume. Ever since his "African Costume" unit at school he's my little sewing volunteer!

Sasha's Anna costume:

And my Goofy!

Ted's class held a coffee morning for parents. The kids decorated tables, took all the orders, did all the serving, made change, cleared and everything. They were all so cute that I couldn't say "No" when they asked if you wanted something. I don't even eat muffins and I ended up taking a bunch of them home in my purse...

Ted and Sash were asked to provide some music for the event as well. They came up with 5 tunes they could play together and they played through their little set a few different times during the morning. I was so proud of them and it was so awesome to hear them playing together!

Meanwhile Dad and Roxy joined the neighborhood watch. So once a month they go out cruising in the middle of the night with the green light looking for bad guys. Dad thought Roxy would be an awesome wing-man... kind of a Starsky and Hutch you know. But it turns out that she is not that excited about getting up in the middle of the night and then she gets bored about 30 minutes into the shift and goes to sleep in the back seat. Slacker....

THIS is where Roxy prefers to be on a cold winter night:

Jeff has gotten us back into Geocaching. I was skeptical about how this would work in SA but it's taken us on some pretty cool hikes!

And we have Grammy back! It's so nice to have her as she slots right in with our family and is just a fun person to hang out with! She came out to cheer on Teddy at the Urban Run

Ted came in 8th in a large field of kids ages 5-15. I was so proud of him! And he even stopped to pee. Seriously... who pees in a 5K? That kid has a bladder the size of a walnut.

He won a cool Bos Tea cooler with a bunch of things including some tats:

The latest project is Teddy's solar system project. We headed to the craft store and scored big time because of all the Christmas stuff. Check out the monster golden ornament we found for the sun! Then Ted got the idea of using Christmas lights as background stars. It took him and Sasha several sessions of hole poking and light pushing to get them all in....

Hard at work:

Cool stars!

And Roxy is finally getting back to agility after her accident. Thank-goodness she didn't forget how to do the weave poles because there's no way I'm teaching that again. It's going to take her a few sessions to settle back in. Right now she's just so excited to be back that she can barely function!

And Grammy continues to kill it at the gym. She has her own trainer and everyone thinks she's a rock-star. Including me!

This guy has therapeutic glasses now for close work. These are glasses so that later he won't have to have glasses (?). All I know is he looks pretty handsome in his specs!

We had a really fun Movie/PJ night at the school. I am really enjoying these last few months of the kids being in the same school. It seemed like just yesterday when K and grade 2 finally rolled around and they were in the same school. I thought it would last for a long time but when we get back to the States they will probably be in different schools again. Boo!

And every once in a while we get a little sneak peek that summer may actually be on the way. (Then it gets all cold and windy again for a week...) but we know it's coming!

July in America: Part 2

 On to Rhode Island! Upon arrival I found this waiting for me:

 It's a vintage Goofy phone where Goofy looks like he is asleep but then he wakes up when you lift the phone from it's cradle. Not only is it awesome but it TALKS and he says things like "Garwsh! The phone is ringing!!", loudly when you get a call. This fantastic find was spotted by my little niece Sara in a second hand store and she absolutely refused to leave the store without the phone in hand. It may actually be the best present anyone has ever bought me. Love that kid!!
Speaking of wonderful people, we had 2 family gatherings in one weekend! Stella's 2nd Birthday and then a belated 4th of July picnic because the first one got rained out so we got to spend the weekend with our entire RI family!

The cousins were in absolute heaven!

 And we had some new family members to meet as well!

 We had a great couple of days filled with loved ones, chowda, and other incredible RI seafood. And of course, Papa:

 And Mema!

 Then it was on to NC! No one was there as everyone had to leave on last minute trips but we got to meet the new distillery kittens:

 They are part bob-cat!

 And check out the new digs for Blueridge Distilling!

 Ted's loving the lake!

 And the kids and I even spent a day at Carowinds. That place is coaster-crazy and so are my kids!

 Ted somehow scored himself a wristband, just squeezing onto the biggest coasters. I think there are like 11 coasters in that park and we rode them all multiple times. I needed a sub-out by the end. I felt like I had spent the day in astronaut training camp and the kids would NOT ride without me when I suggested that I would sit one out and take photos. I could barely drive home!

 Then we headed up to the mountains to attend Old-Time week at the Swannanoa Gathering. This is a short Monday to Friday camp that runs for 6 weeks and each week has a different theme and vibe. We had been to Celtic week twice but this was our first time at Old-Time week. We had a blast! The camp swing:

 Making new friends and getting ready to dance:

My dance band. Nothing like jamming out around a bottle of Defiant!

 I miss playing with this crew!

 And the kids had a blast in music classes and the kids program:

 They gave us a final concert with some songs that they wrote themselves!

 It was a shorter summer trip than we are used to, but we packed a lot in!