EUROPE TRIP!

It's about time I blogged about our trip! It was WONDERFULLY AMAZING! I shall tell the tale as briefly as possible. We arrived in Paris at 11 AM and went straight here:

It was so exciting to see la Tour Eiffel!

Then we decided to go up to the top, since it was mostly sunny. When I looked at the weather before we left, it was rain every single day and COLD! So since it was mostly sunny, we decided to go up right then, even it was a 2 hour wait.......

Isn't this cool? The shadow of the Eiffel Tower! It is a very impressive view. Early the next morning, we took a train for here:

Bordeaux. As most of you know, when I was 16 I lived in Bordeaux with a French family. Almost ten years later, we still keep in contact and the daughter of that family, Capucine, is one of my best friends. Here we are:

I love this girl more than anything! Here's a pic of some of the family, note the stereotypical French mustache:

LOVE these people! Moi, Stéphan, Lodoïs, Patricia

And here with are with some of the most lovely people in the world: my French grandparents, BonPapa and BonneMaman. They took us on a special trip to Cap Ferret, which is one of my favorite places in the whole world. You can probably see why:

It was a gorgeous day, but still pretty cold, so we didn't get in the water. But we had fun!

After a few days, we left Bordeaux and went to Montreux Switzerland. The weather there wasn't great, but it was still GORGEOUS!

Bonus points if you know who this is! Okay, it's Freddy Mercury-- he lived in Montreux, that's how awesome Montreux is.

In Montreux we also discovered the coolest thing ever... Chocolate Chips... get it? The funny thing is, they don't have chocolate chips (like for cookies) in Europe, so they don't realized how funny it truly is. After Montreux, we went back to Paris, where we were nonstop for 4 days. It was awesome and exhausting! Here are some highlights:

Notre Dame

Montmartre at the Sacre Coeur--look at this lovely bereted woman who made it into the photo!

L'arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées

Our friends from DC, Casey and Allie who also spent Spring Break in Paris.

The Gates of Hell at the Rodin Museum

The most overrated painting in the world.

One of my favorite paintings in the world, and subsequently, the topic of my thesis.

VERSAILLES! We spent 7 hours there!

Marie Antoinette's little village-- my favorite part of Versailles. It started pouring rain the second we got there!

The gorgeous Eiffel Tower at night... love it!

And we started our trip as it began.... it was definitely one of my favorite vacations of all time. It was so heartwarming to get to show this huge part of my life to Neal, and he LOVED it! Now we're back, jetlagged, and missing France like crazy!

CANNOT WAIT!

As you know by now since I shout it from the rooftops at every chance-- Neal and I are going to FRANCE tonight! I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS:

Er, I mean this:

Actually, truth be told.... I'm more excited about the first thing-- PAIN AUX RAISINS! Don't be fooled by it's cinnamon roll type appearance-- it's a flakey pastry with plump raisins... YUM! The second picture is Versailles, Hall or Mirrors, which is pretty cool. Because I've spent so much time in France, I have to say I am more excited about the FOOD at the present time..... what can I say? I am, of course, THRILLED to show Neal off to my French family and show Neal around France and Switzerland... but the food is still very exciting! The forecast is for RAIN RAIN RAIN every day, but what can you do? Hopefully it's clear for 5 minutes in Switzerland so we can see this view:

But if not, oh well! Wish us a bon voyage because we're OUTTA HERE! We'll be back April 5th! AU REVOIR!

Wonderful Weekend!

This weekend has been extra nice! As previously mentioned, the weather here is GORGEOUS and Spring-y. On friday night I took Neal on a surprise picnic at Round Tree Park-- which is where we got engaged. It was precious!

My very well balanced picnic, as you can see, consisted of Fritos BBQ Twists (the best chip in the entire world), Subway sandwiches, and Orangina (the best carbonated drink in the entire world). Oh, and real glasses... classy!

Neal was very delighted with this surprise! I was proud of myself for being sweet-- usually Neal is the sweet one, as witnessed by this:

Tulips are my favorite flower, as you might recall. I was thrilled when Neal brought them home for me last week. Saturday we watched Piper so Cali and Josh could go mountain biking, and then celebrated Cali's birthday with Neal's homemade pizza and lemon bars. YUM! Her birthday is actually on Sunday, but we'll be.... you know.... IN FRANCE!

It should also be mentioned that Neal shaved his beard... kind of.

Yep, pretty gross right? But then we decided to go here:

So he shaved for real! He was tired of the beard and ready for it to go. I like the beard a lot, but was ready for it to go for a while.

Also-- lest anyone forget... on Thursday we'll be leaving for PARIS! YAHOOOOOOOOO!

When bad hair happens to good people....

It's been brought to my attention that I used to have big hair. I must admit, I fell victim to the "Utah Hair" trend during my college days... unfortunately. Some of the pictures of truly horrendous! I have included some below for your viewing pleasure. Too bad I don't have my old Utah license, that was the real deal, folks! Anyway-- here are a couple of examples:

Don't be alarmed, it's just my hair!

Pretty huge right?!? The sad thing is..... you can still see people (especially in Utah) with this same hairstyle! YIKES! Bikes. I poofed until I moved to DC... then I noticed people's hair was a lot more tame, so I tamed it down too. Who had Utah hair? Don't be afraid to admit it!

Ain't no sunshine when he's gone....

Actually that's a lie... there's PLENTY of sunshine right now, even though Neal is gone--it feels like Spring!!!! I went for a run today and it felt so good. The sidewalks are now clear of snow so running is a LOT less tricky and I even got to run in short sleeves. Spring makes me want to post some Spring pictures:

Dad and me in Amboise--this was the dreaded bike tour I did with my parents when they came out to France to visit me. They are hardcore bikers and I am NOT, so when I kept seeing signs to Amboise and it kept on getting farther away because we were going the "scenic" route, I got a little frustrated. It was still lovely and fun (especially for my parents!)

Holland! Always and forever Spring will remind me of Holland... this tulip park, Keukenhof, was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been in my entire life. Tulips are my favorite flower, and this park did not let me down! My friend Steph and I literally had to be escorted out by the guards (we could have outrun them, but they were on bikes!) when it closed because we did NOT want to leave!

And last but not least, Spring reminds me of Neal! We got our engagement pictures taken in the Cherry Blossoms:

And, of course, we also got married in the Spring!

BRING ON THE SPRING!!!!

Current Obsessions

First and foremost: Neal. He has been traveling for work this past week, and will for the next TWO WEEKS and I've really missed him being around! He does come home for the weekend, BUT because of winds in DC, his flight was canceled and rescheduled, then canceled AGAIN and rescheduled. Luckily, still made it out. Not so luckily, he leaves again tomorrow! Feel free to reach out to me, I'll need it!

Piper turned one!!!! Look at this cutie! Hard to believe she went from this:

to this in one short year!

Sorry for the sideways, but you can just tilt you head and see her cuteness!!!

Just tried this cereal for the first time and it is DELICIOUS!!!!!! It was also my dinner every night last week!

Definitely not as good as it once was, but I'm still excited to see how it ends! I sincerely hope it doesn't end as ridiculously as Prison Break... 'still annoyed about that one.

I buy something off amazon.com probably twice a month. LOVE IT! I get shoes quite frequently. My most recent purchases were DC picture books for gifts in France, a sweater vest for Neal, and this cute little massager (although for Neal... to use on me) ;)

Don't look for Skookies on this post, I gave them up for Lent. Shocking, I know! In other news, Neal and I gave talks in Church today on Prayer. I was pretty funny in introducing us, I must say. We both did well and felt good about our talks. Life is good! Now, if only I could see Neal EVERY day! Luckily, I have something major to look forward to: less than a month until......

CAN'T WAIT!