Monday, October 8, 2018

Paris, Superheroes and Road Trips

Another great month can be put in the books!  Chris and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary in Paris, then came back home to superhero shows, Oktoberfest and a road trip to Columbus.  But don't let me mislead you too much, there is still the daily emotional roller coaster of a 3 and 5 year old, along with evening meltdowns and potty-training accidents, but most of time, we are having a blast.

Paris was amazing!  Big city, big lights, big price tags.  And with no Chanel glasses or Hermes bags or Louboutin shoes, we definitely stood out as tourists.  I embraced my American-ness and happily carried around my maps and listened to my walking tours.  Chris, however, said he was able to "play it cool and fit it."  But when one travels with a plastic grocery bag of six Parisian books, then attempts to haul most of them around, all while listening to an audio book...well, you get the picture.  We were tourists.  Paris is full of beautiful people, sophisticated food and breathtaking history.  I would describe it as visiting New York City, but with more history and less trash and homeless people.
 

My favorite spot was the Eiffel Tower, which surprised me.  You always hear how this area is a tourist trap and surrounded by crowds and vendors.  But I found this work of art mesmerizing, eclectic and stunning; it didn't belong yet it fit in so perfectly with the city.  Paris has zero crazy tall sky scrapers and the buildings have a height requirement, so you could see the tower from almost any spot in the city.  I won't bore you, but Chris taught me a lot about how Henry IV and Napoleon III helped shape the layout of the city.  It also had a surrounding park, fountains leading up to the base and it displayed a golden flashing lights show every hour on the hour at night.

Notre Dame Cathedral
Massive, elaborate, heavenly and calming - my words to describe this 13th century work of art.  We were able to see Christ's crown of thorns, which is only displayed once a month and during Easter.  Again, Chris can give you the extensive history behind it; I am giving you the cliff notes. 


Versailles
Only a short train ride away from the city, we spent a day here at it was beyond jaw-dropping.  The Hall of Mirrors, the miles of endless gardens, the gold-encrusted-everything!  Money just poured from the walls of this castle. 


Louvre Museum
I felt like I was on the set of The Thomas Crown Affair and The DaVinci Code (anyone remember those movies?!).  This museum was surreal.  Fascinating.  Enchanting.  Hypnotizing.  Originally a fortress, that turned into a castle, then ended up as the world's largest museum.

  
We had museum passes, which meant endless access.  Aka, Chris' dream-come-true.  For a history nerd, I couldn't blame him though.  But after four hours of exploring, I had to take a break.  Chris came back later that day to scope out a couple hundred more exhibits and objects.  And while he was doing that, I was doing this..... 
Back to Reality
Once we returned home and got back into the swing of Kindergarten and Preschool, another fun weekend was in store.  Hudson and I went to a Marvel Live Universe Tour with some friends.  My knowledge of superheroes has exponentially grown since this visit.  With all the explosions, flying superheroes, motocross and aerial silks, it was pretty awesome.


Adley has been rocking out in her new preschool class.  She is almost potty-trained and only wearing pull-ups at night.  She always looks forward to show-and-share and will debate which toy she wants to bring that week.  She has found her voice and is always asking questions and giving her opinion, but only to us.  If you put her in front of a stranger, or Lolly, she freezes.  She turns mute and forgets everything.  As Lolly says, "You gotta start from ground zero and rebuild the relationship with that child."  So weird....and funny.  But when no one is watching, she will belt out and sing Frozen like she is the princess building that dang ice castle.

All last week, Chris worked in Columbus.  So the kids and I packed up and headed his way for the weekend.  The kids were pumped.  Their favorite road-trip things are to sleep in the "secret bed," (aka the pull-out bed), fill up the bucket from the ice monster (aka the hotel ice machine) and eat at the breakfast buffet.  It is a special treat for the kids to go down and eat breakfast (in their pjs) with their daddy, then bring up "special plates" for mommy.  It is a win-win for everyone.  Once we told them we were going to the zoo, their world exploded into awesomeness.  And then after we bought them icee's in 18-inch tall cups, we became the coolest parents ever.  I may have purposely forgotten to tell them they could get discounted refills...oopsie.



First camel ride for these two!
  



Great times, fun memories and new adventures are always in store.  We are gearing up for Halloween now.  The Haunted Hot Dog Roast of Springboro is tomorrow!  And Chris has been trying to convince Hudson to be George Washington for Halloween, but the kid isn't budging....yet.  We shall see if Chris' persistence (aka nagging/begging/pleading until the kids caves) actually works.

Happy Fall Y'all!


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