Paris I

We packed that morning and the kids did a little better at night. Maybe woke up once but went back to sleep? Anyway, we got all packed for our trip to Paris and then London. We got to the train station and had about 45 minutes to kill, or so we thought. My dad thought the train left at 11:30 but it actually had left at 10:30. We tried to get on the 11:30 train but it was packed full and we would have had to stand in the back and with the young kids, that just wasn’t going to happen. So we went all over the train station and my parents had to re-buy tickets for the next train to Paris. It was a really really costly mistake. Brian and I felt so bad. I apologized to both of my parents and they both said why, it wasn’t your fault. Well, I know but I still felt bad. They were spending this money because of us.

We obviously arrived in Paris later then planned but it was still only 3pm. We found the hotel after dragging our suitcases down the streets of Paris. Once we unloaded we headed out as soon as we could. We walked to the tour bus station and got on. This bus tour was a highlight of Paris for me personally. We got to sit on the 2nd level while the bus drove all around. We got to see everything in an hour and half. It was fun and the kids really loved it too.

Oh and seeing Andrew’s eye just reminded me about how he had issues with the marble stairs at my parents house for the first few days. He had some spills and one resulted in the cut/bruise above his eye. I’m grateful that’s the worse that he got. Crazy boy.

It started to get a little chilly towards the end and we didn’t have any of our sweatshirts. I tried my best to keep Jeffrey warm. He did okay though.

We ate at a pizza place in Paris. Very very large pizza with thin crust. Brian got a pizza and it had a hard boiled egg on it. Weird but he said it was good. Andrew was difficult in the restaurant so my dad took him out while hurried to order and start eating. Then I finished and took him up and down the streets. We headed back and slept very well that night. Tyson this whole trip got to sleep with my parents. I thought that was really nice of them. That way Brian and I only had to deal with Andrew and Jeffrey.

Our European Vacation {Day 1 and 2}

Day 1

It started with getting up at 4:30am to catch our early flight.  We flew to Dulles, Washington which was over a 4 hour flight.  I feel asleep with Jeffrey in the carrier for about an hour while Brian was in a circus trying to keep the other 2 boys entertained. 

Then we had a nice (not really) lay over there.  We ate lunch at Wendy’s and I struggled to feed Jeffrey while we sat right next to a wine restaurant.  The restaurant didn’t have real walls so I know all of those people trying to relax and enjoy themselves probably didn’t because the kids were screaming and fighting.  At that point I didn’t really care what anyone else thought.  We kind of had to just pick up that mentality or we would have gone completely insane.

  We thought United would let people with small children board early but they said no.  Whatever.  So we were next to last to board with all of our baggage.  Luckily there was still room by us for our bags.  They booked two of our seats with the row with the bassinet for me but didn’t give me the actual seat in front of it and it was too late to switch.  So I ended up with the bassinet that goes on the floor.  Tyson and Andrew both conked out as the plane was taking off.  Since they’d been up since 5:30 they were pretty tired.  They slept through their dinner.  Tyson woke up and watched some movies and Andrew was difficult.  He woke up cranky but ended up eating some pop-tarts.  Anyway, it was a very long 7 hour flight.  We got our luggage and met my parents just outside.  We got the car seats in and away we went.  We were so tired because it was like we had never gone to bed.  The best way to get over that jet lag is to take a little nap and then wake up and stay awake until bed time.  We all crashed and napped for about 4 hours and then my mom woke us up.  I remember feeling like everything was in slow motion and blurry.  It was weird.

We took the train to Brussels and went to eat at the Hard Rock Café. We were all a little tired so it was kind of dramatic, especially on my part. We got our Hard Rock Brussels shirts and walked around the square. My dad was holding Jeffrey and he was crying pretty good. There was a group of Asian tourist behind him and he thought they were taking pictures of the buildings but they were actually taking pictures of my Jeffrey. It was hilarious. It was like Jeffrey had his own paparazzi.  We then headed down tourist street.  This street leads to the famous peeing boy statue.  I don’t know why this little angel boy statue has become so iconic but it is.  Haha!  I got a picture of all the tourists take pictures of the statue because it is just so silly. 

Leuven Train station

Downtown Brussels in the square

The boy peeing statue

We took a train home but first got on the wrong train.  There are two cities in Belgium that are very similarly spelled.  Oops.  These pictures are before the conductor told us we were on the wrong train.  So then we had to hurry and get off and get on another and we accidently ended up in the First Class section.  Luckily no one came by to check the tickets.

We headed home and crashed. Andrew woke up at 2am and Tyson at 3am. Brian was up with the boys for a few hours and then they all feel alseep again. Jeffrey woke up twice, which was pretty good.

 

Day 2

Since the night was a little rough we were slow going.  We picked up some sandwiches at my mom’s favorite sandwich shop and took them to the coolest park I’d ever seen.  The sandwiches are on a really long baguette.  They put lunch meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, eggs and carrots on them.  They were really delicious and super filling.

Here is Andrew on my mom’s rocking camel

And the park.  It had some crazy tall and long slides.  Tyson loved them.  I went down the really really long one with Andrew and he liked it but wasn’t interested in going again.  We were wondering why we don’t have cool slides and parks like these in Utah but I think there would be lawsuits if there were.

This was really really high up and Tyson did awesome on it!

This thing spun around and Andrew liked to just hang on

Feeding the ducks in the really nasty looking pond.