Bonjour Paris

Awe Paris!!!  This is one city that I have wanted to visit since I was a little girl.  We have been watching airfare for a bit and I thought it wasn't going to happen, but then we found a deal for the perfect dates that we couldn't pass up.  Was I ever delighted!  And Paris did not disappoint.  Doug and I have already decided we will be back minus the kiddos in a few years.  This trip we were also able to coordinate going to the LDS Temple open house as well.  The Temple itself is absolutely stunning.  The stained glass was beautiful!  I told Doug after spending this time in Europe, I am really digging all the stained glass and would love to add some to our house in the future, but we will see!  I loved the grounds as well.  There is a huge statue of Christ in the middle of the courtyard that is just so welcoming.  The downfall to our trip was that Matthew was sick.  He had been a little difficult from the beginning of our trip, but I didn't think much of it at first.  He wouldn't let us put him down during the temple tour and started complaining of his ear.  He didn't feel hot to me but seemed to be in pain.  Luckily one of the sisters located an ER to take him to.  It was just a few minutes away.  When we got there they took his temperature and it was at 104 degrees.  At that moment I felt like a complete failure as a mom.  I didn't even realize he had a temperature.  The doctor looked into his ear and told me it was blocked and then gave me both ear drops and antibiotics.  It was the next day that he broke out into the same rash that David had the week before, just a little worse.  So it wasn't just an ear infection but scarlet
fever as well.  Luckily we had him on antibiotics and it started to ease his symptoms pretty quickly.  But the poor little guy was still not himself for pretty much the whole trip.  He was a trooper though.  It just meant lots of baby carrying for Doug and I. We even tried to fit both of them in the stroller at one point but to our dismay it didn't work at all.  The next day we visited the Versailles Palace.  This place was no joke, it was huge and beautiful.  It really opened my eyes to the lavish lifestyle that they lived.  We ended up renting a golf cart to tour the gardens.  We had the cart for two hours and still did not see everything the garden had to offer.  That is how massive it was!  It is amazing how my ideals have changed since I was a little girl.  Standing there looking at the garden from the house, it dawned on me, that that is what I use to dream of.  I use to dream of owning a huge house and having a beautiful manicured garden just like those of Versailles.  And as beautiful as they are, the grown up in me realizes my dreams have completely shifted to a more practical, kid friendly sort of dream, which I am completely happy with.  I mean who would want to clean a palace that big!  After Versailles we took the train and headed into the city.  Our first
stop was the Eiffel Tower.  We all (minus sleeping Matthew) were able to get pictures in front of it, and we also enjoyed some crepes.  We walked around for a bit, and that evening we took a boat tour on the river.  I loved seeing all the lights and beautiful bridges along the way.  We got home late that evening and had only one day left to explore.  Saturday was a pretty exhausting day for us.  Matthew still lacked energy and between him and Caleb we were holding kiddos a lot.  Hiking up and down the tram stations and up the hills took lots of energy, and so we ended up not seeing all we had planned but all in all we got a good taste of the city.  We were able to visit Notre Dame, The Arc De Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Pantheon, and the Luxembourg Gardens.  We ended the night at a nice french restaurant.  All the food we had in Paris was amazing.  The one thing that surprised me about Paris was how friendly the people were.  I actually imagined quite the opposite.  But we had people offering to help us left and right.  Matthew had a meltdown in one of the train stations as I was trying to help get the stroller up the steps.  He just sat down and wouldn't budge. A kind woman picked him up and carried him up the stairs for me.  It was amazing to see the kindness of others. We really had a great trip and I have learned that you just have to take your time while traveling with kids and just roll with the punches.

Buona Pasqua

I was really excited to be able to experience Easter in the heart of Catholicism.  One thing we found (or didn't find) were that plastic eggs don't exist here.  They do not celebrate with Easter baskets here at all.  So it took a little creativity to put together the boy's baskets.  One thing they do have is chocolate, lots of chocolate.   Including these HUGE chocolate eggs.  They were so big, and usually filled with some sort of small toy.  To say the boys loved them is an understatement.  They also don't color eggs here.  So we did our

best to color our brown eggs with food coloring.  I had both gel dye and regular dye and I found that the gel dye worked the best.  The eggs were very natural looking and I actually prefer them to the neon colors.  Friday evening the Relief Society had an activity making traditional Easter Cookies.  So the boys dropped me off for the activity and we met up again afterward.  The cookie itself reminded me of a really thick sugar cookie.  I forgot to take a picture but I included one I found online. They use the shape of a dove and add an egg in the middle that represents life.  It turned out really good.  After the activity we decided to head to downtown Taranto.  There was a procession march that evening for Holy Week.  It was quite

interesting.  There were men that carried figures such as the crucified Christ and the Virgin Mary.  They were barefoot and it was quite a reverent occasion.  There were also penitent masked men that walked among the figures.  They honestly reminded me of the KKK, with their white hoods and robes.  It sort of freaked me out a bit, but luckily the boys didn't really notice them.  There were so many people out and about it was fun to be there.  We ate street food and of course ended the night with gelato. We hadn't done much in the downtown part of Taranto before this march, and it really is quite a nice city.  We have been there a few times since.  On Easter we had both sets of missionaries over for dinner.  I cooked both a beef and pork roast.  It is times like these that I miss my slow cooker.  With it being a holiday the missionaries didn't have appointments that night, and so we were able to enjoy the whole evening with them.  David especially loves it when they come over.  He has already requested that they come for his birthday dinner as well.  The Monday after Easter is a national holiday here.  With everyone having the day off, the ward had planned a BBQ for the day.  There were lots of games and the boys really enjoyed themselves.  It was really just a laid back kind of day, which are the ones I love the most.