Happy Birthday

I just wanted to take a moment and wish Jess happy birthday. She is a great sister, sister-in-law, and aunt to all of us and we love her very much. I have many fun memories of Jess and love the relationship she has always had with me and with Nathan. I still remember the day I met her and how cute she was, she is a wonderful person and such an important part of our family. Hope you had a great day. We love you.

C'est la vie

Our trip to France. We had an amazing week of Paris in the spring. First of all a HUGE thanks to Heidi and Dwight for watching the kids and taking care of them while we were gone. The kids had a blast! Our first day down in Paris we went to the flea market and then headed to the La Sacre Coeur (the Sacred Heart) church that is on a hill.

We walked about 300 stairs to go up to it and go through it. It is probably my favorite church in Paris. After seeing the interior Nathan and I paid to walk all the stairs to the top of the dome like we did in Italy. It was an amazing view. After we walked around the streets and saw the painters and sketchers. We ate lunch and headed to the Arc d'Triomphe.

We went to the top of the Arc as well and enjoyed seeing more of Paris. On the way up you are inside the Arc and can see some examples at how large the sculptures on the outside of the Arc really are. We then walked down the Champs Elysee and enjoyed seeing all the expensive stores.

The second day in Paris we went out to Versailles and saw the home of King Louis the 14th. We enjoyed the grounds and gardens, it was to bad the flower beds weren't planted. On our walk back into Paris we stopped of at the Eiffel Tower.

We ended up waiting two hours in line to go up to the top but it was worth it. We got to see the sun set from the tower and see all the lights of Paris turn on. When we got down we were walking back to the Metro and turned around to find all of the lights on the exterior of the tower flashing, giving the tower a glow of glittering. It was beautiful and amazing. The third day we went to the Louvre and got to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, Cupids kiss, the winged victory, and the dying slave.

The Louvre is HUGE and we had a fun time walking around and seeing some of the amazing works there. After we walked down the garden of the Tuleries and went to the Place de la Concorde where they had placed the guillotine during the revolution, we then also walked up the street and saw the Madeline a Greek looking church in Paris. The next day we came back to Paris for our last time and we went to Notre Dame.

We walked across the Seine River and went through Notre Dame and saw the amazing Rose windows and stained glass. We then went to the Musse d'Orsay which is a much smaller museum of impressionist works of art. We saw some amazing paintings. My new favorite was a work by Jean-Francois Millet called the Shepherdess with her flock. Having grown up with sheep most of my life I loved it. The other days we spent in the small village by our villa that we were staying in. We were out by Disneyland Paris and spent some time at downtown Disney. The village by our villa was so fun and everything I had always learned about France with the Bakery, the Butcher shop, the flower shop, the post office, the Fruit and Veggie stand, and the Grocery Store all right there next to each other. Nathan and I had fun going and buying some of our food at the grocery store and preparing our meals. I loved translating the packages so we knew what we were getting, and having fresh baked chocolate croissants for breakfast from the bakery. We also feel in love with the Mustard and Pickle Lays potato chips we found there and I have already called Lays and requested that they sell them in the US. We also drank as much Fanta Orange as we could. We fell in love with it in Italy so we loved having some more. It is an Orange soda but different from the US version in that it isn't as carbonated and has some grapefruit in it. Its delicious. We had an amazing time, and feel blessed to have gotten the opportunity to do it. I loved being there with Nathan and am so thankful for him, and his amazing ability to find ways for us to travel and create new experiences for us. Being able to experience something like France with someone you love so much makes it all the more amazing. Thanks for a wonderful trip Nathe, Je t'aime (I LOVE YOU)!

Made me Laugh

Okay so I am a fan of Jack Johonson and I think Ben Stiller is pretty funny, my fav is Meet the Parents. Anyway I saw this on YouTube and had a good laugh. I hope it doesn't offend anyone when Ben Stiller swears it is beeped out, and all but I don't want anyone upset. Anyway it was a good laugh for me.

Preschool

I had to put this cute picture of Elise and her preschool class. Enjoy!

Good News

So this morning my sweet husband called me. It was like 8:30 a time most normal people are awake. Well I wasn't I was asleep and in that frantic panic answered the phone, and tried to sound awake. It was Nathan and he of course knows and says, "did I wake you up?" I say "no I am alright." He then precedes to ask me,"Guess what is coming to Utah?" I am thinking as hard as my tired brain can is it a music group, is it Jack Johnson, or Collective Soul. I am at a total loss, he then says to me that it is in St. George now. I reply HALF ASLEEP, "I don't know the circus". Nope he laughs its In-N-Out. My favorite Burger place ever. I am so excited now if they just put one in Layton, I will be set. I am thrilled out of my mind and am craving a burger right now. Nathan just laughed and replied do you think I would call you and be excited about the CIRCUS coming. Ahh I am crazy and so out of it when I wake up.

You can read the news story about it here

Georgia

This January we got to go back to Georgia for our nephew Ammon's baptism. I love Georgia so I am always excited to get to go there. Spending time with the Lewis family is always enjoyable. We spent part of the week at Hilton Head Island in South Carolina and one day in Savannah, Georgia as well. We got to enjoy Grandpa all week, and just hoped he survived us. It was a wonderful experience being there as Ammon made the choice to be baptized. I still can't believe he is eight. He is a great kid with an amazing personality. Thanks for letting us be part of your day Ammon. We also got to go Bowling as a family. Elise got to turn 5 in Georgia and make a special birthday cake with her Aunt Stephanie. It was a week full of some wonderful memories.

Sledding

I have been meaning to get this on here. We were able to go sledding one day before Christmas. It was a blast. We convinced Nathan's Dad to come with us, which mad it even more memorable to have Grandpa there. The kids loved it. Elise you couldn't stop and was constantly heading down the hill. Brycen took some convincing but still enjoyed himself once he figured it out. We went to the classic "I don't fall" hill which Nathan's brother and sisters will understand. Nathan and I did go down the hill together and yes we did fall off the sled and then fell walking up the hill and laughed. We had some fun kids there that were quite the helpers. Elise made instant friends with the girls. They were kids that lived in the area and they were so great to help Elise and Brycen up the hill. At one point we saw the kids trying to carry Elise in the sled up to the top of the hill, it was quite comical. It was a great day and will forever be a wonderful memory.