Monday, August 22, 2011

Our Summer

I'm taking a short Paris break to write about our summer (because school starts for both of us tomorrow). We had a really, really, really busy summer. I worry about things a lot and the end of summer 2011 meant a couple of long and scary plane flights. Instead of letting the worry take over though, I decided to cram the summer full of things to get my mind off the worry. It worked pretty well!

I signed up for four online classes which proved to be really challenging and busy. But, I also filled the summer with almost daily activities.

We grilled and ate outside a lot. We planted a pretty successful veggie garden this year so it was fun to have our own veggies at dinner.

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June was a busy month with swim days, our anniversary weekend, dad's b-day, father's day, and a visit from Judy. We hosted a summer luau/ dad's birthday dinner when Judy was in town.

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In July, we made it to the farmhouse with everyone. We had a super yummy Dutch Oven dinner that my brother made. Baby James was always so busy running around and being cute. We found some pretty flowers covered in bees. It was also the month for fireworks and tank battles.

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This summer also had a couple of fishing trips. One Saturday, David, Joe, and I headed up to a reservoir about an hour away. The fish were all teases. They would eat the worms, but avoid getting hooked (which is ok with me!) We also took that wonderful last minute camping/fishing trip to Flaming Gorge.

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One evening we headed up Millcreek Canyon for one of our favorite activities. We picked up some fried chicken and sides and s'more ingredients and had a picnic in the mountains. It had rained that day and was a little chilly, but I loved it anyway.

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Right before leaving for France, my whole family got together to celebrate our "Christmas dinner." My Grandparents give our family a nice dinner for Christmas every year, but we often don't go until later. This year we went to Franck's. a French fusion restaurant that was really good!

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We spent several afternoons at the pool and several days at Lagoon. We went to the zoo and the aquarium and the BYU art museum. And then we went to France! It was one of the busiest summers ever and I loved it.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Paris Day Two

Day two was very busy. We had breakfast (croissants, jam, coffee, orange juice). Then I wanted to go to a shoe store that I had found the day before. They told us they would be open, but weren't yet so we found a cute garden/recreation area to wait until the store opened.

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After relaxing there for a bit, we went back to the shoe store which was still closed and ended up being closed for the rest of our trip. We had planned on Wednesday being our Versailles day so we got on the metro. One train that we needed to take was closed and someone who was trying to be helpful had us get on a bus that took us completely in the wrong direction. After fighting with metros and buses, we decided to scrap the Versailles plan and go to Sacre Coeur Basilica in Montmartre. Before we could go though, we had to pay our deposit on our dinner cruise. On the way, we saw the bridge over the Seine that people put locks on. The idea is that if you put a lock with your name and your lover's name on the bridge, you will be locked together forever. Of course I had to buy a lock! We paid our deposit and then bought ice cream to eat along the river on the way to the metro.

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Our boat is in the background of this picture!


I had asked about Paris on a message board and everyone said that I HAD to go to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. They said it was the epitome of Paris. After going up A LOT of steps, we found a church. It wasn't the one we were looking for, but it was quiet and beautiful. When we did find Sacre Couer, we had to wait in a very crowded line just to walk through.

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St. Pierre

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Sacre Couer

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We did not like Montmartre. It was touristy and busy and full of pushy people. I would not really recommend the area, although it does have fantastic views of the city.

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We were planning to stay in Montmartre for dinner, but we wanted to get back to the Latin District. We had dinner at a nice Italian/French cafe that became one of our favorite places.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Here goes- Paris Day 1

So day one was technically Monday, but it was all travel so this post is about Tuesday. Our flights were fine and we got into France at about 7:30 am. We got on a train and grabbed a map and tried to figure out where our hotel was. That was not an easy task. We were dragging all our heavy luggage through Paris in the cold rain. We kept asking for directions, but we didn't speak good enough French and we couldn't find anyone who spoke English. I got yelled at by some lady because I accidentally got in her way with one of my bags.

Finally! We got to our hotel in the Latin district. The Hotel Des Grandes Ecoles. It was a wonderful hotel. Our room wasn't ready yet so they sat us down with coffee and tea. Everything in the hotel was lace and wallpaper. The hotel itself was pink and set in a lovely garden. It looked so pretty and French. And we got a bath tub!

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We rested for awhile and then went out to find lunch. We stopped at a bakery and I got a pizza and Joe got a really traditional baguette sandwich. The pizza was so good. The crust wasn't like anything I had had before. It was more like a flaky pastry with cheese and chicken on top.

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Joe had read about a natural history museum in the middle of a garden so we went there to see it. On the way to the museum, however, we stumbled upon a zoo in the same park so decided to go there. It was a really wonderful little zoo. They had all sorts of interesting owls and other animals. These little foxes were my favorite.

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We spent so much time at the zoo that we never made it to the museum. We went back to our room and changed for dinner. We picked Le Chalet L'Olivier. We got a lovely bottle of Bordeaux wine and had a yummy three course dinner.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Quick camping trip

Last week, Joe's boss invited us to go camping with her and several other people over the weekend. We almost said no as we are very busy getting ready for Paris. I am really anxious about Paris because I hate to fly. Like, a lot. So, we talked about it and decided that a quick camping trip was exactly what I needed to get my mind off of the plane stuff.

We woke up super early Friday morning and headed to Flaming Gorge Reservoir. We met Joe's boss and her partner at their boat and rode for about 15 minutes to our camp area. I have never camped anywhere away from a car so that was really different and fun. Our group had the whole camping area and everyone was really fun.

After setting up our (tiny) tent, we had lunch and headed to the water. I went fishing with David and Joe a few weeks ago and had fun (didn't catch anything then) so I bought my own fishing rod to take on this trip. I ended up catching 6 fish (5 tiny small mouth bass and 1 small trout). I will only fish catch and release so they all went back into the water.

After fishing, we swam for a bit and then made dinner and roasted marshmallows over a camp fire. We could only stay the one night, but it was a lot of fun and I hope we can go back soon!

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Our fantastic camp site. Look at that view!

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Joe lounging in the tent

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My first (tiny) fishy ever!

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The trout I caught.

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These spiders were all over.

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We saw a bunch of these guys on the way home.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Fireworks

I don't have a fancy camera or anything, but I've been having a lot of fun with the firework setting on our little point and shoot. Here are some of my favorites from July:

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Bunny!