Modesty is a virture

After Lily's nap last week we realized we needed to start buying Size 5 diapers. She was literally breaking them all week. My Chunky Monkey! She was running away too! I went to the grab the camera and she was trying to be modest....


Apparently she has learned the "itsy bitsy spider" at school. Because I started singing it and she did very elementary hand motions associated with it! They didn't tell me but I was impressed nonetheless. What else does she know that I don't know about?

You can't tell but this is her about to do a spider motion!



This isn't a great picture but a good one of the adorable dress I got at consignment sale last week!

Every Friday in the summer time is swim time at school. This is Lily all Jackie O for the water play! She did so well with the hat! She must have known how pretty is was. Thanks Mike and Becca!

Lily got a fish last week. Finally we got enough time to run to Petsmart and check it out. SHE LOVES IT! His name is "fishy." She runs to see him every morning and giggles and tries to bang on his bowl. We are reinforcing "nice touches to fishy" but it doesn't seem to work. I give the fish another week before he croaks of a heart attack.

If you ask her "where is Lily's Fish?" She runs to show you. Even if we move the fish she makes a mental note of where he is at all times! She grunts and points until we pick her up to show her the fish.

Good Morning Fishy!

My little Diva!

So glad it is Friday! Just so you know finally started fixing the ceiling in the living room this week.....then our toilet overflowed last night and we have another spot in the hallway adjacent to living room. GREAT! I am too frustrated to speak of it. But in a few days it will be funny and I can post the humorous story of me running around trying to figure out what to do with all the water. Right now it is not funny though!

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Why I do what I do....

I got a very special email this morning. I hope my Grandpa doesn't mind that I share but it made my day! I had a very 'challenging' day yesterday at work and was out consignment shopping until after Lily was in bed, so I am tired and lacking some motivation this morning. But when your day starts with the following is a kick start to your weekend!

Hi ya'all--
Just a line to say thank you for taking me on your trip to
Europe. I am really enjoying being allowed to access your blog. I have been
places and done things-but never got past Heathrow going toward Europe. So much
in the world to see and to travel even vicariously is a thrill some people never
get. You did a great job-the pictures-the commentary--and the thought behind it.
All are appreciated.

Love Mac & Joanne

Some people may joke (BYRAN...CRAIG!) about the blog and think it is silly but this is why I do it. This to me is awesome! I love doing this, the writing, the outlet, the keepsake for Lily. I can't keep up with daily journalling and this gives me the flexibility of adding pictures so people like my Florida Dad and Grandpa can see Lily as she grows and experience trips like this with us! When we decide to have Baby Eads 2, or fate decides for us, I can go back and remember what happens when and be excited and anticipate. When Lily wants to know about our Europe trip when she is a teenager and is heading with her Senior class I can show her all the amazing things we did.

So Thank You to all my readers! It makes me feel good that people actually care enough to read. But honestly I would do it even if you didn't care enough to read..... Thanks Grandpa!

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Day 10: Farewell Europe!

aaahhh our last day in France! What to do? Michael was sad to go home, as was I. But by this point I could see the finish line on our sprint home to Lily who by now I was miserable without.

Michael being sad in front of the Madeline Monument right next to our hotel. I see a resemblance...mostly in the hair.

We headed out of Paris for our one excursion outside the city to Versailles. This was recommended to me by a fellow French Coworker so I knew it was going to be good.

Much like Mount Pilatus this had potential. Great potential. If it wasn't for all the administrative bull associated with it. We stood in line for what seemed like HOURS to get a ticket into this place. No exaggeration at all. Then after finally getting the pass from the tourist office which had a line a tenth of the size but double the time to get in we got in ANOTHER line to enter the Palace. That line took another thirty minutes. I was irrate by the time we got in there and really had to use the ladies room but refused after I saw yet another huge line to get in there. Ugh!

At least we got to look at the golden gate why we were in line. Michael was very impressed by this gate!

There were a ridiculous number of people in this thing. Included with our tour was the audio info which I normally love. But there were so many people I could barely hear! I couldn't get decent pictures, could barely move. It was bad.

Don't get me wrong this place was magnificent. But way to crowded. They must not have fire codes.

The only quiet spot we found and it took me ten minutes to get the picture without random peeps in it!

The Queens Library

Organ in the back..I elbowed an old lady for this shot!

Hallway off our "quiet spot"

Hall of Mirrors. Breathtaking! It looked right over the gardens. I wish I could have lived and partied in this place back in the day.

A painting of the property as a whole! Holy Moly!


Chapel

Hall of Mirrors

We rushed through the palace as quickly as we good and I think we skipped over the Kings apartment completely due to crowds. But then we broke the barrier to the back and walked into a fairy tale. The palace was impressive but the gardens were magical! Straight out of kids story. Fountains, flowers, music (just like Disney), just beautiful. We should have just done the gardens. By the time we got through the lines and palace we were pooped!

But the day improved so much better as soon as we started the gardens. It was a beautiful day..even hot which it had not been our whole stay.

In front of one of the multitude of fountains. The fountains are only on from 3:30 to 5:30 to save water/energy is my guess.

View back from the gardens towards the palace

There wasn't much shade to be found!

It looked like it was going to rain but it held off!



View from the Palace Steps down...what we stepped out to. This is with the fountains off.

With the fountains on....much better!

I love this shot! This is my Paris scarf that pretty much died when I got home and tried to wash dirty travel off it. It is a lot lighter now! Almost white!

Funny story about this picture. They do not allow tripods on the grounds. I have no idea why. So I asked some random dude to take our picture and he was like "no" and that was that. Mmmm...not really sure how I offended the guy but whatever! A nice lady took this; well she didn't seem"happy" to do it but at least she did it and wasn't RUDE!

She even shot two angles!

Gardens

More Fountains!

So after we toured around the gardens we spotted some row boats you could rent. Michael did not seem to excited about rowing me around while I relaxed, but I twisted his arm and he gave in. The pouty face works sometimes! What fun! So glad we did it. Top five favorite things I did.

Me in the boat with the grounds behind me.

Michael and his superb rowing skills turned the boat so I could get this shot of him. He looks so handsome!

Michael is getting much better with the pictures...the key? Keeping my bootie out of the shot!

Showing off the guns!

He was happy we did this once we got out there

But then I had to show him how it is done. Work it girl!

It was hard work but what work isn't more fun with a smile!

My favorite picture from our whole trip!

Michael relaxing while I did all the work! WTF!?

Mmmmm somehow my plan of relaxing didn't work out for me.

When we started spinning in circles and heading towards crash collisions with other boats Michael took over. Thank god. Surprisingly I wasn't sore. When we got off we both said we were glad we did it and it was definitely one of our favorite things.

PS the water wasn't clean. But it wasn't "dirty" as in trash just nasty brown.

We ate a fabulous lunch outside at a beer garden type place where I finally had crepes on my last day. I added what I thought was syrup to them and took a bite only to find out it was chili sauce for Micheal's dish. Luckily I did not put too much on there...I have to watch my girlish figure! They were still yummy with an occasional hot flash. It made each bite an adventure.

Bye Bye Versailles...we will only ever visit your gardens again if we return!


Randomly on the train ride back I noticed a coupon on our map for 50% the Lido show. I really wanted to do this show but when I looked it up it was 100 euro each which I am just too cheap to pay for. But 100 euro for both of us to go....mmmm interesting.

After some arm twisting and a little fussing I got Michael to go to the hotel front desk and try and get them to book us some tickets. We lucked out and got two tickets to the night show.

I was pumped. In case you couldn't tell this was a cabaret show! Whoohoo. Why Michael didn't jump right ton the band wagon I am not sure. So we hoped on the train and headed back to the Champs Elysess.

On the train ride there I had to (yes I had some wine while getting ready for dinner) take a picture with one of these posters. They were everywhere in Paris. There is a Twilight convention coming to Paris in October! So mad we are gonna miss it. Edward Cullen is my lover (in my dreams!) I wanted to kiss the picture but this was in the metro and I didn't want some funky disease!

We didn't have time for a real dinner to we went to good old French McDonalds! MMMmmmm.

Their Royal with Cheese was the best thing I had tasted in my life. You have to remember we haven't exactly been eating fast food the past few months! The whole meal was so good. This was our prep for returning to the AMERICA!!

Our tickets included a bottle of champagne. But for more money you could do the dinner and show package that included dancing. Lucky ducks!

I really love champagne. Our last shot before we had to put away the camera. They don't exactly let you take pictures of the topless women dancing!

The show was amazing! My favorite night of our trip. It was tasteful and the acts in between such as the two muscle men intrigued even Michael. He never once dozed. Just great. Go see it even if you have to pay full price if your in Paris. AWESOME!

We moseyed down and took a few night shots of the Arc. I only had my pocket camera so they weren't magnificent but it was still beautiful! It was kind of like a good bye walk through town!

We took the train back to the Eiffel tower and drank a bottle of wine while we sat on the lawn. We talked about our trip, or babygirl, memories, fun stuff, and were there probably an hour to an hour and half. There was a guy playing the guitar and singing American songs that was actually really good and added to the romance! Our best night by far. Romantic.

Now funny story about the bottle of wine. So we bought a bottle of white and a bottle of red with intention of giving one to Glen as a thank you gift for watching Cesna and one for us with plans of drinking it one night in Paris. We are not much a red wine drinkers but when we packed up our bags before the show we were faced with a dilemma of the wine. Back in the good ol days you could carry wine onto the plane. Gone are those days. So we had to pack the wine. Mmmmmm. Which to pack...the red or the white? Duh! I will tell you what that red wine wasn't bad! So I really hope Glen liked white because miraculously the wine made it back in one piece!

One the way back we missed the train service so had to hike it back to the hotel in the middle of night. It was a bit scary and Michael made me put my wedding ring in my bra...like that was any safer drunky mcgee! Once again I don't think there was any reason to be scared but as a woman and an American I think we are bred that way! I did a lot of things in Europe I would never have thought would be safe in the US but it was fine there. It is just different! We made it back in one piece but it was a walk. At least the alcohol had been walked out of my system!

Us with our bottle of wine!

A final drink to say Au revoir Pareee! We didn't have glasses...oops


Wow we had fun! But is was good to be home. It took us staying up about 25 hours before we finally hit our beds at home but the trip was once in a lifetime. Lily was very clingy when we got back because I think she thought we were going to leave her. But we talked about it and 10 days was a little too much. Maybe next summer we will just do a week :)

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