More Birthday Fun!

Last weekend we celebrated my Mom and brother Jeremy’s birthdays. With everyone’s crazy schedules we had to do it later Friday night so we had the celebration at our house after Jax went to bed.

My Mom had spent the day with us and we had run around doing errands and decorated the house for Halloween. Everyone showed up for a small but fun joint birthday party!

* I swear sometimes I don’t know  how I am related to them:)
Sadly I did not get a picture of the awesome purse my Mom got from my Dad or the cool running watch Jeremy got from his adorably pregnant wife Nicole.

Happy Birthday Mom and Jer!

Au Revoir

Our last day started out much like the one’s before, with me a touch grumpy without coffee and us up and out the door early. We headed to the outskirts of Paris to Sacre Coeur, another cathedral way high up on a hill which overlooks the city. The famous Montmartre is also there and I was looking forward to strolling though the quaint area.

If you look closely you can see me there on the first level.

Without finding coffee, or food for that matter, we made our way up the steps, to the cathedral. I definitely did not feel bad about how much and what I was eating on this trip as we walked and went up so many stairs that it really wasn’t an issue.
We quickly walked though the interior of the cathedral and then headed to up the tower. We were fortunate that there was no line and after, yep you guessed it, a spiral staircase with a million steps we made it to the very top with yet another beautiful view of the city below.

Mike was trying to mimic the gargoyle you see blending in there.

Self Portrait

At this point I was starving and more then a bit grumpy! The steps up to the top almost did us in. So we went in search of food. This would have been easy because there was an international food and wine festival going on, but we had run out of cash and needed to find an ATM after a few harsh words and getting lost on the very confusing streets heading down away from everything we found a bank and headed back up the giant hill to find food and coffee.

Random windmill we found while lost

On the way back up we found an adorable little bakery with a long line of locals. We figured it had to be good and waited in line for what would be the tastiest croissant and baguette we would have.

After we hiked back up the huge hill and all of the steps with a little food in our tummies Mike insisted we buy a glass of champagne from one of the vendors. It’s amazing how one glass of champagne can turn my mood right around (Mike is smart guy I tell you). After two glasses of wine and I was downright giddy! Who needs coffee anyway? We enjoyed a wonderful stroll though the festival and bought some yummy wine,  great olive oil, cookies, which we practically inhaled, and a few gifts for people back home.

Part of the festival before it got super busy and packed with people
The festival ended up being one of my favorite things that we did. I liked feeling like a local and strolling along trying different wines, and things.

We then took the metro to the Musee d’Orsay. I was very much looking forward to this museum as some of my favorite artists have many works housed here including Monet and Degas. We greatly enjoyed walking around this massive museum that was once a train station.

Mike resting his feet

Mike in “hell”

Mike playing with the giant kitty

I liked this statue as it is a mother with her two boys

Me in front of one of my favorite Monet Paintings, Poppies. We use to have a copy of this hanging in our front living room.

After enjoying the museum we headed out to the Champs Elysee for one last walk. Actually we needed to stop at the Disney store to get the boys a gift. How bad is that? I buy two things on the Champs Elysee and its from the Disney Store!
After our shopping and strolling we sat down on a bench in front of the Arc de Triomphe and randomly picked a place for dinner, it was in a section of the city we had yet to visit. So off we went!

We ended up needing to make a reservation as it was a true Parisian restaurant which only starts serving dinner after 7pm. Fortunately it was 6pm, they had one reservation left at 7:15pm , Perfect!!  There were numerous cafes around so we enjoyed a coffee and started strolling. We stumbled upon this great little square with fountains and a huge statue. It was a bit drizzly that night, but we still enjoyed walking around.

When we made it to dinner we were starving (seems to be a common theme during this trip), dinner ended up being awesome! Come to find out it is a popular restaurant in that area which is known for their house smoked salmon, french fries, and steak all three of which we greatly enjoyed while dining there. It  was a bit interesting trying to figure out the menu as it was the only place we had eaten that didn’t have any English on the menu. Another American couple ended up sitting next to us and they told us that they rent a different apartment every year and enjoy October in Paris. Ok folks, our new life goal is to be able to spend our October’s in Paris when the boys are grown and don’t need us as much. After the best meal we had eaten we headed back to the hotel after stopping at our crepe stand to enjoy one last crepe before our trip home.

The trip home was a long one which including sitting on the tarmac for two hours before the 9.5hr flight and literally running and I do mean RUNNING though the Atlanta airport, but we made our connecting flight home and were welcomed by our Mom’s and the boys at the airport.

It was a trip we will never forget and now that I have gotten Mike to fall in love with Paris like I did way back in 6th grade I look forward to many trips back.

Paris-Day 2!

*Us in front of the Palace of Versailles
We started the morning out early and hopped on the RER, a different train that runs more to the Paris suburbs, and headed off to Versailles. We had figured out the day before that Parisians don’t really have coffee to go so I was a bit grumpy until we stepped off the train and low and behold there was a Starbucks. It’s sad but true, but I was never so happy to see a Starbucks in my life. I drink a lot of coffee and my mood is greatly dependent on this, even more so in this situation as we had had such a long day the day before and our bodies thought it was 4am.

Mike on the RER

We had to get off and switch trains and when we stepped off there was the most beautiful rainbow in the sky!
With coffee and croissants in hand we headed to the Palace. You sort of turn the corner and it catches you a bit off guard, as it is absolutely gorgeous! Especially with the blue sky and white puffy clouds, the gold shines even brighter!

Mike in front of the beautiful gold gate!

Me on the other side of that same gate (notice my coffee is already gone:)

There were audio guides for the museums and we found this helped explain what we were looking at,  so in this picture Mike is in the famous Hall of Mirrors and he has his cute little audio guide on.

Versailles was one of the busiest places we visited, there seemed to be people everywhere! I am not so into crowds, but after exploring the beautiful estate we headed back into Paris.

Next up Notre Dame!

As you can see it was a beautiful day! It was a tad bit chiller, but very clear and sunny.

The cathedral is beautiful! It was amazing to think about how old it is and what took place here throughout history.

After a quick tour of the inside we then waited for an hour and half to climb the 450 stairs up the tower. Right as we were going in it started to pour! But by the time we reached the top it was sunny again! The wait and the stairs were worth it as the view was breathtaking!

Us at the top! You can see the Eiffel Tower between our heads:)

After you walk along the upper terrace you can then go up even more stairs to the bell tower. Which was of course made famous by Hunchback of Notre Dame story.
So here’s Mike with the bell

You had to climb through these little doors to get in and out of the bell tower, I was laughing as I watched Mike squeeze though.

We took one more look at the incredible view and headed back down the narrow spiral staircase.

After we picked up a yummy crepe we headed along the river to the Conciergerie, which was a formal royal palace and prison. Marie Antoinette was held here for a few months before she was beheaded.

Attached is the beautiful Sainte-Chapelle. We almost didn’t do Sainte Chapelle because you have to go through crazy security but we were so glad we did because it was the most beautiful chapel you have ever seen. The altar was draped off due to restoration, but imagine this huge room with nothing but massive stain glass windows in a  room that is twice as high as it is long. Each window depicts a book in the bible and all the windows combine to tell the entire story.  It is incredible!!! It was originally built to house holy relics including the crown of thorns and was often times used for the coronation of Queens. I am so glad we decided to stop in here as it ended up being one of our favorite sites.

Mike checking out the amazing windows.



After all of that we had plenty of time on our hands and decided to head to a cafe. Mike had read an Ernest Hemingway book before the trip and wanted to visit one of the cafe’s that he frequented while writing. So I wrangled us a table, you had to be quick, as the place was very popular and very busy. We then relaxed and enjoyed a cocktail and some people watching, which is highly entertaining in Paris.

After the cafe we had the evening to ourselves so we ended up at this very expensive shopping mall which was attached to a huge international grocery store/market. Think international whole foods. After wandering around in there we headed back towards our hotel to have dinner at this little cafe we had spotted.
Since we had been out so very late the night before we enjoyed a nice dinner, another yummy crepe and headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.
Not before enjoying the view of course, that night the tower was sparkling!

And again here is a short slide show with additional pictures from Day 2!

Enjoy:)

Our Weekend in Paris!

What a great weekend!! Paris was even better than I remembered. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was with Mike, but we loved it and are already planning to go back. This trip was a gift from Mike’s Mom and we could never thank her enough for such a wonderful gift and for taking such great care of the boys, including and especially Jefferson (the dog) while we were gone.
We started out after a whirlwind day on Thursday. Mike had gone to work for half a day and I had made butterfly cupcakes for Michelle’s daughter Kaitlyn’s, first birthday (which I was sad to be missing). We started packing about an hour and half before we needed to leave, but somehow we made it to the airport with everything we needed and with plenty of time before our flight. We had a short flight to NY and from there headed off to Paris!

Mike at the wine bar in NY. We figured we might as well start drinking early:)

I was tickled pink or should I say blue, about my matching  bags, and this picture doesn’t even include the matching make up bag inside (this was not planned which is why I was so excited about it:) I know I am a dork!

We flew on a huge double decker plane!

We had a great flight and both managed to catch about three hours of sleep. We arrived an hour early thanks to a strong tail wind and after a quick stop at the hotel we were off!

PARIS DAY 1

First Stop, the Eiffel Tower!!! We had actually grabbed a quick bite at a local cafe and then hit the tower.

We walked up, I don’t know, maybe 200 steps to the first level.

Then another 300 or more steps to the second level.


After climbing the 500 million steps you take an elevator to the very top, even with the fog, the view was worth the climb.
This is us on the way tippy top!


From there we took our first metro ride over to the Arc de Triomphe

We finally figured out how to get across the crazy traffic circle you see behind us so that we could check out the Arc in more detail. After that we headed up the Champs-Élysées for a nice long leisurely walk. We stopped in a few store including Louie Vuitton, but seriously who can afford anything in there?

We walked for what seemed like forever all the way to the Louvre! It was a beautiful walk and we just sort of took our time taking in the city and enjoying each others company.

You can sort of see how far we walked. We still had a ways to go to get the Louvre, but this is a view looking back down the Champs-Élysées. While it looks a little gloomy the temperature was perfect. It poured while we were in the museum, but thank goodness it stopped for our walk back to the metro.

We chose to do the Louvre on the first night because it was open late and there are less people there on those nights. As you can see it was not overly crowded.


Mike being a goof ball!




After a long but wonderful first day we headed back to our hotel.
This picture was taken from our hotel room. Yes we could see the Eiffel Tower from our room, how cool is that??!?!

Obviously we took a ton of pictures. I tried to include my favorites in the post and then put the rest into a slide show. Below is the slide show with the other pictures from our first day. Enjoy! And stayed tuned for days 2 and 3!

Belated Birthday Wishes

So before I can post a million pictures from our Paris trip I have to go back and post pictures from my Dad’s Birthday. I am sorry this is so late:(

My Mom was super busy helping me with Mike’s party and with a boat trip so I volunteered to make the cake. It was Raven’s themed since my Dad’s favorite Football team is the Ravens and we were celebrating his birthday on a Football Sunday.

We had to re light a few candles so that Jax could help too.

The cake came out much better than the pictures show and tasted very good! I had a hard time frosting the sides because the pineapple filling kept oozing out, but I managed to get it all frosted, just to smooch part of the top at the end. Oh, well you get the idea.

Jax thoroughly enjoyed it:)

Happy Birthday Dad, sorry it took so long for me to get the pictures up!

Slacker

I know I have been a big blog slacker lately, but the Paris trip consumed much of my free time. I swear I have lots of good pictures and stories to post and will start catching up a bit.

Wordless Wednesday-Laughter

Mike’s Surprise!

With much help from my friends and family “we” threw Mike a surprise 30th Birthday Party last Friday Night.

The idea was to do something small and a bit different. Mike deserved something special for this big birthday and it turned out to be an awesome party! He had no idea which made it all that much better!
The Theme was sports. You were suppose to wear (and almost everyone did) a sports related shirt. The food was football themed, with a football cake that had to be made last minute when the one I ordered was awful! Homemade soft pretzels, popcorn, wings, chips with dips, frito candy, brownie bites and a few other munchies.
We had sports trivia which was randomly thrown in along with a few fun drinking games just to make things a bit more fun. There was a beer pong table set up in my living room, complete with a keg. We also played flip cup, and did jello shots! And of course my personal favorite Margaritas!
From someone that never went to drinking parties in college this was a more “wild” party than I am use to.
I think everyone had a great time and I again would like to thank all that people that put time, energy, and food into making this party a success.
Since there are a few pictures that are not necessarily family blog friendly below is a slides show. It goes slow and is a bit long, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it go faster, sorry:(

Mike’s 30th Birthday!

Well it has happened Mike and I are now both officially in our 30’s! EEekkk! Our 20’s went quick! If  you ask me I don’t think Mike looks a day over 25;) We celebrated this momentous event by having some of our family and close friends over. It ended up being a very fun evening and a perfect way to celebrate Mike’s Big 3-0!

I made a football cake, the pictures don’t do it much justice, but the grass was all hand piped on and I was pretty happy with how it came out.

Mike and his Mom:)

Ethan and AJ enjoyed running around with the new laser guns Judy brought back from Paris

Jax, my big eater, really wanted cake and ice cream!

Cute picture my Mom took of the three of us after Jax had gone to bed.

Everyone just hanging out


How to keep 7 adults entertained? Give them 5 million dollar scratch off tickets! Sadly we didn’t win a million dollars, but we did win $45!

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I couldn’t imagine spending the rest of my life with any one else!

Even if you are getting old:)

WW-Lap Management