J'aime Jaime

So, as much as it a surprise it was to Jaime, I don't actually speak French. I do hope that this blog title is gramatically correct, because if so I find it extremely clever. I wanted to throw a couple more pics on from our trip. We are having a photo book printed of our trip, but I know that it will be months before some of you may be able to see that.

These picture remind me of how great our trip was and how much I love Jaime:) She hates emoticons by the way;)

This was taken outside the L'Orangerie. We heard some people speaking English and asked them to snap a pic.

This was at church. It was inside this courtyard a block away from the Pompidou.

This is at Monet's garden. I am glad that the pics came out so stunning. The garden looks nice too. All cheesiness aside this si one of my favorite pics and is currently my desktop wallpaper at work.

This was a cool fountain at the Place de la Concorde. Also seen in the Devil Wears Prada. She threw her cell phone in it at the end. It was still in there but was very water logged by that point.

This is a picture of me asking the pastries why they taste so good. When I showed this picture to a coworker, she asked "What the heck is Orange-I-na? I love southwest Virginia.

"What do you do with a scurvy pirate?"

Our middle son, Grayson, turned 4 yesterday. I am taking time out from trip posts to say Happy Birthday to Gray. He asked for a pirate party, so we had a great time creating and traveling through the perils of Radford to find our hidden treasure!

At 4, Gray loves to negotiate any and everything! He is constantly amazing us with his reason and logic. Most of the time it drives me crazy because he can rationalize his way out of an into anything, but sometimes I just have to laugh.

He also loves spelling things lately. When Finn and I want to say something we don't want Gray to understand, we spell it out. Lately, he will ask, "Mom, can we have an S-A-O-Y?" When I ask what that is, he replies, "A popsicle, of course!"

And no surprise, his favorite word is fart. He uses it as often as he can. Today he announced that we live in the United Farts of America. Thank his father for this--I do!

We love you Grayson! Happy 4th B-day!

First Stop...Paris

Jaime and I have compiled our photos onto a DVD and Jaime is also putting together a book of our trip. I thought that we would put some photos on the blog and then show everyone the other items later...




This is our absolutely amazing hotel...Hotel des grandes ecoles in the Latin Quarter. It was just a couple of blocks from the Metro Stop Cardinal Lemoine. Up the hill a half a block is Place Contrescarpe and Rue Mouffetard. We knew nothing about this particular neighborhood beforehand , but we totally loved it. This is the courtyard of the hotel.


This is our modest hotel room. A little small but not too bad.


We thought this street looked very picturesque (along with a 1000 other Parisian streets!) as we descended from Montmartre en route to the Moulin Rouge.

Why Iceland and Paris?

Originally we were going to go to Paris and London. The cheapest flights turned out to be on Iceland Air--and for no cost, you can book a 5 day layover in Iceland, so we did. We figured we'd never have the chance to do Iceland again, but London was totally feasible in the future, so we went for it! It was so much fun. The theme of the vaca--"Fire and Ice." Paris was so hot and Iceland was so cold. Iceland's country saying is "Fire on Ice" because of the volcanos, so we co-opted their campaign for ourselves!

Because we had to take most of our photos ourselves, we have several self portraits that are more "us" than "sights", but oh well! Here are two of my favorite self portraits. The first in from the top of the Arc de Triomphe (all 281 steps high) and the second is on the streets of Reykjavik.

Miracle Workers

The Jelly bean stories, the days at the pool, endless chicken nuggets and fries, games after games after games after games...this is how the boys spent their days while their parents were in Paris. We never could have taken this trip if it weren't for the sacrifice of mom and dad coming out to keep the boys. The morning before we left, mom and dad's first morning in VA, Grayson told Jaime he wanted her to leave for Paris "right now!"
Notably, there were no pictures of mom with the boys...the photographer never gets her fame in photos, only in the written word. She was amazing with Gray--"the Grayson whisperer," we affectionately call her. Note- This picture is not of mom, but of the saleswoman at our local health food/toy store downtown. Mom's restoration of the TOYROLA was so great--for me, the boys, and Jaime, who has been desperate for large wooden blocks!
Mom and Dad-We owe you more thanks than we can ever offer. It was so wonderful to be gone and not worry about our most valuable possessions. They were in better hands than if we'd been there. You were the type of parents I hope Jaime and I can someday be--parents I was blessed to be raised by and grandparents my children have grown to adore! Thank you!