Palace of Versailles

The second day in France Lane had to travel up to Normandy for work so I along with one of the wives spent the day visiting the Palace of Versailles.

It was enormous and it was beautiful!

 The hall of mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WW1.

 Part of the Queen's Hamlet

 Afterwards we took our time and just strolled along the Seine River enjoying the beautiful architecture, lots of people watching, visited the Eiffel tower again as well as Notre Dame.

 In the evenings, locals would congregate along the river and just hang out with wine and a picnic basket.

 We found some yummy crepes down this street in the Latin Quarters.

Lots of walking but a wonderful day 2!

Birthday in Paris

Our third day in Paris  (which we actually did after we went to Barcelona, Spain for a few days) happened to be my Birthday!  I can't think of a better way to spend one!

We took an hour flight back from Spain (soon to be blogged also) and took a nap at our hotel.

We decided to do a boat cruise along the Seine river, that way we were able to see all the major sights once again.

 After our boat cruise we walked over to Place de la Concorde (a major Paris square).

 Did some shopping at Zara (love that store) and a few other stores on Champs-Elysees.

 Walked up Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.

 The view from the top looking back on Champs-Elysees.

 We made it just as the sun was setting and the view was beautiful!  For those of you that don't know, the Eiffel tower twinkles for several minutes on the hour and I must say this one below is my favorite picture from the trip!

 Next we had a delicious birthday dinner.

 Walked back along the river and had some crepes for dessert.

Thank you Lane for taking me along on the trip!  

Best Birthday present EVER!!!! XOXO

***Barcelona, Spain will be blogged soon I promise! ***

Danelle Starts (half day) School!

Danelle has been ready for kindergarten for quite some time now.  Since she is on the older side for her grade level she has done 2 years of preschool and I think that helped prepare her for going to "real" school.  A big help was also getting to visit her Aunt Megan a few times in the Kindergarten class she teachers.  Danelle was able to check it out and that took some of the unknown fear out.

 Dad rode his bike all the way home from work on his lunch break just to see her off to school...(hence the sweating, not because he was nervous or anything ;)

I love that she enjoys posing for my pictures.  I know this won't last forever!  When I picked her up from school that day she said. "That was awesome.  It was so cool!"

 This was Danelle meeting her teacher and checking out the classroom the day before.  Her and Gunnar didn't want to leave they thought it was so fun!

Hogle Zoo/Downtown SLC

Uncle Nathan rode the train up to Salt Lake to go to the zoo with us on the 24th of July. The kids had a blast!

We finished up with a trax/train ride around downtown, a visit to Temple Square then cooled off in the fountains at City Creek mall.

We love summertime!

(I think I may have worn them out by the end of the day)  :)

Days of '47/Pioneer day

While Lane is up working in Boise this summer we're trying to make the most of our last few weeks here in Utah.  For our state holiday, Pioneer Day I decided to take the kids to do some fun activities.  We went up to This Is The Place heritage park to do some fun learning about the Pioneers.

Gunnar's favorite part was riding the horses.

Danelle loved milking the cow and looking for gold.

He is just like his Dad.

Afterwards we stopped by the South Town Expo Center to see the parade floats that would be in the Days of '47 parade the next morning.  The kids loved getting to see the floats up close!

Face painting, rides and balloon animals were all free (as well as admission).  Can't beat that in a nice cool building in the summertime!

We followed up the evening with some music and fireworks at the West Jordan park!

Happy Pioneer Day Utah!