Weekend in Berlin

We are headed to Berlin today with a group of students and won't return until Sunday night. I was hoping to squeeze one more post in before we left, but I have about an hour and a half to pack, get Sophie to take a nap and run to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for the trip. I'll try to post again on Monday...

New Year's in Paris! (Part III)

I just realized today that I haven't been going through the pictures that my mom, dad and Matt sent me when I've been posting pictures! Ugh...that means that I'll be throwing some random pictures in to make up for it. Here are some from the Louvre that I liked:

Ian became our de facto tour guide in the Louvre posed for a couple of "tour guide" pics for my mom:


On our second night in Paris, we took a boat cruise down the Seine. It's a nice way to see the sights all at one time, especially at night.


So this is our daughter posing by a trash can, but she was very attached to it and actually threw a fit after the boat ride that she couldn't see it again.


On the boat:


Views of the city:



"N" is for Napoleon.



I took a series of funny pictures of Sophie and Daddy playing on the boat:


**We do have a rule of "No Cannibalism" in our house, by the way. ;-)


I think everyone was worn out at the end of the day...

New Year's in Paris! (Part II)

On our second day in Paris, we visited Notre Dame, ate some of the best ice cream in Paris, and took a boat cruise on the Seine.

A view from our apartment's kitchen that morning:


We had just received our new camera, so I played around a lot with taking night pictures without the flash (hence the slightly strange coloring and noise). Here are several views of Notre Dame:


The inside was kind of disappointing because they had a special Christmas thing going on where they played strange music and had a slide show going at the altar. This also meant that they had turned off the lights, so it was really dark inside.


But right before we left, they took the screen down and turned on the lights...much better!


After Notre Dame, we went to Glacier Berthillon, one of the best ice cream places in Paris. We "warmed up" with some ice cream and coffee...

And then we headed off to the cruise of the Seine. The bridge by the docks has a great view of the Eiffel Tower.



I'll post the pictures from the cruise and the rest of the trip tomorrow!

Twitter on the Blog

In case you haven't noticed, we've added Twitter to our blog. I decided that it would be easier to update some of the things we're doing, but are either 1) not really blog-worthy (because there are no pictures available, etc.) or 2) we're out of town and we want to let you know. We're friends with some people on Facebook, and both Ian and I are pretty active on there, but if we don't keep in touch with you on Facebook, you may not know what's been going on on a day-to-day basis (and we know that you are all extremely interested in what we're doing second to second!)

For what it's worth, it's there, and I should be able to update that even if I can't update the blog on a daily basis. :-)

New Year's in Paris! (Part I)

My family was flying out of Paris on New Year's Day, so they decided that they wanted a few days to visit the city before leaving. We left on a very early train and arrived in Paris later that morning. We settled into the apartment, had a tasty lunch at a restaurant down the street from the apartment (I'm going to try to recreate my mom's spinach, bacon and poached egg salad pretty soon, I think!), and then headed into the city. We took a walk along the Seine and ended up at the Louvre.

Here is Notre Dame on a beautiful (but cold) winter's day:


We walked by the courthouse on the way to the Louvre, and I just couldn't resist getting this shot of a line of police vans, ready to go in case of a riot, I guess!


Paris is the home of some beautiful bridges...


Kyle, Matt, my mom and dad on Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge over the Seine in Paris (construction completed in 1607) with the Louvre in the background:


A statue of Henri IV, who was responsible for a lot of updating and construction in Paris in the 16th and 17th centuries, on the Pont Neuf:


We soon arrived at the Louvre, and as this inscription says, "The Louvre Museum, founded the 16th of September 1792 by decree of the Legislative Assembly, was opened the 10th of August 1793 by execution of a decree rendered by the National Convention." So, basically, the museum is about as old as the United States!


The afternoon light that afternoon resulted in some beautiful shots inside and out of the museum. Here is a statue on one of the buildings outside:


I don't really know what Sophie's doing in this picture. We asked her to smile, and this was the result. It's taken by the entry and the famous glass pyramids.


Uncle Kyle and Sophie in front of the fountains:


One of my favorite paintings, The Coronation of Napoleon by David--I didn't get a great shot because it was really crowded:


Nike of Samothrace (or Winged Victory):


Here's the Mona Lisa. It's that tiny stamp-sized painting at the end of the room. We mostly took this picture to show how crowded the Louvre was that day (and how crowded the Mona Lisa is almost every day).


We stumbled on these rooms of beautiful Roman sculpture on the way to see the Aphrodite of Milos (or Venus de Milo). The natural afternoon light was absolutely amazing.



A bust of Hadrian:


We finally made it to Napoleon's Apartments this time around. Napoleon III was the nephew and step-grandson of Napoleon and was the French Republic's first president and the only emperor of the Second French Empire (1852-1870). He apparently liked the luxurious life of president and emperor.

Sophie enjoying herself:


And posing with Uncle Kyle:


We are a Chuck Taylor family:


Did I mention it was crowded?! This was the main entrance an hour before the museum was going to close...and they're all buying tickets, not leaving!


An early evening view of the pyramids: