Piper's Blessing Day

So I guess I'm really doing a bad job about blogging... still! I don't know why it has been so hard to blog since I left Oregon but it is. Anyways, I guess that can be one of my 2010 New Year's Resolutions.

Piper is almost two months old, I really can't believe it!! She is such a beautiful and happy little baby! My life has changed so much and I couldn't be happier. I find so much joy and happiness in some of the simplest tasks now. I find so much happiness in giving Piper her baths which she loves, and feeding her when she looks up into my eyes and when she smiles when she toots. She cracks me up every day, and every day I wonder how I made it so long in life without her. Aaron is so sweet with her and is such a great dad. My love for him has grown so much as well. I remember on my wedding day I looked at him and thought that I didn't know how he could be any more attractive than he was that day, but I was wrong. When I see him with her and see the look in his eyes as he holds her, I think that he is more handsome than ever, and I think it is the sweetest sight in the world.

Sunday we blessed her and she looked so beautiful in her dress. She did have a diaper explosion in her dress and a little poop got on her dress, but it came out after a little scrubbing (thank heavens). It was a great day.

She's FINALLY here!!!

Well, I know it has been a full week since our little Piper was born, but I am finally getting around to blogging about it. Last week was for obvious reasons quite eventful for us. Tuesday Aaron was sworn into the Utah courts and so that was a great milestone for us. After the ceremony I had my weekly OB appointment and we got great news. My doctor asked me if I wanted to be induced, that he felt that this would be appropriate. I was so excited, I probably scared him, because I was so excited. I just wanted to give him a hug. He scheduled me to go to the hospital the following night (Wed) around 8:00 pm. We went into the hospital and they got me started. It was a long night, mostly because I didn't sleep at all, but also because they told us they would break my water around 12:00 or 1:00, but it didn't happen until 6:00 am. This was kind of discouraging for both Aaron and I, since it slowed things down more than we would have liked. Well to make a long story short, after 20 hours of labor, I hadn't dilated anywhere close or even made improvement over those 20 hours. When my doctor walked in around 4:20 Thursday afternoon to check on me, and I saw the look on his face, I knew he was going to tell me I was going to have to have a C-Section. He told us that we would have to go by C-Section, that for some reason I just wasn't progressing like I should be and that he didn't feel comfortable letting me go any longer with such little progress. I was devastated and so discouraged and I tried so hard (but mostly unsuccessfully) not to cry. But I also knew that at least it would be over. Right after that the anesthesiologist came in, gave me whatever it was that they give you and wheeled me into the operating room and she was born at 4:54. I was amazed at how fast everything happened from when my doctor came in to when she was born. I cannot describe how I felt when I first saw her in her dad's arms. Of course for all of you who are mothers know exactly how I felt. I was so overwhelmed with love and I just started crying, but at least these were happy tears.

Our new family and first family photo
Beautiful baby Piper 7 lbs 12 oz 21 inches

So sweet.

He Passed!!!

So I know that it's been a week, but I guess late is better than never. The newest and most exciting development in our lives (at this time anyway) is that Aaron passed the Utah Bar!!!! So exciting! Last Thursday Aaron came home from his landscaping job and got in the shower. While he was in the shower, a fellow Willamette grad who also is living here in Utah and took the bar called him three times and texted him. When Aaron got out of the shower I told him Jared called several times. Aaron looked at the phone and then immediately said that he was going to get the mail. I didn't really think anything of it, Aaron always gets the mail. But I guess Jared let him know the bar results were in. Luckily Aaron didn't tell me this before he went to get the mail, I don't think I could have handled the drama or suspense. Aaron just walked in the door and said, "I passed." I looked up from the computer and saw the most amazing look on Aaron's face. It's a rare facial expression and one I haven't seen in a very long time. It was one of complete relief and excitement, he seemed like a little kid on Christmas morning. I jumped up as fast as my hugely pregnant body would allow me to and jumped in his arms. (I do not hide my excitement well). Oh I can't describe the relief we felt! I was sooo happy for Aaron and that he passed. I know that he really put all of himself into these last three years of law school and preparing for the bar. Aaron's far too humble to brag about himself, so I guess I'll do it for him. Really, Aaron is quite the guy and while he has his short comings (as we all do), he really truly is an amazing person who has so much strength, integrity and spirit.

While he still hasn't found a job yet, it still feels like such a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders, just to know he passed the bar and he doesn't have to do it all over again. And since I am a little selfish, I am also relieved for myself, so that I don't have to give up my husband again to the law books and be by myself. Of course I know that will be short lived, because everyone says that starting out in your career is worse than going to law school. But I will enjoy it while I can! Really, I feel so blessed to have experienced this part of life, and also to have it over. I have spent so many hours praying that school, finals and the bar will go well for Aaron. I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers, even though in some ways not the way we would like Him too. Luckily in this case He did, and I feel so blessed. I have an amazing husband who has worked really hard and has made wise choices, and I have a beautiful baby girl on the way who is getting ready to make her grand entrance, and while yes, some days I do feel overwhelmed with the future, I feel so blessed with my family.

Birthdays and Baby Showers

Last weekend was Aaron's birthday. His parents came up from Arizona and we got together with them along with Paul, Mikelle and the girls. We had a good time with them and hopefully Aaron had a good birthday. Aaron already received his birthday gift from me months in advance since I got him season tickets to the University of Utah football games, so there wasn't much excitement or mystery around what he was getting from me. The night before we somewhat celebrated by going to the opening game of the season with the Utes facing off the Aggies. It was such a mystery wondering who would win that game. I was one lonely Aggie in sea of red, although there were a few Aggie fans not too far behind us so I was not completely alone. I knew my Aggies would lose, but I still have to cheer for them, because I am NOT a fair weather Aggie fan. I do however handle their losses with football a LOT better than I handle their losses in basketball. Anyways, I hope these tickets will be something that Aaron will really enjoy. Happy Birthday Aaron, I love you!!!!!

Isn't he so handsome? I think so!

Saturday, my wonderful sister-in-law Mikelle threw me a wonderful baby shower. The food was delicious and I ate WAY too much! I got a ton of stuff for Piper and I am so excited with all of my gifts! Thank you Mikelle and Lynn for everything!

I had two very special helpers at the shower, my nieces Annika and Sydney. It was so cute! Especially Annika, because she would get so excited about the gifts and she would tell me what things were for and how to use them. It was hilarious!

Finally Blogging

So I guess I will finally end my blogging hiatus. I wish I had a good excuse for not blogging, but I have no excuses. At first we were really busy, but really I don't have a good excuse after that.

The biggest thing in our lives? Aaron graduated from Willamette University College of Law!!!!! Yay!!! I am so proud of Aaron and all that he has accomplished. He has worked so incredibly hard these last three years, and has made so many sacrifices for our family in getting to where he is at at this point. Graduation was Sunday May 17, and on Monday May 18 we packed up our stuff and headed on our way to Salt Lake City.

Aaron and his sister Andrea. Andrea also graduated from UCLA law school, just the week before. Runs in the family I guess.

Our next adventure was Aaron preparing for the bar and me finding employment. I was really feeling doubtful about finding a job being pregnant and all, but I did find a job and went in for an interview and they didn't even know I was pregnant! I think they were a little shocked with the handicapped people I worked with noticed before they did. This job has been a nice break for me, it is not a very stressful job and so that has been nice. I do miss my paychecks, but really am just grateful to have a job to help hold us over during this transitional time in our lives. As for Aaron, he spent all of his time putting his nose to the grindstone studying for the bar, and he finished this about four weeks ago. We have another month or so until we find out the results of the bar, so that has been kind of nerve wracking.

After Aaron finished the bar, we decided to take our last weekend trip out of town before baby Piper arrives, so we went up to Jackson Hole and had a FABULOUS time. It was so beautiful up there, and so relaxing, and so much cooler up there than it was down in Salt Lake. We drove up Friday after I got done with work and when we got into town, we walked around town and went into all of the shops. On Saturday morning we went for a short hike, since I'm not up to too much at this point. Then we went on a picnic by the river and rode the gondolas up at the ski resort at the Jackson ski resort. We had so much fun just relaxing and enjoying each other's company and enjoying the beautiful scenery. It was so great to get away after all of the craziness of the last few months.

Anyways, I guess I will try and do better about blogging now.

Milestone 2 - The final final

Today was a major milestone in our lives. Well, mostly Aaron's life, but hey, I like to give myself a little credit every now and then, after all Aaron does have such a nice, sweet, awesome and supportive wife! Haha. Anyways.....Aaron took his last final ever today! Yay for him!! He did it, he made it to this point in one sane piece. These last three years have had so many ups and downs for Aaron, and he has handled it so beautifully. I have seen many a bald patches on his face from his stress hair pulling, and I know he has faced a lot of discouragement and frustration throughout this process. I am so proud of Aaron and all of his hard work and determination. But you know what? I am mostly so proud to have a husband who is so thoughtful of me and does his best to spend as much time with me as he can, I am really so grateful for this. I know that I am truly blessed in this respect that Aaron tries so hard this way. I have so many thoughts about law school, but mostly I am in awe. In some ways, it has definitely felt like three years, and in other ways it has flown by. It is no secret that it was hard for me to be away from my family and friends, but after the first year it was so much easier, and I know that it has also been good for us as well. In many ways I am so glad that we got to leave Utah and experience Oregon, even though it was a lot more expensive moving up here, it has also been a great experience. While I will never miss the weather here, I will desperately miss the day trips to the Oregon Coast, the falls and other fun and beautiful places that are so close. I will also miss the berries and the berry picking. The thing that always makes me feel better about moving back to Utah is thinking of this new little baby we will be having, and how nice it will be to have our families be able to be more involved. I love our families and our friends and want our baby to know all of you. I also want to thank all of you for your love and support while we have been here in Oregon. I especially want to thank my mom and dad for all of their help (in so many ways) for helping us get through law school and helping me through so many things.

Randomness

So today I've really felt like blogging, not that I have anything to even blog about, I'm really just trying to avoid all this work that has been piling up around me at home. I went to work in the morning, came home and spent more time typing notes for work since I'm so behind on my casenotes. Well, I'm really sick of doing that, so I thought today I'd blog about everything and nothing.

Aaron is almost done with school, one more final on Wednesday! Yay!!! With that said, today I really hate attorneys. I had a run in with one today that really made me mad, and another attorney who I'm pretty good friends with told me I was looking fat and needed to go buy some new court clothes. This attorney I know pretty well and we have a good working relationship, so that isn't why I hate attorneys today, but just so you know that was NOT the highlight of my day.

So on to the randomness. I've been craving really weird things, like potatoes. My mother in law Lynn who is an amazing cook has this recipe for three different types of potatoes that is to DIE for, well in a nutshell I started craving this particular potato dish. I searched and searched my recipes and could not find it. Do you know how mad that made me!!!! Luckily she saved the day and she emailed me this recipe, and I'm going to be so happy when I eat these potatoes that I was craving!! (Thanks Lynn!)

Another tidbit of randomness. Do you have a food that you both love and hate. I do. It is bagels. Yes, you heard me bagels. Why would anyone love and hate bagels? I'll tell you why. Because they are so good, you can't stop with one. They have a delicous chewiness and texture to them that is irresistable for me. This is why I never buy them. Because before I know it, I've eaten the whole package, all six of them, in like two days. Not to mention, you have to put cream cheese on them. Well today someone brought in a big bag of a variety of bagels and various cream cheeses. When the announcement came overhead that someone brought in bagels and cream cheese, I was both delighted and angry. I know how much I love bagels and how it is for me to stop. So the love and hate start all over today. Okay, so I thought I would eat only one, so I enjoyed my personal favorite, plain bagel with vegetable flavored cream cheese. Can I tell you how much I enjoyed the wonderful chewiness of my bagel! I was covering court for someone else today at the last minute so I left happy thinking oh good, I have to go, by the time I get back from court they will be all gone. Well you know what, they weren't. So I had another plain bagel with vegetable cream cheese! Gosh dangit!!! If someone had brought in doughnuts, that I can pass by without even blinking. People bring in doughnuts all the time, a couple of times a week. Do you know how many doughnuts I've had in the last year? I think one, maybe two. Why? Because I can resist doughnuts, but not bagels. The other thing, apparantly the opposite is true for others, the doughnuts are gone in the blink of an eye, but the bagels linger, which leads me to one of my thinking errors..... "I don't want a perfectly good bagel to go to waste." Well that is just fat thinking right there!

Anyways, onto my last note of randomness. I love my bunnies. Run and hide, crazy bunny lady is coming out again. They make me so happy. I love in the mornings when it is Remy's turn to be in the kitchen, because he runs at dangerously high speeds around the table, knocking into the chairs and walls as he goes around. It is what he does for fun, and it is so cute to watch, it just makes me laugh. Then there is Cooper. He must be feeling neglected lately. All day Saturday he followed me around like my own little shadow, he was wanting lots of love and attention. And since I've been home today, he seems to want my undivided attention, he wants lots of love today. It makes me happy in the mornings or when I get off work when they perk up and get happy when I get home (mostly because they want their food and treats), but still, it is always nice to have someone happy to see you. I forget how nice they are to have around finals too, when I have to spend the day all by myself. I felt that it was a nice coincidence that Cooper wanted to be near me all Saturday, because I was feeling lonely here all by myself, and it helped to have him around to pet and get my mind off of certain things. Anways that's all. Hope all is going well with everyone.

Stringer Baby!

Yes, the cat is out of the bag - FINALLY! It is official, we are letting everyone know that we are expecting our first baby! I say this because I am in the beginning of my fourth month, and you have no idea how hard it was for me to keep this a secret! But we really wanted to wait until I was out of my first trimester until we let everyone know. It was such a challenge, especially in the very beginning. I wanted to tell Aaron in a special way, but I took my pregnancy test in the middle of the night since I had to get up and go the bathroom, and knew that the first urine of the day was the best, so I took my pregnancy test about 2:45 AM, and I just couldn't contain myself when I saw that positive sign on the pregnancy test. I jumped back into bed and told Aaron I was pregnant. He was so confused at first. He said, "What? Really? How do you know?" He forgets how impatient his wife is and sometimes she just has to know right away, even if it is at 2:45 AM. I was like a timebomb waiting to go off, I had to tell him right away. Luckily, I was able to exhibit a little more self control in letting everyone else know. I still think it is a near miracle that I kept it in for this long, usually I have to share with everyone all of my good news right away. Unfortunately, I was not able to keep it a secret for very long at work. Around week 5, I started to get sick. You can't really pass off vomiting as the stomach flu for so long before people know you are prego. Aside from seeing the inside of a lot of toilet bowls, even ones in Europe, it has been exciting to know that we are having a baby.

Interesting changes have taken place since I've been pregnant. The single biggest thing: I no longer love chocolate. In fact, I've had a bunch of what I know to be incredible french chocolate at my house, and haven't even touched it. Now, that is something, especially for me. I made brownies for Aaron for Easter, not a temptation. It is still very weird for me. Sweets in general, no longer appeal to me. However, some things never change: my love affair with ice-cream for example. I still love ice-cream, and I have found, especially vanilla ice-cream is quite soothing for my nausea. Some other things have stayed the same, only intensified: I love and crave fruit, especially grapefruit. There was a time, where I just couldn't eat enough grapefruit, I was eating like three a day. However, other major changes in my tastes have changed: I now love meat and crave meat, mostly red meat. Chicken sounds gross to me, and I normally love chicken. But apparently red meat is what I crave. Vegetables repulse me. I now hate vegetables. Normally I quite love vegetables, but now I hate them. With the exception of potatoes, which I have also had huge cravings for. And asparagus, I can eat that without wanting to spit it out, but it still isn't my favorite. The last thing which I crave, is spicy food. But I always craved spicy food and that hasn't changed.

For the record, I now HATE crackers, especially saltines. I smell saltines and they remind me of being sick and throwing up, and I now can't stand them. I know everyone is different, but all the pregnancy books recommend eating bland foods while struggling with nausea. I have found that the more flavor and intense taste food has, the less sick it makes me. It is bland food that inevitably has the fastest and quickest route up and out of me.
As for Aaron, he hasn't experienced any sympathy pregnancy symptoms, which apparently afflict some men. Lucky for him, I think one of us being sick is enough. However, he has no problems going with me to get an ice-cream, I don't think he minds these cravings too much. And as for my sweet and loving husband, he has only had to go out once for one of my cravings that hit suddenly. He has however, been completely wonderful, and has had to pick up a lot of my slack around the house. He has done more chores lately, and now is completely responsible for the rabbits litter boxes. Well that about sums up what is going on at the Stringer house lately.

Milestone 1 - Last day of class!!!!!

So I have to share with you since I was super excited (although it will make a really boring post). Yesterday was Aaron's last day of classes! Yay!!!!! Too bad his last class lasted till 8 pm, but hey, who can complain? He still has finals, another hurdle, but we are still happy he has this one thing behind him. I am so proud of him! He has worked so hard these last three years, and it is amazing how he has handled the stress of law school. I was so excited yesterday, you would have thought I was the one who went through law school. I can't believe that we are at this point, in some ways it has definitely felt like we could count every day of those three years, and then in other ways, it has flown by. But we are here, and I'm so proud of Aaron and all of his hard work!

Back to Paris

Saturday we took the train back to Paris. Saturday and Sunday were much more quiet and less hectic than our other days in Paris. We had pretty much seen everything we wanted to see in Paris, except for the Pantheon. Saturday, we just walked around and did some window shopping. I saw a very expensive ring at the Place Vendome that I would have loved to have as a souvenir, but that clearly didn't fit into our budget. Instead we settled on buying some chocolates to eat as a momento from our vacation. Yummy! We went by some really fancy chocolate shops that had some very beautiful displays of chocolate and that was kind of fun to see.

Sorry, the picture doesn't really give you an idea of how pretty their display was, but we took a picture anyway.

After our fun window shopping we went out to eat. We had a pretty good dinner, mine was good, but Aaron's was soo yummy. I should really have him order for me from now on.

Sunday we had a nice leisurely stroll through the Gardens of Luxembourg, and ate our freshly baked baguette and cheese. It was so good, the bread was still warm!

After our visit to these gardens, I had to go to the bathroom, but of course as luck would have it, had to pay to do so. Stupid French bathrooms, this was the second time I had to pay to go to the bathroom. One of the other things that makes America such a wonderful place!

After this it was off to see the Pantheon which is where many famous people in France are interred. Among these (that I knew of) were Madam and Monsieur Curie, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Voltaire.

Aaron in front of the Pantheon.

Victor Hugo's tomb. He's the only one I really wanted to see in there anyway. It made me in the mood to go and read Les Miserables again.

After our visit to the Pantheon we continued to stroll around the city and did some more window shopping. We also got some ice-cream at the famous Parisian ice-cream shop, Berthillon. Not to be rude to this famous place, but it cannot compare to ice-cream I'm used to here in America. (Aggie ice-cream anyone? Or Tillamook? Or my dad's yummy homemade raspberry ice-cream?)

After our visit to Berthillon, we strolled along the river and had a nice view of the back of Notre Dame.

We had a very nice and calm day. I thought it was fun just to take our time and absorb things in. After this we had our last meal in France, and yes, it was an American meal. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Sadly, it was my best meal in France. However, I'm sure I could have had some amazing food in France except it would not have fit into our budget. I did eat very well over there, don't get me wrong, but I had this pulled pork sandwich at the Hard Rock Cafe that was to DIE for! Oh my gosh, now I know where to get a superb pulled pork sandwich all smothered in yummy, yummy BBQ sauce. Ironically, I was kind of wanting good old American French's yellow mustard, since we had had fries several times over there. I like to mix ketchup and mustard and dip my fries in it, so I was very happy to have French's mustard!

All in all, the trip was very fun, and we had a very good time, despite its bumps along the way.

Things I loved about France:
I LOVED how much history there is around every corner in France. I love all of the architecture and how old everything is. It really makes it easier to learn history that way. I loved learning so much history since it is all around. I LOVED the bread! I LOVED the chocolate! (Need I say more!) I LOVED those little wax dipped cheeses. You can get them in America but they are so expensive. I ate so many of them, I absolutely love them! I LOVED seeing all of the chateaus, they were so fun. I loved the sandwiches over there, but since we ate one every day I kind of got sick of them. I loved the kabobs we ate over there, sooo good! They were even lamb, so it was a nice change of meat for me. I do like lamb, although sometimes it can be a little too gamey for my taste, but the kabobs I had over there were superb. I loved how different everything was over there, it was pretty impressive, but also made me really appreciate how wonderful my own country is. I LOVED the pastries, especially the ones filled with chocolate and apples.

Things I missed from home:
Bathrooms and bathroom stalls, cold water, ice, mustard, my bed, open spaces, so many little things about America.

I loved going and I loved coming home. Thank you to all who helped get us there! It was truly a once in a lifetime experience for Aaron and I that we will always cherish!!

Day Nine and Ten - Loire Valley

After leaving Normandy we took the train to the Loire Valley, which is full of chateaus, and spent the next couple of days in the town of Tours. We saw a few chateaus, and the first one we saw was Chateau de Chambord. This place was IMPRESSIVE! It was so huge and walking around in it, it is hard to even imagine someone building something this large.

I don't even know what to say about this place, other than it was huge and beautiful, and I'm so mad that this picture cannot do justice to the size of the place. The chateau has 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, and 84 staircases.

A view of one of the 84 staircases inside this chateau.

Me in front of the queen's bed

Aaron on one of the walkways that wraps around part of the chateau.

Me and one of the views from one of the verandas at the chateau.

This chateau was also used during WWII to hide some of the artwork from the Louvre from those crazy Nazis who were trying to steal all of the art in Europe.

One of the other Chateaus we saw was Chateau de Cheverny. This place was very small considering the size of the other chateaus, but one cool thing about it is that it is still owned and occupied by descendants of the aristocratic family that had it built in 1624. Of course, since it is still occupied, we only got to see a very small part of the chateau.

One of the chateaus that I really wanted to see we didn't get to see as it was not open for tourists during this time of the year, was a chateau that Walt Disney used for his inspiration in creating the castle for Sleeping Beauty.

Day 8 - Bayeaux

The next morning we decided to have a look around the town of Bayeaux where we were staying. Incidentally, this was the only town on the Nomandy Coast that wasn't completely destroyed during the war. This is really fortunate, because it has a rich history. We went and saw the cathedral in Bayeaux which I wasn't sure how old it was. But I think this was built in the 12th century.

Also in Bayeaux, is the Tapestry of Bayeaux, which is almost 1000 years old, and tells the story of William the Conqueror's conquest of England. We couldn't take any pictures of the tapestry because light damages the material, so you will have to settle for a photograph of me in front of a picture of part of the tapestry. When you see the original tapestry, they give you this radio that tells you the story as it is told on the tapestry. One of the things that amused me about the tapestry, and this is the part I took my picture in front of, was that the royalty and the clergymen in battle weren't allowed to kill people, but they were given clubs and had permission to "knock people senseless." I laughed at that, and thought it was funny, so that is the part of the tapestry that I'm in front of, although you probably can't tell from the picture.

After visiting this museum and the cathedral we wandered more around this cute little town of Bayeaux until the rain came, and we decided to leave and take the train to the Loire Valley.
Will finish blogging about our trip over the weekend.

Day 7 - Normandy

I guess I will finish blogging about our trip. I was unable to blog about the last of our trip as we did not have internet access. After our unfortunate day with not being able to get our rental car, we took the train up to Normandy. We had to cancel our reservations at our other hotel because it was too far from the train station and we had no way to get to the town, but Aaron made reservations in another town where the train dropped us off. Right after we arrived in Bayeux, which is on the Normandy Coast, we had lunch at a little cafe and signed up to take a tour of the Normandy beaches, a war museum and other WWII sites, including the American Cemetery. This was such an amazing experience. It was incredible. When we went to Pointe Du Hoc, which was a German stronghold and was considered to be unassailable by the enemy, it was so unbelievable. The stronghold is located on top of the cliffs where you can wander among large deep craters where the Allies had dropped bombs prior to the invasion, and many of the German bunkers had been bombed in and just left and you could still see so much evidence of all the destruction that occurred there. This is the only area along the coast where you can still see the bomb craters because the French farmers reclaimed their land after the invasion and filled in holes in thier fields. I learned that this part of the invasion started out with 225 American soldiers, and their mission was to scale the cliffs, get in the bunkers and destroy their weapons and cannons. Only they got to the top and the German weapons had been moved and were not there. How discouraging for them! But they risked their lives and went further in and found the guns and were able to destroy them. Unfortunately, this made them lose the element of surprise, and these soldiers spent the next two days fighting off the Germans as best as they could until help arrived two days later. After help came from the others who stormed the beaches, only 90 soldiers remained uninjured.


Aaron and one of the German bunkers.

These next pictures are of the American Cemetery and Memorial there at Normandy.

This was such a special place. It was truly a moving experience. It was amazing the sacrifices that these troops gave, all for the freedom of another country and another people, simply because freedom is so important. I can't remember the exact number, but over 20,000 American soldiers lost their lives in Normandy and over 10,000 were missing. Another thing I learned while I was there: This cemetery and memorial is on American soil. This land was given to America by France. I did not know this.

Me on the beaches of Normandy.

Anyways, if you ever go to France, I think Normandy shouldn't be missed!

Day Six - Forced Change of Plans

If Aaron and I thought our first day in France was kind of crappy, it doesn't even hold a candle to today. Of course, if my wallet hadn't been stolen, then we wouldn't have been in the mess we were in today. We went to Budget today to pick up our rental car so that we could head up to Normandy and then later to the Loire Valley. But since we had to cancel our credit cards, we couldn't take a car because they wouldn't accept a debit card. Needless to say the employess at Budget here in France weren't very nice or helpful. We tried calling the bank to see if they could authorize this one transaction, but they said they couldn't do that. We called other car rental agencies, but were told the same thing. We went back to our apartment rental to try and get internet access to figure out our next move, but we get there and of course the internet is no longer working. The cleaning lady was there and was trying to help us, and even offered to have us stay at her house. She was giving us all the help which she could, and I have to say she was one of the bright spots in our day. She was so nice and helpful and let us stay in the apartment while she was trying to clean it. She was from Kenya and it was really hard to understand her, but Aaron seemed to have an easier time talking with her than I did. Unfortunately, but this time, hours had passed and the next renters were coming in less than an hour and we had no way to get on the internet to find a place to stay. We ended up getting a very expensive hotel room just a few doors down. All in all, it was a very discouraging day. By the time we got checked into our hotel, I was starving and in desperate need of food. By this time, I was disguisted by everything in France, and was wanting to embrace my American roots. Yes, we went to McDonald's, sad I know, but I have to say I have never enjoyed a Big Mac and Fries more than I did today. I'm not sure if it was the hunger, the stress relief that came from eating, or what, but it was very good. After this, Aaron and I went to the Musee D'Orsay. We had an enjoyable time there. I quite liked the art in this museum, and more of it made sense to me. After our trip to the museum, both Aaron and I were so exhausted that we decided to come back and spend as much time in our expensive hotel as is possible. Might as well enjoy it since it is costing so much huh?


The interesting thing about Musee D'Orsay was that it used to be a train station. It has a very open and airy atmosphere.



This was my favorite painting inside the museum. It is a picture of Peter and John on their way to see the resurrected Christ. You can't tell from the picture here, but I thought that the painter did a very good job catching the human emotions of hope, disbelief, awe, excitement and reverence in their faces. In my opinion, it was a moving painting, and was probably the first piece of art that has touched me that I have seen here in France.

Day Five - Chateau de Chantilly and the Ballet

Monday Aaron and I took the train to Chantilly to go and see this Chateau that I have been dying to see since I last saw it nearly ten years ago, only that time I didn't get to go inside because I was cheering in the New Years Eve parade there in Chantilly. It is a very beautiful Chateau and I really love it. However, I think the outside of the Chateau is more impressive than the inside. Plus it really kind of stunk in this Chateau. It had a lot more wood inside of it, and it also had a lot of dead animals in there hanging up on the walls, so between all of the really old wood and dead animals it had a special kind of fragrance that I was not very fond of. It was really fun going back and remembering how we ended our parade there in the courtyard of this chateau.



Chantilly is also well known for its horse races and they have this really large super nice building that in itself looks like another Chateau, but is really just a very large, exquisite stable for horses. It was kind of a bummer, but they open this up and have all sorts of things going on starting April 4, so we missed a lot of excitement that goes on here. On the bonus side, one thing that I really loved about our trip to Chantilly was the escape from the crowds and noise (and cigarette smell) of Paris. It really was a nice break from the craziness of Paris.

The horse stables

Aaron surprised me with tickets to the ballet. Aaron took me to the Nutcracker for our anniversary back in December, and unfortunately made me a fan of the ballet. We went to a ballet last night after we got back in from Chantilly. The first dance was well, it really wasn't very good at all, it was a bunch of men doing something, I really wouldn't call it dancing, I am not sure at all what to call what they were doing. However, after that it was good and I really enjoyed this once in lifetime experience. Don't I just have the best husband ever? I think so.

Day Four - Churches

I think the title Churches pretty much sums up what Aaron and I did today. We first went to Notre Dame. While we were there, they were holding mass, and so Aaron and I saw part of mass. Notre Dame in my opinion, is one of the more impressive buildings I have seen in Paris. It is incredibly large, but also has so much detail. It was built in the 12th century, and is so beautifully preserved. It was truly magnificent to see.

After our visit to Notre Dame we went to our own church and attended sacrament meeting. After this we decided to go to the Conciergerie. This is where they held all of the prisoners awaiting their upcoming appointments with the guillotine. I have to say this was not my favorite place, and I was kind of glad to leave. It was pretty depressing.

Marie Antoinette's cell where she was held for two months before she was finally executed.
One non-depressing thing about the Conciergerie, was it has the oldest existing hall in Europe. (Which by the way was totally ruined by the modern displays throughout the hall.)
Our next stop was Saint Chapelle. This church's second level, had stained glass windows all around which told the story of the bible, starting with Genesis and finishing with Revelation, it also included some books of the Apocrypha. It was really hard to see all the detail in the windows, as everything was really small and there was so much to see. I did find one thing in the windows which I recognized, which was the story of David and Goliath.


After our stop at Saint Chapelle, we went to the Crypte Archeologique. These were the remains of the ancient Paris dating at the earliest 100-200 AD.
Next on our itinerary for today was Angelina's, which is famous for its hot chocolate. This is no ordinary hot chocolate. If you had any cravings for chocolate, this would be sure to please and to satisfy. This hot chocolate poured like syrup and was so thick and so rich.
After our sugar high that Angelina's gave us we were ready for a couple more stops. We tried to go the the Eiffel Tower for the second time, but again the line was so ridiculously long that we again vetoed that.
Last stop: Sacre Coure. This is one of the places that I didn't make it to on my first trip to Paris.
We had a very busy and fun day. We made it to four churches, famous Angelina's, and the Eifell tower for the second time. Maybe the third time will be the charm...... The one thing that amazed me today in attending all of these churches was how loud some people were. Especially in Notre Dame, while they were holding mass, there were tourists (sadly, mostly American teenage girls) that seemed to be totally oblivious that for one, these are places of worship for many people, and second, they were actually worshipping while we were there. I was really annoyed at the lack of respect that many people showed while they were visiting. All in all, it was a very good albeit exhausting day. Stay tuned for more of our adventures in France.