April 9 - April 11

We're home again finally. All of us glad to be here, but we very much enjoyed our trip, illness and all. So now you finally get a good update with pictures. I'm going to try to get these pictures into chronological order. Some of them you've seen before, most you haven't. Photo credit for lots of them goes to Ross Williams, and I thank him for that.

April 9, 2008
We left Edmonton at 1030am, and with a couple of stops in between, flew to Paris. We arrived there on April 10.
First picture: Katie waiting for the plane in Edmonton. She had no idea what she was in for, poor kid. By the time we got home last night, she was really done with planes. She still wants to wear this horse every time she sees it.

April 10
Arrived in Paris, made our way to the apartment and crawled into bed.
While we were in Paris, we decided to rent an apartment instead of staying at a hotel, and we're very glad we did. We actually saved money per night, plus we had a kitchen and a good common area that we wouldn't have had if we'd been in a hotel. It is small, but very cute and just what we needed. It is in a quiet building in a quiet neighborhood, with a great view and great little shops around. Here is the view out from the front balcony, you can just see the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

We arrived in the morning and had time for a nap and some lunch before Lindsay and Ross arrived in the evening. As you can tell, a certain little girl is still exhausted from the 20+ hours of traveling.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

April 11
Time for some sight-seeing. We only have 5 days and we want to make the most of them.
This little boulangerie (bakery) Was just across the road from us and about 10 feet down the sidewalk. Apparently, they win awards for their bread. We sure liked it. Katie's favorite is pain au chocolat (essentially a croissant wrapped around chocolate).

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

Here we are on the Metro. I was pleasantly surprised with the Metro system in Paris. It's easy to use, there were stops everywhere we wanted to be, and it's really pretty clean. And one thing that was very nice for me, is that most people will give you their seat if you are packing a kid around. You can see Andrew in this picture standing at the next doorway.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

We got off the Metro and walked about 2 blocks (okay, like 5, but we took a wrong turn) and what did we stumble upon? Notre Dame Cathedral. This place is absolutely amazing. The size and detail and intricacy are unbelievable when you consider that it is 700 years old. All the little men you see behind us were decapitated during the Revolution.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

Here we are in the gardens behind the cathedral, with all the blooming flowers and millions of pigeons. Katie was quite enthralled with the pigeons, as you can tell by the fact that she wouldn't look at the camera.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

Here we are after a little walk, across the Seine and a few blocks away from Notre Dame. On the other side of the bridge (same side of the river, across the road) is Pont Neuf. Here, you can see Andrew putting one of Katie's shoes back on. This proved to be a big problem.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

Then we went home for a little nap, and after the nap went back out to see that other great landmark, the Eiffel Tower. It was bigger than I expected it to be. Not sure why.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

Photo credit: me.

At night, there is a spectacular light show on the Eiffel Tower, (the first 10 minutes of every hour) and we just happened to be there when it started. It was much more subdued in the view from our apartment. But beautiful either way.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.Across the street from the Eiffel Tower is a cute little carousel. Which also, apparently, is the fastest moving carousel in the world (I don't know that that's actually a fact.). It was fast enough that Katie was scared to stay on the horse, and was certainly the fastest one I can remember being on.
Photo credit: Ross Williams.

So we moved to a little couch thing, and she liked that much better. Maybe because then she could take one hand off to wave at Daddy every time we went past. She was also quite entertained by Uncle Ross running around the carousel trying to take her picture as we went by at breakneck speeds.

Photo credit: Ross Williams.

One last update from Europe.

We'll do a nice big update with lots of pictures in a couple of days.

We've spent the last couple of days driving through some hill towns south of Seville. Beautiful old towns with ancient churches and parts of old moorish castles still standing. The history and scenery is incredible, and we had such a great time driving around there.

This morning, we all got to touch the Mediterranean Sea, which was very cool.

Tomorrow evening we head back to Paris for the night before we head home again Tuesday morning.

We've had a great time here, and are looking forward to visiting again soon, but as Katie says, we're all ready for "home!"

PICTURES!!!

Lindsay's cable does, in fact, work for my camera, so we have some pictures. Lots of others on Ross' camera, but these will tide you over, I'm sure. However, I don't know how to resize them on this computer, so they're pretty big. We also can't figure out how to turn them, but you get the idea.

Little international traveler, waiting for a plane.

Katie and Lindsay at the Eiffel Tower.

Katie's first Carousel ride. Ross apparently has much better pictures.
She got scared after a few times around and wanted to go sit in a regular seat instead.

All wrapped up at Versailles.

Croissant on the Metro. She fit right in.

Dodging rain at L'Arc de Triomphe.

A little snack with Daddy at the Louvre.

Quick recap

of the last few days. Haven't been on the computer much, trying to recouperate. Seems that we've been hit by some sort of a nasty cold bug. I am on the mend now, and Andrew's just starting, Lindsay and Katie are in the middle somewhere, and I don't know about Ross. Starts off as a nasty sore throat, then you get a doozy of a fever for about 3 days, then coughing for a few more days. I have never loved my wrap more though, since my feverish little girl hasn't wanted anyone else to touch her for the last 3 days, it's been a life/sanity/arm saver.

We've been powering through though, made much easier by the fact that Katie can and will sleep in the wrap when need be, and we've managed to see a lot of things. We spent some time at the Louvre, Andrew and I got to go out by ourselves to a fabulous restaurant while Katie had supper at the apartment with Aunty & Uncle. And yesterday we spent mostly sitting at cafes, drinking coffee and whiling away the hours between when we had to check out of the apartment and when we needed to be at the airport to head to Seville.

And now I'm writing from Lindsay & Ross' apartment in Seville. We haven't done much here yet but sleep, though we did have some delicious tapas last night after we dropped off our bags.

Real quick

Before I get chased out the door. I'll elaborate on this later when I have pictures.

Last night after I updated we visited the Eiffel Tower, which is incredible.

Today we spent the morning and a good part of the afternoon at Versailles. What an amazing place. I sat in the garden with Katie in the wrap and listened to classical music and watched the fountains and thought about how it must have looked when Louis XIV lived there. The architecture and detail are unbelievable. I only wish that they let us see more of it.

Katie's having a hard time with the time change. She's so set into her schedule that this is throwing her for a loop. We are 8 hours ahead of "normal" here. She did okay today though. Fell asleep in the wrap for the first time in ages, and she's in such good humor all the time. People on the metro love to chat with her, and she loves the attention.


PS. About the camera... We think that we can use Lindsay's camera cord for my camera, but we have to wait until we get to Spain to find out.

Vive la France!

Writing today from beautiful, sunny Paris, France. Pictures will come later as we forgot to bring the cord that connects the camera to the computer.

We got in yesterday morning, with all our luggage intact, except for the stroller that we forgot we checked and left at the airport. But we'll manage, I'm sure. Lindsay and Ross made it yesterday evening from Sevilla, and we had supper at a fantastic little restaurant-bar called Les Tontons.

This morning, we went for a little walk around part of the historic area. We saw Notre Dam, Pont-Neuf, Saint Michel, and a few others. The history and architecture are incredible.

My 5 years of high school French are coming in handy. I don't understand everything, but I can communicate well enough, and it's all coming back quickly. I'm picking up bits and pieces of conversation from people on the street, and for the most part, people are very patient with me.

Katie is not real impressed with the time change and us not letting her sleep when she usually does, but she's doing very well, and in good humor. She loves all the pigeons and is very disappointed when she says hi to people on the street and they don't reply.

We are staying at a very cute little apartment with a bit of a view of the Eiffel Tower, so we can watch the light show at night. There are lots of little shops around, a produce market right across the street and a great little boulangerie (bakery) just a couple shops down from there.

Proper motivation.

Is apparently all you need to get a picture of the kid. And a containment device.

"Let's take a picture for Poppa!"

Where have all the pictures gone?

Oh that's right, the toddler at this house doesn't sit still long enough for pictures. If someone's Grammy would get to her email, I would share some pictures from a vacation to Idaho where we saw (and charmed) over 100 family members. Here is the only picture that I have since March 3.

She did this all by herself.

In other news, we got home from that vacation and decided that since she did so well in big beds on our trip, it might be time for her to start sleeping in a big kid bed. Which really means that we took the sides off her crib to turn it into a toddler bed. There was a lot of excitement over that transformation. She loves being able to get in bed by herself, and (touch wood) she doesn't get out when she shouldn't. She had a couple of rough nights when she was throwing blankets out of bed without the sides there to keep them in, but we have everything tucked in now and she's doing very well. Tonight she asked to go to bed half an hour early and was very sad when I told her that she needed to have a clean diaper first.

When we were on our holiday to Idaho, we stayed with Katie's Great-grandma and Great-grandpa. They have a fantastic dog named Bridgette, who Katie called Bailey for 3 days. Then she learned to say Bridgette (or some approximation thereof), and now all dogs are named Bridgette. It's a good thing Bailey doesn't care what you call her.

I rode Charlie on Saturday, and it was lovely. Well, after a while it was lovely. First he decided to dump me off a few times and we had to have a fight about that. Once he figured out that I'm more stubborn than him, everything worked out fine. And I didn't lose consciousness or the ability to walk, so I'm a step ahead of the last horse I fell off of. Just some bruising that will be gone soon.

Big adventure planned for next month, but I'll write about that another day. For now, it's time for bed.

Oh! I forgot. Here is a picture of the easter eggs I dyed. No hiding this year, but I have to figure out the dying before someone can find them next year.

Good Girl!

Hmmm...
Yep, I think I've got a little growing room in these.

Hurry up and take the picture already!
I want to see the baby in the camera!

Snow fun!

The weather has warmed up a lot lately, so we've been spending a little bit of time outside. Today I finally remembered to bring the camera with us. Katie loves to be outside, and it's quite a chore sometimes to get her back in. Especially at naptime. :-)

You can't get me!

Not even going to look at you!

I'm gonna get you!!

A sad day for us.

Today we took Murphy in to get neutered. He had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic and his heart stopped. The vets did all they could, but they couldn't get it going again.

Goodbye little buddy. We miss you already.

Charlie's been having company.

Spotted a Mama moose on Monday when I opened the window in the morning. She is very, very pregnant, and didn't seem to be afraid of me at all. I stood in the window and watched her for a long time, talked to her so she would look at me and all. She didn't even seem to flinch. Beautiful. In these pictures, she's about 20 yards from the house.

No new pictures of a little girl, she won't hold still!

Those of you who are following Charlie's progress, here's the latest picture. As of Feb. 11.

Look what the Valentine's fairy brought me.

So pretty. And they smell lovely too.
Thanks hon.

Hard work!

Last night we made egg salad, and Katie decided that she needed to have a boiled egg too, since I had some. She tapped the end on the counter, just like Mommy, and set to work picking bits of shell off. She did a pretty good job too.
And then this morning she played dress-up. Her hat, on backwards, the wristwarmers that I knitted for myself, and she had mitts on as well at one point. The shirt is quite appropriate, I think.

Growing up too fast.

It is a sad state of affairs when your cloth diapered child outgrows her pants in length before the butt gets too tight. Sad indeed.

I know it's been a long time since I updated, I'm sorry. Things have gotten a little crazy, but it's good, I think. I started a home-based business selling a well-known brand of kitchen tools that I'm not allowed to speak the name of here, and I'm pretty excited about that. I've been using them for years and years, and I very much believe in the product that I'm selling, which is most of the battle. Andrew has been in and out more than usual as he started 2 new contracts for the winter in addition to the one he usually has. Nothing major, just a few extra days here & there.

Murphy is doing very well and growing like crazy. He caught his first bird last Friday, now we just have to get him onto the mice. Morgan still hasn't turned up since December 15th. Bailey is as happy and rambunctious as ever, not enjoying our current cold snap, but it's not as though she spends a ton of time outside anyways, the spoiled creature. Charlie continues to heal. His wound is now about 2 inches wide and 3-4 inches tall, and almost all the swelling is gone. I'm keeping it wrapped up in this very cold weather and he seems to be pretty pleased with that turn of events.

And speaking of growing like weeds. We know you all only read this blog for one reason, so here she is. Katie is 19 months old now and getting bigger every day. She learns new words every day, and has become quite the little parrot. (No more speakerphone for Daddy when he's talking to his friends at work! Some of those guys are worse than sailors.) She now says, in addition to many others, "book", "bear", "shoe", "peekaboo", and "bless you". She's getting very tall, and it seems as though every time I get her dressed I think "this is the last time you're going to be able to wear this." Current favorite toys are the legos she got for Christmas.

Here she is drinking out of the big-kid Starbucks cup that Boppa bought for her. She thinks that's pretty cool.

And here she is in the midst of playing games with Daddy. She loves to play peekaboo under a blanket.

Pancakes!

Today we made pancakes. We put a bit of applesauce and cinnamon in the batter, and someone thought that must be good enough to eat, so she tried some of the batter. Thought it was okay, I guess. No eggs in it, so whatever. She really liked the finished product, and she thought that flipping them was ever so funny, but nothing beats getting to stir.

Look, I even have my own apron!

Okay, time to get serious now. Yum!

She'll love me for this later.

Mmmmm, hummus!

Christmas and since then.

Took Katie a few minutes to figure out what we wanted her to do with this papered thing. Especially since we'd been telling her for days that we didn't want her to tear off the paper. Once she figured it out though, she helped all the rest of us open our presents too.

But first she figured she'd just wrap her chair back up while she was sitting in it.

Starting the new year off right, reading the Bargain Finder with Daddy.
And no, this picture is not staged. She decided that all by herself.

Having a snack in her new chair. And her new jammies. Very cute.

Yesterday, grating some cheese to put in her scrambled eggs. Yummy Tillamook cheese that Grammy and Papa brought for us from Oregon. Such a big helper.

Then she figured out that she could get her leg up onto the counter, so I lowered the platform in her tower. Took her about 2 seconds to circumvent that!

I'm as clever as I am cute!

Katie's new tower

We asked Dad (Pappa) if he would make Katie a stand so she would be a bit safer when she's helping in the kitchen, and so she can get up & down by herself. And he came through with this wonderful creation.

I think she likes it.

More pictures and stories will come sometime after bedtime.

Baking!

Well, more heating things up in a pan and then letting them cool than baking, I guess. We did bake later, we just didn't take pictures then. Mostly because the best one would've been Katie sucking on the spice covered measuring spoon. What can I say, the girl loves her spices.

Here she is beating the candycanes so we can make peppermint bark. Yum!

And here she is showing off her ponytail. Her hair is long enough now to make a ponytail in the back. Until she rips it out anyway. Is very cute.

Even better.

Apologies

I have to apologize for the serious lack of pictures lately. She now stops what she's doing and runs away when I get out the camera. If it's warm again tomorrow, we'll try to get more snow pictures though.

Messy, messy.

We had pasta for supper tonight, and some of Katie's noodles slipped off her fork onto the ground. After supper, I guess she felt the need to help clean up.