DAY 3 PARIS

We were still about 2 hours away from the city of lights, so enjoyed the day detouring in the town of Peronne, strolling by a lake, eating lunch by a beautiful little church in the town square and entertaining 2 elderly couples with our group of highly energetic children. We loaded back into the van and arrived at our destination about 20 minutes before the Blackhams and Mary Anne's husband arrived. It is so nice to have friends from church to spend spring break with. And as a bonus: Tera served her mission here in Paris! Now we were all set to go!

 We set out the evening by walking, grabbing some dinner and eating at a park, catching the metro, and starting our Paris trip by going to the Eiffel Tower at night. The boys actually had more fun playing on a stair ramp by using it for a slide, but ... what are you going to do?

 The next morning we went back to see the tower during the daytime (not nearly as magical) and we were amazed by the mobs of people and the lines that wove around and around. Let's just say that instead of waiting in that long line for hours and hours to ride the elevator up to the top, we bought the kids icecream and they were good to go.

 ENJOY that ICECREAM KIDDOS! Way better than waiting in a long line, right?  (2 babies not pictured)

*Our next stop was taking a river boat tour along the Seine. I took so many pictures and for once during this trip I was thankful for my high powered zoom lens on the camera... that is... when I wasn't wrangling with Brecon or Connor OR both, keeping them from falling over the side, trying to listen to a "telephone-like" device which gave an audio tour of what you were seeing, grabbing snacks, Brecon falling asleep, Connor insisting on climbing on the rail, pulling him back, trying to take a few more pictures.... you get the idea. I just needed one more set of arms for this ride, but overall it was a great break from walking around and seeing a different view of the major sites.

We then went to the Arc de Triomphe and took some pictures and walked around. Again, there were so many people waiting in line to get up to the top, we decided to get a good view of it from ground level. Still an amazing structure from that view.

*a short stop to see where Tera's mission apartments used to be and a snack at a Creperie- poor Joey got nutella all over her shirt and pants. Luckily my boys only got the sweet stuff all over their faces, necks, and chins.

On to Notre Dame Cathedral. Awe... hear the bells, bells, bells (more like yells, yells, yells)  It was Friday and they were having service but still allowed visitors to walk along the side up to the front, where we made it after the slow (and crowded 'cattle drive') we were listening to the hymn led by men in the front.  Brecon was napping in my friends double stroller, Cael was taking pictures, and I wanted to get a few shots as well. Basically Connor did not like the thought of being strapped to his stroller one more minute and he went nuclear. In an attempt to appease him I lifted him out and was holding him in my arms, but he was still upset and throwing his body around. By this time there are men waving their arms at us as I am pushing through the crowds to get out of there as quick as I can (though not fast enough), pushing the stroller and trying my best to hold onto a 18 month old who is really putting up a fight and yelling about it the whole way. I couldn't leave fast enough and you can believe I will never forget how completely embarrassed I was by the entire episode.
After walking out over to the front courtyard the boys had a blast chasing all the pigeons away we looked up and we think that we saw Quasimodo up in the bell tower.... he was probably wondering who was yelling just moments before inside the meeting.

We all met up with the friends and enjoyed a cafe' dinner in the back courtyard behind the cathedral, having a great view of the flying buttresses (however you spell that one). One thing to remember is that all these places we went to have dirt walkways, simply because the amount of foot traffic would destroy anything else. While this seems like a great idea for the city to do, it is another thing for mothers with children. I have never seen so many children so dirty from head to toe- especially my boys. They were building towers and roads, making dirt gloves up to their armpits, putting on dirt make-up- you name it. Connor thought is was fun to grab handfuls and put the stuff on peoples' heads OR on his own. Yes... even though it would be very late when we finally made it back to the hotel and the kids were all half asleep or just reaching their first REM cycle, I had no choice but to hose off the layer of filth from their bodies. It just had to be done. Luckily the boys are pretty good sports about being sprayed with water, even Connor did quite well- only yelling until he was holding his blanket and had his pj's on and quicly falling asleep.