I love Paris in the Springtime, I love Paris in the FALL!

As the other posts I've already done informed you, we recently took our yearly trip to France! We had a wonderful time as usual, filled with delicious food, awesome sites, and terrific company. This time our friends D & L from Istanbul came along with us! Of course we had a duty to our friends and ourselves to make sure Miles sees all of the Parisian landmarks, so we made sure to include Paris this go round.

Also, to be fair, even though the other boys have been to France multiple times, Porter is finally at an age where he really might remember some of the things we saw! So to him, it was like seeing everything for the very first time!

Our family at one of my favorite places on earth:

VERSAILLES

The grounds were so gorgeous this time! Of course, my camera battery died before I could take any pictures of all the leaves! They were so awesome. It really was so beautiful in the fall. Kicking myself forever for not getting some more pictures of the grounds…:(

Miles was thoroughly enjoying himself as we toured the Hall of Mirrors!

I had to prove that we tried to force feed him some history though…

Daddy and Ronan in the Hall of Mirrors

Outside in the front courtyard

Porter was so excited for weeks before our trip! It was all for this. He couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower! He just kept staring up at it! So cute. It really was "SO much bigger" than he thought.

A family shot, although, once again…messed with the settings and we are a bit blurry. The tower itself is crisp for the photo though!

Of course we need a little Notre Dame. I can't have a trip to Paris without some flying buttresses!

Me and Miss L outside the Louvre.

Now, this is my favorite picture. Mommy, Miles and Porter with Mona. Miles hitting Porter in the face was classic. I told Porter that we had to go to this Museum just so he could see this painting. We told him it was a "very important piece of art". So we went, he saw, he got hit in the face and now he recognizes her everytime we see something with her on it! I've done my duty.

BTW, he has noticed her quite a few times in the last few weeks! She is in a lot of different advertisements apparently all around the world!

Ronan preferred to stay outside and do this…

(with Daddy of course)

He could not get enough of those pigeons! He chased them everywhere, tried to feed them, and then he even grabbed one! Yuck! Flying rats I tell you…guuhh. There were multiple handwashings and sanitizings after that incident.

Now my friend L is a genius and found the directions for Debuave and Gallais. The oldest chocolate shop in Paris. It was founded in 1800 to make treats for the King of France! There are more now throughout the world, but this is the original. Everything in the store was beautiful and it smelled wonderful! Definitely the prettiest chocolates I've ever seen!

(they also had a price tag to match though, so we just bought a few treats and called it good!)

L-the genuis behind this adventure

Since it is always expensive no matter where you stay in Paris, we opted to only spend a shorter amount of time, but in our favorite hotel ever! We stayed here once before when we came with our other friends G & M. That time we got a killer deal. This time we didn't get quite that killer deal, but it is definitely better to go in the off season. In any case, it has a fantastic location, easy parking and it is SO beautiful. A littler more than the other hotels, but to us it was SO worth it.

As it turns out, the USA Men's National Soccer Team also has great taste in hotels! They were playing a friendly against France soon after we were there, and they were staying at our hotel! We saw them outside being interviewed, and then later Noah got this pic of Jurgen Klinsmen inside having an individual interview! We are big soccer fans in our house, so this was VERY exciting!

As I mentioned, we only did a couple of days in Paris and then headed on to other adventures in France, like Le Mont St Michel and seeing some family. These boys handled the road tripping like champs though! Here is a picture of all my babies zonked out! Also, we got some Bubble Bums booster seats for the trip and they were awesome!!

Among the other adventures we also hit our favorite ice cream shop in the whole world! Their strawberry ice cream is to die for! The view is beautiful too, being that it is in a little seaside village on the Atlantic! Mmmm, still dreaming about it. Can't wait till next time!

D & L also found these beauties in a little patisserie in Limoges one day while they were exploring! They graciously brought some to us to share and they were incredible. Hands down the prettiest and most delicious one I've ever eaten. I think it was cherry/pistachio. They had sparkly purple dust on them though as well, which was just so gorgeous!

And yes, by the time the end of our trip came I was apparently not so good with getting pictures! I always start out strong…hmm. Anyway, we hit another few castles, did some fun shopping, and enjoyed driving through wine country in the south of France. All of the leaves on the grapevines were changing colors and it was a beautiful drive. Actually, the colors were changing all over France and the entire trip was gorgeous! Here is a picture of Porter in front of the castle in Carcassone from the last end of the trip.

You can just take my word for it though that it was all cool. We had a great time, and will anxiously be awaiting the next trip! France, we love you!

Le Mont St Michel

The shot from driving in on the causeway.

When we have friends come with us to France we like to do something that we haven't done before. This time we were excited when our friends D & L wanted to go to Le Mont St Michel. I had wanted to see it for a while now, it always looks so amazing on the front of the tourist books! In any case, we had a terrific adventure and would recommend it to anyone. It is a bit out of the way, but definitely worth seeing.

A view of the Normandy coast while driving in on the Causeway

It really was almost magical in person- the rainy haze of the day also made it seem that much more mystical!

Above is Porter-excited for the big adventure. And, before we all realized how many STAIRS there were!

Let it be said that if you ever do take a trip, be prepared for the stairs!

There were stairs...

then more stairs....

then more stairs!!!

There were even more, but I quit taking pictures!

(Notice we had ditched the stroller at this point!)

Once you complete the hike to the top/main entrance then the fun begins.

Near the entry is an amazing outdoor terrace thing, I guess I'll call it for lack of a better word. It had fantastic views! Probably for strategic reasons at one point, but now the tourists can eat it up!

View of the parking lot- our car is down there somewhere. At this time of year we were told that our cars would be safe in the parking lot until 4:00pm. After that they might be under water. Don't worry, we made it in plenty of time.

More views from the top-

It really was a huge terrace area, Ronan could have run around all day! Sounds like a great idea, except for the enormous drop-offs to the ocean below, just over that little wall...

The cloister of the abby was gorgeous. Also with amazing views.

Not too shabby for an abby! (I know, I crack myself up)

The lighting was bad here, but it was a REALLY cool view.

I love this picture of the boys... Daddy is explaining to them how that giant chain used to help bring up the supplies. It was a really, really long chain.

This was the Knight's Room. It was my favorite! Can't you just picture a bunch of Knights all gathered around in here?

Now here's a picture of two of my little Knights in Shining Armor in the "Knight's Doorway". Ronan is even doing the tough-guy pose for you. Porter was a bit more of a smily knight I suppose. This doorway was actually pretty small. I think maybe the knights must have been smaller people to still fit through this doorway with all their armor on!

We exited down this never-ending circular stairway!

More stairs I tell you!

This was actually a bit claustrophobic for my taste. It kind of made me dizzy.

I personally think that Porter would look great in this suit of armor! He's such a cutie!

All in all it was a terrific place that we loved going to see!

Historical places like this are my favorite.

Miles meets the Fam!

Miles Henri, meet Pepe Henri!!

We were so thrilled on our recent trip to France for baby Miles to meet some of the family! Most especially, however, for him to meet his Pepe Henri (Great-Grandfather)! He is his namesake, and I think it was a wonderful moment for them both.

Both of Noah's grandparents are thankfully around to enjoy these visits from their only Great-Grandchildren for the moment! I loved the above picture of Porter and Miles with Pepe. Ronan was there, but for picture purposes he was not in the mood. After fighting with him to get an actual photo, I decided that this was one of those times to let the moment happen, and just get mental photos. Ronan is his own man, and thankfully he did eventually get in the mood to give Pepe a few super sweet hugs and kisses. Those images will just stay in my mental blog book though!

Now, here we are with Meme. Meme has been having a bit of a rough go of it lately, but it was wonderful to see her perk up just with us being there! We let Miles snuggle with her every chance we could (with help of course, since her strength is not what it once was); and she just loved it. She is a wonderful woman, whom we all just love and you can tell Miles loved her too!

We had a great time with Nicole, Michel and their boys! We love these guys, and Porter especially couldn't wait to see his "best buddy" cousins!

Ronan was SO interested in Nico's helmet! He couldn't get enough!

We sure love these guys!

We unfortunately didn't get nearly as long of a trip as last year (our awesome 3 week vacation), so we didn't have as much time to see everyone. We can't wait to spend some more time with everyone on our next trip though, and see the other family who we missed this go round!

We always love seeing everyone, and I'm especially grateful that we got to see both Meme and Pepe this time. I love that my boys can have memories with their Great-Grandparents!

Marine Ball 2011

We recently attended the 236th Marine Corps Ball here in Istanbul. We have a fabulous little detachment of Marines here that work hard to protect our Consulate. Spending a night to help celebrate them was a wonderful experience, and very moving. It makes me so proud to be an American! We are so thankful for all of our Armed Forces and the sacrifices they and and their families make every day for our country.

We had such a fun night out, and can't wait to do it again! It is always fun to get all dressed up every now and again. Here is a classic prom style group shot with some of our friends D & L!

Now traditionally they have time set for taking photos with the Marines themselves. Here by the flags is where they would do it normally. The scheduled time was after dinner and before the dancing. A lesson on Turkey though, they take a very long time to eat/serve dinner. So, essentially we left at 11:15pm for me to get home and feed the baby and they still had not served dessert! We did get a quick one here with our Detachment Commander, but it came out blurry...I think I might have dropped our camera one too many times lately. That or I need to learn how to use the settings better!

To prove that we do indeed have some great Marines though, here is a nice shot of them all doing the Macarena! It was so fun to watch them.

I even got Noah out on the dance floor for a bit and we had a fantastic time with all of our friends. The music was really good this year thankfully!

Me and my "table buddy" Miss L

Happy Birthday United States Marine Corps! Thanks for the great night!