Christmas 2008

Yeah, I'm finally getting to Christmas photos. WE really had a great Christmas, once everyone was healthy again. We all got the stomach bug the week before, but we were all relatively healthy for Christmas morning. The kids enjoyed opening their presents and playing with them all day.

The Christmas season started with our annual trip to the Christmas tree farm to chop down our own tree. We had a great time searching through all the trees until we found the one that was perfect for us.

Enjoying some hot chocolate after finding our tree.

A trip to the farm wouldn't be complete until we played on the tire swing.

After all that hard work the kids all fell asleep on the car ride home. (I did too, but I left that photo out)

Christmas Eve

The kids watched some Christmas specials on TV before heading off to bed.

The kids all slept in the same room with their Christmas pillowcases from Nana.

The fully decorated and loaded tree all ready for the morning's destruction...I mean excitement.

My mother in law sent us this great wall hanging, it's perfect for our stockings since we don't have a mantle.

Christmas Morning

Becca enjoying her new Barbie Dancerella video in her new dress up clothes.

Chris got a dinosaur excavation kit. He hammered through a rock until he found the bones then had to put them together to see what kind of dinosaur he had unearthed. He loved it.

Becca loves her new roller skates!

Enjoying some derby pie at the end of the day

Paris Photos (finally!)

Photo Warning: We took too many photos! I couldn't help myself, I was in Paris, of course I took too many photos. Every where you look there is something you just have to take a picture of. And I should apologize in advance for any french words I may misspell as I write about our trip. The trip was really a work trip for Mike with me tagging along. We arrived on a Tuesday morning and met up with our friends Paul and Heather. We took the opportunity that first day to see the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator all the way to the top and got to see an incredible view of the city below us. The next few days Mike had meetings so I went shopping with Heather. She showed me all around town and I got quite a few souvenirs. Every evening we tried to do a little more sightseeing. We went to the Arc de Triomphe and took some great night pictures down the Champs-Elysees. Even though the meetings ended on Friday we stayed through the weekend to see more of Paris. On Saturday we went to Sainte-Chapelle and then on to Notre Dame. It was amazing to walk through both of these cathedrals and see all the stained glass windows. I wish the pictures did them justice. On Sunday we headed to the Louvre. Even through we knew we didn't stand a chance of seeing the whole thing, we gave it our best effort. We spent about 4 hours inside and we might of seen half of the collection on display, and that was without alot of stopping and staring, we kept up a pretty good pace as we went through, but there is just too much to see. We were hoping to go to another museum that day, but the line to get in was way too long, we would of used up the rest of the day just standing in line so we just walked around and enjoyed the Paris atmosphere. Sadly, on Monday we had to come home. It was a quick trip, but so worth every minute of it. We packed as much as we could into one week. Hopefully we'll be able to get back some day and spend more time at some of these sites. Enjoy the pics.

Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe

I'm not sure what this was, but I saw it one afternoon as we were out walking and I just had to take a picture of it.

Inside Sainte-Chapelle

Notre Dame

We were told that you can always spot the statue of John the Baptist, just look for the statue holding his head.


The Louvre

Our hotel, the room was tiny, but then we were out most of the day anyway.

Karen helped the kids make a Welcome Home sign for us, it was a very nice greeting after a very long flight.