All the kids took a turn shooting at targets, apples, and water bottles; they were a good shot!  Thanks to Shane we had a propane heater, hot chocolate, and treats.  He is our family emergency preparedness guy and he has everything!  Thanks for keeping us all warm Shane!

Brother Shannon with his short barrel shotgun

Wait, I don’t have tickets to this gun show!

Nephew Robbie, can you believe he is 15!

Brother Shane and niece Nicole shooting a 22.

Such a good dad!

Cute husband Jason with his shotgun.

Nephew Donavan and Niece Lauren

Donavan is so awesome and Lauren is a sweetheart!  Can you believe all that hair!

Nephew Jeffrey with the 22

He rocks!

Niece Nicole

I just love that face!

Jason’s was a monster, I tried to carve a “moon” twice that didn’t work out so we modified and spelled the word Boo!

Mom’s is a which and marks in an “in love” Jack-O-Lattern.

Mom wore her cat shirt in remembrance of Jasmine, the family cat that died after 17 years.

Tyson and Aimee’s carved the U symbol (for Ute’s) and a 1 eyed monster.

Happy Halloween!

]]> http://shalauna.com/2012/01/pumpkin-carving-2010/feed/ 1 http://shalauna.com/2012/01/collective-soul-road-trip/ http://shalauna.com/2012/01/collective-soul-road-trip/#comments Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:14:43 +0000 Shalauna http://shalauna.com/?p=1627 Road Trip!  I personally am in love with road trips, not all the time, but every once and a while its nice to jump in the car and just drive.  For the last couple years we’ve done just that with our goods friends Mike and Candice.  It all started with Jason and Mike’s love for Collective Soul.  I know it is Jason’s all time favorite band, which makes it that much more fun.  The concerts we have been to are up in Wendover at the Peppermill Concert Hall.  Although Wendover as a town is super ghetto (in my opinion) I actually love the concert hall there.  Its small and the way the sitting is structured just about every seat in the house is a good seat.  Our trips are never too long, just a night or two, which is just long enough to get in some good buffets, golf, and hangout at the pool.  (and just in-case you were wondering, there has never been gambling involved, although I am always tempted to play Craps… I think next time we’ll just have to pack the board game called Wits and Wagers or as Mike calls it “guess your gamble.”)  :)

The Babes

Mike and Candice

Ed Roland: Lead Singer of Collective Soul

About 7 years ago she lost her husband, Bob, of 68 years who she  so loved very much.  However in 2010 grandma had a new “skip in her step” when she got engaged and then married to Lynn Gray on December 10th, 1010.  Lynn has been so great for her and they are so happy together.  I am personally so grateful to have both of them in our lives.  They are truly interested in everything we are doing from our ward callings, to our jobs, and anything we pursue.  Whenever we go over for a visit they are always so excited to see us, and we are equally excited to see them.  The picture below is on the day that grandma told us that she and Lynn were getting married!  We had just gotten back from our honeymoon and were so excited to get the news!

Congratulations Grandma and Lynn!

GO UTE’S!

Tyson and Aimee: Die Hard Fans!

After the wedding and reception we spent the night at the Little America in SLC and then took an afternoon flight to Hawaii.  The flight ended up being perfect, that is after we played musical chairs and ended up getting the whole row to ourselves.  Now that is better then first class!  We arrived on the Island and headed over to our condo (that Jason’s dad so graciously arranged for us) and got settled in.  After we couldn’t help but get excited about walking around the town and heading down to the beach.  Anyplace with sand between my toes and 90 degree heat means I am one HAPPY girl.  Our first stop was at the local market to pick up some drinks and snacks… oh yea and lei necklace or two!

Aloha!

Best night ever, walking along the beach with cold drinks and the sand between my toes!

I’m pretty sure I am the luckiest girl ever.

Dole Plantation!  We had such a blast here!

Pineapple is Jason’s favorite fruit so he was in heaven!

Yea, we couldn’t resist.

We bought the “must have” pineapple ice cream and jumped on a train that took us for a ride around the whole plantation.  It was so cool to see all the different stages a pineapple takes before it is picked and sold.  Did you know that as pineapples grow they are bight red?  I love to learn all about the places we go and fun facts about them.  The Dole Plantation did it right and had a fun fact board posted as you wait for the train ride to start.  If you want to know why Pineapples grow bight red, see if you can find the answer in the picture below.

Fun Facts about the most delicious fruit on the planet.

Waimea Waterfall

This was a beautiful hike up to the waterfall but I must say that it was the saddest waterfall I have ever seen.  Ha! The pictures online looked amazing, and you were suppose to be able to jump in and swim around, um not going to happen.  I guess it had been a “dry season” and without much rainfall the waterfall isn’t as impressive.  Luckily this little fall is tucked inside of a national park, so there were plenty of other amazing things to look at so the day turned about to be pretty great.

Snorkeling at Sharks Cove on the North Shore

We were so excited to go snorkeling (we even bought all our gear on Amazon.com before we left) so we could go as many times as we wanted hassle free.  Jason LOVES to snorkel and could be in the water all day and be happy as a clam.  I LOVE to layout so I did a little bit of snorkeling but spent most my time on the beach watching Jason swim around.   We had our flip camera in a waterproof case so it was lots of fun chasing the fish around and getting to see life “under the sea”. (its ok if you just broke into song from the Little Mermaid, it happened to me too!)  :)

My favorite memory at Sharks Cove:  After Jason got out of the water and we were walking to the car he says “I feel like a potato chip, salty and baked!”  Yes, I laughed my head off!  It was SO TRUE!  Perfect description babe! haha!

Paradise Cove

My very first Luau and it was great!  At Paradise Cove you go around 4pm and they do tons of cool traditional Hawaiian activities before the show actually begins.  We went on a canoe ride out in the ocean, watched a guy climb a coconut tree and do a “flower shower” got warrior tattoos, made leaf head wraps, and watched the sun set.  It was perfect.  Then the party really started.

Watching the sunset into the ocean never gets old.

That’s right, Jason made that head gear.  Sweet!

And yes, we bought that Hawaiian shirt just for this activity, it is not apart of his regular wardrobe.

(can you see his sweet tattoo? man he is tan!)

Arriving at Hanauma Bay

Hanauma Bay is a hot spot for snorkeling so we really wanted to go check it out.  This place was not impressive!  Actually it was kind of scary.  There is lots of coral but none of it is bright and colorful like you see in the pictures, and the water was so low that you are constantly swimming unnervingly close to the sharp coral.  I think back in the day this place was probably awesome, but now it is SO crowed with tourist and the coral is all dead, that it was not worth going at all.  I am so glad Jason heard about Sharks Cove up on the North Shore because that was free, crowd free, and amazing!

My favorite part of visiting Hanauma Bay was laying out on the beach and watching these birds walk around looking for food.  They were not scared of people at all, and they were seriously right next to us for quite awhile.  As the birds walked around there was a particularly one that Jason ended up narrating a life story about, and what the bird would be saying if he could talk… it was hilarious!  I am 100% sure you had to be there, but even thinking of it now has me laughing.  I love him, he makes me laugh everyday.

PARASAILING!

Have I mentioned I am scared of heights?!  But not Jason he LOVES them!  The higher the better and that is exactly how this went down.  They give you the options to choose 500 feet, 750 feet, or 1000 feet and guess which one Jason picked… yeah, you’re right the highest one!  It actually turned out to be really fun and I am so glad we did it.  Some places you have to run full speed ahead on a beach as a boat lifts you up into the air  and your parachute takes wind, but not these guys and I was SO glad.

This company had a super nice boat that takes you out into the middle of the ocean, straps you on, and then reels you out into the sky from the boat.  Pretty sweet, right?!  To spice things up and to get you wet at the end of your ride the reel you in and lets some slack in the rope and drop you into the ocean and then POP you right back out.  It cools you off and then they reel you right back onto the boat.  The guys below were awesome, played cool music on the boat, and took care of us.  It was lots of fun.  My husbands love for heights isn’t going anywhere, and I’m glad because he keeps me on my toes and gets me out of my comfort zone and I love him for it.

Hang Loose!

(it’s easier to say once your back on land.)

 Kualoa Ranch: 4-Wheeling Adventure!

This adventure we one of my favorite!  We actually had our own 4-wheelers and the tour guide was awesome!  He was all about making it fun and didn’t care how fast you went… in fact he was almost always leading the way.  One of our favorite things about this adventure was that the scenery was beautiful and every few miles our guide would jump off his 4-wheeler and disappear into the woods.  After a few minutes we’d see him come running out with a handful of fresh fruit!  He’d reach into his pocket, pull out a knife, a slice open fresh guava, papaya, and passion fruit and hand one to everyone.  It was amazing!

Jason with his fresh passion fruit from the woods of Hawaii!

 This ranch is a popular place for the filming of many movies like Big Foot…

AND LOST!  Does it look familiar?

Jason practicing his golf swing just incase we ran into Hurley!

The mountains are a dead give away that we were in the exact spot that the golf sense was filmed.

 These are the mountains that we rode through… GORGEOUS!

 This is what I looked like after our ride.

You can see the exact outline of the holes of the riding helmet and my glasses.  It was so fun!

THE LDS HAWAII TEMPLE

North Shore Beaches

We rented a car 4 or 5 days during our visit to the Island and it was so worth it!  It gave us complete freedom to go where we wanted on our own time.  It was perfect.  We ended up spending a ton of time up on the North Shore Beaches because they were just amazing.  You can drive the whole Island in 3 or 4 hours giving you a chance to go anywhere and see anything you want.  It was so worth it.

Its true, I love you babe!

BEST. TRIP. EVER.

Goodbye Hawaii, I hope to see you again really soon!

A big THANK YOU to Jason’s Dad and Melissa for taking care of our condo arrangements!  That was so nice and we appreciated it very much!  We love you guys!

After flying for 16+ hours from London back home to SLC we landed, went home for 1 hour got ready and headed off to to Candice’s surprise birthday party!  Here amazing husband pulled off the biggest surprise party ever!  We all met up Provo canyon for a tinfoil dinners and dutch oven peach cobbler.   Not only that, Mike also make a Gluten Free cobbler just for Jason!  Such a fun party.  Happy Birthday Candice, we are so glad you were born and that we are such great friends!

The babes and Candice… she’s a babe too!

What a huge group!  Lots of people love this girl with good reason!

Going to London was a blast and being there with Jas was even more fun!

Taking the Euro train to get to London was a awesome.  The country side of Paris is gorgeous, mostly farm land, but so pretty.  Of course part of the ride included going through the Channel Tunnel which goes under the ocean for about 30 miles to make it across to the other side.  I did get a little nervous as we approached the shoreline, as it turns out I had nothing to be worried about.   Did you know that the English Channel is one of the  7 wonders of the world?

Once we arrived we headed right out to see the sights.  Our first stop was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.   I think the architecture of Big Ben and the Houses are so cool, so old and detailed, and shockingly close to many of the types of structures we saw in Paris.  What I didn’t realize until this trip, was many of the same engineers and architects that built France, also went to the UK and were reused.

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

The River Thames flows directly behind it which I think makes it all the more amazing (especially as the sun is setting).

You can’t go to London and come home without a shot in a phone booth.

However, we are smiling but these booths were NASTY!  Holy cow it smelled like Urine and I was dirty!  There is no way that anyone would ever be able to go in that booth and use the phone with the door closed because you. would. die.

Whats really cool about these particular phone booths is that they are just around the corner from where I used to live when I traveled to London with the Covey family.  It was so fun to revisit our old stomping grounds. 

Tower of London

The Tower of London is SO MUCH FUN.  The experience is enriched all because of the tour guides also known as the “Beefeaters”.  They tell you all of the cool facts about the Towers history as well as keep the mood alive and as a bonus they have awesome jokes.

You might think that just “anyone” could become a tour guide at the Tower of London however that is not true.  In order to work there you have to have served at least 22 years in the military service, have reached at least the position of Warrant Officer and been awarded a good conduct medal.

The E II R on the outfit stands for ”Elizabeth Regina” and Regina in Latin stands for “Queen”; so the whole thing means “Elizabeth the Queen”.  When the Queen retires or dies then the next heir to the throne is Prince Charles and all the EIIR symbols throughout the whole country will change.  That is just crazy to think because the symbol is everywhere.

This is the castle of the Crown Jewels.  All the jewels of the royal family are still kept at the Tower of London which is still guarded day and night, which is why such high ranked military are the beefeaters to protect the Tower.

You gotta love these guys!  I seriously don’t know how they keep a straight face, never scratch a thing, and are ALWAYS looking straight ahead (and they will never laugh no matter how hard you try).  As it turns out the little black house that is behind them serves many good purposes such as shade for seriously hot days and protection from the rain when there is a down pour.  Regardless of the weather the guarding must go on…. I would hate that job!

This is Jas at the White Chapel of Armory at the Tower of London.  On the very top level there is a working chapel where all the Beefeaters can worship (the major religion being Christian).  The other levels are where the armory is kept.

The picture below is the armor of King Henry VIII.  His armor was HUGE!  He was 6ft 1 with a waist size of 52in and chest of 53in… lets just say he was a BIG guy in more ways then one.

This was inside the Chapel on the top floor.  In order to take a picture we had to sit through a 30 minute history lesson.  Which was ok because we got to just hangout and it was actually really pretty.

This is one of my favorite stories of at the Tower.  This is a toilet – they didn’t really use out-houses at the Tower instead they had these little rooms.  The picture below is the chute that all the crap comes out of and it drops directly into the moat.

Chute for crap

Moat

This is where the story comes in….

So historically a moat is put into place and filled with water to provide a defense line around the castle, which can be a great idea, unless you are Henry the III and have the moat dug to deep.  Which was exactlly the case for this moat.

Why would that be a problem you ask?  Because when the moat is dug to deep, the water can’t be all flushed making it impossible to flush out the crap, so it all sinks to the bottom and then starts to SMELL!  Gross!  This moat provided a defense line in more ways then one!  :)

The Babes hanging out having lunch at the Tower.

Of course your not in London if it doesn’t rain…

The Tower Bridge

He’s the most handsome person I know!

Buckingham Palace: The changing of the guards

Attempt #1

We went to the changing of the guards and thought it was so fun, but we didn’t get to see everything as good as we wanted to so instead of being disappointed we devised a plan.  We picked out the best places to stand in order to see the parade and the changing of the guards inside the gates and decided to come back the next morning….

Our master plan did NOT work because it was pouring buckets of RAIN.  Of course…. and the best part is in that kind of rain that don’t have the changing of the guards.  This was the only time I wished I had a little black house to stand in.  I was a little jealous of the guards….

Heaviest rain storm I have ever seen… and it came without warning…

YOU SNEEKY RAIN!

Jas in front of Westminster Abby!

It was fun to be there since there had been so much recent coverage of the marriage of Kate Middleton and Price William’s wedding, not only that but for its sheer history in London.  From the outside it looks very, very similar to Notre Dame…almost exact.

Jason pondering the meaning of life inside Westminster.

This saying was in the stone as you leave the building and I really liked it:

May God grant to the Living Grace,

To the Departed Rest,

To the Church of the World Peace and Concord,

And to us Sinner Eternal Life.

The London Eye

He loved it.  I hated it.

Views from the top!

This is the first time I stood up the whole ride.  I was seriously so scared.  I don’t know what has happened to me but in my old age I have really grown to HATE heights.  Something about standing in an almost completely glass capsule  5 million feet above the ground makes me nervous… I know call me crazy.

TASTY!

and we’ve never seen it in the states.

Speaking of Tasty… Cotto was AMAZING!

This restaurant was 100% Gluten Free and was Italian.  What?!

This was a breath of fresh air for us since we had such a hard time finding GF stuff for Jas in Paris.  After eating the food and loving I had to talk to the owner and find out why he offers so many GF options on his menu.  He said that 22 years ago he found out that he had Celiacs Disease and being in an italian family, and owning an italian restaurant he had to find a new way to cook without using wheat flour.  So he started coming up with his own recipes and now he offers as many GF options on his menu as regular.    It was such a treat!

The Menu

Trafalgar Square

Thai Square: Best Thai Food Ever!

Thanks for the recommendation Pam and David!

Inside the restaurant

We got here in the nick of time…

Did you know most European restaurants will open at like 11am for lunch and will close again at 2pm until dinner?

Bring on the double deckers.

I’m pretty sure these are the only type of buses Jason can get me to ride in.

We thought, what the heck lets go see a broadway!  Jersey Boys was great!

Outside the British Museum

The egyptian exhibit is a must see!

I was singing “Walk like an Egyptian” the whole time!

YOU SNEEKY BABE!

The Rosetta Stone

Q:  What is the Rosetta Stone?

A:  The Rosetta Stone is a stone with writing on it in two languages (Egyptian and Greek), using three scripts (hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek).

Q:  Why is it in three different scripts?

A:  The Rosetta Stone is written in three scripts because when it was written, there were three scripts being used in Egypt.

The first was hieroglyphic which was the script used for important or religious documents.

The second was demotic which was the common script of Egypt.

The third was Greek which was the language of the rulers of Egypt at that time.

The Rosetta Stone was written in all three scripts so that the priests, government officials and rulers of Egypt could read what it said.

Q:  When was the Rosetta Stone made?

A:  The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 B.C. – That was a LONG time ago and this thing is still intact.

The Underground – AKA the Subway

I am proud to say that we only rode in a taxi from the airport to our hotel and from the hotel back to the airport.  The rest of the time we took the underground or rode on the bus.  Man we are rock stars!  Thanks NYC for teaching me that public transportation is doable in big cities.

The London Heathrow airport is the WORST airport I have ever been in… but I thought this was funny.  Do we really need a sign that as explosives as a Forbidden item – for real?  I thought some things just went unsaid.

Once we finally boarded the plane and took off we were happy to be getting back to America.  Our flight path back home was London to Paris, Paris to SLC.  Total time flying home was about 16 hours, and don’t worry we were in the very last row of the plane, next to the bathrooms and for some reason we didn’t sleep a wink the whole flight home.  Thank havens for the iPad!

The plan was for me to meet him at his gate, with a backup plan of meeting at the luggage pick-up after customs if I ran into any problems since we didn’t have phone service.  All I can say is I am so glad we had a backup plan!  I went to meet Jas at his gate only to realize that the Paris airport is not marked with any signs on which flight is incoming at each gate, there are no attendants standing at the gates, and there are no gate numbers, so it was impossible for me to tell which gate Jas would be arrive at.

I went through customs, figured out which luggage carousel he would be going to and about 40 minutes later I saw his smiling face come down the escalator!  After 2+ weeks I was so happy to see him!!

Once we got our luggage it was off to our hotel to drop off the bags and put on our ‘touristy’ outfits (you know… a hat, tennis shoes, camera around the next, Rick Steve’s “Best Of Europe” book and a fanny pack…. alright, not quite that far but just about!)

We seriously wasted no time.  Once we got things settled at the hotel we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower.  We didn’t even really know where we were going, but we knew the the Eiffel Tower was close and with Rick Steve’s in hand, we knew we could find it!

This is just moments before we arrived at the tower.  Classic picture: back pack on. Diet Coke in hand.  and Rick Steve’s in my arms.  His book was like the Europe Bible for me.  It is awesome because it makes traveling so easy!

We have arrived.  The tower was SWEET!  However, it was smaller then I imagined, but it did not disappoint.  We wanted to go to the top and see the view but the line to the elevator was like 3 hours long (with no fast pass option) so to make the dream come true we took the stairs!  That line only had like 3 people in it, so we were on our way up in no time.  There are over 300 stairs to climb to reach the first observation deck and about the same to reach the second.  As we climbed higher and higher I seriously started to get freaked out.  Jas climbed all the way to the second observation deck and got some really cool pictures!  Some fun facts about the tower:

It’s 81 stories high.

Upon its completion it surpassed the Washington Monument as the tallest building in the world and held the title for 41 years until Chrysler building was built in NYC in 1930.  However, in 1957 there was an antenna added to the top of the building not making it taller then the Chrysler building.

It was named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel.

The tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair.

Standing right under the tower looking towards the city.

Views from the second observation deck.

I made it to the first platform!  It was high enough… don’t you think?!

Right after the Eiffel Tower we decided to go on a boat cruise around the city.  It was so fun to cruise around and get an idea of where everything was in the city.  Plus it was a nice break after climbing all the stairs at the Eiffel Tower! 

We took this picture on our boat cruise and I love it because it just shows the amount of detail there is on everything.  Even bridges are so detailed with statues, lamps, and swirly things, not to mention the gold!  I loved it!

Day Two:  We wake up starving and end up eating at a little cafe across from our hotel.  There are an overwhelming amount of Cafe’s in the city.  Almost all restaurants have the name Cafe in them.  This particular one didn’t look so bad so we thought we would give it a try.  The waiter/owner came to our table to take our order… so funny!  He knows no English and we know no French.  Needless to say I thought I was ordering an omelet and this is what came out.  What you can’t see (or maybe you can) is that the eggs and lettuce/tomato side thing is all covered in butter!  Lets just say it was always a surprise when we ordering anything.  We’d think we were getting one thing and out would come something totally different!

Fries were the one exception to the rule!  That was the one thing that we could count on coming out the way we were expecting.  They were honestly a staple in the diet since they are not only delicious but they are also Gluten Free!

Oh the Louvre!  This place was insanely huge!   The pyramid behind us is the entrance to all the good stuff.   The Louvre is where the famous Mona Lisa is kept as well as as so many others masterpieces.

In order to get through the front door there was of course a 2 hour wait which I was moaning about while standing in line…. then out of nowhere two guys walk up to us and hand us 2 tickets, and with a big smile they walked off.  This was AWESOME!

We didn’t even know if the tickets would work that he gave us, but we tried it and they did work.  SCORE!  We bypassed the line and went right in and saved ourselves 80 bucks.  This was a game changer!

Seriously, I don’t know what was more fun, going inside the Louvre or taking these pictures outside.

We couldn’t resist!

Seriously my favorite one!  Took me forever to get him to do it too!

Mona, we finally meet.  I thought she was going to be much bigger then she was… I would have been a little disappointed had we waited forever and paid, but since we didn’t I just smiled right back at her! 

Almost every room had something like this on the ceiling.  There is no wonder why it took hundreds of years to build these places.  There is tons of detail!

 The famous Venus de Milo.

There was no shortage of crazy looking sculptures/statues in Paris!

Obviously these would be something that one would want in a house.  Right?!

This statue was HUGE!  Instead of just having a boring old pillar, why not make it a statue and connect the head to the ceiling.   The French thought of everything!

Walking along the boardwalk.

Paris is split in half by the Seine River which runs down the middle of it.  You can tell where you are by knowing which side of the river you are on.  If your on the North side then you are on the right bank, if you are on the South side you are on the left bank with Notre-Dame right in the middle.  Thanks Rick Steve’s for teaching us what we needed to know!

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Did you know that Notre-Dame is 700 years old?!  And that Notre-Dame translated means “Our Lady” referring to Mary who is center stage of the cathedral.  I seriously loved this place.  I could believe how detailed it was for being built 700 years ago, but that was the theme through out Paris.

I love these statues that are carved into the side of the wall next to the entrance.  The guy holding his head in his hands is St. Denis who was beheaded for converting to Christianity and became a warning to others who thought about forsaking the Roman Gods.  The legend goes that when his head was cut off, he got up, tucked his head under his arm, paused at a fountain to wash off, and headed North until he found the right place to meet his maker.  The Parisians were convinced by this miracle and that’s when Christianity gained ground.

We walked a lot in Paris, but everything changed for the better when we decided to purchase a pass for the Hop on-and-off bus.  The buses picked up and dropped off at all the hot spots every 15 minutes so that worked out great!  We had so much fun listening to all the facts about things as we passed by the major sites.

Arc de Trimphe

This was such a cool place.  I actually didn’t know much about it before our trip but was of course excited to learn.   Napoleon had the Arc built to commemorate his victory at the battle of Austerlitz. There is no larger Arc in the whole world.

There are 12 converging boulevards that all have entrances ports around the Arc which turns out to be quite a site!  It must be the worlds largest round-about. 

After admiring the outside we climbed the 284 steps up the Arc to see the view at the top!  I seriously thought the stairs were going to go on forever.  But we made it to the top!

And this is what I looked like….

Deep Breaths!

As we reached the top of the steps, this is the very first thing that you see…. Are you for real?!

Not warm and welcoming after the climb to the top!

The view from the top of the Arc.

I LOVE how they groom the trees down the Champs-Elysees.  It’s like they chop the tops off but it looked so cool! I really want to do that to my own trees some day.

We just had to! 

I love this guy!

Public Restrooms on the street!  As soon as you walk in the door closes which caught me off guard!  I seriously thought they were going to be nasty (because if that was in NYC all the homeless people would be living in them) but remarkably it was super clean!

Taking the subway out to Versailles!

In the Gardens.

Overlooking the lower gardens.  Notice that all the grass is formed into shapes!  This place has the most amazing, detailed, designed gardens I have ever seen.  Crazy!

Growing Oranges!

Louis XIV had a thousand of these to amaze his visitors. In winter, they were kept in the greenhouses that surround the courtyard. On sunny days, they were wheeled out in their silver planters and scattered around the grounds.  This was to prove how amazing he was to the people to grow oranges in chilly France.

Get tried from all that walking?  Not a problem, we have just the solution;

Step 1:  Unwrap amazing chocolate.

Step 2:  Put into mouth.

see below for step 3…

Step 3:  Smile due to pure happiness!

Love this picture!

The fountain shows in the gardens!  They only have these going for like 2 hours a day, so make sure if you go to Paris that you check the times for the fountain “show” otherwise you will miss it.  We just happen to go late in the day and got to see them by chance.

At the gates of the palace, of course they would use Gold.

Heart shaped bushes and grass.  Cute!

Full size cathedral inside the palace.  This was crazy because all the people would be on the very bottom level, the King would be on the middle level, and there is a painting of God on the ceiling.  The idea was that the people would look up to the king, and the king would look to God.  Interesting set-up.

Hall of mirrors.

This is a PERFECT example of when we ordered something and got something completely different then what we thought!  We ordered a fancy cheese platter (or so we thought) and these gross things are what came!  Warm clumpy cheese, a caramel type of sauce, and a raspberry jam thing.  So SICK!

Thanks Paris! We had lots of fun… now we are off to London!

All Aboard!

First year down, 350 million years and then some to go!  Bring it on, Eternity!