Paris!!!!!

Our trip to Paris for the long weekend reminded me of when we'd fly over to Maui or Kauai for the weekend when living in Hawaii...again, we are sooooooooo grateful for the opportunities we are given because of our duty stations!   After the long day at Disney, we took our time getting ready the next morning and linked up with the Doziers to take the 30 minute train ride into Paris.  My favorite quote from the whole weekend came from Hailey while on the train...

Leevi: "Hailey, what do you think of getting to ride the train?!?!"

Hailey:  "It's kind of like timeout...you just have to sit here." 

OMG, these spoiled, rotten children!  :)  Our adventure really began when we arrived at our stop and we should have seen this as a warning of how the rest of our day was going to go!   It took us some time to figure out how to get up out of the train station.  We had the double stroller, a single stroller and 9 people and there was only ONE elevator that could hold about 5 people at a time with about 20 people in line in front of us.  We broke off from the Doziers to look for a different way up and did find our way out after climbing 3-4 different sets of stairs...Leevi carrying the double stroller and our bags and me carrying Kai (we have no idea why we were that deep underground!)  Apparently that was the reason for the long elevator line...it was a straight shot to the top but it was quite irritating that people without strollers or wheelchairs or even without children were waiting in that line.  Once we emerged, we had no way of getting ahold of the Doziers (we had our German cell phones off)  We decided to head off on our own which was probably the best idea considering the amount of walking we had to do and the many temperments/opinions of our large group. 

Our first stop while we were getting our bearings...Kai had to use the bathroom, hence the face in the picture, but I made her pose first! 

We really only cared about seeing Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower...any other things we passed along that route came as a bonus.  It was cold but sunny so the girls were even out of their hats and gloves for part of the day.  Paris is a lot like New York City but with amazing architecture and much older buildings!    





Notre Dame!  We didn't go inside....Leevi and I didn't have too much of an interest in that and having two young kids with us was way more than a legitmate excuse! 

Cute park on the walk to the Eiffel Tower...this contraption spun around...too fun but a little scary for Mom!  :) 

This is where our fun began!  The walk from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower was supposed to be about a mile and a half...no biggie since we had the double stroller, BUT we went in the wrong direction!  :)  Leevi and I laughed that we would have failed miserably at the Amazing Race!  Thankfully, the weather was nice and the girls were entertaining themselves in the stroller with their Snow White and Ariel dolls, so we decided to hop back on the train/subway instead of back-tracking on foot.  After a few more mishaps with the directions/routes of the train and lugging the double stroller around (any many laughs!) we made it to the Eiffel Tower!!!!!!! 



Typical tourists....Leevi looking at a map and me taking a picture of the bathrooms!  This is the cleanest public bathroom in a major city that you will EVER go into.  After each use, the door locks and the bathroom gets powerwashed and then dried automatically. 

It was a Saturday and the lines were sooooooooooooo long to get up to the top of the tower.  It was about 2:30 and we had nothing else specific on the agenda for the day so we decided to wait.  In hindsight (I felt like we said that a lot that weekend!) we shouldn't have waited!  We were in line for about 2 hours (standing!  My stomach really hurt!) with two patient kids and we finally made it up.  Kai had to go to the bathroom when we had about 15 more minutes in the line and was able to hold it until we made it to the top WHERE WE HAD TO WAIT ANOTHER 20 MINUTES IN A RESTROOM LINE!  That did it for me!  I was done and ready to go back down and go home!  I'm sure Leevi wanted to shoot me (or himself!)  I snapped a few pictures and down we went!!!!!!  We even had tickets to the very top but there WAS ANOTHER LINE.  No way!  So if you ever go to the Eiffel Tower don't wait in line...it's not like you are waiting in line for a cool roller coaster or something....you wait for a view (albeit a nice and romantic view!)  :)  The girls started loosing it around that point (maybe because I was) but we did manage to snap one family shot back at the bottom and then headed back to the train station.  Both girls feel asleep instantly on the walk to the train station and Kai slept until we got back to the hotel.  We were train/subway experts on the journey home and we were baffled at how simple the return trip was. 

View from the top

View at night with the lights on and a view underneath looking up.  At 6pm, twinkling lights came on....we saw it briefly from the train. 

The MacDonalds in Paris, 2011

We got back to the hotel a little after 7pm, ate more leftovers for dinner, and started packing up a little for our return home the following morning.   Leila was excited to see us after spending two days in the hotel room alone but we have found another reason why Melatonin is our new miracle drug!  We brought some just in case the girls needed it if they were restless for Disney or not sleeping in their own beds (or in Kailee's case, taking late afternoon naps and throwing off her bedtime).  We had brought Benedryl for Leila hoping to calm her down in the hotel while we were out for the day.  (She barks and barks and barks when we leave her somewhere new)  When she's had it in the past for allergy related issues it knocks her out.  For some reason the thought popped into my head to google Melatonin for Dogs and sure enough there is a website www.melatoninfordogs.com which gave us the proper doseage, etc.  She was calm and not barking when we left and arrived back at the hotel hours later so we are guessing it worked!  :) 

It took me about a week to catch back up from our vacation (you always need a vacation from your vacation, right?) and poor Leevi had to travel again just three days after we got home from Paris (not to mention, he had just gotten home from Virginia and Spain the night before we left for Paris!)  But the extra money he'll get on the trip to Norway is paying for our Paris trip and Christmas so I guess it's worth it!  :)  We are anxious to have him home and relax for the holidays!  He'll be off of work the whole time that the girls are off from school (Dec. 19-Jan.2) so we are really looking forward to some family time! 

I'm still playing "blog-catch-up" so check back for some holiday fun!!!!!!