Louvring It!

We had a great time at the Louvre last Sunday despite massive crowds due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e. the Paris Marathon and first Sunday of the month free entry. It was cool to see the colorful runners passing by depsite roadblocks and underground parking access closed to the museum. Seeing all the people renewed my desire to train/run a marathon by age 40--the clock is ticking!

Nico was obsessed with finding "The Judgement of King Solomon" by Poussin, and of course, we couldn't find it passing through various wings and floors . . . three hours later, we decided to skip the Greek and Roman sculptures and eat lunch. Emma was melting down after 30 minutes in her stroller, however, the search to find Nico's masterpiece resulted in seeing lots of other paintings I hadn't seen in my previous trips to the Louvre. After eating, Mark and Nico suceeded in finding their treasure while the other kids and I explored the Tuileries gardens a bit.

We'll have to return when I have a babysitter so I can show the older kids more treasures and maybe the Musee d'Orsay. I think I'll do that the second week of spring break before the tourist season really heats up. On a side note, for all you LDS friends, wasn't Conference great? Personally, I heard so many talks that my heart and head needed. A wonderful weekend overall! I'll post Mark's photo of Nico and his painting when they're downloaded.

You Are So Beautiful

Emma's current addiction is "The Little Rascals," a remake from the 90's. In it, Alfalfa sings the Joe Cocker classic to Darla. Emma pops out with her version every now and then, so here it is--enjoy!

Hello Again

I didn't think I would have time to write anything today but I just wanted to say hello to the very few blog readers out there :) When I started this blog I noticed that many people blog to show off their kids, to vent their joys and frustrations (some very personal), to amass as many reader comments as possible, and so forth. We all do this to some extent. The primary reason for myself, however, is to document that I/my family is/are alive. Of course some months we are very much alive and I am hanging by a thread, thus the absence of new posts. In any case, it is simply nice to show my children their own beautiful faces onscreen (or their cousins'), or to connect with a family member that I would otherwise not be able to see.

We did have the church missionaries over for crepes on Sunday, along with a couple who had visited church and were investigating a possible move to France (with their 5 children, 8 months to 11 yrs.). Neither of them speak French and they wanted to see what this lovely place is all about. That could take years, ha! Anyway, it was a good past week despite some coughs and bad colds with three of our four kids. This coming Sunday morning we are finally taking the kids to the Louvre since Mason is the only one who has been with his class. I can't believe how excited Nico is to go. He absolutely loves going on museum field trips and knows more than all of us about Matisse, Archimboldo, Picasso and Chagall, you name them. Many people have said the best time to go is early Sunday mornings--probably due to the tourists still nursing their Sat. night hangovers. We'll see how long we last and may even skip over to the Musee d'Orsay so Nico can see some Seurat paintings. Yes, this is the same boy who is obsessed with potty talk, Star Wars, and bodily functions! We are taking advantage of the fact that we don't have church responsibilites with General Conference this weekend. Since we are eight hours ahead the broadcast time somewhat works in our favor, right?

I included just a few photos of Mark and I's rare daytime date to the Rodin museum. It was beautiful, even on a not-so-clear day. I prefered the garden with his sculptures for its solitude and beauty while the small chateau was brimming with his other works. The guy was a prolific artist but two hours was the perfect amount of time to see everything, inside and out.

Pacques

Happy Easter! It was a wonderful and busy day with church and holiday festivities. The day began with sunshine--finally! It's been raining and generally gloomy (which is par for the course this time of year), so with an egg hunt planned, I was happy for the kids. We both had responsibilities at church with Mark teaching Sun. School and myself directing/teaching Primary for the kids, and fortunately it went well. When you're talking about our Savior, Jesus Christ, on Easter, it's a blessing to be the teacher. The lesson preparation alone uplifted me and prepared me to more profoundly ponder the gift of his atonement.

For lunch we hosted our friends, the Gallachers'. Their sons Elijah and Etienne kept things lively with our bunch. I love Kiersten because she is so honest and down to earth, the kind of person who inspires you to (want to) be better. Brian is humble and funny, too. Emma, 2, and Elijah, 5, actually played more together toward the end of the day and they were so cute. I think Nico ingested 99% crap candy and chocolat and 1% real food; he was not himself and his evening barf fest attested to this fact! He woke up soon after going to bed, threw up all over himself and his bed, turned on his light while leaving a trail of spew, then went back to bed! Ahh, the perfect end to a perfect day :)

I forgot the Easter Egg hunt. We also invited our friends from down the street, the Crook family. They are great and have three children. They also brought their friends (who had just arrived this morning from NC with their two kids, yikes jetlag!). So all together we had 11 sugar and adrenaline-fueled children on a plastic egg mission. They were hilarious and quick to search and destroy. The dads spent about 10 min. hiding the eggs and the kids found them in less than 5. Anyway, Mason oversaw the action and made sure his "rules" were enforced so everyone got involved in some manner.

Check out the picture of our poule au nid gateau, chicken in a nest cake. It was mocha, which is french for heavily laced with coffee. Just kidding, but frankly it was one of those things best left uneaten (yes, even in France they can create beautiful disasters).

In Memory of Angus

Yes, Darren, it's Angus that died, not Buster. I'm a total idiot! I must have had Buster on the brain and I said in the last post that he died. So sorry to offend Angus' memory, and thanks D, for correcting me :)

Random Pictures

A few photos for our viewing pleasure. We did receive some sad news from Eric & Julie--Buster, their beautiful boxer dog, passed away after a sudden illness. They adopted Buster from us the first time we moved to France in 1999. We so appreciate all the love they gave him; he was a great dog with a great family! Otherwise, we are enjoying a visit from Marc & Whitney. They're in Normandy now, freezing their tookas on the shores of Mont St. Michel and the D-Day beaches. There are some pics of Marina skiing, Emma's bday, and Julius, our little friend whose family stayed in our apt. for a few weeks. They found a place and are now living in Paris till May while the dad, Jonathan, takes some French history and culture courses for college. Mark just returned from a work conference in Dallas so we're all tired. Hopefully this weekend we can take advantage of some family time together, whay! (That's french for yeah!)

London Calling (albeit briefly)

We're back from a whirlwind few days in the London suburbs. It was a very tiring yet productive trip with Mason, Nico, and Emma. Marina has been in Switzerland on a school ski trip so I'll have to post some pictures of our little ski bunny in action. We were able visit three international schools and some homes as well, all in an effort to get a feel for the area (not quite possible considering our time frame and schedule but oh well . . . ) Mark and I will return to seriously look at homes in May.

I have the "Do I/we really want to pack it all up and adjust to another place again?" syndrome. It's associated with "Can I adapt to driving and finding my way around again" and "I'm really going to miss Paris/France" syndromes. Moving around and all that goes with it is not easy with four children, especially in Europe. Right now you can cue the cry me a river music because if that's the most difficult thing in my life, I've got it pretty good. Other than that, we are trying to enjoy the last few months of our lives here and not stress out about things beyond our control.

The schools were great and Mason and Nico were excited about two different ones. So, our main concern will be to choose a school and then find a house in the busing boundaries. Also a top priority will be finding a church ward where the kids will feel comfortable and have friends their age--not too difficult, right? The stars must align for all of this to come to fruition :)

I won't go into detail about our five hour ride into London (for dinner) on the metro. We have the worst luck when it comes to "popping in and out." Just a side note, we saw this poster for Bon Jovi in the metro, or excuse me, the tube or underground. I had to give a shout out to my NJ boys, long live the great state!