Adele is Eight!

Adele is EIGHT!

Just pics today, i'm easing myself back into this BLOGGING thing. :) ;)
Well I might say a little about Adele i guess. But i'm 38 weeks pregnant and very emotional! LOL It took me a bit just to choose these pictures without bawling my eyes out.

I could never tell you everything about Adele, well I could but it'd be more of a book than a blog. She is my sweet special little miracle. And every day i'm more and more proud of the girl she is and the girl she is becoming. She was born after 4 years of us trying to get pregnant. So she is our little miracle baby. Dr. told us I would never get pregnant on my own, oddly enough I was actually pregnant when he told me that. Dumb dr. Anyway on to Adele.
Kind, Friendly, Sweet, Spunky, Spirited, CRAZY, Loving, Happy, Funny, Silly, Theatrical, Brave, Fearless, Smart, Determined, Tender, Gorgeous, Loyal, Stubborn, Hardworking, Stalwart, full of Faith, LOVES Attention. :)

That will give you an IDEA of what my Della is like. She's my crazy child, my hardest so far I think. But worth every single hair pulling episode. She gives me a run for my money but makes up for it 100x's by being this amazing child that has taught me so much.

Paris (and you have to drop the S so it sounds cooler), Louvre, Opera House, shopping, more Louvre

Setting out on our 2nd day in Paris was fun, we felt more comfortable..more aware of our surroundings. Ready to go drown ourselves in art. Which is impossible NOT to do in Paris. Seriously. We walked across this gorgeous stained glass just walking through the city trying to get the Louvre. It was just on some innocent corner, nothing special than BAM huge gorgeous stained glass window.

Then we hit the Metro...and wow. It smelled...think of those lovely european tourists you accidentally got to close too, or were forced to share a bench with on Splash Mountain at Disneyland. Yeah, you will kind of understand what I smelled as I entered the underground airless halls of thousands of europeans. It was lovely. Deodorant REALLY needs to come into fashion there. But oddly enough I think I got used to it, because as I continued to use the Metro it didnt punch me in the face so much...go figure.

This is the underbelly of the Louvre. Its how you get to all the seperate sections. The place is CRAZY HUGE. We hit as much as we could but man alive there was a lot. It was all surreal and beautiful the french really know how to show off their stuff.

And boy do they have a lot of STUFF! This was a huge ballroom we passed going up to see the Winged Victory statue, just hundreds of things draped with plastic.

Here is a small portion of the Louvre from the inside. This was taken through a window.

One of my favorite paintings. It was massive, not the centerpiece to this huge room we were in but when I saw it I gasped, I knew exactly who it was of. Because I had just seen her in London and it was plain as day. This portrait is of Queen Elizabeth's deathbed. It was really beautiful.

Ah the lovely Mona Lisa. So this picture is deceiving. I look like i'm alone..really I had just smashed myself through a throng of tourists to get to the ropes around the painting. You seriously cannot get CLOSE to her. And even if there was no ropes around it, then there is a wooden partition THEN a bulletproof glass encases it. Seriously overkill people. The crowd wasnt HORRID only about 50 people :P I'm guessing its a really cool painting...but since I didnt get TOO good a look at it i'm going to just have to keep on guessing on that one. lol

The inside of the Pyramid at the Louvre, it was very beautiful, very artistic. We were blessed with a gorgeous day.

Matt fell in love with this confection. He took about 5 pictures of it, trying to get it to look as good on camera as it did in person. He didnt succeed, it was amazing. I got a huge baguette instead...it was also very yummy.

This place was AMAZING. It actually said "no pictures" on the front window there. So we had to control ourselves inside, but it was so so lovely..oh what is it? Its a yarn store! A gorgeous beautiful yarn store. It also had a large part devoted to buttons and things. I wish I had bought some buttons now...it was a very cool place. Even Matthew enjoyed hisself there, and we bought his mom some lovely fabric too.

And some shopping! We had to do some digging to find where "normal" people shopped. We found plenty of boutiques that had 20 pieces of clothes on the racks and asked 200euro for a shirt. But then aha we found Printemps, a shopping district for the lowly middle class. I got a nice warm cardigan/sweater thingy there and a necklace....and some other things. I wanted to get Matt a tie but he didnt want to "waste the money" whatevs!

This is the lovely Opera house, ya know the one in the Phantom of the Opera? This is it baby! It was really really big, and had really cool gargoyles and statues all over it. We hung out and people watched here for a little while, then went into a chocolate shop across the street and splurged on some french chocolate. :) We passed on the tobacco truffles :P

I wish I had a bigger picture but this is all matt took of the french cooking stores we went into. They were really fun and I wanted to snag something french for my kitchen...but the only thing i really fell in love with was these gray enamelled dutch ovens and ...yeah that wouldn't of been very enjoyable dragging in our backpacks.

The Louvre at night is lovely. It doesnt close until 10pm so we headed back there at the end of our day trying to get more of it crammed in our heads. Matt LOVED LOVED this setup. He's all about things lining up, its the City Planner in him. And he took a million pictures of how LINED UP this was. lol

On facebook that night I said that we got escorted out of the Louvre. And left it at that, the next morning I had TONS of comments of people freaking out asking what I HAD DONE! And most were not surprised I had been. (thanks for the high opinion guys!) but really it wasnt a big deal. Turns out the Louvre peeps are VERY punctual. At 9:30 they start shutting doors, herding the patrons out door by door. It was very creepy because they also turned out lights. So imagine the room next to you goes dark then you see 20 people walking out in a line basically arm in arm to ferret us out of the next room. Matt and I were admiring this merman sculpting when BAM 20 scary quiet guards were telling us to scadat. Closing the door behind us. It was very rude! lol Also freaky to walk passed a dark room where marble statues are being exhibited. It looked REALLY freaky. Anyway yeah they had EVERYONE OUT at 10pm on the dot. The french mean business about quiting hour!

Paris! Notre Dame, St. Louis, Musee de Orsay, Champs-Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel freaking tower

Ahh Paris. I'm really glad I was going to Paris from London. Because it made it easier, a little easier to leave London. Paris did not dissapoint. It was amazing. BUT take a look at matt and i's first look at Paris. Yes this graffiti covered wall was our FIRST look. Note to Paris, not a great first sight people.

This is the outside of our hotel. It look like a beautiful area doesn't it. Do not be deceived my young friends. This is the red light district for Paris. We had a brothel on each side of us. But they were very nice and didnt step outside their doorways at all. Matt just kept his eyes forward while I led the way. It was nice during the day though. And the hotel was nice and clean and not a fortune. :) PLUS we were RIGHT by a metro station. So it was a perfect location for us.

This is my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. We were walking across the bridge to Notre Dame and as I looked across the Seine saw this lovely beauty.

Lovely Notre Dame, I really enjoyed my time at this place. When we got there, it started to rain rain rain. Which lucky us was the one ONE time we DIDNT bring our raingear and the ONE time we needed it. lol SO Matthew ran back to our hotel (he was gone for like an hour) and got our jackets and umbrellas. I was spoiled and got to sit back and relax in this beautiful building. Listening to the organ and the choir occasionally. And really take it all in. It was wonderful. Very peaceful. Much more peaceful than the English Cathedrals..which were more "showy." Like in England the cathedral has these huge tombs EVERYWHERE of all their rich patrons. In France it wasnt like that. Very simple and lovely.

This delicious concoction was a crepe with chocolate and bananas, and my lovely chantilly (whipped cream) on top. This was really really yummy. Matt had strawberries instead of bananas in his. His was SO GOOD. So i got that from then on whenever we had dessert anywhere. I REALLY need to learn to make crepes.

This is after our lovely lunch at a cafe on St. Louis. I loved the cafe because it was a definate tourist stop and very quaint. The manager/owner was so friendly and was great at explaining everything to us. VERY helpful. lol

So afterwards we walked the isle in the rain. Looking at the beautiful shops lining the small streets (MATT LOVED the small street size hahaha)

the lovely backside of Notre Dame, you can kind of make out the flying buttresses. Notre Dame was one of the first buildings to use these buttresses to support the massive weight of the roof.

This was a picture we took from the Musee De Orsay's balcony. So so beautiful. Its the Basilica in Paris. (more to come on this place later)

This was our favorite Museum. It was not overwhelming, it had beautiful pieces, and a great variety. Plus matthew LOVED the building :)

us being all lovey outside the Museum :) Isnt he adorable.

Matt got very picture happy in Paris. Like insanely picture happy. I was not thrilled about being the main subject of the pictures, but luckily he has some gorgeous buildings to distract him...most of the time. lol

This was in the Tuilleries. A very popular HUGE garden in the middle of Paris. I was suprised that there wasnt much too it. A TON of very well kept up trees..hardly a leaf on the ground to be seen. And some nice fountains. But very different than the colorful gardens i'm used to at home.

we walked down the Champs-Elysee to get to the Arc de Triomphe, and what do ya know. Sephora was there :) HAD to go inside of course and man ALIVE the biggest makeup store i've ever seen! It just kept GOING, and it even curved at the end, so you arent seeing all of it in this picture. PLUS you arent seeing all the perfume section either since i had already walked through it when I took this picture. You can see me in the pink shirt...I was a bit overwhelmed.. lol

The lovely Arch of Triumph. All those bumps are the top are peoples heads. Yep I didnt know you could actually go to the top but yessiree you can. Over 200 steps. And those that went to Yosemite with me in Junior High and did the Mist trail with me...yeah you can imagine the pain i was in. I havent gotten very much more endurance since Junior High. Matthew was a good sport though. :)

At the top! And a little closer to the Eiffel Tower. It was perfect timing for us. We got there just as the sun was setting. it was so so beautiful. Then after the sun had set the lit up the tower. It was gorgeous and sparkling. My girls love watching the video we took of it.

Matt and I went to the Eiffel tower to get a closer look. We settled at the end of one of the massive reflection pools. It was so romantic and beautiful. And I really got a kick out of this naked woman statue watching it. lol

Day 4 - Hyde Park (again), Herrods, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Hard Rock, Train station *cry*

Our last day in London was bittersweet. I was very excited to see Paris and lets not lie...to eat a my weight in crepes and croissants. But I LOVED ADORED London. I'd move there in a second, and if I read any article about it right now I get all teared up because I miss it so much. I'm a traitor to my country. lol The first picture is out of order because blogger did some weird thing. So alas you get to see a picture of Harrods first.

Harrods was pretty cool. It was very fancy, enough were I didn't want to touch ANYTHING, even when we went to the electrical department and they had normal movies. I was afraid they were like lined in gold or something and kept my hands to myself. It was HUGE and we didnt even see half of it i'm sure. If I had millions of dollars i'm sure i'd have a grand ol' time there.

So this is where our day really started. We walked through Hyde park to get to the tube stop that goes to Harrods. Hyde park is HUGE HUGE HUGE. And gorgeous so it was a very nice start to our day. We came upon this lovely statue of Peter Pan. I made Matt pose...because...he's..like Peter?? I have no clue, i just made him pose okay!
At the end of our hike/stroll across the park we came to Prince Alberts Memorial. Holy Moly Victoria LOVED her husband. This thing is MASSIVE. And way fancy, like crazy fancy. I told Matt im putting elephants on his gravestone to show how much I love him.

This was the most impressive of the musical groups we saw performing all over London. There was a musician in every tube tunnel just about. These guys were amazing and were selling CD's.

This was the yarn shop that we took an hour to find..only to see it was CLOSED on Monday. What the heck people! I was not happy. Luckily a petite little french woman was walking by and saw my disgruntled expression. She must know disgruntled very well..she walked over and asked in broken english what I needed, I mimed yarn. (It was interesting) And she pointed me in the direction of a department store where normal people shop (not Harrods) where they sell YARN! HEAR THAT Sears! This DEPARTMENT store sold YARN! Cool right! So it was just a little bit aways and we went there and I found my English Yarn. Happy end to my Yarn story :)

After I had my pretty lavendar yarn in my hot hands we headed over to Big Ben, It was...well it was Big. What else do you want me to say! It was a big ol Ben!

next we went to Westminster Abbey. I was pretty churched out at this point. But we thought hey what the heck we gotsta go in the Abbey! And man alive am I glad I DID! The tombs of Chaucer, William Blake, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, the Bronte Sisters (totally teared up when I saw that one), Jane Austen (memorialized) and just a ton of other literary super stars. I was totally freaking out. It was SO CRAZY COOL. BUT the best had not yet come. I walked into a small side chapel. Where laid Queen FREAKING Elizabeth and her sister Queen Mary!! I was totally biting off my lip so I wasnt the weird tourist crying all over the tombs of these women. It was amazing. I was so excited, it was soo cool. And i'll never forget it.

Then we walked around Parliament and it was really beautiful and magnificent. But really I was just still on a total high from seeing all those tombs and memorials at the Abbey. lol

Then we ran on over to Hard Rock Cafe (the FIRST one) and I got a pin for my friend Lori back in the States. ;)

This is where we had a minor freak out by my dear husband. We went back to the tube to catch it to St Pancras station. WELL that day was the last day of the Notting Hill Carnival (where we had to go and pick up all our luggage because thats where our hotel was) when we arrived at the tube we saw much to our suprise that it was PACKED. like seriously SARDINE packed to get to the train. You couldnt even get CLOSE to the actual train stop. It was atleast a 30 min wait to catch a train. And we had an hour to get our luggage then go to the other side of town and get on the train. So Matt proceeded to freak and say he was goign to RUN the 4 miles to our hotel, grab our luggage which was probably like 25lbs. And RUN back to where I was (making sure I sat and STAYED on the bench where we were) And then we'd try and catch a bus. LOL I was like ummm CALM DOWN CALM DOWN LET ME THINK! ...Okay matt how about we get a taxi?...Matt quickly took a deep breath and was like OH YEAH! Hahahah so we hailed a taxi (that was fun, it was our first time ;) ) and had a lovely drive over to our hotel, our driver was so nice and very talkative, matt ran into the hotel and got our luggage, the driver than took us to the station and we had PLENTY of time to sit and relax. It was much better than matts original plan. hehehe

We took the Chunnel to Paris. Which is to say we got in a long fast train, went through the English countryside then DOWN UNDER the english channel UNDER THE WATER and up into France and its lovely countryside. I'd love to tell you how it was to go under water in a train but I can't. Because the train has a mystic power over me and I passed out within 30 min of the trip. I seriously COULD NOT keep my eyes open. I tried so hard because I was having a hard time saying goodbye to my England. Seriously had to work at not getting all weepy. And I did it! I just fell asleep instead.