Paris Highlights

Well, when I said I would post about France tomorrow, what I really meant to say was I would post about France in 8 days. Oops.

All in all we had a fabulous trip to Paris. We ate, drank, shopped, walked, went to museums, saw the sites, ate some more and repeat. I have come to the realization that I have a love/hate relationship with Paris. I love it, but I hate it. For all the reasons I love it, I also don't care for it. It's a fabulous city and I encourage everyone to go if they get a chance to sometime in their lives. I'm glad we did but it's an interesting thing to learn about yourself and the relationship you have with a city.

So....here's what happened on our trip to Paris....

We got off the plane after the red eye and hopped in a car and drove to Normandy.

The GPS led us to this.



Then, it led us to this.

We thought we had found what we were looking for because we were looking for the American Cemetery in Omaha Beach. When we got to this cemetery we were surprised to find no one else there. It was rainy, so we thought maybe people just weren't out. As we walked around for a while we suddenly realized where we were. We were at the German Nazi cemetery!!!! Oops.

We finally figured out where we were going and we FINALLY made it to Omaha Beach where the D-Day Invasion took place.


Here is a picture of the American Cemetery. Breathtakingly beautiful.



The next few days were filled with lots and lots of fun things. Renzi had his meetings so I wandered around The Louvre one day (and I figured out the Paris Metro System...what an accomplishment on my part...figuring out the metro in a foreign country! Major props to me. Seriously. So proud of myself.)

We went to Mu see D'Orsay and got our fill of the Impressionists. Monet and Renoir are among my favs. I wish I had pics of these things but as I mentioned in my last post, I lost my phone somewhere between France and Denver and all of my pics from these days were on that phone. Tear. :(

These last pics are from Renzi's phone...

On our last day we stumbled upon this street near Monmarte....and I found the most amazing vintage shops. I found some great steals and then found the TRUE vintage shops you hear about and read about. This one shop had a white Chanel purse that was to DIE for. And a Vivienne Westwood jacket that literally had me drooling. Pretty awesome.

We rode a river boat down the Seine the last day as well and it was really great. Here is my love and I in front of the Eiffel Tower.



Yoga posing (I realize I do not do this correctly. I have no balance and I am the least flexible person on the planet. Serious.) around the world! If you want to know what I am talking about go immediately to We Go Round The World    and read about my bestie's adventures around the world. Not kidding. Click on the link and go right this minute!

Hubs does the yoga pose better than I....hee hee.



Beautiful Eiffel....



This pic is for you Allison and AJ! Smooth and FRUIT! This was taken when we stumbled upon my mecca, The Four Season George V....love love love that place. We had after dinner drinks there one night and the people watching here was beyond incredible. Paris Fashion Week had just wrapped up so the bar area was full of models and their friends. I really felt bad for some of them because I am pretty sure they have never had chedder bites with ranch from Sonic. Like Ever. So so sad. :)


Here we are on this awesome bridge full of locks. The story is that you go to this bridge and write your names on a lock, lock it to the bridge and then it means your love will last forever.

Paris was a great time, but what I enjoyed most was walking hand in hand in the city of love with my love (Mushy I know), sitting in cafes people watching, and soaking in and learning about the culture of a different country. This is why we travel as much as we do and why we try to take our kids with us whenever we can. We want them to know more than just what their daily lives entail and to be aware that there are so many different ways you can choose to live their lives. We want to inspire them to be different and to live the life they choose while learning and evolving with the world around us.

Au revoir!
LAS

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We're back!

After a 9 hour plane ride from France to D.C., a cancelled flight home, re-routed to Denver, a lost phone in Denver (GRRRRR....yup, MY phone), an after midnight arrival into OKC with a 7 month old, we are officially back from Paris.

Jet lag has set in. I literally feel like there is a haze surrounding my eyes. I've been to Starbucks twice today.

But still I must press on......

Until 8:30 p.m. at the LATEST.

A blog post about the rest of our trip shall come tomorrow.

In the meantime, my boys and I will be snuggled up on the couch. Well, for as long as they will let me. :)

 Oh how I missed them!!!!

Love,

Lee Anne

Magical place.

After a quick stop in D.C. where we dropped the Walk man off with Aunt Ginny and Uncle Dave, the hubs and I hopped on a plane to Paris!

I heart business class.


I heart the big seats, but sadly we did not sleep in our overnight flight. We arrived in Paris at 6 a.m. and caffeined up and pressed on. We rented a car and drove to Normandy to see the D-Day museum and Omaha beach.


It truly is so amazing to think of the sacrifice these soldiers made. The thousands and thousands who made the journey and the thousands and thousands who lost their lives here. A simple thank you to those men and women just isn't enough!


It rained and rained this day so we made a stop in Reoun at the halfway point to wait the rain out. We had some wine and shopped around.


As I mentioned earlier my sweet sis and brother in law are watching Walker for us while we are gone. (Jackson is at home with my mom for a few days an our wonderful sitter Kayla for a few days. He has school, soccer, and birthday parties he didn't want to miss!) My bedtime Jackie (in the pic below) got to meet Walker last night when she went to see him at Ginny and Dave's. I love that they got to meet and I think it is so funny how long and still Walker looks in this pic!


Oh I miss this cutie!!!


Cousins plying together! I get so excited when Ginny and Dave send me a picture!


This one cracks me up. These two are going to be buddies for life! Walker does look a bit concerned with his driver.a


Today while Renzi was at his meetings I spent a lot of time at one of my most favorite places in the world. The Louvre.


The details in this building are amazing. This is a pic of one of the ceilings!


The Mona Lisa. Hard to believe it is this small huh?


This painting was one of my favorites of the day.


They had a new Islamic exhibit so I strolled through for a while.


And I have spent the rest of my afternoon wandering around, shopping, reading, listening to music, and buying some wine and cheese to munch on later. This place is magical.

Oh, and here is the pic I got from Ginny this morning! Le sigh....


Au revoir!

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Walker Stone is 7 months old!

My precious boy!



We are finally over the sickness here...yippee!

This past month was a big month for Walker Bear! He started sitting up, army crawling and he officially has his first tooth!

He weighs 21 lbs 6 oz and is 28.5 inches long. His hair has grown back in and I know I am totally biased but I think he is one of the most beautiful babies in the world.

And his smile ... Ooooo eeeeee. That Walker Stone smile. All I can say is....look out ladies.

We love you to the moon and back my love!

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Day 9

We are on Day 9 of Walker's snotty sickness. I am about to go cray cray.

I have now taken Walker back to the doctor 3 times in the last 9 days. Ear infection in the right ear on the first trip, antibiotic given...4 days later he was worse so I took him back. Ear infection had not cleared and was worse in his right ear and then his left ear was infected. Change of antibiotic.

Oh and did I mention that my fabulous sleeper was seriously missing. Like, 3 or 4 a.m. rolled around and wanted to get up. FOR THE DAY. Lordy Be.

This antibiotic did a NUMBER on my poor baby's stomach. I'll save you the details, but let's just say I haven't really worn anything remotely nice in 9 days.

I took Walker back in yesterday because he STILL wasn't acting right. His ears were clear but because of all of the antibiotic issues we took him off the antibiotic.

It's now been 36 hours since his last dose of antibiotic and he seems a little better. The fussiness has subsided tremendously and he only woke up twice last night. Here's to hoping he feels better as the day goes on.

Momma needs a break.

To end on a positive, here are my cuties in "happier" times. Ha ha!



On another positive...the Hubs and I leave for Paris very very soon sans kiddos! Ren has work and I am going along for the ride. :) Would LOVE some suggestions on must sees while there. We were in Paris a year and a half ago on our France trip, but we had kids so we were a bit limited in what we could do. I am planning on taking one day while Renzi has meetings and going to The Louvre, putting on some headphones (English speaking of course!) and just wandering around. Doesn't that sound divine? I CAN'T WAIT!

If you have any suggestions I would LOVE to have them!  You can comment or email me at stoneleeanne@gmail.com

Much love and hoping for less snot!

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Snot.

This little guy is full of snot right now.

Walker has an ear infection and a cold....and I have to say....I am not sure I have ever seen so much snot come out of something so small. He's covered in it, I'm covered in it, I even found snot on the wall of his room. How does that even happen?

Needless to say, the poor booger (ha! no pun intended, but man that was funny) is having a rough time breathing out of his snot filled nose. It's his very first runny nose and I realize how lucky we are for that at almost 7 months old, but he is really taking this hard.

He woke up for the day today at 4:30 a.m. So FUN! And he didn't fall back asleep until 10:00 a.m. And even then he has only slept for 30 minutes. So FUN!

I'm tired.

Someone please bring over the wine.

K.

Thanks.

Bye.

-Lee Anne

Bloopers

With all great photo shoots in life....there is ALWAYS a blooper reel. When we were in Colorado Springs in August, Brooke set up the hotel photographer to come and take our family pictures. While looking through all of the shots last night I found these and they just made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

ENJOY!!!!!!

Seriously, Walker cried the ENTIRE time we were outside taking pictures. Like, the WHOLE time. It looks like we are all torturing the poor child. He was probably just flipping hungry. He's always hungry. (Kind of like his momma!)

I like this one because it looks like Walker is trying to pull Miller back in....and I LOVE how sweet Jake is just smiling away at the camera!

This one makes me laugh because Jackson is about to sneeze on top of Renzi's head. What happened next is that Jackson then smeared the snot into Renzi's hair. Hair gel I guess.....

I finally got my act together and made poor Walker a bottle....I was feeding him when it was our turn for pictures. Dave so graciously offered to finish feeding Walker and somehow in the handoff of the baby, my arm got stuck.

Here is Jackson and Jake yelling one of Jake's phrases, "We did it!"

The girls and their baby boys....I just thought this one was funny because of all of the different things going on in the picture.

The family who acts like doofus' together stays together. We've got that one down!!!

And last....Jake ran off so Brooke and I ran after him....notice we are both also holding babies. Where was everyone else??? :)

Such a fun trip...makes me miss my sweet family!