sparklers and tank wars

I'll post about Italy like I promised soon. But first, a delightful show with sparklers! We didn't buy any new fireworks this year, since we had a few tanks, sparklers, snakes and flashers from last year. The kids loved it! After our few boxes of fun were gone, I broke out the real fun! The little glowsticks that the kids love, they usually play light sabers with them. One box had jewelery accesories, so Ryanna wore earrings, a necklace and bracelets. She danced and sang and made up songs about the Fourth of July and made Dawson do it too. (which he wasn't too keen on) It was a fun Fourth!




We started out with a tank war. Mine is on the LEFT and I kicked Ryan's trash! (and I certainly did NOT kick it over with my foot!)


"Come on! Shake your tail feathers!"
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The kids got the hang of lighting sparklers off of eachother's

Dawson said, "It smells like STINK!" and plugged his nose a lot because of the smoke coming off of the sparkler. (I think because it was a year old, is smoked a ton)


I told the kids to dance during the flashers, and this is what I got. Ryanna was still shaking her tail feathers, and Dawson was dancing like Princess Leia from his Star Wars Legos game.









Silly kids! They had a blast!

rencontrez-moi à Paris

Sorry for the blurred spots in the photos, but I just had to take pictures of my pictures again! Today, exactly 10 years ago, the Americans staying at our hotel in Paris wished us, "a Happy Independence Day" and to enjoy ourselves in France. I'll never forget that moment; how we Americans celebrate this very special day in history, and outside of that bubble, the rest of the world doesn't care. They have their own celebrations, but how truly we lucky and fortunate we are for our independence. What better way to celebrate that luxury by climbing it! It truly is the "City of Light" and is goregous.

Mom and I climbed every single step! The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Exhibition in 1889, held in celebration of the French Revolution in 1789.
The construction was only meant to last for the duration of the Exposition, but it still stands today, despite all protests from contemporary artists who feared the construction would be the advent of structures without 'individuality' and despite the many people who feared that this huge 'object' would not fit into the architecture of Paris.


Here is the "Sabrina" spot. Remember from the 1995 version with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond, where she is helping a photoshoot after she arrives in Paris? That was shot at this location. It was so cool!
We laid on the rocks underneath the Tower, and took this picture.
Notice the 547 on the Tower? It was a countdown until the new millenium, the year 2000. They also hung a picture of Gustav Eiffel to honor him. What a truly remarkable story about this monument.


Musee D'Orsay! It was spectacular! The museum contains 2300 paintings, 1500 sculptures and 1000 other objects. It covers a period from mid 19th century till mid 20th centuries and contains works from Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and others.

Notice the teeny, tiny clock just above and to the right of my head? It's small from here...


But it's HUGE! We're actually inside of the clock.

Notre-Dame was so cool. I loved the gothic arcitecture, and inside houses the most intricate and beautiful stained-glass circular windows I have ever seen.

We enjoyed the view when we climbed to the top of The Sacré-Cœur Basilica located on Montmarte. The massive building has managed to keep its beaming white color even in the polluted air of a big city like Paris. This can be attributed to the Château-Landon stones which were used for the construction of the Sacré-Coeur. When it rains, the stones react to the water and secrete calcite, which acts like a bleacher. It is an amazing place.


We also visited Hard Rock Cafe and ate a good burger, drove through the tunnel where Princess Diana famous and tragic accident took place, signed her wall where "her" flame is. Ate chocolate eclairs in the Louvre, admired the famous parquet flooring, and got to see the highly overrated Mona Lisa painting. (among other things) You can't even get close enough to really see her.






Another HILARIOUS thing that happened to me...I was so tired when we were taking tours of all these museums and historical sites that out of the corner of my eye I saw a bench so I went and sat down on it.
I had only been there for a couple minutes while the group was admiring some masterpiece, when I heard something like this.
"Hé! Descendez de cette œuvre exposée immédiatement! Ce n'est pas un banc. Levez-vous en ce moment!" Which as you probably guessed means that I should get up immediately. Come to find out, I WAS SITTING ON AN EXHIBIT! I got up and looked down, and it was just a big stone slab. Who knew that was ART? ha

All-in-all it was tremendous! My favorite part of the trip is yet to come though...tomorrow's ITALY!

Oh, as a small note, the World Cup was going on. France vs. Italy. Today we were in France and tomorrow we will be in Italy (10 years ago, of course) and it was very very very obvious who won...

"hey kids...big ben, parliament..."

Exactly 10 years ago TODAY, Mom and I jumped the country and made some very fun memories together when I was in high school. She helped chaperone a Europe trip and these are some of my scrapbooking pages that I put together. (I was a beginner, they're kinda primitive!) Let the whirlwind begin!

My ABSOLUTE most favorite part of London was the show we attended. LES MIS at the Queen's Theatre! It was fabulous. I got to see Judy Kuhn as Cosette, she's is from the original Dream Cast of Les Mis. AMAZING!

Changing of the guard and wondering why they kept sneezing. Buckingham Palace, and I'm still awaiting my personal invitation to Tea. We stayed in the Hyde Park Towers Hotel, near Hyde Park. We never actually visited it, but we saw it several times from our tour bus. That doesn't count, does it?
Tower of London and a nice English guy, and then Big Ben! Where my brand new camera broke; but at least I got to hear him BONG!
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cheese nips and chlorine

The other day, Kristin and her boys and me and my brood loaded up and headed to the most fun part of Moscow...the Aquatic Center! It's got fun for all ages, and it's relatively inexpensive to do. It was really fun! If you wonder why I don't have many of Ryanna, that's because she was ALL OVER the place and I could only get a couple pictures of her while she was stationary!


Ryanna followed Cole around like a little puppy, I think she wishes that she had an older brother like him. Here she is with her friend from the ward, Isabella.

Thought that this was sweet; Cole plays with Carter and their feet were just darling together.

Dawson loved it, once he warmed up to the water. It always takes him a minute, but then he went down the froggy slide the entire 2 1/2 hours we were there.


Carter didn't like the water, not one little bit! He cried and squealed when I'd sprinkle water on his little feet, and clung to me or Kristin for dear life. He just sat in his stroller eating Cheese-Nips for most of the time. He was okay with that.



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This is the slide that I tried out, it was actually fun!



(Shhhhhhhh! Don't tell...I don't think they knew I took this picture, but here's my ward lined up along the edge of the pool. My dentist, my friends from Relief Society, a piano-student's mom, etc. ONLY IN MOSCOW!)


This says it all, how our day was!