Epic Europe

I can't believe it happened and it's already over. I have been living off of memories from my Europe trip back in September. Ever since my sister moved to Luxembourg we've been hatching a plan to meet in Paris and take Europe by storm! I met the Mitchell sisters in SLC airport and couldn't have asked for better travel companions. It was truly one of  the best experiences of my life!

The pics aren't chronological, so I'll summarize.

We started off with a short and stressful layover in London and arrived in Paris in the evening. It was a learning curve getting from the airport to the Airbnb, but we did it. We had a late dinner in a cafe below our SMALL airbnb and zonked.

Martha arrived the next morning and we hit Paris hard. Walked all day around the city. First stop after we obtained the Paris Pass was the Eiffel Tower and we went up and down and back and forth on the Metro system--thank goodness for Martha's Europe savvy. She even speaks passable French!

 The timeline is a blur but we went to Versailles for a full day. Eye candy and our legs almost fell off. But we met the "Ghost of the Helpful Frenchman" and studied the art of "Boomeranging through Marie's Hamlet." I had the best macaron at Lauduree. The next day was Angelina breakfast and all the museums. At the Louvre we jogged through and saw the must-sees. The Orangerie where Monet took our breath away, and the intermittent time was spent in cafes, discussing art and life and tons of humorous moments thrown in. By day 3 we were chock full of inside jokes and never got sick of each other! Croissants, crepes, macarons, it all lived up to the hype. Paris is my soul city in so many ways. We did a boat tour of the Seine, gasped at Notre Dame, traipsed through Sacre Coure and basked in all things French.

 We drove up to Brussels, Belgium in Martha's car, Biff. The car rides were where we felt our jetlag. After a breakfast of pastries, it was hard keeping our eyes open! Brussels hit us like a beautiful brick wall in your face. We walked straight for the Seafood restaurant where we inhaled fish soup. Never have I had something so fishy and delicious as that broth! We got to Mannequin Pis where a little boy peeing in a fountain was the awe and marvel of all tourists with a flair for potty humor. We were accosted by a bus full of Asians in a chocolate shop and Martha showed her Taiwanese aggression and got us some of the best truffles ever. Frites and waffles reigned supreme. We spent an embarrassingly long time doing silly photos in the town square. We ate at a Flemish restaurant where we were judged by a snooty waiter for drinking no wine or beer, and where we were served even more frites alongside a heavy pot roast. Concrete never tasted so good. Stimulating conversation flowed like wine and that's the only drug we needed!

 Bruges was a little dream. Can't believe people get to live among such incredible architecture and history! We climbed up the bell tower and ate more frites and waffles. We did a fair amount of people watching and searched out the lace and artsy shops along the way.

Next stop was Weesp, Netherlands. A stone's throw from Amsterdam. But not without a stop at Kinderdijk, where we donned ponchos and exclaiming YOLO!!! rode through the freezing rain to quaint little windmills with historic stories filled to the brim. We marveled at the Dutch people's Can-Do spirit and felt a little closer to the Mitchell's ancestry that day. The real treat was the informative and over-artistic video at the visitor's center. It had us scratching our heads on how the Dutch actually use the windmills to keep water from flooding their homes. They were just happy to have us there buying up all the Delft pottery and wooden shoes we could fit in our extra bags. We stopped off at a cafe where cocoa and stroopwaffles warmed us back up.

All that walking had my blood sugar dipping to dangerous lows. I chose to combat the hunger by toting my baguette around in my backpack's baguette pocket and nibbling off a bite or two to stave off the low sugars.

Weesp has our hearts in it's hands. We stayed at Hugo's Airbnb. You know, Hugo? Right down the street from the cathedral with charming little bells going all day and next to other charming colorful houses all in a row. The Dutch people are so friendly and we loved going to the town bakery and pretending to read their crazy language. Everyone and their dog speaks English. We were so grateful and so American. 

In Haarlem we went to the Corrie Ten Boom House where my heart was touched. I loved that book and to see right where it all happened was so special, so surreal and moving. We shopped in some of the best stores after that and all agreed that the aesthetic of their stores pleased us immensely. The modern combined with the old was striking. The next day we did the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and it was equally special. Just such strong, brave people in a time of chaos and heartbreak so unfathomable.

We spent more time eating and learning our way through Amsterdam. The Rijksmuseum didn't disappoint and the Van Gogh museum blew us away. I could go on forever!

We spent the last day absorbing little Weesp and Martha had to leave us. We had a near disaster of finding a ride to the airport at 3:30am and let's just say we met a red-van driving angel in Amsterdam.

We made it home to our families eager to see our babies and share our experiences. It was hard missing my family, but Tyler and my parents and his parents combined to make it all happen and they did great. I'm so grateful to them. This whole experience was such a gift!

Catching Up a little

So my last post was Fall of LAST YEAR. Can't explain why I fell off the bandwagon, but I blame instagram and how easy it is to post about life there.

So in catch up blitz mode, I will attempt to summarize our year since then. 

Christmas happened and so did our baby hipster Mary.

 We've been to the cabin in the snow and sun this year. Went to Yellowstone in the Spring with friends and it was cold.

 We got a record amount of snow in Twin Falls too. Lots of snow days and it took a while to thaw us out.

Haven turned 10, I turned 32, Amelia turned 2, Tyler turned 35, June turned 8 and got baptized a few weeks ago, and Robyn is almost 6.

The solar eclipse came over Idaho. We watched with our Elison Dentistry staff. 97percent totality over here!

More pics didn't upload, but just imagine them:

Tyler has been biking a lot. A few bike races and the Spudman triathlon again. We did swimming lessons in the summer and started school in mid- August. Haven is a 5th grader, June a 2nd grader, Robyn started Kindergarten and Amelia started pre preschool. We're doing a lot of dance lessons and piano lessons. Our days fill up super fast and Tyler's still working 5 days a week, even though dentists are supposedly only 4 day a week workers. He's gone to a few USU football games this fall. I've been to Europe to see my sister with our friends. We just bought a new van. And we just got back from Disneyland!!

Now to hopefully more regular blogging...

Fall 2016 pt 2

June turned 7 and with it came her tooth getting loose. She didn't dare pull it out, so we eventually tied it to a Nerf gun dart and shot it out. 

 I repainted and re-configured the toy room. Love it now!

 We went to Utah for Tyler's dental conference and it was all fun in a hotel all weekend. And Ikea.

 We visited Uncle Mark and combed his beard.

 Had a lovely warm late fall this year at the park.

Fall 2016

Over Labor Day my parents came up to the Elison Cabin. It was quite a good time!

 We explored the river's edge, the weather was already chilly.

 Had corn on the cob. Millie just devoured it!

 Ate at Big Judd's. Where else?

 Back home, Robyn was gifted a new bike by Haven. She won it at a raffle in a 5k we did.

 Tyler and I were running fools last year. We did the Rim to Rim race in September. It was a lot of good times for 7.5 miles of up and down! And of course, we're sporting the Elison Dentistry shirts.

 My brother Mark was there that weekend with his family and ran it too. Ended up placing in the 5k run. Looks like the scraggly Forest Gump. Amelia thought so too.

 We had the chance to go rappelling with some friends. I'm going to lie, I didn't love it.

 That same day was Junie's 7th bday party at the swimming pool. It was a riot! Everyone loves June.

 She got an instant camera for one of her presents.