Wednesday, December 31, 2014

December 2014


December flew by in a blur.  I can hardly remember anything we did.  A lot of the same as with November.  Chad had a January deadline with getting his thesis done, so that kept him very busy and my work was super busy during December as well.  The kids enjoyed school, especially their final rollespil.  We spent a Saturday in Copenhagen and visited the National Museum for our last time.  I don't think we even took a single picture.  Really, a pretty unexciting month. 
Christmas was nice, we spent the time here as a family with most of our usual traditions.  Gift giving was really limited since we would be moving so soon, so we surprised the kids with a trip to Lalandia.  We headed down there the day after Christmas and had a fun time, swimming, ice skating, bowling, etc.  Then I finished off the year by getting Pneumonia and feeling pretty miserable.  I love New Years Eve here, with the crazy firework display.  It was a little hard to enjoy it this year though, with feeling so crappy.  Oh well.  2014 was an amazing year for us!  We got to do a ton of traveling and saw so many awesome things and had so many great experiences.  What a great year!

Here are a few pictures from December:

 Rollespil


We had the funnest time going to a Tree lot and picking out and cutting down our own Christmas tree.  It was a beautiful day and we spent a long time searching down the perfect tree.  It was lots of fun!







Decorating the Christmas Tree











Christmas Morning










Sunday, November 30, 2014

November 2014

We didn't do anything this month.  Chad hit the books hard to start finishing off his thesis.  The kids went to school.  I worked on the computer.  That was about it.  I think we took a total of 20 pictures for the entire month.  Not even any of the cat.  So, here is November in a Nutshell.

 I don't know what Noah is doing, but that is his sister's dress he's half wearing.  Love the look on his face.

 Noah wrote his name out with chips on his quesadilla.  He probably didn't end up eating any of it.

 Playing with Lego's while we were babysitting Olivia and Owen.  Fun friend time!

 Yes, this is a real, live reindeer.  To celebrate the beginning of the holiday season, the Albertslund centrum held a fun tree-lighting event with Santa Claus and reindeer.



How cool is this picture?!?

Friday, October 31, 2014

Halloween

We had a small little Halloween party with the Jensen's.  Some pumpkin stew, fun cupcakes.  Nothing exciting since Halloween isn't really celebrated here.  But, of course, the kids loved it!




Oh, and this random picture of Noah sleeping with a dress on.  Haha!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Paris - Part 3

For Day 4, we headed a little outside of Paris to the Palace of Versailles.  I have a memory of learning about the history of the Palace and of Louis XIV and then later of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI.  Since then, I have always had a desire to walk down the hall of mirrors and take in the splendor of one of the greatest palaces in the world.

 I was glad to have the experience, but this was probably my least favorite part of our trip.  The crowds were so crazy, you could barely move or even see anything and a large portion of the palace was closed.  So, it was a bit disappointing.  Oh well, still neat.  We had voice tours with us, which made it more interesting.  The kids especially enjoyed that part.  But the crowds were seriously so awful.  We enjoyed it more once we got out of the palace and onto the grounds.  It was a pretty cold day, so we didn't linger for an extremely long time, but we did walk around for a while and had a nice time enjoying the beautiful grounds.









Crazy Crowds!






The kids would have stayed all day, chasing after the cat.  Haha!



My favorite picture of the trip!
















The only group photo we managed to take.  We should really have done more, but at least we have the one!


Once leaving Versailles, we decided to go back to the Eiffel Tower, have dinner in the area and see the tower lit up at night.  It was a fun place to be during our last night in Paris.  The sights, the sounds, the smells...  Ahhh, Paris...


The kids and Grammy all enjoyed riding the carousel, at sunset, in front of the Eiffel tower.








Our flight back was in the evening, so we had almost an entire last day to enjoy in the city.  We headed back up to Sacre Couer and to the area known as Montmartre.  If you've seen the movie, Moulin Rouge, this is that part of the city.  There is a fun area with a lot of shops and people painting. 





We toured the inside of Sacre Couer and then did some shopping and had lunch.  It was fun to meander along the streets and see the sites.  We didn't have any definite plans for the day beyond this, so I suggested we try to find the Moulin Rouge.  After wandering down many crazy little roads, we made it to a main street.  We were quickly dismayed to find ourselves in an area with a lot of questionable buildings.  Chad walked across the street to see if he could see the Moulin Rouge, but said he couldn't and we decided we just need to get the kids out of the area.  Especially since we were standing under a sign advertising Table Dancing and XXX Girls!  Haha!  It wasn't until later on, when I pointed out a picture of the Wind Mill at the Moulin Rouge that Chad said he had seen it when he crossed the street and we were right by it.  He didn't know what he was looking for.  Oops!  Anyway, we headed over to the Montmartre Cemetery.  I find cemeteries fascinating and beautiful and this one was so amazing!







 All the old mausoleums are above ground and just so beautiful.  We wandered around there for a while before heading back to take the funicular up to Sacre Couer and then heading back to our apartment where we cleaned up and headed off to the airport for an uneventful trip home.
Paris was amazing!  Seeing all these old, iconic sites was something I absolutely loved.  I didn't enjoy the crazy crowds, but oh, the macaroons, the panini, the hot chocolate, the crepes.  All the street vendors hawking their 5 for 1 Euro Eiffel Tower keychains and then running once a police officer comes around the corner.  The military packing machine guns roaming the streets.  It was an experience and what is life, but experiences?  I was so glad to have been there with my loved ones.  What a grand adventure!