We're Having a Baby!

I am officially archiving on the blog...we are having a baby! Cole and I are both excited for this next step. Although there are fears, I know we will be great parents. Baby Harper is currently almost 14 weeks and growing beautifully. The due date is January 30th 2012. Daddy Cole does not want to know the sex of the baby as he is a little old fashioned in that sense so we have decided to wait to find out what baby is until the baby is born. This will be hard for me, but I've heard it is well worth the wait. Baby shopping can still occur, it will just be a little harder without being able to pick out pink and blue items! Starting this weekend I will start taking pics of my belly on a monthly basis to track how baby is growing.

Baby Harper we love you already and you are already in my dreams. I can't wait for the day that I get to meet you. Lots of love, your mom.

I'm Coming Home....With a Layover in Iceland

Leaving Paris Monday morning was sad, but we did have something to look forward to. Cole and I intentionally planned an 8 hour layover in Iceland so that we could go to the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik. After our layover n Iceland at the beginning of our trip, we were excited to go back to the Iceland airport. It is seriously one of the best airports I have been in.

We woke up at the crack of dawn (about 4:30 am to be exact) in order to catch the 5:30 metro ride to the airport. When we arrived in Iceland we purchased our tickets from Reykjavik Excursions for the Blue Lagoon. We had about an hour to kill before we had to board the bus so we grabbed breakfast. We had our last taste of Skyr yogurt and complimented it with an amazing ham and cheese croissant. A wonderfully simple but delicious final European meal. I will mention since we have been back to Boise we had a Skyr yogurt hunt in hopes somewhere like the Co-Op might carry it. Alas, no such luck. Our fingers are crossed that when Whole Foods comes in they might carry it.

We took a few pictures on the way to the Blue Lagoon. Pictures include some scenery pics including one of the distant mountains, and a large ship bay where they repair ships. The drive took us through parts of the town and it is a very peaceful looking place. Cole and I have determined we would come back here to take a vacation just to experience what Iceland has to offer.

The blue lagoon was amazing. It was a relaxing end to a very busy vacation. We were able to just sit and soak. There was plenty of room for all of the visitors, so you didn't feel crowded. They have naturally occurring silica mud that you put on your face to act as a mask. The lagoon contains a waterfall which you could sit under to massage your back. Cole went into the saunas as well as the steam bath houses they had. Unfortunately since I was pregnant I couldn't go into those because the water and heat is too much for the baby. On the bright side though, the water in the main part of the lagoon that you lounge in was perfect at about 98 degrees. This place also has a wonderful restaurant that you can enjoy as well. We didn't have time to eat since we only had about 3 hours at the lagoon and wanted to do soak in as much relaxation as we could. Although the pics may look like it, NO we were not naked. ;o)  Clothes were had by all.

Last Day in Paris

The last day in Paris was bittersweet. We took the last day at a leisurely pace and enjoyed every last minute of it. We woke up grabbed some breakfast and started to pack our things. We decided to hit up the Eiffel Tower one last time in order to make a serious attempt of going up in it. When we got there it was PACKED! There were more people than we had seen at any of our previous visits. We got in line for a pillar with an elevator. After climbing up the stairs of the Arc de Triomphe and being pregnant, I realized there was no way I was going to attempt to climb up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower. After waiting in the line for about 30 minutes and not even making it an 1/8th of the way through the line, we decided to figure out why it was taking so long. Turns out, two of the four pillars were out of operation and our line was running, but the elevator was having issues and was going VERY slow. Cole asked me one last time if I wanted to try the stairs line and I stood firm on not going up the stair line. So....long story short we didn't go up the Eiffel Tower. We realized we would have to wait in line at least 3 hours just to get to the base pillar. Then they were announcing at least another hour wait to get to the top. I wasn't ready to spend my last day in Paris waiting in line at the Eiffel Tower. We took our last pictures of the Eiffel Tower and said 'au revoir.'

So we meandered our way back down to the Champs Elysees. We took a different route this time and stopped along the way for a drink and a break. When we got to the Champs Elysees we hit up the H&M. Since it was the last day and we still had quite a bit of shopping we hadn't done, we thought this was the perfect place to do it. This H&M is the biggest I have been in and it was awesome! Three stories tall, two for women's clothing and one for men. I bought a new purse, dresses, and a few other items.

After shopping we wandered down the Champs Elysees more, we walked down one side the other day, and now we walked down the other side of the avenue. Along the way we found a Peugeot car show room and a McDonald's. Although we didn't eat at the McDonald's, we went in to take pictures of the menu. For anyone that has seen Pulp Fiction, you know that the Quarter Pounder with Cheese is called a 'Royale with Cheese' there. As we wandered in they have a FABULOUS baked good cafe section that I snapped a photo of shown below. A french man commented on me taking the photo and said "you don't have these at your McDonald's in the states?" Um, no - I wish I did!!

After shopping we decided to head back to the flat. Cole was not feeling well and wanted to lay down. He had a headache and was feeling like he was going to throw up. Cole took a nap at the flat for a few hours and I planned out our route to the airport. We hadn't been to the airport in Paris yet and needed to map out what metro stations to use and ensure that they ran since we had to get up at the crack of dawn.

After Cole woke up we headed out to get some dinner. Our tour guide on the Fat Tire bike tour had recommended a local pizza place in the Montmarte area called the 'Pink Flamingo.' This place is sort of similar to Flying Pie Pizzeria but smaller. Translation: Awesome. We got the L'Obama pizza. It was a thin crust pizza with canadian bacon and a pineapple chutney. For dessert we had a strawberry basil sorbet. It was divine. We took both of these back to the flat to eat and to wait for our host to check us out of the flat.

After dinner and meeting with our host we finished packing our things. We managed to get all of our belongings including all of our new shopping finds and gifts back into the original two bags we brought. We decided we would end our Paris vacation right where we started it - the Sacre Coeur. We made the climb back up the stairs so we could watch the Eiffel Tower light show one last time from a different point of view. We wandered around the Sacre Coeur and looked at it in all of its lighted glory. Then we found a spot to watch the hourly light show of the Eiffel Tower. It was a romantic and lovely way to end the trip. I will miss Paris dearly, but it was everything I hoped it would be and I can't wait to go back one day.

Paris Day 3 - Rainy Day with a Hint of Sunshine at the End

Whenever I dream of Paris I think of walking to the local patisserie and getting wonderful pastries for breakfast. This is exactly what we did today. There was a wonderful patisserie shop a few blocks away from the flat and we picked out a coffee eclair, a raspberry filled beignet, and a raspberry mousse pastry. I have to give props to Le Cafe de Paris in Boise, as the raspberry mousse pastry was very comparable to a dessert they have at Le Cafe de Paris. The treats were heavenly and everything I had hoped they would be. Have I mentioned that I made a point of having dessert at almost every meal in Paris? I needed my Parisian dessert fix!

Out of all of the days in Paris it rained the most this day. It would rain off and on in 30 minute intervals for the better part of the day. We took our goodies from the Patisserie back to the house since it was raining and a park didn't sound like the best idea. After 'breakfast' we decided to do some more shopping at the local stores. I didn't find much but Cole was able to find a few very nice French style button up shirts. Cole was disappointed though when he realized that European sizes are smaller than U.S. sizes and so he had to get a size 'bigger' than he would have had to in the states. We decided to try our luck at finding another H&M besides the one on the Champs Elysees. We walked quite a ways to get to where the store said it was located but we had no luck. We did get to see some more of Paris, and ran into a Socialist Party movement in a square. We didn't take much in the way of pictures though due to the rain.

We had scheduled a night bike tour that was to meet at the Eiffel Tower so we decided to grab an early dinner before heading to meet the tour. There was another Cafe near our flat that we hadn't tried and since it was still pouring rain we opted for this since it was close. It turned out to have a FABULOUS meat and cheese plate that included over 6 different types of cheeses, pate, and other meats.. The brie on it was the creamiest I have ever tasted in my life.

In true European style we lost track of the time and realized we needed to haul to the Eiffel Tower so we wouldn't miss our tour. We got to the cafe just a little after 4 and didn't leave until after 6. We were supposed to be at the Eiffel Tower by 6:45. We hauled to the metro and then ran to the Eiffel Tower. We made it just in time. However just as Cole told me, even though we were there right before 7 we ended up standing around a while because they waited for late tourists. So, we didn't have to run after all. :o)  

On the way to the Fat Tire headquarters where the bikes were stored they had an exhibit that local students had done with interpretations of the Eiffel Tower. I thought they were fascinating and snapped a few pictures of some of them.

The bike tour was one of the highlights of the trip. The weather which had been uncooperative all day, finally cleared up and didn't produce a single drop the rest of the evening. My bestie Meagan recommended it after going last year and I was ready to go rain or shine (she went when it was raining and still had a fabulous time). We started at the Eiffel Tower and biked to Notre Dame via the Latin Quarter (Rue St. Germain). At Notre Dame we stopped for world famous ice cream at Berthillion. This ice cream is only made on the island that Notre Dame is on and is out of this world. We had a scoop of mocha and a scoop of the chocolat noir. The dark chocolate ice cream was rich and absolutely divine. While eating our ice cream we learned how the black spire that sits on top of the Notre Dame was left as a reminder of just how dirty the whole church was before laser cleaning came along to clean all of the pollution, acid, and other chemicals off of the church. Below are a few pics from the beginning of the bike tour. Also included are a few pictures of the oldest church in Paris (even older than Notre Dame).

After Notre Dame we headed off toward the Louvre. The ironic part of this bike tour, was that most of the places we went with the exception of going down the Latin Quarter on the bike tour and not going down the Champs Elysees, were all places Cole and I went on our 5 hour long walk the day before. So it was sort of amusing since it took A LOT less time via bike. Below are some more pictures of us a the Louvre. These are some of my favorite.

After the Louvre we headed out for the next part of the tour, a Seine River evening boat cruise with all you can drink wine. We had lots of fun on this and got to talk so some of the other people on our tour. We met people from Melbourne, Australia, London, California, and more. Cole drank quite a bit of wine as he buddied up with the tour guides. We got some more pictures of the Eiffel Tower at night. After the boat cruise we headed back to the Fat Tire headquarters on our bikes. We went out to a locals bar with our new found friends from the bike tour and stayed out until just before the metro closed then headed back to Montmarte. It was a fabulous ending to a rainy day.