Month 15 {January 16-February 15}

Month 15 was full of sickness (coughs and colds all around) and trying to beat the winter blues. We tried to fit in some last-minute pre-baby travel with a trip to Vienna for Nate and I, and a girls’ trip to Paris for me. The boys had a week off of school, which meant getting creative trying to keep ourselves occupied with the cold, rainy weather. Some things we want to remember about this month (and some random everyday pictures, too):

Sunday January 17 – first day of “Hotel Church”. We now meet at the Novotel Hotel in Kirchberg, which is about a 5 minute drive from our house (only 1.5km). There have been some interesting logistics to work out since we only have a tiny storage space there during the week and a limited number of classrooms on Sundays. A lot more setup and cleanup is involved, but we’re enjoying the extra space and I love having room for the kids to play in nursery.

Playing at the Bus and Tram museum with the Wares on a Thursday afternoon.

Trip to Vienna, Austria (separate blog post about that). While we were gone, the kids spent hours swimming, playing at Quick Burger (like McDonald’s), and hanging out with their friends. They were even all up and dressed for church by 7:30 Sunday morning!

 

 

Tuesday January 26 – bike park with Mullins, Wares, and Star.

Wednesday January 27 – Picked Nate up from the airport from Munich and dropped him off straight at work. After the kids got home from school, we stayed outside for a long time riding bikes and playing soccer on the driveway. I tried to keep the kids up until Nate got home a little after 8, but Ryan fell asleep on the couch right before he got home. Nate flew out early the next morning for London, and Ryan was really sad that he didn’t get to see him in between trips.

Saturday Jan 30 – Nate was out of town again for the day, to some Stake Priesthood meetings 3.5 hours away. We had plans to get together with friends who were husband / father – less, but Eliza was really sick with an eye infection and sinus infection (and overall miserable!) so we hung out at home instead.

Coughs and colds for everyone. We went through a couple rounds of everyone being sick, the joys of winter!

My Girls’ Trip to Paris (see separate post). Nate and the kids kept busy with haircuts, playing at the park, and McDonald’s on Saturday.

 

 

Carnival break: Ryan had brought home a note from his teacher early in the first week of February saying that they were supposed to dress up on Friday for a Carnival party. We planned a costume for him (he said he wanted to dress up as a fireman, which I was more than happy about since we already had a fireman costume), and I asked Bennett every day that week if he was supposed to dress up and if his teacher had said anything about it. He said it was just for the little kids, they weren’t dressing up, and his teacher hadn’t said anything about it. Ryan wore his costume to school Friday afternoon and they had a little party, and when Bennett came home from school he said everyone else was dressed up except him and another kid who had forgotten. Mom fail! He didn’t seem too sad about it, but brought it up several times and I could tell he was disappointed. The next week, I noticed that in a little planner that he takes to school, there was a note taped in there on that date saying that they could dress up. Since he has never had anything written in there, I didn’t even think to look there. Anyway, that was the extent of our Carnival celebration.

The following week, the kids had a break from school. The weather wasn’t great, so we tried to keep ourselves busy with indoor activities and get a little bit of the kids’ energy out each day.

Monday – We went over to hang out with the Oates for the late morning / afternoon. The kids played really well together and were happy to hang out and play games.

Tuesday – We met the Wares, Mullins, and the Oates at Yoyo in the morning – an indoor play place. I used pregnancy as an excuse not to go down the ridiculously steep slide, and Ryan wanted to go home because he got coughing and threw up a tiny bit (it didn’t get anywhere but in his hands). Since Yoyo is ridiculously expensive and you pay for 90 minutes, I wasn’t about to leave time unused, so I eventually convinced Ryan to stay and play longer.

Wednesday – We spent the morning decorating sugar cookies at Megan’s with our crew of American friends. They had sprinkle options galore and took full advantage. After cookies, we met Nate and Russ and Star at the Kebab place for lunch. Eliza thought the tiny fork they give you with your kebab was a required utensil for eating her fries, and concentrated pretty hard to get each one on the fork.

Thursday – We spent Thursday morning at Ikea, where Bennett and Ryan enjoyed smaland with Sienna and Noah while I shopped with Eliza. Later that afternoon, I told Eliza that we were planning to go swimming the next day, and she insisted on putting on her swimsuit.

Friday – We met the Oates at Les Thermes for some swimming. The kids had a great time and loved the wave pool. That afternoon, we met up with the Mullins, Wares, and Oates at the Airplane Park. It was freezing cold, but we managed to stay for a while and get the kids’ energy out.

That night, Nate and I attempted a stay-home date night for Valentine’s Day. The missionaries came over to make a program for a baptism, so we got started late and didn’t end up eating until almost 9:00. Takeout from Vapiano’s, homemade Bruschetta, and hanging out talking without the kids.

 

Saturday February 13 – We took a late morning train to Esch-sur-Alzette with the Oates, mostly because the kids were jealous that I got to ride the train to Paris and we thought it would be fun for them. Eliza especially loved it, and the boys all played musical seats on the 25-minute each way train ride. We didn’t have much planned once we got there, just walked to a chocolate shop to enjoy some hot chocolate, then walked back and rode teh train home.

     

That night, we drove down to Tétange (a city in southern Luxembourg) for the Buergbrennen celebration – a huge bonfire to “burn away winter”. We met the Mullins and Russ and Star down there, and huddled in the food tent for as long as possible to stay out of the rain. Pouring rain. We bought a torch for each of the boys and joined the procession. Bennett and Ryan tired of carrying the torches pretty quickly, but Eliza wanted to hold one and wouldn’t let go the rest of the time (don’t worry, I held it with her the whole time). It rained really hard the entire time, but hoping to avoid starting our umbrellas on fire, we endured the rain and ended up soaking wet. At the end of the procession, we waited for a while for them to get the bonfire started. It was basically a 2-story building frame (made of dried Christmas tree trunks and filled with more dried Christmas trees). We almost gave up and left, but they eventually overcame the rain and got it started, and we were glad we stuck it out. The fire was quite impressive! We hung around for just a few minutes to watch the medieval knights fight, which Eliza found pretty entertaining. On the drive home, she kept saying “knights fall down” and laughing. When we got back to the car, we peeled off the wet layers (although our clothes underneath our coats were all wet too) and attempted to warm up. Despite the cold and the rain, we were glad we went.

  

Sunday February 14 – Our Valentine’s Day was pretty low-key. After dinner, we had fruit pizzas for dessert (which Bennett has been asking for), although Eliza was the only one of the kids who actually had fruit on hers. Bennett wanted Ryan to decorate his because he said Ryan does a better job of putting sprinkles on (Ryan loads on the sprinkles). We planned to take some to our friends that night and the kids were really excited about it, but we ran out of time and decided to take them for FHE on Monday instead.

 

And a couple miscellaneous Day-to-Day pictures: the kids talking to their grandparents on facetime. They took the phone down to see the chickens and gather eggs, and all 3 kids were really into it. Eliza made some pretty impressive rooster sounds. And waiting for the bus in the morning. If Eliza wakes up before the boys leave, she insists on coming to the bus stop.

 

Paris Girls’ Trip {February 5-7}

When I first told my Luxembourg friends back in October that I was pregnant, someone suggested that we needed to take a girls’ trip before the baby was born. Several ideas were considered over the next few months, but we decided on Paris (how could we not?) and picked a date when our husbands were all able & willing to hang out with the kids for the weekend. We boarded a TGV on Friday evening and got to Paris late that night. We took the metro to our hotel and popped out across the street from the Arc de Triomphe. After checking in, we went out in search of a late-night snack, only to end up at McDonald’s (right across the street from our hotel) because it was the only thing we could find open. Settled back in our hotel with our snacks / treats / late-night-meals, we all congregated in one room and stayed up for a while longer talking. (these pictures are all a mixture of pics everyone took, and I can’t remember whose are whose).

Angelina – Our first stop on Saturday morning was the restaurant Angelina for brunch. The building was beautiful, and the “Angelina Breakfast” was delicious (hot chocolate, fresh squeezed orange juice, 3 pastries, fresh fruit, and eggs benedict with a roll). We took full advantage of being able to sit at a delicious restaurant without kids and enjoy our meal.

The view out our hotel windows, the Princess Caroline, and a short walk through the Tuileries gardens across from Angelina

   

We chose one museum to visit while we were there since most of us had been to Paris before and didn’t feel like we wanted to spend the whole day in museums. The Rodin was just right – I love the sculpture-filled gardens outside, it’s not too big, and we were able to make the most of our kid-free audio guides.

When I went to Paris 10 years ago with my parents, Jake & Stacey, and Camille, we visited the Rodin museum and took turns posing like the statues. We found it quite difficult – and entertaining to watch. I made sure to get a picture to send them. And on the right –as we looked at this picture later we never could figure out the cause of Megan’s apparent exasperation, or why I seem to be covering my ears.

 

   

  

 

Rue Montorgueil – Our next stop was Rue Montorgueil, a famous shopping street lined with restaurants, cafés, bakeries, fish stores, cheese shops, wine shops, produce stands and flower shops. Tasha guided us to each of the famous shops from a blog post she read as we walked.

Flower shops with their tempting displays, and “A la Mère de Famille”, a branch of the oldest confectionary shop in Paris. You can see me eyeing the chocolate displays in the window…

 

Stohrer – oldest pastry shop in Paris, beautiful inside (the second pic is the tile floor in the entryway). I passed on actually buying a pastry, then saw Megan and Star eating their éclairs and regretted it the rest of the day.

 

One of the highlights for us: La Fermette – the cheese store. The blog post Tasha was reading was from 2011, so when she read about a Tom Cruise look-alike working behind the counter, we figured he wouldn’t be there anymore, only to look up and see said look-alike behind the counter (the resemblance isn’t as apparent in the pics, unfortunately). They pretended not to speak English while we asked them about the different cheeses, so I attempted some interpreting until we realized they understood our English as well as my French interpretations. Tasha ordered a chunk of the recommended 30-month-old comté for us to share, which we thoroughly enjoyed with a baguette we picked up down the street. I’m not usually a fan of the really “stinky” cheeses and this one was strong but fantastic.

  

enjoying our comté and baguette

Notre Dame – We had planned to go to the Sainte Chapelle and walked from Rue Montorgueil through an area filled mostly with adult shops and crêpe stands (random combination!) only to get there at 5:03 and realize they close at 5:00 in the winter instead of 6:00. We were close to Notre Dame, so figured we should at least drop by while we were there for some selfies. The sunset lighting on Notre Dame was gorgeous! Mandy suggested a little English bookstore just across the river, so we headed over to peruse “Shakespeare and Company” before continuing our adventures.

  

 

We had a little time before our dinner reservation, so we walked up to the Le Marais area, where we found Le Fleux – a design and home decor “store” (there were actually 3 different stores) with room upon room of temptation. All too soon, we needed to make our way to dinner at Pain, Vin, Fromage, a little fondue restaurant. I’ve never been to a fondue restaurant, and it was fabulous! We ordered a Fondue Savoyarde (the traditional one, according to our waitress), Fondue Meridionale (traditional + tomatoes and herbes de provence), and Fondue Seguin (goat cheese and camembert); along with some salads. It was both delicious and fun, and I could barely walk afterwards I was so full (although honestly, I more waddle than walk these days anyway).

 

Nice belly shot in the picture below on the right

 

Our last stop for the evening was the Sacré Coeur. We made the mistake of getting off at the metro stop that makes you walk through the sketchy area to get to the Sacré Coeur (I can’t ever seem to remember which one it is to avoid it) but once we got up to the Sacré Coeur area it was wonderful. We walked through the basilica, where there was some sort of mass or celebration going on – people singing and walking through the aisles. We made our way over to the artists’ plaza, but by that time (it was just before 10) it was pretty quiet. We walked down a side street to a crêpe place that Tasha remembered from several years ago and enjoyed some delicious banana nutella crêpes before heading back to our hotel (with a quick drive-by of the Moulin Rouge on our way to the metro stop). Nail painting, comparing purchases from the day, and lots of talking followed at the hotel.

A candy shop we passed near the Centre Pompidou on our way from dinner to the metro, and our attempted (green??) selfie at the Sacré Coeur. There must have been some weird street lights.

  

I thought I should include this little dose of reality in case you were too jealous of my weekend – this is how I spent most of the evenings and a lot of the day – coughing like crazy and holding my stomach because each cough sent a sharp, shooting pain through my side. So fun. I had been sick all week and hoped I would be recovered by the time the weekend came, but no such luck.

Saturday morning, we were rudely awakened at 6:45am by a blaring fire alarm. At first, I wondered why Star wasn’t turning her alarm off (and why she would set it to such a loud annoying sound). Our responses to the fire alarm weren’t exactly emergency-appropriate. Calls to the front desk indicated it was nothing, a couple of us went back to bed, one of us suggested taking the elevator down to check on things, and eventually 4 of us went down the stairs to check in at the front desk, only to be told it was burnt toast that set off the alarm and everything was fine. We all went back to bed (although I never was able to go back to sleep unfortunately) and reappeared a while later a little better prepared for the day.

We couldn’t let a trip to Paris pass by without at least seeing the Eiffel Tower, so we rode the metro to the Trocadero stop and turned the corner to see her in all her glory. After getting our fill of selfies and poses, we walked around in search of a boulangerie / patisserie to find some breakfast. We tried following a lady with a baguette sticking out of her bag and tried following the smell of freshly baked bread, but eventually gave up and made our way to the metro.

  

 

Our final stop before jumping back on the TGV to head home was a couple of covered markets full of fruit & veggie stands and different international foods. We each found something for lunch (quiche and taboulé for me), then made our way back to the train station and eventually home.

 

Despite the struggles of being 7+ months pregnant and having a bad cough, it was a great weekend with great friends. I love that we can hop on a train and be in Paris in 2 hours, and it was fun to see some areas that I hadn’t seen before. Nate was kind enough to be solo parent for the weekend, and seemed to have a great time with the kids. When they heard I was leaving, the boys weren’t sad or worried at all, but excited to have a whole weekend just with dad. Eliza wasn’t quite as happy about the situation but still did great. Ward members said it was pretty impressive to see all the dads at church with their kids, on time. I think I need to plan girls’ trips more often…