Say Aaaaah!
The kids had a semi-annual dental appointment today. I asked Kristy to take along the camera. When I was a wee lad I recall that the 4 of us boys (plus Mom) would pile into the green station wagon and drive over our pediatric dentist's office just to the West of (and down the hill from) the University of Utah. In the waiting room of the dentist's office, I would pick up one (or more) of the "Highlights" magazines and complete as many of the "hidden pictures" activities as I could find (some of them were pretty tough!). Going to the dentist is one of my most vivid (and pleasant) childhood memories. I can remember many details including walking in the stairwell to get to the right floor, waiting in the reception area, and sitting in the big olive green(?) chairs. Good times.

Here are a few pics of the kids at their dental cleaning today. As you can see one of the kids was not as happy about the cleaning as the two others.

Olivia's Preschool Birthday Ribbon
Olivia is celebrating her half-birthday today in preschool. It isn't technically her half-birthday (which occurred back in January), but Olivia just started school in January so the schedule is what it is. Coincidentally, because it just so happens to be Eliana's real birthday today, my parents are in town. So Olivia's Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and Dad were all there at the school while Olivia showed off pictures taken at her previous birthdays. She was very pleased to be the center of attention:

Eliana's 6-yr-old Birthday Party with Cousins
We invited all of the extended family over tonight for dinner and to celebrate Eliana's birthday with the cousins. We prepared a simple spread... sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, clam chowder, and (of course) the leftover desserts from Eliana's tea party this afternoon.

My Mom and Dad are in town. They come every year for the kids birthdays. The kids love to have them here. It is good to see them as much as we do (about 3x a year) since we don't live close.

We just rebooted Eliana's afternoon tea party. Kristy put out new tea cups on the craft table to paint and we reset the tea party table for the cousins. Everyone showed up... except Matt I think. I got a picture of all of the little ones, with the exception of Andrew (oops).

Another party == another set of candles to blow out...

and another set of presents to open!

Eliana's 6-yr-old Birthday Party with Friends
Eliana turns 6 this year. To celebrate, she asked for a "tea party" themed birthday party with her friends. Her first gift was from us, a brand new tea party dress and hat. Berkeley made her a new necklace which he took great care in making. She was very happy and smiling widely after putting on the new dress and the new necklace:

Kristy kept the party pretty simple. We set up just two tables (in the garage): one table for an activity/craft, and a second table for the tea party lunch Eliana is hosting.

Her friends were asked to attend in a fancy tea party dress and bring their favorite doll. Here is a picture of each of the guests:

Before lunch was served, Eliana and her friends used special markers to decorate white tea cups. After the marker dries, the tea cups are baked to set the ink. The kids had a lot of fun.

Time for tea!

Fortunately, the very best waiters were available for the tea party.

Time for dessert! And there was plenty to go around, including petit fours, macaroons, mini cream puffs, divinity, and chocolate covered Oreos.

Before dessert could be served though, there was the small matter of the birthday song and blowing out the candles.

After dessert, the presents were opened. Each guest posed with Eliana for a quick picture:

Sometimes Less is More
A few days ago I posted an article about making better bread with less kneading. As I confessed in my comments on the article, I don't always knead my wheaty heartier bread doughs to "windowpane" status. My stand mixer has a handy timer on it that I just set for 10, 12, or 15 minutes. Today I went down to 8 minutes (daring I know!), yet the final product was just as lovely and tasty as any loaf I have baked in the past. Check it out:

Ward Game Night
Here are some pictures that a friend took of our kids at the Ward Game Night. It was a good time. We rented an inflatable for the kids, played rock band on the stage, and various board games on tables set around and about in the gym. The kids had loads of fun.

Berkeley's Basketball Pictures
We received Berkeley's basketball prints today after his game.

In the team picture:

Back Row: Jackson, Fox, Coach Devine, Luke, Berkeley.

Front Row: Trevor, Carson, Carthic, Chris.

Not Pictured: Joshua, Rishii.

Not a bad looking squad.

Eliana Showing Off Her Smile
I was just playing around with the camera this afternoon (shooting RAW) and took this photo of Eliana. She was doing her best to show off her smile, but she has had very low energy since we returned from Paris... she may still be affected by the jet lag. Still pretty:

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Returning Home and Postscript
We made our way back to Seattle today by way of Salt Lake. We flew on Delta which wasn't quite as nice as Air France. The extra connection on the way back was not fun either (90 minute delay, 3 gate changes). All in all the experience was well worth it. I think the kids had a great time and (hopefully) it will be an experience that they remember... at least until we return.

Before we went to Disneyland yesterday, we asked each of the kids what their favorite part of the trip has been. For Berkeley it was the Catacombes, for Eliana is was the Eiffel Tower, and for Olivia it was the Opéra. I'm glad we saved the Disneyland visit for the last day. If you ask any of them now their favorite part of the trip, they will all respond "Disneyland" (Olivia is quite specific - the "Peter Pan" ride at Disneyland). Though we half-heartedly attempted to talk the kids out of going to Disneyland, it was a good way to end the trip. The kids did thoroughly enjoy the time spent there.

For anyone that is planning on traveling to Paris with kids, we did learn a few lessons.

1. Fly Air France... direct if possible. The SEA->CDG Air France flight was great; easily justifies a small bump in price.

2. Paris is colder than we thought it would be in February. Kristy prepared us well and packed coats, scarfs, boots, hat, and gloves. If we were to go again, I don't think we would go in February. But if winter travel to Paris is unavoidable, then pack snow pants, ugg boots, and extra gloves (between the 5 of us, we lost 3 pairs of gloves while we were out and about). Bring your own rain ponchos for Disneyland; if you are caught in bad weather inside of Disneyland... be warned, Disneyland prices are exorbitant.

3. Buy the "Paris Visite" Métro pass for the zone that you will be traveling in. There is a formula somewhere on the net that calculates how many times you must take the train to break even on the Métro pass. However, the calculation fails to consider the wait time in lines to buy individual tickets and the convenience of just having a buy-once-use-anywhere Métro ticket for any public mode of transportation (e.g. including the bus). We may have come out ahead from a cost standpoint if we had bought individual Métro tickets, for each different segment we traveled... but you really can't put a price on the convenience and hassle saved from having that Métro pass.

4. Research "kid-friendly" restaurants ahead of time. When the kids got hungry, we just walked around wherever we were until we found something that looked like the kids would like. Even then however, a couple of places turned us away because they would not seat young children. I think we ended up eating at decent places, but there were a couple of misses. Had we planned ahead, we probably could have dined at much better restaurants.

5. Definitely bring along a collapsible umbrella stroller for any child under 5-years-old. There is just so much walking that small legs tire quickly. Expect to carry the stroller (with the possibility of a sleeping child inside the stroller) up and down flights of stairs; not every Métro station is stroller-friendly and the museums are often easier to navigate by stairs rather than circling around looking for elevators. Bring ibuprofen along for your back. It will get sore... especially at my age (40).

6. Prepare your kids for the trip in advance by reading children's books on Paris and seeing children's movies set in or about Paris. Kristy did this and, as a result, the kids knew a lot about the monuments and museums that we were going to visit ahead of time. This helped them get excited about going to sites that they may otherwise have been disinterested in.

7. Travel lightly around town but be prepared. Kristy kept a bag over her shoulder that was well stocked with a water bottle, quick snacks for the kids (we had baguettes with butter), band-aids, umbrella, ponchos, toilet paper, tissues, maps, emergency meds, money, travel books, and a pocket french dictionary. (Kristy kept her passports and credit cards in inside coat pockets.) I carried a Tamrac Velocity 6x that I bought just for the trip. It carried our DSLR camera, two lenses, camera battery charger, extra memory, my wallet, and some euros. Both bags were compact and were tight against our body (beware of pickpockets!) and unobtrusive so that we could still carry the kids in tight quarters when the umbrella stroller was not an option.

8. Bring a couple of grocery tote bags. The supermarkets in France (at least the ones we visited) do not supply bags for transporting food. We used these to carry fresh bread and pastries and food back to our hotel from the local town square merchants.

9. Don't buy pastries in grocery stores, buy them fresh from the locally run patisserie. On our first day, we bought a bag of pain au chocolate from the supermarket. The quality was not even close to the fresh stuff baked daily at the nearby patisserie. Any money saved by buying in bulk is not worth the dramatic drop-off in quality.

10. Potty breaks, potty breaks, potty breaks. Take advantage of clean museum bathrooms when possible; some of the alternatives are a bit scary. For our wait-until-the-last-minute-I-really-gotta-go-Dad-now(!) kids, we were trained early in the week to have the kids stop for potty breaks when the potty was close... instead of waiting for the cues from the kids.

11. Pre-purchase tickets to museums/monuments/parks etc ahead of time to avoid lines.

12. Visit the Paris Opéra in the morning when there is less of a likelihood that the self-guided tour will conflict with a rehearsal.

13. Visit Versailles... it's worth the train ride. Pre-purchase tickets or buy the tickets in town just across the street from the train station. The line to buy tickets at Versailles is very long. Also, view the gardens in the morning when the line to enter the palace is very long. And take the mini bus - the place is huge! In the afternoon, we were able to walk right into the palace as the lines had long since dissipated.

14. Visit Disneyland last... or try and talk your kids out of going. It ain't that great; Disneyland California is far better.

15. Take a river cruise during lunch (or in the afternoon). The lunch cruise was much more appropriate for fidgety kids.

16. Expect to take unscheduled breaks. Kids tire easily. We stopped at cafés for hot chocolate, snacks, potty, etc much more than we thought we would. If you consider the amount of time it takes to de-bundle and re-bundle-up three kids for the weather during these breaks, it can quickly eat up an hour. Really. We planned to do 4 "big" things per day when we were sitting here in our home doing our pre-trip planning. However, when the rubber hit the road... we really could only fit in 2 "big" things per day.

17. If attending an LDS service, the Paris Ward that meets in on 12 rue St Merri in the 4th Arrondissement was an ideal location. Translation in English is available, the location is central, and the sacrament meeting start time is 11:20am (giving ample time to travel).

18. Check the foreign transaction fees of the credit cards you carry. For example, after calling American Express I found out our Costco AMEX card incurs a 2.5% fee for each transaction made outside the US. Yikes! Our AMEX card issues by UBS charged 0.5%, so we used that when possible. When we had to use Visa, it was helpful to know that our Schwab-issued Visa card charged a 1% foreign transaction fee compared to the 2% we would incur by using our UBS-issued Visa.

19. Buy foreign currency at a local bank (in the US). Several local banks (including US Bank, Wells Fargo, etc) will have a branch where you can go buy foreign currency... that is, if you have a bank account opened there. We do not have a personal bank account with a local bank, but Kristy's business account is with Wells Fargo. So she was able to go up to the Redmond branch and buy about €500 at the most favorable exchange rate for that day at no commission. It was nice to have the spare cash on hand when the occasion demanded.

(Update Fri Mar 12 17:01:07 PST 2010 // added note on foreign transaction fees and foregin currency)

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 7: Disneyland
Ah, Disneyland... in Paris. Basically the same as Disneyland in California: same rides, long lines, loads of people - but no sunny weather. Well, the sun was out in the morning when we entered the park...

... and here we are in front of the castle:

But not long after, the rain came... and it didn't deter people either. Everyone (including us) just put on their rain ponchos and carried on about our business of walking and waiting. Most of the queues are covered, so staff (as well as patrons) must expect a certain amount of foul weather. In fact, we were chatting with a family waiting in line with in Autopia. They were from Ireland. About the weather, they made the comment: "The weather's better here than it is at home!"

Despite the weather, we had a good time... especially the kids.

Leaving for home tomorrow. I'll write a postscript after we are back in Seattle.

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 6: The Catacombes and The Louvre
This morning we traveled into Paris for the last time on our trip to visit the Catacombes of Paris. To get there we took our RER A line from Paris Disneyland into the Châtelet - Les Halles station where we transferred to the RER B line and took that down to the Denfert-Rochereau station. I love the Paris Métro - it's a wonder. Once at the Catacombes, we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes before we could enter the Catacombes (only 200 persons are allowed in the Catacombes at any given time). While we waited, Kristy found bought us some Petit Fours and other yummy pastries at a nearby bakery/restaurant Paul. Here are a couple of pics taken outside the catacombes:

Once inside, we descended down more than 100 stairs to about 60 feet below ground. Then we walked the tunnels and viewed some of the millions of remains deposited in Paris' famous underground ossuary.

After the tour was complete, we ascended back to ground level. We walked so far that ended up two Métro stops away at the Alésia station on Line 4. From there we made our way up to the Paris Opéra to see if we could see the Opéra hall, but alas it was closed for recital again. We had a small bite to eat (at another restaurant Paul in the Opéra train station) and then headed down to the Musée du Louvre:

Once inside, we took a self-guided tour and hit all of the famous spots. Here are a couple of pictures, one of the Mona Lisa and one of the Ruben's room.

We toured the Egyptian part of the Louvre to see the mummies and the sarcophagi as well as the old foundations of the Louvre. We saw the crown jewels, the Napoleon apartments, the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and a host of other artwork. The Louvre is massive. Here are a few more pics:

The kids were done with the Louvre after about 2 hours, but we managed to stretch them out to about 4 hours. From the Louvre, we toured the nearby Carousel du Louvre and snapped a couple of pictures at the inverted pyramid there:

We had dinner at the food court there and Kristy picked up some chocolate eclairs from La Maison du Chocolate. At about $5/each they were super spendy, but were also super yummy:

We exited the Carousel back through the Louvre to have one last look at the pyramid, and our last look at Paris:

Disneyland Paris tomorrow. (Unless we can talk the kids out of it!)

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 5: Versailles
Almost everyone we spoke with before we left to come to Paris insisted that we must see the Palace of Versailles. Versailles is not in Paris, but located about 30 minutes to the south (by train). Since we are staying about 40 minutes to the east of Paris (by train) near Paris Disneyland, we had to travel for a little over an hour to reach Versailles. Once there, we were greeted by King Louis XIV himself... on horseback:

Once inside the gate, we found ourselves in the Royal Courtyard where we snapped a few pictures.

The exterior detail and beauty of the palace is jaw-dropping. The gold leafing extends all the way around the courtyard. And the place is H-U-G-E, huge! The little pamphlet we were given states that the surface area of the roof was 11 hectares or - wait for it - 27 acres! The expansive roofs cover more than 550,000 sq.ft. of floor space! Incredible. There was quite a long queue waiting to enter the Palace, so we walked around to the rear of Versailles and caught a tram to the Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, and Queen's Hamlet... all located in a secluded section of the the Gardens of Versailles. The Gardens are expansive... covering some 800 hectares, or almost 2000 acres. The scale of this place is absolutely mind-boggling.

We toured the Grand Trianon first, here are just a couple of pictures:

After a small tour of the Petit Trianon, we walked along the winding paths past the "Temple of Love" to the Queen's Hamlet. The hamlet is a small rustic retreat that was built for Marie Antoinette who would, with her attendants, dress up as "common folk" and pretend to lead a more ordinary life. Here are a few pictures of the buildings of the Queen's Hamlet:

After our walking tour of the grounds and the Grand Trianon, Petit Trianon, and the Queen's Hamlet, we returned to the Palace of Versailles itself to have a look and see what all the fuss is about. We started on the chapel side of the Palace and work our way around counter-clockwise. The chapel is stunning. I'm beginning to think that I should convert to Catholicism for the architecture alone.

Room after room inside the Palace is completely and utterly and unbelievably ornate and sumptuous. The ceilings - in each and every room - are amazing. Here are just a few:

After about the first dozen or so rooms like that, I realized that it was pointless to shoot any more pictures. Each room was nearly indistinguishable (yet completely gorgeous) from the next... that is, until we came to the Hall of Mirrors. This is one of those must-see-in-person-to-believe places. I snapped a picture of each of the kids:

All told, I'm not sure how far we walked today... but it was quite a distance I would guess. Olivia was understandably exhausted, and fell asleep in the stroller on the walk from the Palace back to the train station.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped in the 7th arrondissement, walked the streets around the École Militaire looking for a place to take supper. We found a place on Avenue Bosquet called "Le Bosquet" and had a nice dinner to finish off the day (I had the Châteaubriand, Kristy had the lamb). Tomorrow... the Catacombes and the Louvre!

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 4: The River Seine and The Opera
While we were in Paris two days ago at the Tour Eiffel on Saturday, we booked a cruise on the River Seine for today (Monday) with Bateaux Parisiens for lunch. We took the RER train to the Arc and then hopped on Métro Line 6 to the Trocadéro and walked down to the Seine. Since had to walk past the Palace of Chaillot we snapped another picture of the kids with the Eiffel Tower in the background:

Once aboard our cruise ship, we we seated at our table:

Just before we set sail, we placed our orders from the lunch menu. We picked at least 1 of every option from each course hoping we would find one or more that the kids would eat. For the first course, we ordered the scrambled eggs for Berkeley and Olivia, and the salmon for Eliana. Kristy had the beef tail and cheek terrine, and I had the lentil soup with foie gras mousse. I think the consensus (between Kristy and myself) was that the soup was the best of the bunch. For our main course, we ordered the pollack and rice for Eliana, the chicken for Olivia, the duck for Berkeley and Kristy, and I ordered the pork filet. I had some of each and everything was wonderful. For dessert, we ordered the chocolate (and coffee) cake for Eliana and Berkeley, the lemon tartlet for Olivia, the pear for Kristy, and the crêpes suzette for myself. All were very good, but Kristy's poached pear was the best.

While we dined, we enjoyed the wonderful scenery of Paris as viewed from the River Seine.

The kids were well behaved for the most part, but Olivia got a bit restless after about the main course and engaged in some table-side dancing to the live violin and piano music provided by the cruise:

After the cruise, we walked to the nearby RER train station at Champs de Mars with the intent of transferring to the Opéra National de Paris. We took the RER C Line to Invalides and transferred to Métro Line 8 and rode that to the Opéra. Here is a picture of Kristy and Olivia waiting at a typical Métro platform:

The Paris Métro is absolutely magical. It transported us from the Champs de Mars to a stop immediately opposite the incredibly beautiful Paris Opéra. The sortie from the Opéra train station is a stairwell that faces north and terminates at street level to a point just to the north of the Opéra itself. It was quite stunning to walk from the underground station, up the stairs, and then turn around to see this:

I snapped a picture of Kristy and the kids in front of the Opéra:

Inside the Paris Opéra is even more captivating than the outside. The grand entry staircase is inspiring. I took a few pictures with my 24mm lens (1.6 crop factor makes it about a 38mm) posted below, but even zoomed all the way out... I really couldn't capture the massive cavernous size of the space (but please refer to this one on wikipedia).

Unfortunately (for us), we were not able to see the hall as it was closed for a recital. This also prevented us from visiting Phantom's box. We'll try and return another day as our tickets are good for multiple visits. During the rest of the tour, the kids would stop at various points that we didn't think were of much interest (by comparison to everything else). Kids are funny that way... "Dad, look how big this fireplace is!" or "Dad, look at the round chair!"

The pièce de résistance of the tour was the Opéra's Grand Foyer. Opulent doesn't even begin to describe it:

What a day... and we really didn't do that much. But it felt like a lot. We traveled back to our hotel from the Opéra and restocked our kitchen with fresh bread and pastries from the nearby boulangerie:

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 3: Walking the 4th Arrondissement
It's Valentine's Day, 過年 (Lunar New Year), Mardi Gras, Carnival, etc. It also happens to be Sunday. We made plans to visit the LDS Church in the 4th Arrondissement on rue Saint Merri. And since Sacrament Meeting didn't start until 11:40, we figured it was a good one to shoot for given the distance we have to travel. We made it on time without any problems. We were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to find it, but we walked right to it from the "Châtelet - Les Halles" RER Métro stop.

The LDS ward there is a strange amalgamation of French, English, and Mandarin Chinese speakers. In fact, there were several missionaries there called to the Paris France Mandarin Chinese speaking mission - they had name badges in Chinese characters and everything. The services were translated from French into both English and Mandarin. All of the headphones for the English went rather quickly, so I grabbed a pair of headphones and tuned into the Chinese version of the Sacrament Meeting. Kristy speaks a bit of French, so she listened without the aid of an electronic device. The kids colored. Olivia eventually became bored (typical) so she and I walked around in the enclosed courtyard. The Church building was quite lovely, probably built in the 1700s or so I would guess.

After Church, we walked over to a restaurant called "Cavalier Bleu" located across the plaza from the nearby George Pompidou Centre. I had the quiche lorraine, Kristy had a baguette ham sandwich. My food was quite good; Olivia ate a lot of it and was quite fond of the quiche. While we were eating in the cafe, we were struck by how charming the neighborhood was... lots of locally run shops that included plenty of options to eat, small bakeries, cheese shops, fruit stands, and the like.

After our lunch we visited the museum inside the Centre Pompidou where an exposition of modern art by Pierre Soulages was being shown. Berkeley enjoyed the abstract art very much. The girls were not as impressed (they loved riding up the escalators though). After we toured the exhibit, we stopped by the kids area and made some crafts. Unfortunately, because of the cold weather the whimsical Stravinsky Fountain (and pretty much all other outdoor activities usually held in the plaza) were closed.

We left the theater and intended to walk over to the Notre Dame. We took a round-about way (unintentionally) but we were able to see a few interesting sights along the way, such as the Saint-Jacques Tower and the Palais de Justice.

After a nice little walk, we turned a corner and found the unmistakable towers of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Wow. If I was ever to convert to another religion, I would convert to Catholicism for the architecture (not the jokes). To say that the Notre Dame is impressive is an understatement.

After milling about in the courtyard for a bit and considering the length of the line to enter the church (that stretched across the courtyard lengthwise... which is about the size of a football field), we eventually got in line to take the free tour of the interior. After a short wait we were at the front of the line; where the two towers of the Notre Dame hovered over us. Once inside, we took the lovely self-guided tour and snapped a few pics:

After our tour of Notre Dame, we walked north along rue d'Arcole up past the Hôtel de Ville:

In front of the Hôtel de Ville was a double-decker carousel, we stopped and let the kids rest and take a couple of rides.

Just as the kids finished their carousel rides, a combination Carnival/Lunar New Year parade (which terminated at the Hôtel de Ville along rue du Renard) showed up. So we took a spot on the sidewalk curb and watched a Lunar New Year dragon as well as a host of Brazilian Carnival dancers, bands, and revelers walk past. Serendipity.

After the parade, we walked back up rue due Renard to the intersection of rue Saint Merri and had dinner near the Centre Pompidou at a little place called the "Paris Beauborg" (I had the sea bass). When we eventually finished our dinner, it was already past 8pm. Quite a day.

Oh... Happy Valentine's Day Kristy! Including our time dating, this is our 19th Valentine's Day together. This one will be hard to beat.

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 2: Arc de Triomphe and Tour Eiffel
Our second day in Paris started early for Eliana, Olivia, and myself. They awoke at around 2:30am Paris time and asked for some breakfast. After a small snack, I cajoled them back into bed.

Everyone except Kristy slept in until about 10am (Paris time). By the time 11am rolled around we were finally ready for some breakfast.

After breakfast, we took our first Métro ride into Paris on the RER A (red line) from the "Parcs Disneyland" stop (Marne-la-Vallée) to the "Charles de Gaulle - Étoile" stop. It took about an hour total of travel time from our doorstep to the Arc.

Once under the road, we snapped a few pics on and around the Arc. Good times.

Leaving the Arc, we took Paris Métro Line 6 down to the Eiffel Tower, walked around, took the tour up to the top and generally were very impressed.... but really, really cold! Yikes!

After the Tour Eiffel we warmed up at "Le Coq", a restaurant located at Place du Trocadéro. Kristy had the filet mignon and I enjoyed some stewed meat and vegetables. By the time we were done with dinner, it was time to return to the hotel. Eliana dozed off during the train ride back... 2nd night in a row.

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Day 1: Our Hotel (and Vicinity)
We jumped ahead 9 hours flying from Seattle to Paris... noon here today feels like 3am. Understandably, we rested for much of today to get adjusted to the new timezone and stayed near the hotel. Speaking of which, we are staying at Marriott's Village d'lle-de-France near Disneyland Paris. We have a huge three-bedroom 3½-bath 1400 sq. ft. townhouse to stay in. It includes a full kitchen, dining room (with a dining room table that seats eight), living room, and laundry room. There are two pull-out sofas. Essentially, this place sleeps 10... comfortably. The trade-off for having so much room is the relative remoteness of the hotel. We are 30 miles and 40 minutes away from Paris (by train) which means we will spend (at minimum) 90 minutes on the Metro every day we are here and are visiting Paris. The resort is just a few miles away from Paris Disneyland, but we are only planning on hitting Disneyland for one day (if that!).

Here are a few shots of the exterior of the townhouse:

As can clearly be seen, it's cold here - really stiff cold kind of cold. It snowed here yesterday but is supposed to warm up as the week progresses. The townhouse is two level. The kitchen, laundry room, dining room, living room, and master bedroom are on the main level. The kids will sleep upstairs in the two bedrooms there. A few pics taken downstairs:

And upstairs:

In the afternoon, we walked off the hotel property (which includes a golf course) over to the nearest neighborhood. The little enclave is about a 10-minute-walk away but includes several shops worth visiting, including: a market, a bakery and pastry shop, several restaurants, a produce stand, and a butcher. We made our first stop at the boulangerie/pâtisserie ("Laird Dominique") and grabbed a couple of treats for the kids. Eliana sunk her teeth into a chocolate eclair; Berkeley and Olivia each had a pain au chocolate. Delicious stuff.

The restaurants were all closed (for siesta?) so we visited the market, bought a bunch of food for the week, and walked back home. We then rested a bit and returned to eat at a crêperie called "Grain de Sel". We all had dinner crêpes as our main course. My selection was the best... a crêpe topped with biftek haché (hamburger patty) and a cream sauce ("à la Russe"). It was good. Kristy ordered up a ham, cheese, and egg crêpe which she did not like because it was "too salty". We ordered up some dessert crêpes, but Eliana fell asleep at the table before they arrived:

Mid-Winter Break In Paris: Travel Day
Next week is mid-winter break around these parts and the kids have the entire week off from school. We decided to take the time to visit Paris, France. We got the kids out of school a bit early and boarded a Air France plane in Seattle at 1:45pm. Almost 10 hours later, we arrived in Paris at 11:30pm Pacific time Thursday night... or 8:30am Paris time Friday morning.

The direct flight via Air France was a great choice; no worries about connections or lost luggage. They served us dinner, which actually was a pretty decent meal. It included all the mini-baguettes you could eat as the flight attendants roamed the two aisles carrying baskets filled with bread. Each seat on the flight had a built-in entertainment system that featured plenty of diversions for the kids. Kristy watched a couple of movies as did I. Berkeley kept himself busy using the in-seat entertainment system for the entire flight. Kristy and the girls were able to catch some sleep, but Berkeley and I stayed awake. Berkeley crashed hard during the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel though.

Time for me to take a "nap" (since it's the middle of the day here) and get a few hours in before it's, um, dinner time again.

Olivia's Mad Face
This morning during breakfast someone (probably me) said something to Olivia that she didn't care to hear. The result:

Berkeley's 2nd Grade Space Camp
We spent the evening at Sunny Hills looking at all of the crafts and activities Berkeley has been doing as part of his 2nd grade class' recent learning module about space. They made some solar system dioramas, a powerpoint presentation about their favorite planet, and each class member built a space vehicle of their choice (rocket, satellite, space station, etc). Berkeley made a spy satellite.

Valentine's Tattoos
We spent the evening after dinner making Valentine's Day cards with the kids for school. Because the schools (in general) frown on including candy with the cards, the kids are including some temporary tattoos and stickers with their Valentine's greetings. Olivia and I used a couple during some of our spare time while the others kept busy:

My Other New Toy: Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM Prime Lens
Last weekend I received a Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM Prime Lens that I ordered from amazon.com. The first time I used it was for Berkeley's first basketball game. It worked wonderfully and captured the fast action from across the gym. Today I used the same lens to snap some still portraits of the girls. The lens produced some very good results:

Eliana's Tea Party Invitation Pictures
Last night Kristy put the girls in curlers. Kristy wanted Eliana to look extra fancy for her upcoming tea party invitation picture. There wasn't much effect of the curlers on Eliana's straight hair, but we went ahead and snapped her invite pictures anyway. Here is the best one... before and after my lame antiquing skills were applied:

Bedtime Curlers
Eliana and Olivia both went to bed with curlers in their hair tonight. Eliana's hair is so straight and Olivia's hair is so fine that I doubt the curlers will have much effect. But the girls still enjoyed the process.

Berkeley's First Basketball Game
We signed Berkeley up for basketball this year. He is on a team with just about all of his friends from school.

Eliana attended the game and was Berkeley's cheerleader ("Let's go Berkeley!") throughout the game.

After the game was over, Eliana ran across the floor and just about tackled Berkeley in an over-zealous embrace. (You can see my the first picture that it caught Berkeley by surprise.)

Early Valentine's Day Gifts
A friend of the family, Sheryl, left some early Valentine's Day gifts on the porch this morning for our kids. The gifts included some plush toys and lots of candy. They loved everything.

Thanks Sheryl!

My Newest Toy: Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Zoom Lens
After probably over a year of contemplating buying the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L USM zoom lens to replace my stock zoom lens, I finally took the plunge and spent the thousand-plus dollars and got it... just in time for an impending trip to Paris with the family. I hope it's worth it.

Friendship Festival 2010
The annual friendship festival at Sammamish Learning Center was held tonight. This is our 4th year. Here is a scan of the family photo taken:

This is first time we attended for the purpose of watching our dear little Olivia sing a few songs. The first time we attended an SLC friendship festival, Olivia was just 6 months old. Olivia hammed it up during the songs, she loves to perform. Here are a few pics:

Olivia's First Valentines
Olivia made a Valentine card for Mimi. I thought I should scan it in. It's super cute!

A Never Ending Source of Humor: Mispronounced Words
Olivia is at that age where she mispronounces a lot of words, in a cute way. Eliana still has a few she consistenly mispronounces. Here are just a few that make me smile when used:

even -> "eben". Olivia uses "eben" to string together two phrases, even when they the use is not required. Example:

"Daddy, Time to go to school, eben I want you to bike me there."

throw -> "frow". This is an Eliana-ism. I love it. Example:

"Dad, I don't feel very well... I think I'm going to frow up."

pancake -> "panpape". This is classic Olivia. Example:

"Dad, are we having panpapes for breakfast, eben I love panpapes."

camera -> "cramera". Both Olivia and Eliana mispronounce camera. I have no idea why.

"Take a picture of this with your cramera Daddy."

nothing -> "nuffeen". Another Eliana-ism; it doesn't get old:

"Dad, I don't want nuffeen for breakfast. I'm mad at you."

(I'll probably add more to this later.)

Olivia's Ballet Class
Olivia started ballet at the beginning of the year. Today, parents were allowed to stay and observe their children during the class. Kristy attended the class and took a few pictures:

Berkeley Composition and Art Scans
It's finally time to take down some of the Chistmas-themed decorations off the refrigerator. I scanned them before I threw them away and am posting here for posterity:

Portrait of a Young Artist At Work
Eliana spent the better part of the afternoon creating about 20-25 different drawings. Each was a work of art that she was offering for sale. Fortunately, she also supplied paper copies of the money that we were to use to "buy" the art.

Olivia Playing Xbox
Taken while Olivia was playing Barbie Wild Horse Rescue on the Xbox.

Battleship with Eliana
I played a game of battleship with Eliana tonight. It was great fun...

that is, until Dad got a few too many hits:

Quite a poker face on that last one.

Berkeley and Spencer: Two Friends
Berkeley met Spencer last year in first grade; they both had Ms. Hirt. The soon became fast friends. Spencer doesn't live too far away either, an easy bike ride when Berkeley gets a little bit older. Since there was not school today (MLK day!), Berkeley invited Spencer over for some play time. I snapped a picture of the two of them watching some Star Wars on my computer monitor. I thought it was funny that they both had similar colored shirts on and the same disheveled hair style:

Rainy Days Bring Out the Blue in Olivia
While Eliana was at a birthday party, Olivia stared out the window at the rainy skies. She turned her lips into a frown when we wouldn't let her play outside in the rain, but she cheered up pretty quick when I mentioned something about eating a fruit roll-up.

Party Favors
Eliana was invited to attend a birthday party. After returning home, she insisted we take a picture of some of the party favors:

Story Time
We are traveling to Paris next month. To prepare, Kristy rented a dozen or more children's books from the library about life in Paris an has been reading them to the kids on most afternoons.

Olivia's "Mouse"
Olivia is a darling little girl... spunky and stubborn, but still darling. One of the "ahhhh shucks" things that she does is mispronounce words in memorable ways; such as when she used to call me "Dan" or how she says "sunkeen" instead of "something". Lately, I have been hijacking the mispronounced words myself and using them in everyday conversation... in good fun mind you, never to tease. Today at the breakfast table:

"Olivia, stop playing at the table. Take sunkeen off your plate and put it in your mouse."

At which point, Berkeley and Eliana look at me and start to laugh while I give everyone a wink.

Olivia's most noticable mispronunciation lately has been her very cute predisposition to pronounce "mouth" as "mouse". Such as:

"Take a bite Olivia."

"But Dad, I still have sunkeen in my mouse!"

or:

"Come over here and let Daddy give you a kiss."

"Okay Daddy, but kiss me on my cheek not on my mouse."

So much fun.

Breakfast in Bed
I spoiled the girls and allowed them to have their breakfast in bed this morning. We have the late-morning/early-afternoon Church block this year (11am-2pm); it's nice to just relax in the morning and soak the day of rest in for a few extra hours before Sunday Service begins.

The Hanging Fruit Roll-Up (Redux)
Ever since this (18 months ago), Olivia has been begging for me to hang a fruit roll-up from the pot rack again. This afternoon she got her wish:

Weekend Getaway
As a kindness and to repay work done on New Year's Day at the Thurmond home, Matt and Kathy are watched our kids while we spent the night at the Hotel Sorrento. Our stay at the Sorrento was very pleasant, quiet, romantic, and luxurious. Yesterday evening we dined at the Hunt Club at the hotel, had dessert at Gelatiamo, and enjoyed a performance at the Symphony. Following the concert, we returned to the Fireside Room and had a small snack of some very cheap yet very scrumptious appetizers from the happy hour menu. We sat near the piano and caught the tail end of a live jazz trio (bass, piano, and vocals).

In the morning, we left the hotel to have breakfast at Le Pichet, a small French bistro on 1st Avenue just north of the Pike Place Market. After breakfast, we had planned on catching an early show of Avatar at the Seattle Cinerama (Seattle's marvelous old-school theater), but instead we drove up near the South Lake Union area to visit the Tesla Motors Seattle Showroom. We took turns taking a Tesla Roadster Sport out for a test drive. Kristy took the test drive first (it is a 2-person coupe), and I went second. The car is insanely fast (0-60 in 3.7 seconds) but I wasn't looking at the speedometer per se, I was more interested in the digital amp meter that showed how many amps were being pulled from the battery pack. I got it up to 693 amps during one street start at an intersection. The acceleration is breakneck. Kristy has been dead set for several months on getting the 5-series-sized Tesla sedan (the Model S) due out in 2012; I think this experience did nothing but cement her resolve to get one. She has a small poster of the Model S taped up on a wall in her office. If the poster featured a scantily-clad swim suit model, then her office decor would be almost indistinguishable from that of a pre-pubescent teenage boy's bedroom. I insist that I need to take a risqué photo of her and then photoshop it onto the hood of the car in the poster... she has declined each of the dozen or so times I have asked. But maybe if I ask one more time it will be the charm.

The weekend was very nice, but the Tesla experience was the cherry on the top. To my fellow Puget Sound neighbors, it is well worth a visit!

Olivia Starts "Big Girl" Preschool
We promised Olivia that after she became potty trained we would start her in "big girl" preschool over at Sammamish Learning Center. Her first day is today. She will be attending Miss Louise's class (just like Eliana did) three mornings per week on MWF.

A couple pics:

Natural Beauty

Baby Jack Jack's Blessing
The newest little cousin to my kids, Baby Jack Jack, was blessed today at Church. Kristy's mom and dad flew up from San Diego for the event.

After Church, we all dined together at Laura's place in Gig Harbor. Of course, whenever family gets together we play some board games. The kids passed the time by playing some rock band.

Every New Year Begins With Family
A tradition around here is to have breakfast over at the Thurmonds. Matt puts out quite a protein-lovers spread: eggs any style, bacon, ham, sausage, steak and eggs (but not this year), and more ham. This year I ordered up two eggs over easy, ham, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. Always good stuff.

After breakfast Matt, Scott, and I tore up some of Matt's ceiling downstairs to install some lights in his bonus room (where he keeps his ping pong table). We installed 4 can lights and ran up some wire to his kitchen island where we installed two new receptacles. No need to run an extension cord now to the island for the benefit of the fondue pots! I'm all warmed up now and ready to tackle the can light install project in our family room. Welcome 2010.