home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

what a happy sight! (although it would have been happier still if we didn't have 8.5 hours of travel still to go...)

We're home! It was a very very long day of travel yesterday: we left our apartment at 9:00 a.m. Paris time...

{I neglected to properly document our apartment. I am such a horrible procrastinator.}

... and got to our house at 9:00 p.m. Utah time. (that would be 5:00 a.m. Paris time!) Yep, that's 20 hours of travel. I think we can safely conclude that we will never again make that trip with a 2 year old -- 6 times is a few too many.

{one last farewell photo of the E.T. from our cab on the way to the airport}

Poor Lucas was afflicted with motion sickness again, only this time he suffered with it nearly the whole time. Even sadder to me is what a trooper he is about it all. We won't even consider traveling with him again until we investigate those patches for motion sickness!

Our last day in Paris was a sad one. For Marc, it was inevitable because he loves Paris so much and hates to leave it behind. For me, it was because I was sick. I didn't even really get out of bed until 1:00, and I had tons of packing and cleaning to do, all while feeling quite ill. (I thought I had the flu, but it's gone now, so maybe not?) I had big plans for our last day in Paris. Well, not huge plans, but important plans nonetheless. You see, it was my last chance to take the kids over for an Eiffel Tower photo shoot. (Why did I wait till the last day, you ask? I didn't, but that's another story...) I had also promised to let them play at the Champ de Mars one last time.

Around 5:30, Max said, "so, are we going to be able to go or not?" Regretfully, I said it wasn't looking good. Then Lucas said, "but it's our last day!" I apologized and said it was definitely not the way I wanted our last day to be either. Then I went into my bedroom and cried. I just knew I would regret it so much if we didn't do it. So I told everyone to get into their photo shoot clothes, got Eva dressed, and combed hair.

Marc had just come home, and he offered to take over the photo shoot/park duties. He later reported that Eva was completely uncooperative, refusing to even stand by Max and Lucas. But he documented it all, and that's what really counts in my book! We won't have the gorgeous monument shot that Kristi got with the Capitol building, but we will have something. (photos to come...)

Our second-to-last day in Paris was much, much better. I took the kids to the Natural History Museum (a post about that to come) and, right before bed, I took Max and Lucas to:

a café across the street from our apartment to try creme brûlée for the first time.

How sad that this was their first time sitting in an outdoor café! (well, this trip, anyway)

Max loved it, Lucas had a problem with the texture. I proclaim it the best I've ever had.

All in all, I'd say our stay in Paris was just wonderful. Hot, yes. Difficult, definitely. It had its challenges, but it was worth it for the adventures it afforded us. And I have only one real regret: I wanted to take photos of Marc in Paris. I have a few shots here and there, but mostly ones of him taking pictures. I wanted pictures of him, just him, in his element. It never happened. Partly because he's very camera-shy when he's in front of the camera. Partly it's because we didn't have as much time together in Paris as I would have liked. Partly it's because I'm a horrible procrastinator, as we've already established. But other than that, no regrets.

And I do have a few remaining posts about Paris to come. So if you're sick of reading about Paris, tune out for a few more days!! I'm off to bed...