My Trip to Paris

 

Heidi's been living in Paris for 18 months and my friend Megan has always wanted to go to Europe. So when we found cheap airline tickets last winter we jumped at the chance to visit and Heidi and have a fun girls trip to Paris! Heidi is the best host and her cute apartment is right in the middle of Paris, surrounded by amazing bakeries, restaurants and shops. She's an easy walk from the Louvre and so many pretty sights. We had a wonderful time!

Notre Dame is still closed from the fire several years ago, but we got to see the outside. We also visited Saint Chapelle and just sat and took in it's beauty for quite awhile. I forgot just how stunning this place is!

We arrived in the morning, after traveling for 20 hours and being completely exhausted (I cannot sleep on planes!). We took a short nap, and since we needed to stay awake to get on Paris time and clear out of Heidi's apartment while she was working, Megan and I decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower.  It was over 5 miles round trip, but totally worth it! We walked right along the Seine and saw so many beautiful sights on our way. The whole time we were in Paris it was cloudy and a little drizzly. The leaves were starting to change colors. Overall, it was this really cool, moody feel and I just loved it! Seeing the Eiffel tower (or the Paris Castle, as Lila calls it) surrounded by fall color was just incredible!

We had to go back on another night to see the tower lit up and sparkling. It was definitely worth the trek (we did take the metro that time though!)

We went to three different art museums. The Louvre (you kind of have to, right?). The highlight for me was our visit to the Orsay. They had a Van Gogh exhibit with all his work from the last 70 days of his life. We got to see around 50 van Gogh paintings! He's my favorite artist, I was in heaven! They were truly so beautiful and I felt so lucky that we got to see it!

Another major highlight for me was visiting the L'Orangerie and seeing Monet's Waterlilies! They are absolutely stunning! There are two whole rooms dedicated to them, and they ask that you remain silent as Monet intended them to be viewed in a state of meditation. I sat in front of these paintings for a good long while and took in the beauty. I took a selfie in front of this one in particular because the first thought that came to my mind was "This one catches my eye!" (A phrase Lila often uses when she wants something). I can't believe it took me three trips to Paris to see them!

We visited the Arc de Triomphe. I have seen it from a distance, and from the top of the Eiffel Tower, but never up close. It is majestic! It's huge! Then we climbed to the top, which is the most amazing view of Paris! It was beautiful to look down at all these tree lined streets, with fall color leaves and this beautiful city!

We ate at the most delicious restaurants! Heidi took us to a new place every night. All of them are a 5 minute walk from her front door. This place was my absolute favorite- Lebanese food! When we got there, the cute waiter guy said "Heidi! We have your usual table ready!"

The one day Heidi had to work, Megan and I went out to Versailles. The grounds were especially charming to me with fall colors and moody gray skies. It was a little chilly, so although we did wander a good amount we didn't linger too long. And the Hall of Mirrors is always cool to see, both for it's beauty and historical significance.

After the Palace, we wandered over to the temple! It would be easy to miss from the road, but once you are inside the grounds it's beautiful! We learned about the cool symbolism and motifs of Paris they used ini the construction and decoration. Totally worth the extra couple of miles of walking.

This was a trip of a lifetime! To get to explore Paris with my sister and one of my closest friends was such a dream! But just like when we went to Spain, I missed my kids a lot and I was very happy to get home to them! 

Halloween

 

Halloween was so fun this year! These cousin Halloween pictures just kill me. These kids love their cousins so much. We stopped by Nana's for rootbeer floats before the trick or treating began. They were all running around like crazy in the yard and having so much fun!

I gave Chase a very small budget for his costume, as each of his "Simple" ideas was really like $100 or more. He settled on just being a zombie again and we created this costume in 10 minutes right before trick or treating. After Nana's house I dropped him off at a friends and he went out with 5 other boys from school. They worked their way down to our neighborhood and watched a movie at our house after.

I did offer to buy Hudson a new costume since I haven't bought him one in like 5 years. But what he really wanted was to be a Jedi- AGAIN. I made these Jedi costumes out of old sheets back in 2020 and Hudson has worn them every year since! This year he upgraded to the larger robes (made originally for Chase). He makes a darling Jedi!

Davis has known since Nana gave him this Sonic costume last Christmas that he was going to use it for Halloween. Davis loves Sonic and he was so cute running around in it. Really his default is Sonic-speed so it was perfect for him. He grinned ear to ear all day!

After going back and forth on several different princess options, Lila landed on Aurora. When I sent these pictures on our family group text, Nate responded with "So Lila didn't dress up this year?" It's true- a princess is really just who she is.

Ben took the three younger kids out to trick or treat with a group of kids from the neighborhood. Lila lasted almost and hour and then Ben brought her home. Huds and Davis stayed out for another 2 hours after that! Although Davis didn't bring home quite as much candy as you might expect from 3 hours of trick or treating, since he ate a lot of it as soon as he got it!

These two got to wear their costumes to school. Davis's zips up in the back. He told me that he took it off for every recess and then put it back on after. His poor teacher was probably going crazy zipping and unzipping him all day! 

Kids make Halloween so fun! I love seeing their excitement and enthusiasm. They are getting big so fast, I'm glad we're still in the Halloween magic stage!

October

Davis had his last soccer game of the season! It is so fun to watch him play. He runs really hard and had lots of friends from school on his team.

We had a really cute morning at a pumpkin patch with Lila and Rosie.

For fall break, we stayed home and did lots of fun stuff around where we live. The leaves were spectacular this year thanks to the wet winter we had, so we hurried up to hike in the mountains to be in the middle of it.

These pictures do not even do the leaves justice- they were stunning! We hiked for about 90 minutes and the boys all had a wonderful time. Lila even hiked like 30% of it herself (I carried her for the rest). 

I love where we live! This trail is 15 minutes from our front door!

Chase was in a grumpy mood before we started. Almost immediately he told me "Thanks for making me come mom! I really needed this!" There's something about hiking in beautiful nature that is just so good for your soul!

The next day we went to "Scary Hill". They had the mini golf all decked out for Halloween and it was hilarious to watch Davis and Lila golf (Lila quickly escalated to just throwing her little pink golfball by hand). Hudson is a surprisingly good golfer, and Chase was not surprisingly a spaz and had to go get a second golf ball when he hit his too deep in the bushes to retrieve. 

As we headed over to the hayride I told them to each pick a big brother to ride with. Instantly they split up like this and walked over holding hands the whole way. It melted my heart. This afternoon with the kids was so beautiful and pleasant and made my heart so happy. 

We had all the Smith girls over one day. We played "Disneyland" and these three princesses were very, very into it.

Chase had already left for a meeting, but my kids all looked so cute before church on this particular day. 

We didn't do a magical and insta-worthy pumpkin picking adventure this year. We got them at Smiths- the local grocery store. BUT it ended up being a little extra fun because Uncle Nathan was working that day and helped the kids pick their pumpkins. Huds and Davis definitely looked for the biggest pumpkin they could find. Lila wanted a "baby pumpkin" and found one that was just perfect that she could carry.

Our October weather was super warm and pleasant and I tried to indulge Lila's pleas for park days as often as I could.

This girl is growing up so fast! She looks so old and beautiful in this photo- gosh I just love her so much!

 

SPAIN!

One time as a joke we invited ourselves on my parents European vacation- which turned out to be less of a joke when they pretty quickly said they'd love us all to come! And thus this awesome trip was born- all the Smith family adults in Europe together! Heidi came up with the idea of us renting a villa in Mallorca, Spain and it was truly a magical experience!

Before we met up with everyone in Mallorca, Ben and I spent a day in Barcelona. My mom, dad and Heidi had been there for a few days so we spent a little time exploring with them and then some time on just our own. We mostly enjoyed seeing Gaudi's apartments and the very interesting Sagrada Familia. We loved the boceria (market) that was close to our hotel and really loved the whole Las Ramblas area where we stayed. 

When we grabbed a taxi from the airport in Barcelona our cab driver was super nice and offered to come back the next to pick us up to go back to the airport (heading to Mallorca). He showed up a little early to pick us up and drove us by his favorite view of the city. It was truly stunning! We love that guy.

One of my favorite memories in Barcelona was this little square we found for breakfast. We wandered from our hotel, turning on random streets until we stumbled upon.a quaint little square. We had a delicious traditional Spanish breakfast and enjoyed this quiet little spot. Then just as we were getting ready to leave my parents wandered into the same little spot! What are the chances!

Then we headed to Mallorca for the next five days! It was full of long, relaxing dinners and lounging by the pool. Our villa was gorgeous and so serene. We all spent a good amount of time in our "warm" tub. 

We were a five minute walk from a beautiful beach, lined with cute shops and fun restaurants. We came down several times- it was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We ended up picking a favorite little restaurant "our spot" that we ate at several times.

One morning we took a drive out to Formentor. It was a windy drive, Ben was a champ at navigating in our SUV which was a manual transmission. This was the ending view, the pictures don't do it justice.

I love this picture Heidi took of Ben and I at one of the beautiful lookout spots we saw. I don't think we knew she was taking it. This was right after I dropped my phone and the screen shattered, I was missing my kids, and had been up sick and puking the night before. Ben is reminding to me to enjoy the journey and appreciate the moment. I rallied- and still had a great time :)

We all went to Alcudia one day, which is an ancient walled city. It was so charming!

We did a ATV tour all over the island. It was so fun! We got to see the prettiest views in such a unique way!

One night we had a private chef come and make us a traditional Spanish meal. It was delicious! We all loved being able to have long dinners full of discussion and lots of laughing. Our ongoing jokes about straws and Mel Gibson still make me laugh.

It was seriously such an incredible trip!  Spain is incredible, but my favorite part was spending time with 8 of my very favorite people. We missed our kids so much, but we knew they were in the best hands. I always love going on vacation and then I love coming home!