Arc de triumph

Right before Charlie gets yelled at for climbing he arc like Spider-Man!

Luckily Kelly learned in French class that you get to the arc de triumph under ground so we knew how to cross the busy rotary!  We climb to the top, a long hike for Charlie, wears him out again, lucky mom gets to carry him sleeping back to the hotel!

Amazing night!

We take a night boat ride down the siene, Kelly is thrilled, she sees he boats she did a project on for French class, we see every amazing place, the lights are beautiful, we finish it off with a cool carousel ride on a double decker carousel, as we walk away the lights begin to twinkle on the tower, we make it back to the hotel right before midnight!

Top of the tower!

We walk a few blocks to the Eiffel Tower amazing it is right here!  Lines are long bit we go up while everyone is awake, kids are all thrown off on sleep.  Charlie falls asleep in the line for the elevator at the top.  I hold him forever and when we make it to the top I sit and hold him for a long time-on the ground-my back can't take it any longer! Good people watching though!  Girls love it and they make me get up, we finally get Charlie to wake up and Kelly uses her euros from her Easter basket to buy him a brownie-best $3.50 ever spent and that gives him energy so we can walk down the last two levels to the bottom-amazing way to see it!

Hope this statue didn't drink a big beverage recently or the girls are in trouble!

Catching raindrops on level 2 of the tower before he falls asleep!

Not how most people enjoy the top of the tower!! Wish I had a stroller!!!

Our Paris hotel!!

About to go exploring!  Charlie slept on the flight, girls were exhausted and napped in our beautiful room for a bit.

Atlanta! On our way!!!

We have a fabulous time at Julie's wedding, no photos to share as I was running the video camera.  We also had a great visit and campus tour of Vanderbilt from our old babysitter Katie. We arrive at Atlanta, manage to turn in the rental van and get all of our luggage on the plane-no small feat!  Charlie entertains everyone  in the airport as he rides his trunkie suitcase-best birthday present ever- thanks Jennifer!!!

Double Junior Ranger Badge Day!

We visit a Lincoln's Birthplace and Mammoth Cave in the same day and add two more badges!  Mom thinks the Lincoln site was a nice stop but that the Kentucky people have nothing on the true "land of lincoln".  Charlie loved running up the big steps.  

Katie did not like the spiders at Mammoth Cave, so notice her face while she gives the review!

Our lunch stop was a hit, a real A & W, this was the first time the kids had draft root beer and they were big fans!

Louisville!

We get to watch Dustin Pedroia's bats being made at the factory, Katie talks trash to our tour guide who is a Yankees fan, and we get to hold Big Papi's bat! We finish off the night with a minor league Bats game the field is walking distance from our fun hotel, perfect night for baseball and it was bring your dog to the stadium night!

We had seats but went to the lawn so the kids could wrestle off their sugar rush from cotton candy!!

Luckily the kid in yellow in the background was unsuccessful in his attempt to launch himself onto the field!

Easter with cousins in Dayton, Ohio

Cousins Jack and Ava are happy to see big cousins roll in!  They play with a million toys, have great baskets from the bunny. We go to a cool view overlooking the whole city and visit the Air Force Museum and get to see the training space shuttle!  Who knew we would both have the same pair of firefighter

Jammies?

Our CG Buddies

We time our visit perfectly for an amazing Estramonte family Easter party and to benefit from the Barata kids being off on break!  Their new trampoline is a big hit and our trip to the water park is a perfect outing!  Very sad kids when we finally make it to our hotel room in Cumberland, MD that night!  Even my most adventurous Kelly thinks 3 years is too long to not see good friends! 

What makes a hotel more fun?

Friends to share it with!  Bridget & S'hannan joined us for the night, we broke the microwave popcorn consumption record! Thanks Sally & kids for the visit!

DC Day-Emancipation Day!

We arrive downtown to marching bands, a parade and best of all one day of no parking rules being enforced!  (If only the world were like this every day). Who knew that Lincoln's act of freeing the slaves in DC nine months before he freed the slaves everywhere is still an annual holiday in DC?  We take Charlie to see the dinosaurs and amazing Mammal exhibit at Natural History and we study up on the African animals!

Charlie finds a statue with a soldier that he begs to climb

 We meet Greg's cousin Bob and his wife Lorrie for dinner, they are our inspiration, we visited them in Paris many years ago and always wanted to live abroad with our kids!  (After seeing there kids speaking French and giving us a Paris tour) They gave all of us some good tips for our adventures and filled us in on their next adventure-a post in Haiti!  

Free Showers on the pier!

We visit Lady Liberty on a rainy day, but her welcome is warm and we swear in some new Statue of Liberty Junior Rangers!

Kelly gets the best picture!

Kenny and Charlie are in trouble if she has to sneeze!

Last visit to mermaid rocks with Maddie & Kenny

We leave the special mermaid rocks in the careful guard of Lexi the crazy beach dog who will be sure to keep all birds off of them and she will find all horseshoe crab shells, even without Charlie's help.

Nancy Drew's staircase-we found it!

We stayed at Auntie Martha and Auntie Judy's their challenge was fuguring out which of the million bedrooms to put is in!   We loved their pup! We hope they come for a round of golf in South Africa!

Amazing sendoff!

Many thanks to all of our amazing friends and family who gave us the best going away party, hide go seek in the empty house party and many wonderful dinners and a cozy house to stay in and many many favors to get going on our journey!  Here are a few photo highlights!  We love our scrapbook put together by so many of you, what an amazing thing to take along! Thank you doesn't seem like a big enough word!!  So 100,000 thank yous!

Ice Cream After Hide Go Seek

The Learys front steps, how big the kids will all be in a few years!

Kelly & Katies chalkboard wall with messages from all their friends!

Deb and her biggest fans!  Thanks for sharing your home and heart with us!  We will miss you, the only person cheering will be the dentist because the Hughes kids candy intake will decrease dramatically!

First stop, Candy & Pauls, CT

Another wonderful visit, hard to say goodbye!  My kids are just as happy at their house as I've been all these years!  We look forward to seeing them in SA!

Our stuff leaves!

Some by air, some by sea, some to storage!!!