December.

I came back from Europe/Thanksgiving break and it seemed the next three weeks before everyone left for Christmas went by like that. There was so much going on and while it was busy busy busy, it was still a fun time.


this guy. i love him.

life.

Scottish parade in Old Town! this was so fun.

finally got to hold baby Bella :) she is the sweetest.

American problems.

SNOW DAY!!! yummy leisurely breakfast and a walk to 7-11 for Big Gulps.

saying goodbye to Caleb.

a miracle. both fell asleep in the car while we were with Julie running errands. so i took a little nap too. :)

R got me a fish for my birthday! meet Tobias.

ice skating at the rink by the Pentagon City mall.

Saturday lunch at Costco.

Christmas boat parade in Annapolis! we went last year and it was so much fun, so we decided to go again even though it was raining steadily. me, Caity, DB, Thomas, Michael, Trent, Bre and her coworker caravaned up there, ate dinner at a seafood place (where I watched Navy beat Army for the 11th year in a row heyyyy anchors aweigh!) and then walked the short distance to the pier where you watch the boats go by. it was such a fun night.

annual picture after our annual Christmas candlelight tour of Mt. Vernon. always a good time!

went home to Woodbridge for the Christmas week and got to snuggle with Raja!

dad reading the Christmas story in Luke with Raja paying close attention.

went to Christmas Eve mass at St. Francis with the Kolandas. such a nice time!

and finally...had to say goodbye to my main man :( the Maloneys moved to Nashville while John goes overseas and after a long, hard, back and forth decision I decided to stay here in DC. Jack turns 2 next month and i've been with him almost every day since he was 8 months old...so saying goodbye was really tough. i'll miss my little bud.

I'm excited for 2014. I think it's going to be a good year :)

euro2013: BRUSSELS!

Oh Brussels...lol. What a day this was! The train ride from Paris was only about 90 minutes, so that was nice. Another thing about Europe-still amazes me that you can go 90 minutes and be in a new country; while here in America you can go that much and still not be in a new state.

Anyway, the train station was kind of in a weird part of the city, so we walked to the Grand Place market and had lunch at this cute tavern. I got a waffle. I had to! I was in Belgium :) It was delicious.

When we finished we walked around the square a little: the architecture was so impressive. That was another one of the things that hit me about Europe-the variety and intricacy of the architecture.

We went down a little side street that was literally all chocolate shops. Maybe, 10 or 15 on each side of the street. It was unreal! And of course, I had to take a pic in front of Godiva because its my moms favorite chocolate and its a Belgian company.

Some more walking and Devin in front of the peeing boy statue.

At this point it was 3 o'clock and there was freezing rain coming down. So we ducked into a coffee shop to get on WiFi and dry out/warm up. We decided we had seen everything we wanted to see, especially with the weather being so miserable and nasty, but our train didn't leave for Paris until 9. So we walked back to the train station, tried to change our ticket, had some drama, got on a train back to Paris and had some more drama. That's all i'll say about that :)


So there's Europe!!! It was an unbelievable experience. I have dreamed about going for so long. I so wish my maternal grandparents, who went on couple mission to London, were alive so they could hear about my trip. I grew up listening to my grandmother tell little stories from their time there, and I recently found all the letters she wrote to my mom from London and have enjoyed reading through them. It was a special time in their lives. I know I would have enjoyed my trip even more if it was a warmer time of year and I had a little bit more money to spend, however it was still an incredible experience that I will always treasure: my first time out of the country!

Public shoutout to Ms. Caity Jones for planning pretty much the entire trip. She is awesome.

Europe, I hope to see you again some day!

euro2013: PARIS!

The day before Thanksgiving, we left London early to take the train to Paris. We were SUPER tired so we napped most of the way, but I did wake up in time to see some beautiful French countryside, even with the rain.

When we got to Paris, we got off the train and it was FREEZING. Oh man. It was so cold. And then it took us about 45 minutes to finally get metro tickets.

When we got to our flat, we had some more drama with the man we rented from, so we had to go take care of that. Meanwhile I was taking random pictures, and this bird was staring Caity and I down.

Eventually we walked over to see the Notre Dame. This was probably my favorite thing from the day. It was so, so cool. I was speechless. It is the 850 year anniversary of the cathedral, which is awe inspiring. One of the things I loved in Europe was seeing things that were simply so old and still standing.

We went over to the Louvre and took some pics, then dropped Devin off there to go inside while Caity and I walked around a little bit, going into a couple shops. He ended up running into our friend Adam, which is probably the smallest world thing to ever happen.

 

We walked down the Rue de Rivoli towards the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. The whole time we were walking around and through the arch I was thinking of all the history that had happened...Hitler and the Nazi army walking through in June 1940 after occupying Paris; American troops walking through in April 1945 after liberating the city. I was getting so emotional! Not weird at all...

Then we walked over to the Eiffel Tower because we had tickets to go up to the top. It was just as amazing as you would expect, although I did get a little afraid of being up so high...I don't know why it freaked me out so much-being at the top of the Shard was fine. Anyway, when we left, we noticed a small part of the tower was on fire and smoking! So intense. Luckily the fire department came. Also, do you like our triple selfie? We were pretty proud of that.

Randoms from Wednesday... Chanel No.5 ad in Paris::enjoying Coke and a burger for dinner::selfie on the metro.

Thursday was all about Versailles! Our train left in the late morning, so we walked around a little bit. We saw the locks at the Pont de l'Archeveche bridge, a statue of our very own TJ, and some cute bathing suits.

Now. Versailles. You guys. It was incredible. I was struck by a couple things: 1) Its sheer size was astounding. Even now looking at pictures, I'm still amazed at just how BIG it truly is. Not only the castle but the size of the gardens as well. It's just so cool. And 2) Gold. There was gold adorning everything. EVERYTHING. I really enjoyed Versailles.

the organ in King Louis' personal chapel.

the wallpaper: i was dying! velvet fabric.

the Marquis de Lafayette. a tour guide saw us standing in the room and came over asking "Americans?" we said yes and he pointed over to this painting and smiled saying, "Lafayette". I was so happy, haha. Such a nerd.

Then we had a midday Thanksgiving meal at McDonalds (guys. it happened a lot on this trip) and headed back to Paris, so we could go to the Sacre Coeur. The walk up to the church was beautiful. I loved the little side streets and buildings we passed. And the church itself was of course breathtaking.

 

Friday we were in Brussels, so more on that later, but that night we were able to go out one more time before we left on Saturday. So Caity and I went down the Champs-Elysees and got some macarons from Laduree! I was so excited about this. One, there was hardly a line, which was miraculous, and two, these things are the real deal. So delicious.

There you have Paris! It was an unreal experience to finally be here after hearing so much about it. Seeing things that are recognizable around the world and have been apart of so much important history was an experience I thought I may never have in my lifetime. Also, there really is no where like Paris to make you appreciate art and culture. Also everyone here smokes. Literally. Everyone. I commented on it all the time.

I also hope one day that I may be able to come back to Paris and see everything I missed. Because I know there is a lot we missed. 

And now Brussels...