Pont du Gard

When we planned our trip to the south of France one of the top things on our list was the Pont du Gard. Jon loves Roman history and aqueducts are always such an impressive sight.  We stayed in a small town about an hour from the site.  We had a lovely drive through Avignon and we made it to the aquaduct about mid morning.  Everyone was rested and well fed and ready for an adventure.

I have to say we thought Pont du Gard was amazing.  The site is very well maintained, but still just stunning.  

As you walk across the bridge you can see graffiti from 1818!

There were not that many people there so the kids were able to run free.

Our kids love to be able to explore on their own.

Even Malachi had fun climbing over the rocks.

This is how Garrett posed himself when I pointed the camera at him, our little explorer.

I love this smile on Malachi.  

These boys are too funny.  They posed themselves like this too.

Jon started skipping rocks for the kids, and then other people started to try skipping rocks too.

Later, a lot of people started trying to skip rocks.  It was fun to watch.

Notice all of the coats are gone!  It was so nice to enjoy the sun and run around without all of our layers on.

After the kids came back for our family photo they were off again.

Jon had fun throwing rocks in the water with the kids.

Malachi thought it was pretty funny.

This was about the best stop we had during the whole trip.  I love starting vacation off on a high note.  We had to delay the start of our whole trip by a day because of yet another tummy bug.  Thankfully Addie was feeling much better and we did not take any of the germs with us and we had a great visit.

Here are some more pictures from our day.  We stopped at McDonald's for lunch and then we walked through Avignon.  I would HIGLY recommend Avignon.  Even though I didn't get many pictures from our afternoon there it was a really neat city.

This girl, she is growing up so fast.

Garett always has a question for us.

These two, they are so much alike.  I love their talks.

Sharing with

Friday Postcards

Weekend in Waterloo

This weekend our family went on a quick trip to Waterloo, Belgium.  We had been here once before, but we knew we wanted to go back.  We planned a night in a hotel that had an indoor pool.  There were a few other families that thought this sounded like fun so we ended up with a group of 20 people (including all of the kids).  Malachi had fun wandering around the hotel.  Thankfully we didn't lose him, but he sure tried to get away.  

 

My main goal in this trip was to go back to the brocante in Waterloo.  Every Sunday the Carrefour grocery store parking lot is taken over by vans and trailers full of treasures.  I spent some time there with friends gathering all kinds of pretty old things. 

We were supposed to make another trip to the battlefield here as well, but a lingering tummy bug made us decide that heading home was the wisest choice.  We timed our trip home perfectly.  We grabbed sandwiches in the car and then everyone fell sound asleep.  Ben woke up when we were on the outskirts of Paris and he was so happy.  He knew that because we were in the city we were almost home.  It is a little surreal still that this is our life.  

Here are all the fun things that I bought.  I know not everyone appreciates this style, but I am so pleased with everything I found.  There are more pictures of the market and my treasures on www.brocantetreasures.com.

Disney Land Paris, Day 2

Back to Disney Land!  Because we stayed in a Disney hotel we were able to get in at 8 AM for Magic Hours.  We were able to spend 2 hours in the park before the general public was allowed in.  I checked the time for sunrise that day and it wasn't until 8:14.  We enjoyed watching the sun rise over the park as we tried to fit in as much as we could.

You can see Mickey in the clock tower, it was just after 8 AM.

When we walked through the gates Mickey and Minnie were doing a photo shoot.  We only waited behind about 4 families and then it was our turn.  I don't know if you have ver tried to get a picture of a family of 6, but this is pretty amazing.  Everyone is looking at the camera and it happy!

Malachi and I on Main Street, all by ourselves.

The Buzz Lightyear ride was first on our list.

This is a favorite for the whole family.

Look at these warriors!  We did the Buzz Lightyear ride a couple of times and Star Tours for the big kids.  Then we managed to find some coffee and snacks, we do have priorities.

After our snack and coffee it was time for the tea cups.  Jon handles the scary rides in our family and I step in for anything that goes around and around.

Can Ben pull the sword from the stone?  Nope, but he is cute trying.

Addie's turn!

I love walking by these empty line corrals!

We took all of the kids into the Haunted House.  Addie was so scared and put a blanket over her head for the entire ride.

On our way out of the Magic Kingdom we made a quick stop at the barber shop.

Jon loves to call the boys Dapper Dan Man when their hair is combed, this is Dapper Dan's Barber Shop!

Apparently they do a traditional shave and a hair cut here, so fun.

Off to the Walt Disney Studios.  We got fast passes for Ratatouille, the wait time was 40 minutes!  In the afternoon we got to see a few stars.  Jafar made Addie cry when he tried to grab her hat. Yikes!

Minnie Mouse came by next and Addie was much happier to see her.

Spider Man!  He spoke English too.  The boys were so happy to meet the real Spider Man.

Malachi was a little terrified and just kept yelling.

How cute are all these guys?

A quick shot with Woody.

On our way out they had plaques on the ground for each of the other parks.  We miss all of our family in central Florida!  

We had so much fun visiting Disney Land Paris and we felt like we were very fortunate with most of the lines for rides we wanted to do.  We all agreed that we would rather be hot at Disney than cold. 

Visiting Disney Land Paris is something that you should definitely do if you get to live here.  We had a great time and made a lot of good family memories.  

Disney Land Paris In February pt 1

Last week we took the kids out of school early and drove across town to Disney Land Paris for a surprise trip.  We live on the west side of Paris and Disney is on the east side of Paris.  Depending on traffic (and let's be honest there is ALWAYS traffic) we are 1-2 hours from the park.  Having been to Disney World in Orlando many times we knew we did not want to wait in line if we didn't have to.  By choosing a Wednesday and Thursday in February we hoped that the park wouldn't be very busy.  

Here is the front entrance when we pulled up Wednesday afternoon.

The kids were so excited!

I was pretty excited myself.

Everyone got a map when we walked through the gates.

My sweet girl in front of the castle.  Don't let the bright sun fool you, it was COLD.

Jon asked who wanted to go on the Indiana Jones roller coaster with him.  This boy was so excited to go, but he wasn't quite tall enough.  I was so impressed that he wanted to go.  

While Jon went on the roller coaster the kids and I got a snack.

Nutella sticks for everyone.

A little pick me up was good for everyone.

We even heard Jon yelling on the roller coaster while we waited.

This guy was just chilling.

Next it was on to Dumbo.

Wall E and Eva

Sweet brothers

Bennett has become pretty obsessed with Star Wars lately.  He hasn't seen the actual movies yet, but he has played video games and watched cartoons.  I love this picture of him so much.

This is how we were rolling by the afternoon.  This double stroller is the one we bought when Ben was just a baby.  This stroller has been amazing for us.

We had a hard time finding a restaurant that was open for dinner and we almost left in frustration, but I am so glad we were able to see the closing show, Disney Dreams.  The show was great, even though we were all freezing we were so engrossed in the show we didn't even think about leaving.  The show was in a mix of English and French with lots of music, projected images on the castle and fireworks.

At one point Garrett was throwing his arms wide like Quasi modo in time with the fireworks. 

This picture shows the flame throwers that were used during the show.  Even from this distance we could feel the heat the fire put off when the flames went up. 

A picture from the finale.  After the show was over we made a dash to the car.  We stayed at the Davy Crockett Resort about 15 minutes from the park.  The single wide trailer had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen.  It was perfect for all of us to get some rest for another day of fun.

Day 2 still to come.