Fabric Pumpkins!

My friend taught me how to make these fabric pumpkins. I actually sewed! (Family are you proud?)

Pretty sure last time I attempted to sew anything it was shorts made out of kitten fabric in the 6th or 7th grade. You can only imagine how fabulously stylish those were.

My First Camping Trip!

We had a ward campout this weekend. Lynlee was so excited to go camping. We had told her all about sleeping in a sleeping bag, in a tent, and making smores, and roasting marshmallows.....she was so excited. I didn't get to go on this trip (thanks to a ridiculous work meeting...), I was super bitter because I knew how excited Lynlee was to go, and I wanted to be there for her first camping experience...boo.

Guess who dressed her?

Lynlee is such a blessing. She is so much fun and so full of personality these days. She's getting more and more grown up, and always tries to have "adult" conversations with me. Lately she's been telling me, "You're my best bud mom. Did you know that?"

Europe Trip! Finally........

So, remember how I said I was blogging from Germany? Well, I was. I wasn't lying. I am just now getting this post all put together, even though we've been back now since mid August. And we are still recovering from this trip.....No, not really, it was great...but some of it was not so great...but other parts were great. I'll just tell you what happened:

First of all, these are not pictures we took. But, I wanted to include them because we did go see these castles, (among others), we just don't have proof that we saw them. Thanks to some crazy Parisian running around Paris now with our camera, and family photos. But, that story will come later. ....be patient.

Here is the Heidelberg castle. My personal favorite.

Here is the Berg Eltz castle. Jason's personal favorite. It was quite the jaunt to get to this little guy, but it was worth it. Well, it would've been worth it if there wasn't construction being done on half the castle when we got there. But that's besides the point, still cool.

....... And then there was Paris. Oh what a place it was. First off, Paris was my idea. Germany we had to go to because that's where Jason's dental conference was being held, but the dental implant company let us fly out of wherever we wanted, so I said, "why not Paris?" Right? It's one of those things where I really wanted to do it before I die. I guess you could say it was on my bucket list.

This about sums up Paris for us. Lots and lots of walking, sore feet and sore backs. We just felt like there was so much to see and so little time, some days ended up being more of a death march than a vacation.

One of the reasons I really wanted to go to Paris was because I did French Immersion growing up, and so I speak a little french. I wasn't sure how it would be actually be being in France trying to understand the natives. But I was pleasantly surprised. I could understand a lot more than I thought I would. And even speaking wasn't too bad, I definately had to think hard about some of the sentences before speaking, but for the most part the points got across.

This is a little chapel building right around the corner from our hotel.

And this was our hotel. Our hotel was nice. It smelled like Paris.

Another reason I wanted to go to Paris was because I have taken a lot of art history classes (not all by choice), and so had learned a lot about....well art. I remember thinking many a time during the trip that I was actually grateful for my teacher Mrs. Keim. (Whom I abhored in high school- remember her Celeste? And Jennilyn? and Ashley?)

Notre Dame. Some of these pictures might be a little boring. But its kind of one of those things where, whenever you are in a foreign place, you feel obligated to take pictures of most everything you see because you think, "well, I know this is famous, so I better get a picture of it." When in reality, when will you ever look at pictures of buildings again?

Well, I guess on your blog. But other than that.

Inside. Breathtaking. That's one thing that was just super overwhelming about Paris was the incredible architecture. I mean seriously, I've never seen anything like it.

Sainte-Chapelle

The Rose window inside Sainte-Chapelle.

Just a little glimpse at a typical street in Paris.

The Eiffel Tower is that tall skinny thing in the background.

Sainte-Chapelle again. With a handsome tourist in the foreground.

I just really liked this lamp post. And Sainte-Chapelle is in the background.

Another view inside. The details on these buildings were just so incredibly breathtaking, I mean, everything was so ornate and over the top.

Here is the Louvre!

I now have a love-hate relationship with the Louvre.

Love- because I think it was my favorite site of all the trip.

Hate-because this is where our camera was stolen.

And by "our" camera, i mean my sister-in-law's fancy camera that we borrowed specifically for this trip so that we could get decent pictures.....

The obligatory Louvre picture.

Inside. There was so much art to be seen, I just couldn't believe my eyes. So many famous paintings and sculptures I'd seen in books, right there in front of me. It was incredible.

Just outside the Louvre. Lines, lines and more lines. Another theme of the trip.

The Crime Scene.

So this is where our camera was stolen. We were sitting in this row of bushes, we sat down to take a little break from all the walking and I took the camera off from around my neck. I had been super paranoid about getting things stolen because I've heard everyone say that things get stolen when you're in Europe. They just do, and we knew that. But I was more concerned with my wallet, ID, money, passport etc.......big mistake. We were looking around and Jason said, "hey we should get a picture of that ferris wheel.." so I turned around to get the camera and it wasn't there. We searched through our bags, everything. It took us about 15 minutes to realize, hey...we've just been robbed.
We both had the worst feelings in the pit of our stomach. Mostly because the camera had a bunch of family pictures on it that Jason's sister hadn't downloaded yet.

So, there's some creepy dude out in Paris who knows all about how the Jenkins family spent their summer. (Sorry again guys...)

Here is the culprit.

Ok, so we don't know for sure whether this was really the guy. But we came back to the crime scene the next day and spent a while just watching people and looking for suspicious behavior. Not that we thought we would catch the guy, but I guess it was just entertaining more than anything. And this guy was as sketchy as they come. He was carrying around a big black duffel bag, was with no one, and kept taking pictures of really weird things.

Ugghhh, just typing about this is making me get that feeling back in the pit of my stomach.

Jason trying to look artsy.

Look closely. Can you see Jason in this painting?

Jason kept asking, "so why again is this painting so famous?" I kept giving him the textbook answers. But to be completely honest, after seeing it up close and personal, I started wondering the same thing. I mean, its a small little thing. I thought it would be huge and cover the whole wall or something. But no.

Jason fighting his way through the crowds. Good thing he's so tall and he could still get a good picture of ol' Mona.

Inside. I mean, look at this. Every nook and cranny was just chuck full of ornate details and art. Just amazing. I was in awe.

Just inside the entrance.

Look at the size of that thing!

Winged Victory of Samothrace. 190 BC.

Napoleon's room.

Louvre at night.

Sacre Coeur.

And here we are at Versailles.

A view of the gardens from inside.

We bought some tickets to see a fountain show. We kept waiting for one to start, and we never did quite figure out where or when that fountain show was going. We did see some fountains going, and some that were even choreographed to music, but those were only 10 minute long increments...and we kept thinking, so was that the show? Or are we missing something.

Gorgeous gardens.

We really wanted to go canoeing on this little man made lake they had there. But everytime we went to rent a canoe, or bikes or a golf cart, we got to the front of the line, and they'd just given out the last one.

Quite the bedroom.

Overview of Versailles.

Jason's artistic picture.

L'Arc de Triomphe. Here again, we got to the arch and really wanted to go up top, it was our last night there and we wanted to get some pics. We get to the front of the line, and sure enough....they had let the last people up to the top. We were getting pretty used to it by then.

Right in the middle of Champs-Elysee. Scary! So, I just have to mention. On our way down Champs-Elysee we stopped at a little restaurant for food. After being turned down by a vendor because they had just given out the last hot chocolate, we sat down for a nice dinner. Jason kept saying all trip that he thinks its so ridiculous that people who come to Paris always rant and rave about how EVERYTHING tastes better there. They have the BEST everything. Well, he did have to admit after that dinner that we had the best tasting Onion soup of our lives. My mouth waters at the thought of it.

Please excuse my indulgence here with these last photos. I wanted to make sure we got a good Eiffel tower picture, despite our being super tired, sweaty and the fact that it was the end of the day and the end of our trip. Notice we are only wearing 2 changes of clothing in all these pictures. That is because we only had 2 days left of our trip after our camera was stolen. So we had to retrace our steps and try to do everything we had already done, just to get some pictures.

Proof of Height.

From atop the Eiffel Tower. Well, second floor anyway.

I had to wear the scarf. I'm pretty sure if you are getting pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower there is some unwritten rule about wearing a scarf. I don't make the rules.

Awwww.....

And there you have it, our trip to Europe! We were so grateful we got the opportunity to go. It was a fun filled adventure had by all.

.......But it may be a while before we go back......

And lastly. None of this could've been made possible if it weren't for my sisters. They came out to AZ and watched little Lynlee (who we missed soooo much while we were gone). I am eternally grateful to them, they are the best sisters anyone could ask for. Lynlee had the time of her life with her Aunts.

"Every day I'm shuffelin'..."