The Adventures of T-Anne, J-Mont, and E-Bear: June 2009

This is for the Hawks family. Well and anyone else who needs a good laugh. I have to apologize for the witches cackle that you will hear through this video. I didn't realize you would hear me so well when I was videoing (I thank my mother for passing that cackle down to me). So if nothing else you can laugh at my laugh. We went out to Roosevelt to visit my sister in law Autumn and her family. We had so much fun while we were out there. Uncle Ben pulled out the slip and slide for all the kids. We tried to get Josh to go, but he wouldn't give in. Finally he said he would go if Grandma went. Grandma April.......

We love you April!!! Thanks for letting us come play Autumn and Ben, we had a great time!! Can't wait to come out again!
Here are a few pictures from our visit.
This was the hiking group who headed up the mountain behind them.

Here are the happy hikers almost to the top.

Josh and Kiersten enjoying some watermelon! Hang in there Kierst!!!

This is just a personal high point for me watching my hubby go down the slip and slide with the kids.

All of us playing "Capture the Flag".

E-bear and Grandma April playing horsey.

The boys in blue! Ian, Dylan, and Bowdy

All the cutie kiddos before we had to leave.

Okay so four years later, I'm blogging again. Mainly for the purpose of family and friends who haven't heard about my trip or seen pictures. We took over 800 pictures so I did the very minimum highlights. Josh and I were given the opportunity to go with his sister, Monica, her husband Danny, their two oldest boys, Daniel and Derrik, a couple, Chris and Linda (Danny and Monica's friends) and my incredible traveling father in law, Monty, on a 5 day trip. Our trip started out Monday night at midnight flying from Salt Lake to New York City. Below is all of us at JFK airport at 7am. We had to be back to the airport by 4pm to catch our flight to London.

This was me first stepping out of the subway station onto 42nd Street. Also known as Times Square. It truly was one of the most amazing places I have ever been. I really don't know how anyone looks strait ahead, there is so much above you to look at.

Here is the whole crew in Times Square. We had met up with some missionaries headed to the Manhattan Temple. They told us it was just a few blocks down. 29 blocks later, we saw the temple.

Monica and I were so excited to see the Wicked billboard. One day Mon's we will go see it! One day!

So we lost quite a few of our New York pictures which I am so sad about. We stopped in Central Park and had a hot dog for lunch. (Thanks Danny for this picture). We also got to see Radio City Music Hall, Rockafeller Center, and of course the Avenue which I feel like I should have been born on...5th Avenue. I got to see my top favorite designer stores and was drooling worse than my teething son.

Once back at the airport our flight left at 6pm. We arrived Tuesday morning at 7am in London England. It was nice and rainy for us. Nothing new as it had poured on us in New York. We got some breakfast and headed off to see the sights of London.

I had been wanting to see the red phone booth and was so excited when I found one, until I opened it and it smelled of urine. Well so much for that.

After wandering around, everyone went into the museum at Trafalgar Square while Josh and I sat outside on the steps and fell asleep. Afterwards we hopped on a bus that took us on a tour of London.

Unfortunately below is what happened to most of us once we got on the bus. I think jet lag kicked in. Sadly for me I really don't remember the rest of London. Luckily Josh got some good shots so I was able to see pictures of what I missed.

After the bus breaking down and us having to catch another bus, then getting wrong directions from a few of the Brits we climbed into taxi's and headed to our hotel. I remember my bed and my pillow. :-) The next morning we got up at 4am and headed to the train station to catch the 5am train headed to Paris, France.

Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Paris! I had such an amazing time there. We spent two days in Paris. Starting out getting lost in the ghetto of St. Denis which is a (GHETTO) suburb of Paris. Then walked for about an hour to our hotel. We finally got to set our backpacks down! YAY! Then we were off to the heart of Paris. We started out at the Arc De Triomphe.

Next we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We got to climb that big ol' tower. What was it Mon's, 500 flights???? :-) So I found out that the first flight of stairs totaled 38. The second set that we climbed totaled 19. Yeah that's pretty close to 500. :-) It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen at the top. Well you can't climb to the very top, but the top meaning as high as they let you go, which is about in the middle of the tower.

The second day of our trip we headed over to the Louvre. I have to admit the first hour that I spent there was I was pretty bored. All Josh wanted to see was the Mona Lisa and the Venus De Milo statue. All I really wanted to see was the Napolean Apartments (which are inside the Louvre). We ended up going a second time that day to the Louvre and I have to say that I became much more fasinated with it. I could go again and really spend a day there. You really can't imagine how much there really is to see.

Us just taking a breather at the Louvre.

My favorite part of the whole Louvre. The Napolean Apartments. Everything has been left the same since Napolean the 3rd (Napolean Bonaparte's nephew) lived here. It truly was an incredible sight.

Below was our boat we took a tour on. It took us up and down the Seine River where we saw everything over and over again, it was nice to relax our feet.

And finally for our most favorite place... Notre Dame. Yep we ended up back here 6 different times. Mainly because we loved watching the Gypsies try to get money from anyone that spoke english, as well as the crepe stand down the street where we stuffed our faces. Yes my husband did walk around with his back hunched calling out "Sanctuary". My nephew Derrik really got into the action by tying his sweatshirt around his head and walking up to each member of our group with a white note asking us if we spoke english. Yeah......we had FUN!

Saturday morning we were up at 5am to head to the airport to catch our flight. We had crossiants for breakfast and they were truly amazing! I ate 3 and still could have had more. Even though it was a short trip it was the coolest trip of my entire life. Thank you Danny, Monica, and Monty for the best trip EVER! I can't wait for our next adventure! "This way Cosmo's, this way!!!!"

Below are some really cool pictures Josh took, so I played with the coloring to make them look professional. Hope you like. :-)