Vive la France

I don't know exactly what vive la France means or if I even spelled it right, but we are officially here in France. The airplane was long, and neither Daniel nor I got any sleep. It has been a week since then, and we still are tired. Not sure if it is the jet lag or just the sheer fact that we are parents...ou revior nap time. This week has been quite the adventure to say the least. We arrived last Friday to the Paris arc de triomphe Hilton around 10ish, but couldn't check into our room until noon. The receptionist suggested we go somewhere for lunch, but that wasn't going to happen. Not with three extremely tired children who just conked out on the lobby's couch. When we finally checked into the room we all were able to get some very much needed sleep,and we are still trying to get our sleeping cycles figured out. That night we took the kids for a stroll down the champs de ellysee, and stopped at the same sandwich shop, Brioche Doree that Daniel and I first ate at. Carson didn't eat much, but Kylee enjoyed the sandwiches and the petit tarts. The next day we ate breakfast in the executive lounge of the hotel. Kylee loved the yogurt, Carson loved the coco krispies, and Daniel and I enjoyed some pastries while Owen slept. Saturday was spent recovering, but we did manage to go to a crepe restaurant. I would say it was a success considering our children were still jet lagged. Sunday, we attended our new ward, and there are about 6 families that are either American or one spouse is French and the other is American. Everyone seems to be nice, and I even met a family that has children the same ages as mine. I wish you could all have seen Carson at church, or maybe not because he was so incredibly CRAZY, and that is putting it mildly. Lack of sleep, no schedule, new place, and all things transition don't make for a well-behaved Carson. Just imagine that scene from Home Alone where Kevin discovers he was left behind and he goes running around the house screaming, hands flailing, head shaking. That was Carson, and an added bonus was the nice man who offered us his pew in the second row from the front. So Carson helped us make a great first impression church. After church, we drove around versailles and the kids were amazed by the palace there. Monday is when the real work began. Daniel was gone all day to meetings, and I was at the hotel with the kids, and really no place to go. We had a fairly good day and the weather was nice enough to let us go on a walk to a grocery store, and then later to a park that is close to the hotel. We came back, had lunch, and took naps. As we were napping, sirens started to sound in the hotel and French was being spoken over the intercom saying a- ten-si- own, which I could make out to mean attention, but couldn't understand the rest. It sounded pretty urgent, and lucky for me they repeated it in English. They were pretty much saying that for security reason we had to exit the building in a timely manner. Needless to say this was not a welcoming wake up call. Carson kept on saying " I scared," Kylee was getting worried, and I was just plain flustered trying to round up everything I could think of for the kids. We got down stairs to a very calm lobby area, did they all not get the message that we were to evacuate for security reasons? I guess not. Anyways I asked the front desk what was going on, and they kindly informed me it was just a test. I wasn't too thrilled, the only thing it tested was my patience!

To be continued...