Everyone was looking forward to spending the day down the Dordogne River by canoe. When we went to sign up for our rental, they inforned us that no children under 5 could be on the boats. Unfortunately for everyone, I always look at rules as starting points. So after a bit of negotiating, I got both of our kids on. Good thing too, because Scout was in heaven. Icka, on the other hand, was in heaven one minute and the other place the next minute.
Pre ride. Scout was so excited about the Spiderman floaties Micah found at the local market.
Our first few moments - the only ones where all four of us were in the same boat. Scout played musical boats the rest of the afternoon.
He loved rowing for a minute or two, but quickly grew tired of it — until 20 minutes later.
Icka was acting a little basket casey, so when she fell asleep in my arms, everything became peacefull. No wonder — day after day of non stop action, and this was one of her first naps of the trip.
It was too bad that I had to cut that nap short when I saw this darling little town that I needed to stop at. Micah rowed us over, and we docked to experience this small slice of heaven.
Here we are approaching Tristen’s boat to blast her with water. I’ll have to admit that our water fight was pretty even, but when I took a massive chunk of seaweed and entangled her in it, I clearly won! (By the way, Micah made us stop our fight because we were soaking Icka in the process. Sissy — five words — In The Line Of Fire!)
We stopped to “pique-nique”.
Scout saw local french boys playing in the water, and wanted to be just like them. So he and Micah headed down to swim in the water.
We had a great time, but when they want your children to be five, I understood afterward. Icka fell in, (and I about had a heart attack) but Micah quickly rescued her. Luckily she was wearing her (four sizes too big) life vest. But I’ll tell you what — she was the perfect little boater after her mishap. She didn’t make a peep after the surprise of her life. When it was all over, Scout wanted to go again!
Scout has constantly been talking about seeing the queen. Seeing as we are staying within steps of a castle, we just thought that he figured queens live in castles. (It also might have something to do with the fact that we were just in London, and we showed him the castle — Buckingham Palace — where the queen actually does live.) So as Auggie, NayNay, Ka, Icka and Micah went and explored the castle, he started asking about the location of the queen. They told him that the queen that lived it this castle died a very long time ago. When it all computed in his head, he finally gave up and said, “Okay…then I just want to see Rapunzel.”
The airplane’s bassinette. It was a life saver, and I will proudly announce that she was FAR from the worst kid on the airplane!
First stop — Harrods! If for no other reason, it is worth stopping for the food court. But don’t be fooled, there are many other reasons worth stopping for.
Two kids, and two strollers. Can you tell which of the two has the nicer demeanor while they are contained? So the next day, I tried another plan of attack.
During our double decker tour, I had Ickity Dickity Dock strapped on. Ten hours later, she finally came off, and my props go out to Baby Bjorn. My shoulders were pretty sore the next day, but everything else felt fine. It must have, because the next day I strapped her on for another six hours.
A look at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey from the “Eye”.
This street performer in London was awesome! He posed people for pictures, and then got in them to complete the scene. Nice TKO NayNay.
This ice cream was heavenly. It was the creamiest stuff I have ever eaten. Look at my two messies eat theirs. At least Scout knew not to eat it from the bottom up.
Scout was relaxing on the couch in this shoe store. He was going into his fifth hour of shopping. He was a saint that day on Oxford!
These best friends loving each other. Notice Scout’s favorite new shoes. His crocodiles make him so happy!
Church in London was great. A few days later, Scout asked as we entered Notre Dame…”Does this church have a nursery like ours?” He asked because he loves nursery, and even in this foreign land, I peeked in, and there he and Icka were “opening and shutting” their hands along with the nursery leader.
Icka met her match in Sariah — this little Brit. She was darling, and easily as fiesty as Icka is. They ended up really liking eachother, and had a good time in nursery together.
I loaded up on cute books from English authors. Here is my mom reading away. I think she read them this same story three times in a row. Althoug she loves it, she is also extremely saintly!
In Paris, FIFA hosted the Portugal/Spain game on the jumbotron outside of the Eiffel Tower. Scout, Micah, Icka and I got in line, and were amongst the crazy fans. It was really cool, and as we left at half time, we realized that there were thousands in line to get in. Apparently, they were pretty coveted seats. After, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower. The timing was perfect, because within minutes of getting there, the lights started twinkling over the whole tower. We all loved it — and then taxi’d it home.
Bella did a little photo shoot when we were out exploring the southwest of France. Everyone hopped in, and I drove the back roads to just do a little discovering.
We “discovered” this very picturesque back road. Talk about pretty!
Pretty cute of dad and kids.
Here is my little french boy in another of Bella’s pictures.
These two run on fumes every day, and for the most part, they are really good. (I say that now as they both snooze away in bed.)
It is pretty hot and sticky here, so Icka was down to her skivvies. But when we saw this wooden mushroom, we thought it was so cute, that we stopped. So here is a little “raising the roof” action in honor of mushrooms everywhere.
We stopped at this field of wildflowers so that Scout could pick some for Nonnie.
The utter exhaustion at the end of the day is almost palpable. My kids went from sleeping 12 hour nights with 2 hour naps, to getting in 9 hours a night, and a possible nap. They are so tired by the end of the day, that they become wired. Specifically Icka — who is now the recipient of my new technique called “smothering”. It is when I strong arm her so that she can’t move even one muscle. She fights me like crazy, but eventually relents and falls asleep. The frst night took about 10 minutes, but we now have it down to about 3 minutes. And then…she sleeps like she has been drugged. She doesnt make a peep, nor does she wake up to any sound.
Here is the castle we are staying next to. We are currently in the midst of the craziest, nonstop lightening storm I have ever been in. Micah drove us around so that we could get a better look at the lightening, and it is amazing. The sky just keeps illuminating with the silhoette of the castle in the background. It is extremely creepy, but cool at the same time.
So far….so good!
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