Greetings from Paris!

The next stop on our fabulous vacation was Paris. I love love love Paris and I was so excited to get to be there with Todd. The weather finally started to cooperate and the whole time we were there it was gorgeous. Todd drank lots of French wine and I ate far too much amazing cheese, it was heaven.

Landing in Paris

Excited Coyers

Just off the Metro in Paris trying to figure out where the heck we were. Thank goodness my parents lent us their GPS with a Europe chip in it. It made our life much much much less stressful.

Our cute neighborhood. We stayed in the Montmartre district of Paris. I loved that there was baguette shops, wine shops and cheese shops right next to each other. 3 of my favorite things, it was so Parisian.

Stopping at a sidewalk brasserie for lunch while waiting to check in.

Cute Todd drinking a cafe'

Our cute room. This apparently is known as a matrimonial bed in our hotel. Separate yet together.

Hanging out the window in our room

Cute hubs at the Eiffel Tower

Aww!

Waiting in line for the elevator

View from the second level

Up on the very top level. I am so not a fan of heights.

Arc de Triomphe in the distance

From the top Todd found the 'other' Statue of Liberty and was determined to go find it. He was checking the map and I just wondered off looking for crepes. Hey I'm pregnant.

Found it!

After we walked around for a while it was time for our next tour which was a river cruise on the Seine and a night bus tour of the city. I'm not going to lie it was pretty disappointing and disorganized. Oh well :(

On the boat

cruising on the Seine

The next day we headed off to the Lourve

Cute Todd taking video

Mona Lisa

Next we walked over to Norte Dame

Lunch time! This was probably my favorite afternoon in Paris. We stopped at a Brasserie right outside Notre Dame, found a table on the sidewalk and just hung out for hours and watched the world go by. Todd drank some wine, I ate yet more cheese it was perfect.

Outside of Notre Dame

Looking a little 'puffy' outside of Notre Dame. It was really a beautiful building. No hunchback sightings though.

We then walked over to Napoleons Tomb.

Rather impressive tomb for such a tiny man. :)

Walking over to the Champs-Élysées and to the Arc de Triomphe.

This where our camera died...and we did not have the foresight to bring the charger. The next day we went to the Palace of Versailles which was amazing but unfortunately we have none of it documented. :( UGH!

We loved Paris, it was the complete opposite of England. The sun did not set til 11pm at night every night and the Parisians seem to never sleep. Everyone we encountered was also so warm and kind to us. We got quite accustomed to eating dinner at 9pm every night and we certainly could not get enough of the crepes, wine, cheese, baguettes and pastries. Its no wonder my doctor yelled at me for gaining a few extra pounds the next week! oops!

Greetings from London!

Todd and I have been wanting to go to Europe together for as long as we can remember but for some reason life and vacation time just never worked in our favor. :( Then we found out that we were expecting a little one and resolved that traveling might just have to wait for a while. It wasn't until I was back in California hanging out with my favorite friend Teresa that I realized that the travel ship had not quite yet sailed. Teresa is one of those friends that doesn't do well with obstacles. She will always find a way around them to do what she wants, its quite motivating. So while she was telling me about her latest fabulous vacation, I mentioned how much we would love to go over to England but with the baby and all didn't think it would be possible. She was not sold on the excuse. She pointed out that if it was safe for me to fly back and forth to California that it would probably be perfectly fine to fly the equal distance over to London. She then ordered me to talk to my doctor and report back. Truly inspired, I went home, spoke to Todd, spoke to my doctor and three days later we were booked for 8 fabulous days in Europe! Gosh I love her!

We had a fabulous time.

It was so nice just to be with my sweet Todd for 8 uninterrupted days.

It was the perfect pre-baby vacation.

Flying into London

Excited to finally be here! We were shocked its only a 6 hour flight! What have we been doing these last 3 years?!?

We landed at 6am and pretty much hit the ground running. We grabbed some caffeine and headed to Buckingham Palace

While walking to the Palace, this parade of rather impressive people walked by. We felt really bad that we had no idea what they were doing. We even got stopped by some English people wondering the same thing, so we didn't feel quite so dumb.

Buckingham Palace

Cute hubs

Hello!

We took the Underground everywhere. London is so easy to get around and very little has changed since I studied here 10 years ago.

Todd loved himself some English food. Pies stuffed w. steak and cheese...yes please!

Only bummer about being pregnant on vacation, no tasty beer for me :(

Outside our new favorite pub. We got stuck on some European talent show called Eurovision along with every other patron at the bar and stayed all night long. Apparently its quite the television event.

The next day we hopped on a tour bus and headed to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral and Bath. It had finally stopped raining and was a perfect day.

Stonehenge. It was packed and super windy. This started a full day long battle with my hair. It was all over the place from that moment on. :(

Hi there!

So cute!

After Stonehenge we headed to Salisbury to check out the cathedral and to grab lunch. Todd was really excited to finally get some fish and chips. He wasn't quite as excited with me taking pictures of him eating it :)

Walking over to the cathedral

It was so amazing to us how old these buildings are and how well made they are. We could not believe all the history.

Next stop was to Bath. I went here when I studied here in college and always thought Bath was a beautiful town. I wish we could have stayed there longer.

Waiting in line to get into the Roman Baths.

The water definitely did not entice us to go for a swim. The Romans seemed to enjoy it though! :)

Back in London!

Todd in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. This is one of my favorite museums, unfortunately we got there too late and it was closed :( Next time!

The next day it was all London. In front of the London Eye.

Look kids Big Ben, Parliament!

In front of Westminster Abbey. This was Todd's favorite place in London. There are so many important people buried here and so many events that happened here. He was in heaven.

Westminster Abbey from the front

Tower of London

Another awesome place. Its pretty touristy but there is so much history. We followed a Yeoman around and got the scoop, it was a highlight of our trip.

We tried to make this guard laugh but he wasn't having it. :(

The tower houses 7 ravens and it is a superstition that if the ravens fly away, the monarchy will fall.

Tower Bridge

We only had 3 days in England and we can't wait to go back. The people were so nice and the city was so clean and accessable. We were so bummed to leave, why does vacation have to go by so fast?

Well hello there 30...We finally meet....

Yep I am officially the big 3-0 and to be quite honest, I'm ok with it. The 20's were pretty awesome but as I sit here, 30 years old, I have a feeling my 30's might be pretty awesome too. I have an awesome husband, the best family and friends in the world and in just 4 short months, I'm sure, a pretty cool (and adorable) kiddo too. I wouldn't want to be anywhere other than where I am now so if that means I have to be happy and 30, then I'll take it!

The birthday cake Todd baked me. How cute is he?!?!

It was delish and I ate the entire thing more or less by myself in a humilating (and will remain undisclosed) period of time. Somewhere my OBGYN is shaking his head. OOPS! :)

It was so good!

23 weeks!

We think my swelled belly might possibly be a mixture of baby and birthday cake. :)