The trip

More details on the trip.

Paris was better than I expected. I love Paris. Love the shopping, museums, sites, desserts and just wandering around the city. I was really excited to go with K but didn't realize what a good time we would have until we got there. The Parisians are so friendly with kids. There were so many little parks in the city (something I didn't notice before) we could take K to at least one park a day.

One day we were shopping in a really nice area and K noticed candy in a window display. A woman saw her looking at the sweets and came out with a new bag of candy and gave her a piece. We went to an awesome restaraunt where the staff took K back to meet the chefs so she could see their big hats. We had so many experiences of people just going out of their way to help us it was just fantastic.

K loved all the merry go rounds, the trains (metro), had fun at the museums, enjoyed fantastic crepes and really liked the Eiffel Tower. One night after dinner we took her to see it sparkle, which impresses me. She however told me she prefers the non sparkly tower. We will definitely take her back.

Cliveden (outside of London) was awesome. It was a nice break from the cities and so much fun to wander around the grounds and spend time in the country. We also got nice weather when we were there (the minor bummer of the trip was that it was really cold for most of the trip) and so it was great to enjoy the sunshine. Amazing how spoiled we get in CA.

K loved all her beds and was as always a very flexible traveler. We normally stick to a routine when at home, but on our last trip to Europe realized for some reason she was very open to going to bed late and getting up late. Something that never ever works at home. So on this trip we let her stay up late, had late dinners and would get up a bit late. I think her favorite part is sleeping in the same room us. She spent every night that we were home (Gma C covered for us so we could have a number of nights out in London - awesome) chatting to us as we went to bed. We obviously had to turn of the lights and so she would lay there chatting with us for 40 minutes or so about the day. It was hilarious. Poor T who is more of a morning person listened to K and me go back and forth until finally I had to entice her to rest up for tomorrow's boat watching or horse ride.

The other big development was her language. For some reason every time we go on an extended trip I notice she has a huge leap in communication. Her ability to put 5-6 words together in a sentence really improved. It is really cute. She is even getting better about saying hold me instead of hold you. It is cute and sad all at once. She is even more the little girl. Her Spanish is coming along even though it is funny to listen to her because her language is a mixture of Spanish and English wash my manos etc.