Top 5 things I loved about our Paris trip!

I definitely want to make sure I go through and document our whole Paris trip but I don't have time today so for now I just want to list a few of my favorite things about our trip....
1. Time ALONE with Trent!This trip was like a second honeymoon only better. This time around we actually realized how precious it is to have one on one time with one another. One of the things I loved most was that when we were walking we could hold hands or put our arms around each other. I didn't realize it but we never get to do that anymore because we are always herding the kids around when we are together!The other thing I loved was when it was just quiet and peaceful. Those times where you're just enjoying each other but not talking. At home it seems like that time never comes because if we aren't talking one of the kids is bound to be making some noise and it's not exactly peaceful. :)I also loved that we were able to just fill our days completely full. Run around cramming everything fun into the day that we possibly could. No worries about nap times and kid schedules to keep! :)
I have to admit though, although the best part of the trip was being alone with Trent the worst part was also being away from the kids! By the end I missed them so much it hurt! I was so excited to get back and squeeze them in my arms again!
2. The crazy awesome architecture and beauty of the cathedrals and the cities.The first cathedral we went into was completely awe inspiring for me. I have never seen anything like that! The coolest part is that it was built over a THOUSAND years ago! I could spend my life hunting down these beautiful old buildings. There's such an amazing spirit there and the history associated with them is just crazy. Seriously, it was SO COOL to go to these places!I thought it was so cool that everything was so old and beautiful. This was especially true in the small cities we visited outside of Paris. Seriously, if you ever go to France you can't just stay in Paris. The smaller less-touristy towns we visited were my favorite part. Every corner you turn is something beautiful that looks hundreds of years old.
Every photographers greatest dream, I wish I could fly everyone out there to take their family pictures! :)
3. Yummy food!Ok, so I know Paris is famous for crepe's and pastries and it's cliche to say that was my favorite food. But I'm not out to impress anyone...there's a reason they are so famous for it! Man oh man the crepe's were delicious...all the pastries were delicious. They have chocolate in EVERYTHING! Just my kind of place! :)They have restaurants on every corner that are so fancy looking. It's quite a change from our good old fast food restaurants on every corner!My favorite place we ate was actually this little grungy restaurant shown in the picture above. We found it because we were out searching for Trent's old mission apartment he used to live in. They actually turned the apartment complex into a hotel and completely upgraded the place (which is good because it was his grungiest apartment!) After we found the apartment we were just hungry and decided to eat there. The food was SOOOOOOOOO good! I got French onion soup and Trent got some croissants with all kinds of delicious cheese melted into them. We split our meals and shared and it was the yummiest food of the whole trip....mmmm, makes my mouth water just thinking about it!
4. Seeing all the places from Trent's mission and hearing his mission stories.My favorite time was when we were going up the escalator coming out of the metro tunnels and Trent told me it was his first intro to Paris. His companion took him up that very same escalator and I saw what Trent's first intro to Paris was. Then his companion told him to just go talk to people about the church right then and there. Ah, how freaky would that be! We wondered around and found the church near there and the old building he used to use to teach people, it was a fun little walk down memory lane.
I also loved meeting the people was closest to while he was there. We spent the first half of our trip in Normandy because he served in a small town there name Coutances and it was his favorite area of his mission. We went to their little branch meeting that Sunday and they even put together a ward dinner in honor of us. How nice huh? This little ladyis the person I was most excited to meet. Trent is the one who found her and taught her and she holds him very dear to her heart. She sends cards and letters to him regularly and has sent little baby gifts when both of our kids were born. She was so sweet, I'm so glad we came now instead of in 20 years so that I could meet her in person!
5. The history and age of everything.
I just loved how narrow the streets were and how tall and old the buildings were. I loved that every time you could see the landscape of a city it looked like a postcard.I loved knowing that so many of the things I was seeing were built hundreds and hundreds of years ago. This pic was from visiting the D-day beaches. Talk about history, we spent an hour and a half just reading and learning about that day in the visitor center.Everything was so OLD and so cool. I loved it! You'd think going there would make us content in our travels for awhile, which we'll have to be, but really it just made me want to go back again and again!