Get ready for some raw personal thoughts. I wrote this entry in my journal the other day and I keep getting the feeling that I should post it here; so here I go. Please don’t hate me for the things I think and feel when I’m tired.

Here’s what’s up: Yesterday (this entry was originally written last Thursday, so this yesterday was actually last Wednesday) I said that I hate my life sometimes. I said I hate being a housekeeper, and the only thing that keeps me here (as a non-employed homemaker) is how much I love our kids. I want to be on the official record as saying I love my life. I find hundreds of blessings, freedoms, and other reasons to rejoice every single day I look for them. But recently, I’ve had that feeling again that I want to become something and I feel like I haven’t been doing it.

Evidence! Carter with cars!

I believe–because of many hours of consideration and earnest praying on the subject–that Heavenly Father wants me to be a stay-at-home-mom right now. And I know that I would be sad if I didn’t get to be the one raising my children each day. I love them and DO love being their one and only during the day. And yet, I don’t want to be only a mother. I want to be something special and useful. I want to develop my own gifts and abilities in a way that will enrich my own life as well as the lives of others. I want to be an intellectually stimulating person. I want to feel like I have reached my greatest potential. And I believe Heavenly Father wants me to reach that potential, too. I just wish I could see how the things I’m doing now play into that.

We do crafts every once in a while. This was paper-plate-pizza.

The kids and I listened to the story of Joseph on Scripture Scouts today (Thursday) and it made me think a lot. When Joseph was sold into slavery he probably didn’t think it was a particularly good stepping stone on his way to reaching his full potential. He probably felt the same way about being thrown into prison for being chaste and obedient. But Heavenly Father had greater plans for Jospeh than he ever could have had for himself. He allowed Joseph to suffer some pretty hard things so Joseph would be where and who he needed to be to do God’s work and save multiple nations from starvation.

At the Aquarium. They love watching the sharks!

Thinking of Joesph’s story makes me think multiple things: If God has Joseph-like plans for me, then I’ll just stop worrying and try to live this part of the journey as well as I can so I’ll be ready in all ways when y time comes. But another thought is: it’s very unlikely that anything of Joseph proportions is in my future, which makes the now seem less like a stepping stone and more like a mud puddle from which I may never emerge. (Though–silver lining–I also am not likely to suffer like Joseph.) But: I have a testimony that God’s path/plan for me is the one which will make me the best I possibly can be. “Best” doesn’t mean famous, wildly successful, fabulously brilliant, or even having a nice career. “Best” means as much like Christ as possible.

Motherhood definitely helps one become like Christ. For example:

• Selfless service? check!
• Love beyond comprehension? check!
• doing enormous amounts of work for which you receive NOTHING? check!
• teaching? check!
• Being an example? check!
• Being ridiculed by the world for your righteous actions? check!
• Oh! and did I mention anything like giving everything you’ve got to those you love even though they take it all for granted? CHECK!

So, if reaching my full potential means becoming like Christ, I understand why the Lord wants me here. But I know that unless I trust in His stepping stones and do my very best no matter where I am I won’t be able to become what I need and want to be.

Snoozing in the car on the way home from camping.

All that being said, I still don’t believe Heavenly Father wants me to stop trying to become something wonderful while I am caring for His priceless spirits. After all, there’s no limit to what I can become while at the same time becoming like Christ. And every time I pray I feel that my answer is always that I should be ALWAYS taking some kind of class. (For readers’ information, I have recently been taking ballet–though I have had a really long break–and will soon be taking tennis classes again. I have also taken interior design.) It just ends up being tricky to maintain my attendance with all the other things going on in our lives like extended family, plus church callings, plus trying to sustain our own nuclear family AND our marriage, plus whatever else comes up. But I know I feel less like I have this past week when I prioritize it; so I just need to recommit to it.

Looking cool!

I know Heavenly Father wants me to be happy and content with where and who I am now. And I know He doesn’t expect me to do that with nothing to work with. And He hasn’t left me with nothing! He just needs me to actually follow through on His infinitely wise advice and counsel. (He’s probably tired of me coming back to Him over and over with the same concerns because I don’t do what He told me to do even though I can TOTALLY see the difference when I do.)

Uncle Tanner making his way into the hearts of my children.

I want to, hereby, go on the record as saying I’m ready to trust the Lord’s path for me, truly make the most of it by following His counsel, and look forward to the day I see how everything worked together for my good and helped me reach my greatest potential.

Butterfly Fay. Her fingers are her antennae.

On Friday night I was just about ready to throw in the towel on all parts of my life. I was totally exhausted (Carter had been up coughing all night Thursday night), I had been stressing out about Fay’s pictures for dance all day long, the house was a mess, the dishes weren’t done, it was all just bad. I know you’ve all been there.

AHHHH!!! They’re so cute!

But all the kids slept through the night that night! And I woke up to happy faces and snuggles from the family! Plus Josh didn’t have to leave at the crack of dawn! I felt like there might be some hope for my life!

We worked all morning on our yard–which was another thing I was ready to throw the towel in about–and by lunch time it looked like people actually cared about/for the thing! We had worked hard together (the kids are the cutest with yard work!) and it totally transformed my view of the world! We still had a pretty messy house; but the yard looked downright presentable, and it gave me hope for the rest of the house/our life.

Proudly riding his pony!

This is the girl who got us on the ponies. She didn’t care that the wait was 30 minutes. She was there to ride a pony and she did! I’m very impressed by her patience when she really wants something.

After working hard all morning, we played hard all afternoon! We had lunch at Bell’s Deli (Seriously, check it out! Delicious burgers, fries, and cookies!), then we went shopping for summer clothes and pjs, then we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point and saw baby animals as well as big animals, and Fay and Carter even got to take a pony ride!

Showing off their new summer jammies! They have never been more excited to get ready for bed!

After a day of working and playing in the sun, we were pretty wiped out, but it was a completely different kind of wipe-out than I was feeling on Friday night.  I’m so grateful for something as simple as Saturday each week that gets to heal me from the stress I allow to build in me each week. And it is so delightful that Sunday follows Saturday because that is another kind of healing which is just as wonderful and necessary.

My girl is FIVE years old today!!! I can’t believe it! And yet, I totally can. Because, did I ever not have Fay? But regardless of her age, I am eternally grateful for my beautiful, fun, exciting, adventurous girl!

Fay opening presents this morning

Fay decided she wanted a friend party this year, and wanted a Disney princess theme. So I pooled all my creative juices to come up with some original party games and decorations and things so she could have a one of a kind party.  Just Kidding. I definitely just used the ideas I found on Pinterest. But Fay really liked it–especially having her friends and cousins there–and I think the other guests did too, and that is all that matters!

All the princesses

For our first activity, everybody got a crown to decorate and take home; next we played Snow White’s poison apple, which was the highlight of the party, I think; then we played apple toss for Maximus (from Tangled). And at the very end, all the princess attire was shed and the princesses just played in the backyard.

Aren’t they so cute?!

We all had a lot of fun!

For her birthday meals, Fay picked the exact same two as Carter: Chick-Fil-A for one and spaghetti and meatballs for the other. But she did pick a different cereal than Carter did, so that’s good. 🙂 Today, we did some presents, and some singing with cupcakes, and all 4 grandparents–plus an aunt and some uncles–came over to wish the birthday girl well! She got to party for two days straight!

Blowing out the candles! Impressively, she managed to blow all five candles out one by one.

Anyway, that’s what we did. Which is all well and good. But let’s talk about who Fay is right now.

Fay’s very favorite thing to do is color. She loves coloring books; but she mostly loves creating her own artwork. She drew a picture of a two-headed dragon on the driveway (with chalk) the other day, and I was quite impressed by the quality of the drawing! I also thought it was pretty cool that she thought of a two-headed dragon. I wonder where she got the idea…

The dragon

Fay also loves just to explore whatever realm she is currently in, without interruption. She loves when we go to museums and such and she gets to just play in the water, or roam around the play-place, etc. She also loves to see what new, magical things she can find in the backyard, or at a friend’s house, or in the storage closets of our house.

Sand and water. What more could a kid want?!

Fay also loves to read! Her skills of reading on her own are definitely picking up thanks to her preschool; but she mostly loves to sit on my lap (!!!!!) and listen to me read as many stories as I have time to read. I love it!
Our Faymous also loves to help in the kitchen, and in the yard, and with whatever DIY projects we are doing. And she is a wonderful helper with Portia when I need to get something done and Portia is just making mischief.

Fay also likes to be silly. She loves singing silly songs at the table, she enjoys telling jokes (Her original jokes are pretty amusing, but not in the way an actually good joke is, if you know what I mean.), and she loves to be the center of our attention!

Figuring out how to eat a seriously cheesy pizza!

Things that Fay doesn’t like include (but are not limited to):

• Anything that takes her away from her play, such as grocery shopping, preparing to go to dance, and sometimes even leaving for a friend’s house. Play is the most important element of her life.
• Being left alone. I don’t ever leave her alone, but if ever she wanders away from me at a store or the library or wherever we may be, she panics if she can’t see me.
• Really loud sounds
• Being hungry. She will declare “I’m STARVING!!!” the instant she realizes she might like to eat.

I am seriously grateful beyond description that Heavenly Father gave me this exceptional girl! I’m grateful for everything she is and does right now in her life, and I look forward to watching as she grows and changes!

Happy Birthday Fay!

Looking elegant and demure on Easter

Aside from Carter’s birthday on Friday, we still had a great week! We were busy, but busy with all good things, and we had some days of beautiful weather which made it great!

One afternoon, we were all out in the yard and we met a butterfly. It wasn’t just any butterfly, though; it was a monarch butterfly. It seemed to be sick and/or dying. 🙁  It wouldn’t fly away when we came near it, but rather hovered just enough to move slightly out of the way. We watched it for a long time and then went back to playing. But as we were playing we realized we might step on it or run it over so we decided to try and help it scootch out of the way. Instead of fluttering and moving out of the way, however, it decided to land on my shoe, then the skin on my foot, then climb up my leg, then land on my finger, then climb up my wrist! It was way cool! I had to push it off my hand and into the garden! I feel so famous!

Fay and the butterfly

After all the butterfly excitement subsided, we just went to playing on the swings and stuff. Everybody had so much fun just being together outside! It was quite joyous!

Carter wanted to swing with Portia and hold her hand! <3 <3 <3

I LOVE it when they all play happily together!

Something very exciting happened this week!!!! We got this ottoman:

KSL classifieds find.

Isn’t it great?! So much potential! Josh and I worked together on it and turned it into more than just potential!

After the magic

AHHH!!! Isn’t it GORGEOUS?!!!!! I have been wanting an ottoman like this for so long, and now my dreams have become a reality!

Anyway…

Yesterday we took a trip down to Monticello to visit my grandma! It was really nice to see her and hear lots of stories about her life that I hadn’t before. I am ashamed to say we didn’t get a picture of her; but she got a picture of us at her house, and I will share it with you.

And on top of all that, we had a super fantastic Sacrament Meeting today! I don’t mind weeks like this at all!

Birthday boy with his Cars cupcakes!

This dude turned 3 years old today! It was enormously fun to watch Carter get into the birthday spirit! He kept declaring how much he loved all his gifts, and would respond with a super enthusiastic “free” whenever he was asked how old he was! I love this kid so much!

Let’s talk about Carter these days!

And even though Carter is all about cars these days, I can’t find a single picture of him really playing with them. Not even from today when he got loaded with cars! I will repent, and you will see Carter with cars!

Carter opening a present this morning.

Another thing Carter loves is music! He knows all the words to the primary songs (and I just let him perform with the primary even though he’s still in nursery), loves to listen to and sing songs at home. He will sometimes just sing or hum to himself, just like Fay does. It makes me so happy! I heard once (on an I’m a Mormon video, I think), “kids can’t really be cranky or sad if they’re singing” and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. So I’m glad my boy loves his music!

Carter put these Mickey Mouse ears around his waist and called them his drums. He then proceeded to rock out on them!

Recently Carter–who was my best napper in the whole world–has decided he will. not. nap. I think he genuinely doesn’t always need a nap. He was having a hard time going to sleep at bedtime for a couple of weeks, and that’s when I started allowing him to skip naps. But it quickly became apparent that he still needed them some days. He doesn’t usually get all that grumpy, which is a beautiful blessing, but he just falls asleep at random times in random places, and there’s nothing anyone can do to wake him except go put him in his bed. Once he’s been “put down” he will wake right up because he doesn’t want/need a nap. He’s fallen asleep on the couch, multiple times sitting at the dinner table, and one time sitting in the middle of the floor.

He’s so sweet and sleepy!

Carter is getting to that age where he just thinks up the wildest things to entertain himself. Today, he wanted to get in his bed and put every blanket he owns (he just got two new ones today) on top of him. He just grinned and giggled the whole time he was there. Sometimes he wants to run in circles around the couch forever. Sometimes he wants to line up all his cars and just look at them. The other day, he decided I needed to be his bed, and he just laid there on me for like 5 minutes.

He was so cute, I couldn’t kick him off!

We love our boy so much! I’m so grateful he’s been mine for three whole years, and infinitely grateful he will be mine for eternity!

Looking seriously studly on Easter Sunday. Hey look! A car!

 

This Easter season has gone by so quickly! How do things keep doing that?! But we have had lots of fun, including, but not limited to:

• Decorating the mantel (picture below)
• Fay decorating her mantel a jillion times (because Portia keeps coming and ruining it)
• Dying Easter eggs
• Easter egg hunts around the house and yard
• Two epic family Easter parties where we all got more goodies than we know what to do with!
• Reading seasonal books
• Wearing our spiffy Easter outfits
• Rejoicing in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ! (best part!)

Here’s the photographic evidence!

The mantel! Special thanks to Shauna for the ADORABLE little bunnies, and Lacey for the beautiful Eastery quotes!

Egg hunt #1 for family party on Monday. We dyed the eggs then had a hunt right then!

The 2 year old cousins at the Muhlestein egg hunt. They did this themselves which made it just that much cuter!

I guess we were all having too much fun to take any pictures at the Monson Easter hunt. But it was definitely awesome!

Spiffy Easter outfits. I made my dress, and I feel like it looks a lot better in the mirror than it does in this picture… I don’t know which one tells the truth.

Spiffy outfits for the rest of the family. Portia was in hers for approximately 7 minutes before she stained it with candy.

ALSO!!!! Fay totally read this entire book by herself this past week! It was her very first book to read all the way through! I’m so proud of my big, growing-up girl!

The two highlights from this week included a trip to the farm and General Conference!

On Wednesday of this past week the kids and I went with some friends to Wheeler Farm. I had gone to Wheeler Farm on a field trip when I was in first grade and vaguely remembered seeing some cows being milked, but I honestly didn’t know what to expect–especially since admission was free. Well it totally did NOT disappoint! It was like the funnest outing we have had in months! A big part of the fun was hanging out with friends (for me as well as the kids), so thanks friends!

The kids sitting in the cow ride. We were cheapos and didn’t pay to actually ride it. 🙂

All three kids loved seeing the different animals, and there were quite a few! Even some babies! When we talked about it beforehand, Fay’s one desire was to see chickens, and we did! We also saw giant rabbits, giant turkeys, normal sized cows, horses, and sheep, and two calves and some lambs! It was so fun!

I didn’t think to get any pictures of the kids with the animals. But here they are looking super cute on this quaint hay truck.

Then we had General Conference this weekend! The things I love about General Conference are: all the things. I had so many beautiful insights and special manifestations of Heavenly Father’s love during this conference, and I just feel like I’m ready to go another 6 months!

We had one session of conference with friends and the rest were just us. The kids honestly did really good all things considered! Fay paid more attention this time than she ever has before, and it was special to talk about the messages with her while they were going on. I love my girl! And it is such a joy to see her developing her own testimony of Jesus Christ.

Conference is Cool!

Also, Josh went and did Priesthood session and man partying with his dad and brothers, and I decided we needed to do some fun stuff too! I asked the kids what they wanted and they decided on a picnic dinner, a craft, and to read a ton of stories! The kids seemed to have quite a bit of fun, and I definitely did!

Picnic dinner. Portia can put away burritos!

Then our bunny craft for Easter!

Fay did just about everything herself for her rabbit! I only helped with poking holes for the whiskers and cutting out the nose.

Carter and I did this one together. I made the ears look more like cat ears than bunny ears, but he was still pleased.

No pictures from the story time, but it was good with lots of Eastery stories. I’m getting so excited for Easter! This will be my first legit Easter mantel, and I better get crackin’ because we’re only two weeks away!

Kids are so fun and so funny! I love seeing what my kids decide is important or hilarious or interesting. Here’s a couple stories and pictures from this past week to illustrate.

First of all: Portia. She is just plain mischief lately. One morning the kids and I were coloring with chalk in the front yard when I realized it was getting to be lunch time. I began the several minute long process of herding the kids inside to eat. I made the mistake of putting Portia inside at the same time I asked Fay to bring the chalk in (and not specifying that I wanted the chalk put up on the counter). When I finally got the two older kids inside Portia was–quite happily–munching on a giant chunk of chalk. I unsuccessfully tried to get already chewed up chalk out of her mouth, and finally resorted to just washing it down with a cup of milk. I rejoice every new day that she is still around to put more scary things in her mouth.

Mischief.

Fay loves to color. She loves to color more than she likes her dolls, her princess toys, her puppets, her food and kitchen combined. If she is interrupted in the middle of a coloring session, she gets very defensive about it. She talks about the importance of her coloring as though she was in the middle of writing her PhD dissertation, as in how could I possibly interrupt her or force her to go to bed when she is working so hard on something so critical. I also love it when she tells me about how she has been coloring pictures all day long and is therefore exhausted because of working so hard.

Hard at work.

Carter often likes to take time and play by himself, uninterrupted. He gets really excited by large amounts of cars and doesn’t want anybody to throw off that groove. But then there are times when he craves attention and just wants to show off! Those are fun and silly times. As an aside, this mode of Carterness reminds me of how he loves the word “cock.” Whenever things start to get silly, Carter starts calling everything cock, the punch-line to every joke is cock, and everybody gets called cock a few times. He’s a fun, silly guy! We love him!

A silly time.

Another thing I love is all my kids playing together.

Together in the playroom.

Together in the yard.

Together at the window.

They are such good kiddos, and I’m so glad they’re mine!

We have slept in our own beds every night for over a week! It has been remarkably easy to get used to considering how long we were everywhere else. We had tons of fun on all our adventures, but it is just nice to spend time with our own little nuclear family doing whatever it is we do.

The kids with matching blankets! We got a picture of them all smiling and looking at the camera; but this one was so much better!

Carter doing his thing.

Fay doing hers.

I seriously love my family!

Then came the most glorious holiday of them all! 😉

Here is the mantel in all its glory! Have I ever mentioned how much I love this mantel?

Not too shabby considering I worked on it for a total of 18 minutes.

My friend asked me what we did to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and I realized I don’t actually do that much. I always just thought wearing green, thinking about Ireland and leprechauns, and having a festive, green dinner were enough to make it worthy of being the best day ever. But Josh doesn’t do anything half-way, and when I say St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite, he makes sure there’s a reason for it to remain such.

First of all, he gets me flowers every year! When we were just starting out Josh asked me if I felt like I really needed flowers on Valentine’s Day (when they are 6 times more expensive than any other time of year). I told him I didn’t have any special feelings about flowers on Valentine’s, but that I do like fresh flowers, and St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite holiday, so maybe that would be a good substitute. He never forgets! I love him!

But this year, he seriously outdid himself! Because not only did he come home with flowers! He also brought SHAMROCKS!!!!!!! Best. Day. Ever.

They are just so joyful!

He also secretly worked extra during the week so he could come home early! (I seriously don’t deserve him; but I’m SOOOOO glad he’s mine!)

But for the few hours he was at work, I felt like I had to up my game because he had set such a high precedent for the day! So, while Portia napped, Fay, Carter, and I made fruit-loop rainbows with marshmallow clouds to celebrate potential pots of gold we might find in such places.

Just getting started. We ended up with pretty short rainbows; but I think the kids had fun anyway.

Then it was dinner time! Josh helped with that too! We had broccoli cheese soup (green) with clover rolls (dyed green with homemade spinach food coloring which I am rather proud of) and asparagus (green) along with shamrock floats (the name I gave to our floats of rainbow sherbet and sprite)! It was delicious and green and even healthy for the most part!

Also, here’s Carter

Looking lucky!

Josh and I have been planning a getaway as just the two of us for … ever. We decided last spring that we would do it when Portia was a year old. Well, we have arrived! And did we ever get away!  We had originally planned on going to Disneyland and then on a cruise, but when we found killer deals on airfare to Paris, we knew we were meant to be in Europe!

We had already spent a decent amount of time in Paris, and there is so much to see that we decided we would take the train from Paris and visit Belgium! Here’s how it went!

The first stop on our trip was Lille, France. Why Lille; you may ask. We chose to go to Lille because it was between Paris and Brussels, and though we had both heard of it, neither of us knew a thing about it.

It turns out, there’s probably a reason Lille isn’t number one on people’s tourist destinations. But it was a charming city–as French cities are wont to be–and we had a good day visiting it.

A beautiful staircase in “Le Palais des Beaux Arts” in Lille. This museum was filed with mostly art from Lille. There was one nativity painting that had the most beautiful depiction of Mary and the baby Jesus! I took a picture, but it is a bad one; so you’ll just have to imagine it.

Notre Dame de la Treille cathedral. Something I loved about this was how tucked away it was in Lille. If this building was in Utah I feel like there would be a jillion signs showing how to get there, and it would be a major tourist destination. But in France, every town with more than 100 houses has a giant church.

I LOVE the adorable sandwiched houses you find in Europe! This little neighborhood is facing the cathedral in the last picture and it is perfectly picturesque! Don’t you want to move there?!

We also did some shopping and some eating in Lille. I bought cheese because it had to be done. But our real destination was Belgium. So the next day we boarded another train and off we went to Brussels.

Brussels is a fun, busy city. They have a good metro/bus/tram system and that makes all the difference–especially when you are tourists with no car. 🙂 One cool thing about Brussels, and Belgium in general, is their affinity for comics. They have a comic book museum there that we just had to check out! A tour guide we had while we were there told us that if we were not fans of comics, we had better keep it to ourselves for our own safety. 🙂

Me at the Smurf house in the comic museum.

The Grande Place in Brussels is quite extraordinary, especially at night! It rained basically every day we were there and the lights reflecting off the wet cobblestones were magical!

The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. It is named after THE St. Michael, and the patron saint of Brussels who was just a really hard working, loving, serving woman from history. I thought it was beautiful that they chose a saint who simply chose to do good her whole life instead of one who had some unbelievable story that brought them sainthood.

We saw lots of great things in Brussels! And we took Kathryn’s advice (she gave it approximately 8 times) to go on the walking tour and it was totally worth it! I will probably recommend it at least 8 times to anyone who asks me what to do in Brussels.  But my favorite part was going to church! I seriously love the Gospel SO MUCH! And it is so fun to see how people all over the world live it!

Outside the church building.

During Relief Society I met these two adorable ladies: Vivianne (in blue) and Marinelle (in white). Vivianne invited us for dinner! We got to get to know these two best friends a little better, and they both have amazing stories! Talking with Vivanne reminded me a lot of my time in Paris when my job was to hear the stories of old people. But there is such an enormous difference between Vivianne’s light, enthusiasm, and feeling of purpose than that of those I visited with in Paris. I know it is because of her faith in Jesus Christ!

We also have a funny story about getting locked out of our AirB&B while in Brussels. If you want to hear it, I can tell you personally.

After two days in Brussels, we went to possibly the most adorable city in the whole world! Bruges! When I asked facebook where we should go in Belgium everybody said Bruges, and again, I will recommend it to others as well. And we stayed at the best B&B! Josh said it was “pinterest worthy” and it was definitely true! It was beautiful, had a great location, etc.  But what really made it great was how much care our hostess put into everything. She had homemade apple muffins for us in our room on the first day, and homemade chocolate mousse in our room on the second day. Not to mention she made multiple kinds of artisan breads each morning for breakfast, and had an adorable chalkboard of goings-on in Bruges which she updated each day!

Anyway, enough gushing. Here’s some pictures.

One of the major sites in Bruges–right in the middle of the Markt–is the clock tower. It has something like 350 steps, and we walked up all of them! Josh commented that it was nothing compared to going up Notre Dame in Paris, but that was because the steps were much larger here.

The Grand Bell. Although, there was another larger one further up the stairs. I’m not exactly sure how that worked. But it was still quite an impressive bell!

Bruges is home to 3 or 4 windmills. They are on these little hills outside the main part of the city. This is Josh looking majestic with the majestic windmill.

One thing you, apparently, have to eat in Belgium is mussels. We did and they were really good! I must confess I haven’t eaten mussels in years, so I am probably not the best judge of comparative quality, but the ones I ate were delicious!

This is just some residences in the middle of the city! And yet it looks like it was taken out of a fairytale!

GORGEOUS! I totes want to go back and see this city in the summer!

There are canals that encircle the city of Bruges. Our B&B hostess said “They have boat tours on the canals. It’s totally touristy, but you just have to do it!” I’m glad we did. I’m not ashamed to do touristy things: I’m a tourist after all!

Probably my favorite part of the whole trip was dinner our second night in Bruges! Our B&B (they seriously were so great!) recommended some restaurants that they liked and we picked a random one called Nxt Door. It was the coolest little place that specialized in “street food.” There was a normal menu and then there was an option where the chef would choose 6 courses to give you, from 6 countries, and you didn’t get to know beforehand what they were. Even our waiter didn’t know what we would be getting! It was way too intriguing to pass up! We got starters from Peru, China, and Italy, then we got main dishes from Africa (I don’t remember which country) and Mexico, then we got dessert from Belgium! It was all really well made with unique and rich flavors! I would recommend this place at LEAST 8 times!

Then it was time to leave Bruges and head for home…by way of Paris! We only had a 3rd of a day to spend there, so we got right to business. We bought a kebab with fries (definitely not as good as Belgian fries), and went to the Louvre. It was lovely to be inside out of the rain and to see some old favorites and some brand new things! It was Josh’s first time to see the Mona Lisa and both of our first time to see the Venus di Milo. I must confess, I would have enjoyed all the sculptures in that museum more if they had been wearing clothes. My favorite parts this time around were probably the ancient Egyptian things and the David gallery.

Proof.

And then we flew home! It was so fun to go have our adventure! But it was also really fun to come home to our cuties and lovely weather!

By the way (on the subject of weather), if you are wondering what to pack so you can blend in with the chic europeans during the winter, the only thing you really need to worry about bringing is a coat you feel chic in. Because it is cold and rainy and you wear your coat constantly (as you may have noticed from our pictures).