Venice!

 Where do I even begin... Venice is amazing!!!!!  It's been at the top of my wish list for vacations for a very long time and it did not disappoint!  It was so magical walking around the city.

 The sun was really bright, I left my shades at the hotel.

 We had dinner right on the Grand Canal.  It was lovely.  And quite delicious.

 Every corner we turned was another breath-taking sight.  

I love to see this one's creativity and imagination.  He never does things the "normal" way.  I love him.

Carter is normally such a clean eater, always has been.  We got a good laugh out of his messy face because it's so rare to see him like that!

 Rooftop balcony

Our first night there it started raining on us.  It felt so good!  It cooled us right off and the kids had a blast splashing through the puddles.  Maybe a little too much fun, we got several "Mama Mia!"s from innocent victims of splashes.  Haha!  And sorry....

 Dennison was tickling them trying to get them to smile, haha!  We're on top of the Rialto Bridge.

St Marks Square at night.  Very pretty.

 I'm pretty sure I had to bribe them to get them all to stand here and look at the camera for me.  Why is that so hard for kids to do?!  Don't they know how cute they are??

We didn't have enough room in our vehicle for strollers so we ended up carrying at least one child at all times.

 Shane and Aunt Ellyse.  We had a blast with them!

 I love this picture of the gondola rower pushing off the wall.

Narrow passageway anyone?

We got lost the second day!  All that walking and we ended up in the furthest point from our destination.  Oh man.  We took the water bus back since we didn't have enough time to walk.  It was nice and relaxing to take in the city one last time from the water.

Monaco

We had visitors last month!!!  It was so much for having Dennison's brother Shane and his wife Ellyse here!  We did a lot of fun things with them and they also got in some pretty amazing things by themselves in Italy.  We walked around Old Town Nice with them the first night but I didn't take any pictures.  The next day we heading to Monaco.

 We ended up walking pretty much across the whole country.  Not really, but it sure felt like it!  We first headed up to the palace.  This is the view from the top:

And the palace:

 We got there just in time to watch the changing of the guards. Pretty cool.

Then we walked all the way over to Monte Carlo.  But rest assured that we did NOT take the most convenient or direct route.  We'll call it the "scenic route".  Also know as "the route of up-hill climbs".  It was fun though and very beautiful.

That night we had dinner at one of the restaurants on the beach here in Nice.  The view and company were superb, the food was just ok.  Ellyse and I had the pleasure of sharing some raw salmon.

Carter took a picture of us before we left.

 He also couldn't leave without taking a picture of the lobster tank.

How to Adjust to Life in France

 First item of business:  Take in the view.  Next, take a deep breath and enjoy instant relaxation.  Done and done.

 Next item of business:  Buy the kids some scooters.  We do A LOT of walking and it's easier on their legs (and our ears) to take scooters.

 Then:  Make pancakes to make it feel more like home.  Then let children play with their food because I'm a *fun* mom.

 Next:  Make some really sweet friends who we have so much fun with.  It's amazing the difference a good friend can make!

 Now this one is very important:  Eat the same breakfast as all the French kids.  Pain au Chocolate. 

Next step:  Create the perfect study environment for the grad student.  Sign courtesy of Carter.

 This is just a cute picture.

Then:  While visiting the beach (a common occurrence), try not to get wet in the waves.  Jude rarely succeeds at this one.

 Next: explore the city and take in it's beauty and try to ignore all the dog poop on the sidewalks.  You don't have to tell me, I'm well aware of the grossness.

 Then:  Find some cool parks.  This one tops the list because of it's amazing views and large play area. 

 The view from one side of the park.  From the other side we can see the harbor with all it's beautiful yachts and sailboats.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of that.

And fyi, "time-out" still works in France. 

How we got to France

We moved to France!!  It's kind of a long story how we made this decision but I'll sum it up for you.  Dennison has wanted to go to a Master's program for a while now but wanted to get some good work experience first.  About a year ago he started studying for the gmat and planned to do an executive MBA program somewhere close to home so he could still keep his job through it all.  After taking the gmat, we decided to do a full time program which would probably mean moving somewhere else.  We did tons of research into different programs and places to live.  We had our list of our first choices to apply and then Dennison discovered this program in France.  He'd looked at some others in Paris and London (along with some in the states of course).  I was leaning towards one (or any!) in America because I'm a scaredy cat.  But the more we talked about it and researched it and planned it out, this one just felt right.  He could start the program in January instead of waiting until the fall and it's only a year instead of two.  It also looks good financially.  Plus we'd get to live in the south of France!  Nevermind that I don't speak French or have never been outside the U.S...  So he applied, was accepted, got a scholarship, and we had two months to prepare to move to a foreign country.  In case you're thinking of doing the same, give yourself more time than that!  It was absolute madness.  I still don't know how we got everything done.  Oh yeah, we had tons of help.  We have aweomse friends!  There were countless times when we had a deadline for something (passports, visas, etc.) and it looked like there was no way it would happen in time, but somehome, things just kept working out.  It was undeniable that this was the right decision for us.

 

We got everything in order (mostly) to leave Vancouver just before Christmas.  We spent some time in Utah visiting family before we jetted off across the Atlantic.  It was wonderful to see everyone.  My brother and sister even came for a few days!  It was lovely, I just wish I hadn't been so stressed out so I could have enjoyed it more.   And I should've taken more pictures.

 



 Carter crashed on my dad's lap at my grandma's house.  I think we were all pretty exhausted by this point.

 Our attempt at getting all our kids and my sister's kids in a photo together.  We all know what a tall order that is.

 My sister saying goodbye to Carter before they left.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

 

 It was so great to spend time there.  We also went down to visit Dennison's side of our family in Cedar City.  It was lovely to see them also.  It felt too short, but it usually does when visiting with loved ones. 

We left early in the morning, around 2am on the 29th.  Our first leg of the journey took us to Dallas.  We had a really long layover there - about 7 hours.  Luckily, we have some awesome friends in the area who came and hung out with us for a while.  They even lived in France for four months and were giving us advice on where to shop and how to watch out for people cutting in line (which they do ALL the time here!).  It was fun to talk with them and hear their stories of living in France.

We arrived in Paris around 9am on the 30th.  We *planned* to take the train down to our new home that day.  But when we went to buy the tickets, our bank cards wouldn't work.  They were placed on hold because of suspected fraudulent activity (even though we told them weeks before that we would be moving to Europe...).  The time change was not working in our favor.  It was the middle of the night in America and so the fraud center was closed.  Anyways, long story, but basically we spent all day sitting on the airport floor with all our luggage trying to get things worked out so we could buy train tickets and it didn't happen.  Once the last train left, we gave up and got a hotel room.  We were all so exhausted.  It was a ridiculous day but enough time has passed that we can laugh at it now.  But at the time, there was no laughing going on.  None.

Just try to imagine us attempting to move all this through the airport.  And keep track of our kids.  And not run into people in a very crowded Paris airport.  And watch out for people cutting us off at the elevator causing our luggage cart to tip over.  You should be laughing by now.

 

 The next morning we finally got something worked out and were able to catch the first train.  It was a beautiful ride through the countryside, watching the sunrise.  As you can see, the boys thoroughly enjoyed the scenery :)

 

We arrived in Nice on the 31st but couldn't move into our apartment until the 2nd.  We got a hotel room and tried to adjust to our new time zone.  That proved to be quite the challenge!  Have you ever tried to keep three wide-awake kids quiet in a hotel room all night?  I wouldn't recommend it.  I'm glad that's over, it was rough.  But somehow we made it through and things have only gotten better since then.  It was a crazy time getting here, but we're here now and enjoying the sunshine :)  Stay tuned for the next installment:  "adjusting to the French lifestyle" or something like that.