Eric and Andrea

Monday, August 10, 2009

Parker is the city to live in!

Eric and I LOVE living where we live. We chose the best place to buy our first condo and have zero regrets. We see so much wildlife, we have a pool and workout facility at our clubhouse, we have a biking/running trail that goes for miles upon miles, and we have some great neighbors.

Eric's 26th birthday was August 5 and I think he had a great birthday. I started him out with his favorite muffins and a birthday gift of Tropicana OJ (what he calls, "CK1 in a bottle").
He went off to his 3rd day of med school and then had a 3hr lunch break! So we went and had birthday lunch at Qdoba's (I can't believe Utah doesn't have this restaurant chain- it's too good not to have).
Eric went back to school and then for dinner we had some delicious Thai/Viet food from IndoChine, a new restaurant we found on Main St. in Parker (downtown Parker- so cute cute cute).
I made him his favorite cheesecake and then we chilled for the rest of the night. Happy Birthday Eric!

We recently upgraded to a new table because we felt we outgrew our old one (in always having our dinner guests sitting on our couch to eat).

Old table

Working on the new table

Completed new table!

This video is the source of this blog posting's name:

My knight in shining armor who makes me so happy

Friday, August 7, 2009

France Trip part 3

Modern day Mona Lisa

Wax Museum...Jimi!

Wax museum, Lara Croft

Etienne, Eric's cousin, in the wax museum

Sacre Coeur, the basilica that sits atop Montmartre

After Paris we were in L'Orme (southern France) from July 10-14. We went back to Paris for the 15th and left for home sweet home on the 16th.

Eric's aunt owns a 600 year old small chateau where he spent many of his summers. There was a family reunion this summer and most of Mimi's siblings were there- Olivier, Laurance, Marion and their kids. We had picnic lunches every afternoon that consisted of carrots, cucumbers, french bread, lots of cheeses, fruits (nectarines and apricots) and yogurt. And after each lunch and dinner we had delicious desserts either home made by Marion or bought at the local bakery.

Irene and Fred (Eric's cousin and her beau) love the circus and used to train for it. They brought their accordian and juggling sticks which we tried to play but struggled at. There was also a pool that we took afternoon swims in (and were hoarded by flies). And when in France do as the French do??? Although there were topless swimmers I justcouldn't bring myself to join in.

We played some fun games of boules where Eric totally rocked. But in the end we had two teams, the French v. Americans and unfortunately we got spanked.

There was a Frambois en Folie (Raspberry craziness) festival where they concluded with some awesome fireworks.

One night we went on a walk to their great aunt's house, tante claude, and we carried lanterns with candles! It was so old school but so incredibly fun.

I didn't take pictures in L'Orme but Mimi did so if I get those pics from her I'll post them. L'Orme was a rolling farm town with breathtaking hills and mountains and pastures that you see in all the pictures from France.

France Trip part 2

More from Versailles...the picture below is of a tour guy who had interesting hair...

Posing inside Versailles

View from Sacre Coeur

Eating delicious nutella and banana crepes in front of Sacre Coeur

Luxembourg

Sight seeing from the Open Tour Bus

Flat building

From the Open Tour Bus

Moulin Rouge

We found the cutest baby store and vowed to come back when we have kids

In hunt of the famous, delicious gelato

Centre Georges Pompidou with Kandinsky and Calder exhibitions

Outside Pompidou

France Trip

La France etait tres fraiche!

We were in Paris from July 2-10, staying at Eric's aunt Claire's beautiful house in Le Vesinet Le Pec. Eric's mom (Mimi) met up with us on July 3 from her trip to Norway, and Eric's sista Jessica met up with us on July 4 from her study abroad in a different city in France.
Mimi and Jess stayed at Eric's grandparent's house which was next door to Claire's.

The first night we were there we saw la Tour Eiffel. At first sight of it I said, "that's it?!" It looked like a huge piece of scrap metal put together to make something grandiose. But the closer we got the more striking and impressive it became.

But the closer we got to the tower the closwer we got to the guys who were trying to sell us souvenirs every step we made. They were relentless and we finally learned that you had to ignore them all together to get them to not bother you.

There was one guy who gave me a rose...we were shocked but pleasantly surprised...until after a few steps he came right up to Eric, sneakily so I wouldn't notice, and asked him for 2euros for the rose. Ha! Those sneaky guys. We gave the rose back.

That night we also went on a boat ride along the Seine. From the boat we were able to see the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, famous bridges and lots of old, gorgeous buildings. Also, along the Seine were partiers, mainly college aged kids. They were drinking, dancing, socializing, partying and peeing. There was also a Michael Jackson dance party because of his recent death.

From the Baton Mouche (boat name- Fly Boat) on the Seine

Notre Dame from the Baton Mouche

We visited Notre Dame and the Louvre the second day we were in Paris. By far, the coolest thing we saw that day was when we were in the Louvre. There was an older tourist walking around looking at the paintings of course, after all, what else do you do in the Louvre...when Eric pointed out to me that he had eyebrow hairs extending at least 2inches off his face?!?!?! It was quite a sight I have never seen before. It was brillant.

When Eric and I were buying tix for the Louvre, this guy our age comes up to us to sell 2 extra tix he had. We were a little sceptical but were going to buy them from him. Once we walked to an area where we could stand aside and give him money, he told us we could just have them and he walked off fast.

We started walking to the entrance with our new free tix when we looked more closely at the date, which read: 03/07/09!
We were ripped off! Good thing we didn't pay for them!
So what do we do? We go back to the ticket kiosk and buy two new, good tickets. But when the kiosk spat out the tix, they also read: 03/07/09. The French put the day ahead of the month! Oh we felt so dupped by our ignorance. But don't worry, we sold the two extra tix we had, and still got in for free. And then when we were done with the Louvre we gave our tix to a couple who then also got in for free :)

Notre Dame

Gargoyles on the side of Notre Dame

Le Louvre

One day Eric, his mom and I went to Versailles to visit the Palace of Versailles where the Sun King (Louis XIV) lived. It was full of self portraits, random ladies with their boobs falling out of their clothes (portraits), and decorative ceilings and walls. It was cool but there were oh too many tourists there.
Before the palaces' gates were more of those annoying guys trying to sell souvenirs. Mimi succomed and bargained with a guy in buying an umbrella hat.