Just to update everyone, we are now back in Washington, D.C. Kind of anti-climactic, I know. I hope that people will continue to read our blog when there are no European travel pictures! I (Ben) finished my internship with Demolin Brulard Barthelemy (Brussels law firm) last week. The internship was a great experience, but we decided that it would be better to return to the U.S. in order for me to get more solid experience in U.S. law before working internationally again.

So now we are back in D.C. and I am back on the job hunt (anyone need a lawyer/terminator?)! We are confident that something good will work out. We could really end up going anywhere depending on where I find a job, so we are excited to see what comes next!

In the immediate future, Bonnie is flying to Seattle on Saturday and I will fly there the following Friday. We will be there for a few days and then in SLC for a wedding, and then back to D.C. We hope to see as many friends as possible, so let us know if you will be around in Seattle or Utah!

Seattle: Feb. 26-Mar. 10
Utah: Mar. 10-14
Seattle: Mar. 15-17

To Paris and Back and Everywhere in Between

For our final week in Europe we decided to do a road trip through France and Switzerland. We were lucky to have a few days of good weather. Here is the route we followed:

Naturally, the one day I get to see the Eiffel Tower it is covered in clouds. Consequently, we decided that a trip to the top was probably not worth it. Which was fine because the views from the bottom are also really amazing. I was surprised at how detailed the structure is.

Ben didn't think it was a good idea to wake Paije up from her nap to take this picture....but, now when she is older she'll know that she actually visited the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame

The Louvre

The entrance to Versailles

The hall of mirrors

The palace grounds...still very impressive even during the middle of winter.

More grounds.

After visiting Paris we drove through Geneva, Switzerland to visit some friends and see the mission home where Ben's parents lived. Next stop...Chamonix, France!

For those of you who don't remember we named Paije after this city in France, which meant we had to take her there for a visit. Hopefully we can all go back again someday when its a little warmer.

While we were there we stopped for a baguette.

Switzerland really is as amazing as they say.

We were so happy to see blue skies in Switzerland in February...which everyone says is rare.

In the middle of our drive through the Alps we drove our car onto a train that went through a mountain. They call it the Switzerland ferry and the experience was one of the highlights of our trip. It was pitch black inside the mountain with the exception of the little light in our car. Here we are boarding the train.

When we emerged this is what we saw.

Update on Princess Paije

The sweater Paije is wearing in this photo was actually a sweater my grandmother made for me when I was a baby.

She loves to make noise and kick around.

She also seems to know when I am taking her picture and she seems to like it.

This is Paije's favorite way to sleep, with her arms up above her head.

Love Bruge

Happy Valentines Day from Bruge!

Buongiorno from Rome!

We were fortunate to get to spend the last four days visiting Rome. A friend of ours here in Brussels even offered to keep Paije for us while we went. We were sorely tempted but in the end decided we just couldn't live without her cute face for that long. So we all boarded the plane together and flew the short two hours from Brussels to Rome. Here is Paije enjoying the view from the plane. Actually she was pretty into her toys the whole time.

Day #1:

When we arrived in Rome it took us forever to track down our luggage. Go figure, right? Usually that isn't too complicated. Well for a variety of reasons (many of which I am still annoyed about) we spent nearly two hours just getting out of the airport. By the time we arrived at our hotel we were all a little cranky and hungry. Believe it or not we actually ate at McDonald's our first night in Italy. Embarrassing huh. But it was next door to our hotel and seemed like the simplest option after a hectic arrival. The staff at the hotel was great and Paije was instantly the star of the place. By the end of the trip everyone seemed to know her name and would greet her as we came and went. It was really cute.

Day #2:

This trip with Paije taught me how helpful babies can be in getting you out the door early for some sightseeing. Paije was wide awake by 6:30am which meant we were ready to go by 9am. I imagine that if she hadn't been with us we likely would have slept in until after 9am. I guess we have Paije to thank for helping get to see everything that we did. Our first stop was the Vatican. We visited this famous building (Castel St. Angelo) next to the Vatican first. Perhaps you remember it from Angels and Demons if you saw the movie. It was pretty cool. During its two thousand year history it had been used as a palace, prison, and refuge for popes and emperors.

The view from the top was amazing. Here we are overlooking St. Peters church at the Vatican.

Paije wasn't too interested in this place. She slept the whole time we walked through it.

Here is a view again from the top.

The structure sits right along theTiber River.

Next we walked around St. Peter's basilica which really is as amazing as they say. Do you think he really was buried there? Rick Steves (Our faithful tour guide) says, "definitely, maybe." That afternoon I went on a tour of the Vatican museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. Ben sat outside with Paije since he had already seen it before and the tour was pretty expensive. That evening we walked around the city. Of course it had to rain on us. Thankfully Paije didn't seem to mind the weather.

We saw lots of yummy gelato places like this one.

Day #3

Here is a picture of Paije that morning. Hard to say what she had on her mind at the time.

First stop was the Colosseum...in the pouring rain. But thankfully there were no lines and it wasn't hot. Both of which I hear are big issues if you visit in the summer. So we were grateful to have the place and the cool breeze mostly to ourselves.


Next stop was the Roman Forum...and yes it was still raining. Ben and I huddled close together and listened to Rick Steves audio tour on my ipod. It definitely made the whole thing a lot more interesting to know the history. Rome must have been an amazing place two thousand years ago.


Day #4

Hallelujah it was sunny. The weather went from the worst kinda ugly to the best kinda beautiful. We spent all of Day number 4 walking around the city and saw some of the same sites for a second time. The air was warm and it just felt like everyone was in a good mood out walking around. We sat by the Trevi fountain and fed Paije.

That evening, right as the sun was heading down, we climbed up to the top of St. Peter's. Amazing and scary all at the same time.

This was the scene by the time we got home that day. We had literally walked non stop from 9am-6pm. Ben had even carried Paije all day long. What a good dad.

Day #5

We didn't have much time this morning since our flight left in the afternoon so we decided to go on a short walk. We ended up stumbling across a really important church that use to be the headquarters for the Catholic church before St. Peter's was built. The church is still really important today because it has this "throne" type chair that the new pope must sit on in order to officially become the pope. It had beautiful mosaics in it that we built over a thousand years ago.

Rome was really a cool place. Somewhere I've always wanted to visit and it definitely exceeded all my expectations.

Taking the Train

We have recently discovered how much fun Paije can be on train rides.