Family in France

I've been a bit absent for the past week, but for good reason.  Burke and I had to move out of our apartment at Cite Universitaire on the 30th (more details about why and where we are now are forth coming) during his final week of class when all of his projects/papers were due and on the 1st of July my brother (Elijah) his sweet wife (Marinda) and their three boys (Jacob, Joseph and Hyrum) came to visit!

On Thursday afternoon, I took the train up to the airport and succesfully connected with the Bush Family and took them back across the city to their hotel.  We ended up spending a lot of time on the metro and RER over the next several days, but it created lots of time to visit, even if it took forever to get anywhere.  Jakie and Joey are 3 and 4 years old and quite the handful at this age as they are both busy little guys!  I was worried that in this city of monuments and museums we wouldn't be able to find many kid friendly activities to do and that the boys would be miserable.  Fortunately, we were able to strike a nice balance by seeing some of the "big stuff" and hitting up a few places just for the kids.

I was horrible at taking pictures while they were here (too busy keeping the boys out of danger or chatting with the adults), but in 4 days we went to the Eiffel Tour (twice), Notre Dame, Citie de Science (a huge children's museum with a library, planiterium, submarine, Imax theater and several areas divided by age for the children to play), the Museum of Magic, church at the Paris ward on Sunday, the Luxemborg Gardens, the Pompedu Museum of modern art, Saint Germain Iglese and Parc Montsouris which is a beautiful park across from the apartments where Burke and I lived for the past month and a half.  Burke and I were also able to take the boys for an evening while Elijah and Marinda went to Versailles to tour the palace. 

Between the site seeing, we were able to enjoy some great meals.  Lij and Rin treated us to a fancy French lunch where we tried caviar and creme brulee, but were told that escargo was out of season.  We haven't been out to eat for a while, so it reminded me of how the French are all about presentation.  Don't you think those plates just look pretty? 

 

Personally, the best part of the visit was having one-on-one time with each other.  Elijah is 8 years older than I am and we had a nice talk about how rewarding it is to get to know each other again as adults.  I admire Lij and Rin so much and loved having a chance to ask them questions about marriage, the gospel, politics, living in Europe and raising children.  I also felt like Burke and I had a chance to get to know the boys better and despite their attraction to danger, they really are the sweetest little monkeys!

As we loaded them up on the metro, I was saddened by the fact that we won't be reunited again until July of 2011.  As eye-opening and exciting as all of this world traveling is, I have a message for all my abroad family members: come home!  Now that I am a little older I have happily realized that my family is not only my rock, but they are my best friends too.  In my perfect world, all 8 of us Bush children will someday move within a day of travel from one another and that we will visit often.  But until then, how wonderful to find time for visits half a world away!  Thanks for making the trip Lij and Rin!