europe: versailles & more museums

day two in paris we headed out to versailles to check out the luxury of king louis the xiv - xvi and marie-antoinette. the palace and gardens did not disappoint. was all very over the top.

the gardens were so huge with some encouragement from jon we decided to see them via golf cart.

there were also lots of fun statues to imitate.

that afternoon we visited some additional sights in paris including some lovely flower shops,

napoleon's tomb (big tomb for little man),

rodin scuplture garden where we saw the thinker,

and the musee du lourve to see the mona lisa.

and of course, more eiffel tower.

europe: paris bike ride

onto paris via the chunnel. i pretty much loved everything about paris. we stayed by the eiffel tower and it ended up being a great starting point for many of our activities, including on the first day a bike tour.

we got the history of and saw such sights as the army museum & napoleons tomb, les invalides, the seine,

concorde, tuileres gardens, the lourve,

and course the eiffel tower.

that afternoon we went to see the arc de triomphe and strolled down the champs-elysees.

maybe my favorite stop of the entire trip was to la duree on the champs-elysees where we ate the most delicious macaroons. they were so tasty that we stood outside and ate them all.

that evening ben and i headed up to the highest point in paris to see sacre-coeur basilica and the view. ben really like the gargoyles.

we strolled around montmartre, ate some crepes, and ended at the moulin rouge.

europe: london

we were lucky to be able to recently travel to europe for vacation. i was excited. we started in london, moved onto paris, and ended in barcelona.

we met up with this great group of forrests (mom, katie, aaron, & jon) in london where katie is currently living and working (lucky).

katie was a great tour guide and we had many adventures such as the changing of the guard at buckingham palace, an open top bus tour,

fish & chips at the tower of london,

a river cruise down the thames, the london eye,

the churchill museum & cabinet war rooms, hyde park, classic british phone booths,

delicious indian food, and of course big ben.

thanks to katie for letting us completely take over her fabulous flat with heated floors!

new orleans

for our get-out-of-boston-winter get away this year we traveled to new orleans. nola holds a special place in my heart so it was good to go back and be joined by our good friends the cannons.

highlights included a crusier bike tour around the city with a stop at st. roch's cemetery.

three sparadic parades & bead catching

two great jazz sets at preservation hall

an airboat swamp tour in the bayou where we saw quite a few gators

city park and the oaks

and of course the french quarter & way too much eating - especially beignets which we had 3 nights in a row from cafe du monde.

ice skating

we pretty much hibernate in the winter around here, but one weekend we took our friend nyshma ice skating. it was her first time and she really picked it up quickly.

it was cold and windy, but going in circles helped us stay warm.

that afternoon we decorated valentine themed sugar cookies. yummy.

christmas part 3: the wedding

the big event of the week was john's wedding on dec 26. he married his high school sweetheart at the oakland temple. yippee for john & kristen!

of course we took lots of photos after the ceremony.
and that evening we ate lots and danced a little at the fancy reception.
welcome to the family kristen - get ready for some good times.

christmas part 2: christmas eve & day

the traditions of christmas start on the 24th. mom cooked an amazingly fancy meal, we wore our crowns from the poppers, had a christmas program and some played with their napkin rings...

christmas morning of course was filled with lots of present opening. we brought grandma some boston items - including a lobster hat.
dad was the lucky one this year to get a quilt made via mom.
and keeping with tradition we talked around the lafayette reservoir. this time we even had an ornament to put on the tree. i was glad to have john back this year to jump with me.and my favorite tradition - bowling! grandma even got in the action and as long as she had a steady hand she bowled quite well.
that evening we headed to palo alto to see some forrest family, eat another great meal via katie and wished niece madelyn a happy birthday.
a very full, yet perfect christmas day.