Europe: Where We Walked and Walked and Walked

Rob and I love to walk on our vacations. Our kids don't but they learned to do it anyway.

Rob tracked it and we walked a total of 85.6 miles over those 19 days (avg 4.5 miles per day). Not bad for little legs!

Walking is the best way to see and experience all the new sights. Plus, we had to work off all the dozens of pastries we devoured.

Other than a couple of cities, we really wanted this trip to highlight the natural landscapes of each country. Of course, those parts turned out to be some of our very favorite places. We just love the feeling of freedom and wholeness that comes from spending time in God's incredible creation.

Caroline walked about half as much as everyone else. She really enjoyed the view from up top!

New York

 

France - It rained on us a lot here.

 

This area outside of Fontainebleau was such a nice respite after the craziness of NYC and Paris.

Luxembourg

We climbed a TON of stairs in each country. We climbed 214 flights of stairs total but one day alone was 48 flights (hiking in luxembourg).

We all LOVED our hiking day in the Echternach area of Luxembourg!

We found ourselves among trolls.

And a troll bridge.

This area is called Wolf Cove. The story goes that when people settled here, there were many wolves in the area that would eat the farm animals. To solve the problem, the people lured the wolves into this canyon, trapped them, and then stood on top and threw boulders down at them, killing every last one of them.

Caroline found this story fascinating and had me tell it to her over and over again while we were walking...Strange girl.

 

Germany

I'm not sure why this is a go-to pose for this man. It always has been and I have a sneaky suspicion he'll be 85 years old one day doing the same thing.

We were dumped on for a few minutes in Germany while walking the hills above a hamlet.

 

Netherlands

 

Our kids loved this beach. They could just dip their hands in the edge of the water and pick up handfuls and handfuls of shells.

 

Belgium

 

Well, everyone...we did it! Not only did we get through Europe...but we got through posting about it. Ha!

Looking at these pictures is such motivation for me to keep writing and slowly, slowly saving up for  another trip someday.

When in Doubt, Do Disney

When in doubt, do Disney.

If you're really ready to rock it, bring on BSB and the beach.

I've already posted about this Springtime trip, but now it can be enjoyed by my family via video.

So go ahead. Enjoy it. Enjoy it, I said!

Europe 2017: Art & Architecture

Our second-to-last installment of European blog posts features art and architecture in various forms. They just don't make stuff like this here in 'Merica.

'Cept for this stuff, 'cause it's in 'Merica.

Such a cute family shot!

This pic was taken at Ellis Island. The girls are trying to fit in with the crowd.

Paris (in case you couldn't tell from the French sign...)

The heigh of the tower is surprisingly imposing.

 

One of our (except for Cara's) favorites? Walking up Miss Eiffel's leg.

Skip the lines? Check. See the inside workings? Check. Skip the crowded elevator? Check. Enjoy a better view? Check. 

 

We wanted to visit museums, but weren't interested in spending entire days in them or bank accounts on them just to see a ton of nads and nudes. Don't worry, we saw plenty...just not so much that we were overwhelmed at every viewpoint. 

The Musee de la Musique was magnifique, even if we didn't enjoy the longish Metro ride. The kids got really into their headsets. They punched in the instrument number and they could hear what it sounds like. This kept them busy for a very long time!

Musee de l'Orangerie was serene. Monet's magical brushstrokes are showcased in multiple large format canvasses that wrap around the room. Incredible.

I know there's a metaphor here about small, individual brushstrokes contributing to a stunning masterpiece, or how a masterpiece is made up of individual brushstrokes...

but I'm too tired to come up with something brilliant or spiritual so I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

A street corner in the town of Fountainbleau.

Here's Troyes, a very cool little medieval town. The kids couldn't believe people used to throw buckets of poop out the windows into the little gutters that we were walking in and thought looked so cute.

Germany

Don't get me wrong, the tiny towns are cute and some were better than others...but I just couldn't shake the feeling that a lot of them were just cute-sified malls. Think Park City Main Street. 

We still really enjoyed the structures and took plenty of pictures to prove it!

I LOOOOVE how Monschau looked after a good rain!

Other than the windmills at Kinderdijk, there wasn't much, architecture-wise, that stood out in The Netherlands.

 

Belgium
Antwerp had a nice city center square. The architecture is spectacular!

Ghent was really cool, especially all lit up at night. It has won the most "Beautiful City at Night" awards.

Bruges was so great. We could have walked amongst the buildings, shops, and houses forever.

Epperson Cousin Photo Time

Rob's aunt and uncle were in town so his cousin took the opportunity to make sure her family got some portraits taken while they were here. We met at the BYU Botany Pond and spent a lovely evening strolling and playing (with a little taking of pictures on the side).

 

Family can view and download proofs and prints here.

San Diego and Oxnard 2016 Video

One of the things I asked from Rob for my birthday was to catch up on making some of our family vacation videos.

Here's our vacation from last year with his family. It's so fun to watch and remember!




P.S. I promise to start blogging "real" life and not just "vacation" life again real soon. If I'm going to be honest, "real" life has been real messy as of late and "vacation" life is just so much more pleasant to talk about. So don't get the wrong impression that our life is nothing but fun and exciting. It's not. And maybe once the kids are all in school full time (WOW!) in a couple of weeks I'll be able to come out of survival mode, have a moment to decompress, and write.

In the meantime, enjoy the music on the video!!

After Hours in Barbizon France

After scrambling over rocks and moss and wandering around the forests of the French countryside, which is another post altogether, we found ourselves in the quaint village of Barbizon, France. Unfortunately, all the restaurants were closed for the evening but don’t despair; at least we found some fun things to photograph before heading back to Fountainebleu for dinner.

Driving through this part of the French countryside was a reward unto itself. Everywhere we looked we enjoyed both a rustic and quaint treat for our eyes.

After Hours in Barbizon taken handheld on May 8th 2017 in the village of Barbizon, France using the Fuji X-T10 and the Fuji 18–55mm lens at 23mm, 1/250s, f/6.4, and ISO 2500. Editing was performed in Lightroom for color balance and to bring some detail back to the sky.