France Part I

The remainder of our Europe trip was spent in Paris, where we were able to see a bunch of neat things. We visited the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Arc de Triumph, and other amazing sights. We saw a multitude of cathedrals, fountains, statues, etc etc etc. We'll just try to post about the most familiar ones.

Outside the Louvre

Here's the little lady herself, the Mona Lisa! The room was absolutely crowded. I had to elbow my way in to get a shot.

Of course, we had to catch a picture of the final resting place of the holy grail! Where the two pyramids meet. If you're scratching your head, read The DaVinci Code.

Here's another DaVinci code picture. Apparently Silas smashed through this stone (like Paul is pantomiming) to find the next clue to the holy grail.

This was a fantastic cathedral filled with stained glass windows. The lower floor didn't have as many as you see in the picture, but the upper floor was truly stunning to behold!

Pictures just don't do it justice

A statue and a fountain. There were millions here.

And now for the Eiffel Tower. We visited in the day, and at night! During the day, it is pretty neat.....

...but at night, it is Amazing!!! I never knew the Eiffel Tower glowed blue at night. And every hour, it would start to shimmer and sparkle with white lights. It made it look like it was covered with glitter!

The underside of the tower. Kind of blurry, but still impressive.

Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound today! I have been waiting for this day with much anticipation. We even brought Logan and Aaron with us, with minimal fighting between them I might add. After all the fetal measurements and such, they assured us that the baby is as perfect as can be.

And that....

WARNING: Grandpa Rose, do not read further as the image below may be disturbing.

Well, since I will not be having a daughter in April, my boys have generously donated their toes for painting. I feel so outnumbered, and needed an estrogen outlet! Luckily they still think it is neat and fun, and I can always use the pictures as blackmail if they become unruly teenagers (although hopefully this will not be a cause of them becoming unruly teenagers! Talk about scarring my children.)

So baby boy number three is on HIS way, and now we are back to the drawing board to figure out another name for our precious new son. I don't know how you did it mom!!! We are excited for his arrival, and will be well stocked with clothes and toys for him! And Logan and Aaron will be well stocked with a new punching bag. I think Aaron will be happy to have someone smaller than him to pick on for a change!

Dachau

Our excursion into Dachau, one of the concentration camps, was by far the most sobering of our visit. Even the weather was gloomy. It is one thing to hear or read about a concentration camp, it is a completely different matter to visit one in person.

Here we are at the gates of Dachau. The sign on the doors mocks the prisoners. It proclaims "Arbeit Macht Frei" or "Work will make you free." We know better, don't we.

This is the major installation office. It is now a museum.

Can you tell what this sculpture is constructed of?

Never again.

This is a guard tower. They surrounded the perimeter. See how I am standing at the edge of the grass. The grass marked the "no man's land." If I had actually lived here, I would have been flirting with disaster. One more step into the grass and I would have been gunned down. Some prisoners fatally ran into the grass for a quick end to their suffering.

The barracks

The sleeping bunks. The prisoners were really crammed in here. The slept head to foot. You were lucky to even get a place to lay down. By the end of the war, Dachau had thousands more prisoners than its capacity to hold.

The bathroom. Charming.

The crematorium where they burned the dead bodies.

This is the site of a mass grave. There were several sites like this, for the times when the crematorium was overbooked.

A parting shot of the camp. You can see the barracks in the background. All of the lines in front are the foundation lines for the other barracks that have since been torn down. And this is only one column of barracks. You can also see the gloomy sky in this picture. The weather that day matched the atmosphere completely.

What a depressing visit. I felt so grateful that I had the freedom to walk in and OUT of the gates. Those who lived here did not have that luxury.

Eagles Nest

First off, scroll down two blogs, and you'll find another post we created awhile ago but just barely posted. I can't figure out how to move it to the top. Anway, here we are at the Eagles Nest, which was Hitler's hideout. It is also where he committed suicide. Not a very cheery place, but definitely historic. The picture below displays the tunnel up to his hideout.

Here is the actual hideout. beyond the hideout is a moutain trail, which is where the photo was taken. We were incredibly high up the mountains. It took a 20 minute van ride just to get to the tunnel.

Despite the knowledge of where we were, the view was still spectacular.

Here is Logan and his characteristic one-eyed smile. Even after patching his eye, he still does this, probably out of habit. We also wanted to capture one of those rare and fleeting moments where he is holding still and smiling. :-)

Halloween Pictures

Well, I was waiting to be able to find the pics of just Logan in his costume to add to the group, but have been too lazy to do so. I have decided to post what I have anyway. Enjoy!

I wasn't planning on being in this picture, but Aaron was feeling clingy and would freak out whenever I put him down.

He didn't seem to mind being on the counter though.

The kids being silly in the car. Yes, if you look close, that is stubble on Logan's chin. :-) I had fun with the face paints.

Logan was really excited to work on our pumpkins.



Aaron wanted in on the action too!

Meticulously sorting out the seeds, while Aaron smiles for the camera.

Logan kept saying "Eeew! Gross! It's slimy mommy!" and would them pick up another glob. I let him play in the goop when we were finished. Probably the highlight for him!

Zugspitze

The Zugspitze is the tallest mountain peak in the German Alps, so of course we had to check it out. We rode to the top in a cable car. The ride was a bit of a frightening experience really, knowing that only a little cable and a rickety old box were keeping us from plunging to our deaths. It was a bit like a roller coaster, the tallest roller coaster EVER. But my, the view was AMAZING!

Who says the lines on maps don't really exist?! They do here! That line in the picture below is the actual dividing line between Germany and Austria

Okay, a bit juvenile, but a lot of fun. We had a blast throwing snowballs off the mountain and timing their descent. It felt like those snowballs took forever to fall. A memorable and worthwhile day trip.