Razor Scooters and Bowling Balls

This last weekend we finally had some down time that we were all looking forward to. And as you would expect, it decided to rain, well it is Ireland you know. So we did what any good family does when it rains....we went bowling. It was Easton's first time, but he did great. The whole two turns unless you knock all the pins down really didn't make much sense to him. Well here are some pics.


Here Easton and I are rolling the ball down the little ramp. About half the time he used the ramp and half the time he wanted to throw it like mommy and daddy.


Here are the present and the future of the bowling world. Ok, maybe that is overstating it some. The best part of the afternoon was the "special" shoes. Easton thought they were so cool and wasn't too excited to take them off.

The Razor Scooter

I just have to say that this picture makes me proud to be a dad. Isn't it just awesome?


Easton is showing off his pads and helmut. He usually doesn't wear them for more than 3 minutes, but we do require that he wear his helmut when he rides his scooter.


This picture for me holds a lot of symbolism. I think it tells a story in itself. Here is our boy, padded up and walking down the long path to find his scooter. Someone should write a poem.

Easton is actually getting pretty good at pushing himself around the house, patio, and the street out front. He is really diligent at looking both ways for cars. Our poor son is going to be so confused when we move back to the States, he is used to looking left, right, left, because the cars drive on the left side here. It will be so tough to look right, left, right. We will just have to cross that street when we come to it...

Paris

We just got back from a 4 day trip to Paris. It was great. We laughed at our guide book's suggestions for "Your Romantic Paris Vacation" because it wasn't exactly romantic with our boys but it was fun. We never set foot in a museum or church but we saw pretty much every big tourist attraction and park and walked miles. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Paris has tons of these public bikes that anyone can just take and ride and then park in a new location...pretty cool.

This was our apartment where we stayed...it was in the Latin Quarter and very nice...except that it ended up having no doors or walls which was a little rough putting the boys to bed but we survived.

We took a cruise on the Seine...Eiffel Tower in the background.


Eating FRENCH onion soup and FRENCH fries...we are lame American tourists.


Owen got in on the FRENCH food too.


We stopped at lots of playgrounds to give the boys a break from the stroller. I love that Paris has playgrounds right in the middle of urban areas.

This was a full on carnival right behind the Louvre. Easton and Rob rode the Ferris wheel.

The Louvre


Notre Dame. There was a massive line to get inside here. No thanks. Maybe someday when our kids are older or Rob and I go without the kids it would be nice to check it out but this time it was cool enough just to see.

Man carrying lots of french bread.

This is how Easton and Owen saw Paris. We got tons of stares and comments on our stroller...from everyone. Have they never seen a double stroller before?

The Jardin du Luxumbourg. This was an awesome park that was beautiful, had a cool pond with toy sailboats that Easton loved, and a sweet playground (that you had to pay to go into, by the way). We lounged on the grass, played by the pond and ate crepes. It was a good time. (This pic came from Rob's camera and doesn't quite do the park justice...and it wasn't quite so dark and scary looking outside!)
It was a really fun trip and we were really thankful that our boys were such good and happy travelers. Rob and I felt like stupid American's a few times for sure. I was buying stuff at the grocery store and the lady told me how much the total was and I had a 20 euro bill and a 5 euro bill in my hand. I handed her the 20 and she gave it back to me and took the 5 from my hand. Righto. I think it inspired Rob to take some French lessons.
We can't wait for our next European vacation!