Quick General Life Update

I don't know how long it's been since I've written a general update on life, so here goes. Arron left almost a week ago for a TDY and will be back somewhat soon. It's been nice to have the house to myself, but I've already gotten used to him being home so I keep expecting him to come down the stairs or through the front door. I have yet to do my first TDY cleaning, which all of us wives know that the house stays much cleaner while they're gone.

Classes have started back up and it now looks like I will be graduating in August after the summer session. I'm in three classes now, plus another two for the second spring semester and two over the summer. I'm excited to get finished and get on with my life!

Work has been good, just mostly the same stuff, but adding new programs in to play. The kids are excited and love it. I'm excited because we're getting new furniture and that means out with the old, nasty-looking stuff. :)

Valentine's Day is coming up... and I have just about no idea what I'm getting Arron. So sweetheart, if you're reading this, do a better job at hinting at what you want! Or else I get to pick, mwahaha!

I think that's all for now... allora. Ciao!

Paris--Day 4 (Last one!)

We woke up on January 1, 2012 and decided to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We woke up and got to the Tower around 9:30 in the morning, figuring that the morning crowd would be less intense than the afternoon/evening crowd. I would have loved to see the panoramic view at night, or even gone up during the day when it wasn't so overcast, but all's well anyway. :)

We waited about 20 or 30 minutes in line before going up in the elevator. We stopped on the second floor first before going all the way to the top.

 Seine River. 

 You can see where we stood for New Year's Eve here--behind the third lawn, right in front of the roundabout. 

 The Lourve. 

 Notre Dame.

 Arc de Triomphe. 

 Look how high it is compared to the rest of the buildings!

 Pont de l'Alma--the tunnel where Princess Diana died.

 Can you find the Statue of Liberty?

 After taking lots of pictures on the second floor, we then went all the way to the top. It was really, really windy up there, so we didn't spend as much time as we would have liked.

The Arc de Triomphe and the (not-so-crazy at this time of day) roundabout.

 Notre Dame, again.

 The Lourve. You can even see the pyramid. :)

 Pont de l'Alma.

 The Trocadero. Probably my favorite picture from up high. This is where we 

took the picture of us in front of the Tower on New Year's Eve. :)

All around the top of the Tower it listed cities and how far away they are.
Washington DC - 6, 175 km

New York, NY - 5,849 km.

Going to the top of the Tower was such an experience and it was really an awesome way to spend our last day in Paris. :)

Ciao ciao!

Paris--Day 3 (also New Year's Eve)

I know, I'm running so far behind on these posts! I'm so sorry, but photos just take so long to be uploaded here. Bah!

So New Year's Eve we woke up in Paris (how cool is it to say that!?) and decided we were going to walk to the Arc de Triomphe, which wasn't too far away. I was very glad to hear that it was close, since my legs were still sore from the 9 mile walk the day before!

So as we got ready to head out, Arron found out that the Statue of Liberty was just a few bridges down the Seine River from us. Wow! I had completely forgotten about the Statue of Liberty's twin in Paris. So we headed that way first...

 Hey there, pretty lady. ;)

 A memorial for those victims of persecution, antisemitism, and hate crimes committed by the French Government during World War II. There were all sorts of memorials all over the place.

 And another pretty lady!

 She wasn't near as tall as we expected her to be. 

 The view to the Eiffel Tower from Lady Liberty.

 A close-up of her tablet--July 4, 1776 (the signing of the US Declaration of Independence) and July 14, 1789 (the Storming of the Bastille).

At her base. I don't know enough French to completely translate it, but something along the lines of the statue was given to the city of Paris from the United States. Maybe? 

So on we walked after the Statue of Liberty, and took our great time to get to the Arc de Triomphe. You see, I had great plans for my camera and this Arc. Just wait and see...

I think this was a hotel, but the lights were so cool.

 This has a Halloween look to it, which I thought was weird/awesome.

The Arc de Triomphe. 
At last I got to play with some of my camera's features!

We totally walked through that roundabout.
 

 Up close and personal.

 Looking down the Champs-Elysee street
.

 So many plaques dedicated to the fallen from both World Wars.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. President and Jackie Kennedy 
stood in this very spot. 
 

After walking all around the Arc, we decided to head back to grab dinner before the New Year's Eve celebrations at the Tour Eiffel. We stopped by the Trocadero (across from the Tour Eiffel) to take pictures, which was rumored to be the best spot to take pictures of the tower, hands down.

Rumors have a way of proving to be true.

 Look at that sky!!

Someone else's flash makes the picture look totally different!
 

The Holdens. <3

So we ran by the hotel, grabbed our champagne, and headed back to the Tower to save our spots--thinking, of course, that it would be mayhem and we'd have to fight to save our oh-so-awesome picture-perfect spots. So we got there around 9 pm at night...

 Our perfect vantage spot!

It wasn't long before people started showing up, and it seems like Arron attracts Americans. Soon we had two couples, one on each side of us, both from California. We took turns taking pictures of each other in front of the tower...

 Us and our pretty bottle of champagne!

 Arron looking drunk (when in fact the bottle isn't even open).

Can you see the hologram Eiffel Tower? :)
 

 Somewhat excited.

 A little more excited...

Really excited!

As it got closer to midnight, the crowd started getting louder and louder. We even got to see a guy propose on the "forbidden" lawn around 11:35 pm... Guess he didn't want to wait until midnight! People started setting off fireworks a bit before midnight...

Some pre-midnight fireworks.

 

Around 11:58, the crowd got so loud all around us. We started to look around for a countdown or something special, and this is what we got... 

Really? How anticlimactic! There were no "official" fireworks set off, nor was there even a countdown. Arron and I looked at each other, said "Happy New Year?" and kissed. It was really kind of a letdown, because I guess we built up our expectations too high.

As you can see from above, there were plenty of fireworks, and I was so happy to get some good shots of them with my new camera. 

And then it was quiet...

We hung out for about 30 minutes and drank champagne and people-watched, before we went back to our hotel room. It was fun, but nothing like we expected! 

Ciao! Happy New Year, 23 days late! Oops!