Annika is not only a chef – she’s a photographer. She took the photo above to showcase her work!

Chef Banani’s Lemon Blueberry Pancakes

Adapted from a recipe by Smitten Kitchen

My love for Paris grows with each visit. I am not sure I could ever get bored there; it is a city made up of so many little cities and neighborhoods – each one so different than the others. At times it feels grand and sophisticated and bustling. Then a quick metro ride and it feels intimate and quaint and friendly. It is a city made for strolling, and eating, and talking. And for taking pictures – lots and lots of pictures. Because, above all, Paris is beautiful. The art is beautiful, the architecture is beautiful, the food is beautiful, the clothes are beautiful – even the people are beautiful.

There are more pictures in this post than you probably care to look at, and yet there are more I would still like to edit, and even more I would have liked to have taken. I am so glad that my Mom, and my Grandma, and my Aunt Annette wanted to come and make this trip to Paris; I wouldn’t have gone again if they hadn’t have come, and those 4 days in the city were some of the best I’ve spent in Europe.

I’ll bore myself if I talk about it anymore, so here’s the extra concise version of our trip to go along with all the pictures*:

Day One: Train ride into the city, boat tour on the Seine, metro ride to Montmarte, walk up to the cathedral, dinner at Le Moulin de Galette, get lost and walk through the red light district after I explicitly promised my Grandma that we wouldn’t

Day Two: Morning trip to the open-air market, lunch in the sun at Luxembourg gardens, shopping, and Notre Dame Cathedral. The highlight of the trip, and possibly my time in Europe, was dinner with my Grandma’s cousin’s daughter. Sheila welcomed us into her home and treated us like family. She served us a beautiful 4 course meal and we got to ask her every question we’ve ever had about really living in Europe. Her family was wonderful, the food was incredible, and it was so, so, so fun to see what it is really like to live in France. After dinner they drove us back to our apartment and we got a nighttime driving tour of the city. I hope it is not the last time our paths cross – we left feeling as though we had known each other forever! I called Brad right away after our dinner and told him that someday we would live in France (seriously – 8 weeks of vacation a year AND all that good food!)

Day Three and Four: It’s my birthday! Ice cream on Isle St. Louis, climb to the top of the Arc du Triomphe, buy lunch on Rue Cler and eat it in front of the Eifel Tower, walk back to the metro via Trocodero, and finish with a birthday dinner with a waiter who was Lumiere in the flesh.  The next morning pack up, try to avoid getting pick pocketed by gypsies while Annette is shopping, and then spend the rest of our day in the Orsay Museum before taking the train back home. Whew!

Once we got home we unpacked, washed some clothes, packed again, and left the next morning for Switzerland. Stay tuned!

*Both the photography and the editing on all these pictures are a joint effort between me and my Mom. Some are hers, some are mine, she’s edited some of mine, I’ve edited some of hers. You get the idea. They’re ours.

We’ve been waiting for April for a long time. Not only did its arrival herald the end of Brad’s rear-detachment job and the return of his government blackberry (hurray!), the arrival of my Mom, Aunt and Grandma for our European vacations, General Conference, Easter, and the beginnings of spring, it also brought Annika’s birthday! Because Annika loves spring so much, she wanted a spring party and dirt cake. Since a mud cake has to be the easiest “cake” on the earth to make, I was more than happy to oblige. In the weeks before her party (she’s been counting down the days for a LONG time) we made a pinata together, and created party hats out of scrapbook paper and hairbows.

It was hard to not have a good party when Annika had so many people who love her to celebrate her happy day.

Annika’s birthday is also April Fool’s Day, and she really wanted to play a joke. While Oma and Aunt Netty were out on a walk, Brad came up with a good one. He suggested that they fill a flowerpot with real dirt, and serve it to Oma instead of Annika’s dirt cake. To be honest, I thought the joke went too far (nobody wants to eat dirt!), but Annika and Brad were determined, and Annika was giddy. They even sprinkled crushed Oreo cookies on top of the dirt so that it looked like every other cake. The funny part was that Oma so busy taking pictures that by the time she was ready to eat her cake everyone else was done and was just watching her, and waiting.  Oma’s reaction to eating dirt was pretty funny, but Annika’s excitement was the best part.

Apparently Mom had no idea she was about to eat dirt, and it tasted pretty disgusting. Luckily, my Mom is a good sport, and Annika and her Oma are still best buds.

Do: Bring home a runner’s bib for your little runners the night before the race. Annika memorized her number and slept with it by her bed. She was so excited, and having an official number made it extra cool.

Don’t: Let your little runner be in charge of their bib. It is likely that she will lose it, and this will cause panic as you’re trying to get out the door. It may even cause you to be late and miss the start of the race. (Not that starting late is all bad – starting with the walkers is a big confidence booster. I was blowing by everyone!)

Do: Have a plan for when your runner decides she is too tired to run. Annika ran about a kilometer before she needed a ride. I was impressed she made it so far! This was my first 5k, and I wanted to do it without walking, so I left Brad on his own with all the girls. He said that Annika ended up running around a mile total. Not bad for our almost four year old!

Don’t: Forget to bring someone with you who doesn’t mind pushing three girls crammed in one stroller up big hills. What would we do without Brad?

Do: Give your child the satisfaction of crossing the finish line on her own. Annika ran at least the last hundred yards, to the cheers of the runners who had already finished.

Don’t: Mention that your child rode in a stroller 2/3 of the time when they are giving her a 3rd place medal. Just let her smile and stand on the podium like a champion while you take pictures.

Do: Look around and make sure that there aren’t any other children who actually ran the race and are disappointed that they didn’t get a medal. Breathe a sigh of relief when you realize that your daughter appears to be one of only three kids running the race.

I hope that there are more mornings like this one in our future. I think I am ever so slowly beginning to enjoy running.

Whether this change in weather is permanent or fleeting, we have been enjoying it. What a difference the sun makes! It is no wonder that Christ calls himself the light of the world – just having the sunshine streaming through my window brightens my mood. I find I have more patience, I am more productive, and my kids are all happier.

And I have little else to say about these pictures. Our life goes on – it is always loud (we’re working on that), mostly happy (but sometimes not), usually messy (I can only try to contain it), and I’m so glad that it’s mine. It sometimes feels like we will be at this stage forever, that my house will always have peanut butter smears on the counter top, fingerprints at the bottom of all the doors and mirrors, small toys scattered along the hall, pink blankets and kitties in the beds, and board books on the floor. It is hard for me to foresee a time when I won’t have a child pulling on my leg, sitting in my lap, or calling for me to “watch this!”  Sometimes I look at their little round faces and tiny little fingers and tell myself that they won’t be this way forever; they won’t be this way for long. I remind myself that all of the little things that seem to occupy all of my time now, and overwhelm me most days, are really only part of a fleeting moment of my life and will eventually just be a memory. But although I tell myself this frequently, it is hard to ever feel it. It is difficult for me to see this stage of my life for what it really is (just a stage) while I am in the midst of it. So, I’m doing my best to record it, and to enjoy it when can. I am taking more time to savor that baby sweaty smell when Lucy wants a snuggle after playing outside, to smile instead of scold when Elise reaches all the way across the table for another bite of gelato at the Eis Cafe, and to say “yes” instead of “no” to one more round of Go-Fish with Annika. I think motherhood is less about who you are than who you are becoming. We try to raise our children, but in the process they are raising us. Hopefully someday when this sticky-finger, too many tears, middle-of-the-night-visits stage is done, we will all be better for it.

Too sappy? How about some pictures?

The other day I was thinking about Annika’s approaching fourth birthday. (FOUR!!) I was thinking about things that I enjoyed when I was four, when I realized that sometime when I was four I learned to ride a bike without training wheels. (I think that’s right – Mom, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.) Suddenly I panicked! Annika was almost four years old, and the only tricycle she’s ever had has a broken seat and only one pedal. She’s never even owned a bike – how is she supposed to learn how to ride one?! I realized I was overreacting, but I felt like I had been denying my daughter one of the great joys of childhood, and it weighed heavily on my mind. And yet, I felt trapped. She had a birthday coming, so the obvious solution would be to buy a bike. However, we were likely to be packing up and shipping off all of our household goods soon after, so what was the point of buying one only to ship it right away?  Then there’s the matter of where she would ride it here anyway. We live on a busy street, so I can’t let her just ride outside, and driving somewhere to ride a bike is kind of a pain. So Brad and I talked and decided not to buy her a bike. But I kept thinking about it, feeling bothered that we wouldn’t be able to get Annika a bike until at least the end of the summer.

Then we went to the thrift store for a quick trip a couple days ago, browsing to see if we could pick up some clothes for the girls. And lo and behold, there in the back of the store,  Annika found a little pink bike with training wheels for only $10. It was probably not the bike I would have chosen, but it was definitely the bike Annika would have chosen. We handed over the ten dollars, and just like that, Annika was the (very) proud owner of a new set of wheels. To say that Annika is a natural would not only be exaggerating, but would be lying. Annika is our most cautious child and takes her time learning new skills, especially when they involve even a slight risk of bodily harm. I took Annika out back while Brad was still at work to try out her bike. She was excited to be riding, but got stuck each time one of the pedals got to the top of its rotation. We never got very far (and Lucy trailed two feet behind me the entire time screaming until she was hoarse. That girl needs  her sleep.)

The next day was a Saturday, and Brad determined that teaching his girls to ride a bike was definitely a Dad priority, so we loaded up the kids and headed to the track. It took a good talk about the hard things being the most worthwhile, and the importance of practicing, but in the end she got it, and she loved it. She did a whole mile around the track, at roughly a 30 minute pace. We walked around and around with her, chatting, singing songs, and enjoying her ear-to-ear smile.

Brad wins Dad of the year award. We are lucky girls to have him around.

We brought Lucy and Elise their scooters. They are more athletically inclined than their big sister, but were only interested for a couple of minutes.

Annika asked me if I would please do a video, so here it is:

I’m so proud of my girl. Slow and steady wins the race anyway, right?

But for now, is there anything better than a sleeping child?

Those are some high expectations to meet, but I think Dad did just fine. He was only here for three days, but we packed in the fun. He had another couple of days of business in Chicago before he could go home, so I hope he wasn’t too worn out. He couldn’t even go to the bathroom while he was here without three little girls yelling for him and asking me where Opa went. Opa is the best tickler, snuggler, story-reader, running partner, swim buddy, and all around fun guy.

Saturday morning we had a pajama and pancakes birthday party for Lucy and Elise. As usual, I think Annika was the one most excited for the event.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the pool. Elise is by far our best and bravest swimmer. Lucy is not far behind. Annika gets better every time we go, but as the video shows, she’s the cautious one in the family. Lucy and Elise didn’t want to be held, and spent a good two hours straight going up and down the slide. They don’t usually even look to see if anyone will catch them, and more than once went under when we looked away for a second. Once Lucy even slipped under the slide, and so it took me a second to pull her out of the water. She was hardly phased when I pulled her up.

We find this video entertaining for a number of reasons. First, it gives a nice picture of German swimming pools and typical swim attire in Europe. Second, Annika pushes her sisters down the slide, which makes me laugh every time I watch it. Third, you can tell that one of the times Brad almost doesn’t catch Lucy because she goes down the slide while he is still talking to Annika. Oh, I love these girls.

On Sunday we convinced all the kids to take a nap at one time, which made it the most relaxing day we’ve had in a while. It may have been my favorite part of the weekend. Also, my Dad got Elise to fall asleep in his arms in sacrament meeting, which hasn’t happened for us in over a year. He’s got the magic touch. It made for the quietest sacrament meeting I think we’ve experienced since the twins were born.

On Monday we took the kids to Burg Lichtenberg castle to play and explore. It is amazing how much easier it is to get out when there is an equal adult to child ratio. We played on the playground, where everyone had a good time but Lucy, who fell off the teeter-totter. Oops. If you don’t see her in any other pictures, it’s because she didn’t want to be set down after that. Then we explored the rest of the castle, with significant time spent sword-fighting and walking on walls.

Purely by accident, we got home just in time for the fasching parade that goes right in front of our house. Brad ran and grabbed some funny hats and some bags for candy, and we joined the crowds watching the parade. As far as I can tell, the parade mostly consisted of drunk members of the community in costume throwing candy and giving away shots to the adults. Annika loved it, Elise was wary, and Lucy just wanted to go take a nap. Poor Lucy – she then got pegged in the head by a piece of incoming hard candy. It wasn’t her best day.

That evening, Annika put on her running shoes and went on a “jog” with my Dad. It is easy to see why she was so excited for Opa to come – he really might be more fun than Disneyland! Even after bakery treats for breakfast, and honey stroopwaffles in the afternoon, we had to end our weekend at the Eis Cafe. There’s no better way to finish such an enjoyable weekend than with gelato.

Annika crawled into bed this morning with me and cried for a little bit because Opa had left. I miss him too, and I can’t wait until we are closer than an ocean away.