One Last Wild About Wednesday!

Our final "Wild About Wednesday" or at least our final one in Brussels (maybe we'll pick it back up in Tennessee). And it wasn't even a new place...it was just the children's museum just around the corner from here, but we had a blast because our good friends Liz, Grace, Audrey, Andi, and Brooklyn all joined us! It's sad to say little by little our good-bye's as the days are quickly ticking away. But I'm hopeful that we'll see these amazing new friends again someday.  Enough of the sad...we still have a week to go...ok, back on track...the children's museum...this time with pictures (since I remembered my camera)...

My little Picasso...

 Tea time?

Andi checking out all our little shoppers...

 Too bad this wasn't a real cake!

My big potty trained girl standing by the "golden potty"

Dress up time!

Time to go fishin'

Thanks to everyone who joined us on our many adventures...I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!  And next Wednesday we'll be on our flight to Tennessee...ready to start our next big adventure!

Brugge, One Last Time...

Our second to last "Wild About Wednesday" was a great one!  We took the train to Brugge with two goals in mind...to visit an awesome Ice Sculpture Festival and to finally taste some of "the best hot chocolate in the world" (you may remember we attempted to try this on our first trip to Brugge, but failed).

So first up...the ice festival! Called "Ice Magic" this festival brought in "approximately 300 tons of crystal clear ice and 400 tons of fresh snow" and employed around 30 of the best artists from China, Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the Ukraine, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium!  That's quite a line up...and it was amazing! These pictures won't even do it justice...many of the sculptures looked like glass...they were so perfectly formed.   And the fact that it was -6 degrees Celsius in there definitely added to the ambiance of it all...we were bundled up, but still freezing our tootsies off!  The theme of this years exhibit was inspired by the themes of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit...which pretty much all went over my head, but it was still cool.  They even had an ice bar and toboggan in there!

 Autumn walking up the ice stairs in the ice castle

After freezing to the core, nothing could be better than a delicious cup of hot chocolate!  It took awhile, but we finally found the Sukerbuyc chocolatier that I was told has amazing hot chocolate! The hot chocolate is actually served in their cafe across the street, called "De Proeverie Tea Room"...and how could you not go in when this is the window display.

It took some determination to finally get this delicious drink though.  First, they don't allow strollers inside...grrr!  So we left them on the sidewalk (thank goodness they were still there when we got back).  Then, they only take cash...double grrr!  Neither one of us had any so I found the nearest ATM (about 1/4 mile away) and we were back on track!  Finally the yummy treats arrived...and it was worth all the perseverance!  The hot chocolate was like nothing I've ever seen...a mug of hot milk, a small dish of the  sukerbuyc dark chocolate to add to it (along with some sugar), small chocolates to nibble, and a plate of whipped cream.  Yum!!

It was the perfect way to end our last trip to Brugge and one I won't forget!  And a big, huge, gi-normous thanks goes to Andi and Brooklyn for going on all these crazy adventures with us...it would not have been the same without you two!! :o)  One more small one next week before the chaos of moving really kicks in to high gear...hopefully someday soon in Tennessee we'll start something similar :o)

Ringing in 2013 in Style!

When we started planning our final big trip here in Belgium I knew there was really only one option...Paris! It was our first trip so it might as well be our last :o) And what better time to be in Paris than New Year's Eve! Of course there were no fireworks (luckily I learned this ahead of time or I would have been really bummed!) or grand parties...it honestly ended up being Jacob & I celebrating in our hotel room over a bottle of champagne and a sleeping toddler, but it was still a blast! And I'm glad we made Paris our final big adventure on this amazing journey!

We drove down Saturday and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower of course. There was a Christmas market going on with an ice skating rink and everything!  It was perfect!

The next morning we woke up to crystal clear blue skies and were excited to explore some of Paris that we hadn't visited yet, after another quick stop at the eiffel tower (sorry, I just can't get enough...and I really wanted a blue sky picture of it).  After that we headed to Notre Dame and the Musee D'Orsay.   Both had long lines, but we were determined to wait since this was our last chance (atleast for awhile).  Something awesome happened though, about 10 minutes in to our 2 hour or so wait for the D'Orsay, a man came up and said since we had Autumn we could use this other entrance with no line.  We were leery at first as we tend to follow the "if it seems to good to be true" rule, but we gave it a shot...and sure enough we walked right in!!  It rocked!  And since I'm totally in love with Monet it was so much fun to see so many of his works in real life.  I just wanted to reach out and touch them...or at the very least take a picture!  But for once in my life I actually abided to the "no pictures" rule...who knew I could be a rule follower...ha!  Here are some pictures from the day...

My future photographer...

Autumn taking some pictures with her Christmas present!

Looks like a good one!

Autumn's shot of Mommy & Daddy...if only my eyes were open!

 One of only a few pictures I took in the museum

It was a fun filled day!  And then on Monday...New Years Eve...we headed over to Champs Elysees for some shopping!  There was a Christmas market still going on here too so that meant extended shopping...sorry Jacob! :o)  We strolled along the entire Avenue until we reached the Arc de Triomphe and then headed back down the other side. Today was a lot more gray than the previous day, but at least it wasn't too terribly cold. After we were all shopped out we headed back to our hotel to prepare to ring in the new year :o)

This was the line to get in to Abercrombie...crazy right?!?

Ice skating...it looked like so much fun!

Around 11 PM I decided I needed to visit the roof top terrace of our hotel because it has a view of the Eiffel Tower...I needed to say my proper good-byes obviously :o) Unfortunately the terrace was closed for security reasons :o(  I was so bummed, but decided to head up anyway just to see what that meant.  There is an indoor section up there that other people were already enjoying the view from so I stood and admired my favorite lovely tower as it put on it's magical light show one last time.  It was a great way to bid adieu to the Eiffel Tower...until next time.  And just as it ended hotel security arrived and kindly asked that we head back down stairs as the area is off limits...what a horrible night to have the hotels main attraction closed.

It's been an amazing whirlwind trip since we've been here with one unbelievable place after another, but Paris will always hold a special place in my heart...and what better way to honor it, than with our first and last trips!

Now back to real life and preparing for the move...just 28 short days from now!!  Oh my...