August things

Goodness, August came and went with a lot of goings on. Here's a few of the highlights:

Heidi's snack pack

Heidi agreed to see Made for More which is a documentary by one of my current favorite authors, Rachel Hollis. Rachel is an enthusiastic motivator who wants everyone to seek their full potential. I read her non-fiction book, Girl Wash Your Face, in April and LOVED it. I've since made multiple friends read it and soak in her encouragement. This documentary was more of that and it was a really worthwhile evening at the cinema! 

MacKenzie continues to be adorable. 

Susie continues to enjoy her new apartment's location in "downtown Fishers" and joined us for a free evening concert in the park.

Date night at the free concert

We also went to see the summer's big hit: Crazy Rich Asians and also LOVED it. This is one I will watch again when it hits the offering list on airplanes in the near future.

You guys, Grace Cecilia moved into her college residence hall. I'm sorry, wasn't she just 5 and showing me her high heel printed pajamas?! WHOA!

Grace moving in to Loyola University Chicago

MacKenzie has agreed to never go off to college. Whew!

Just being cute.

People tend to think that our lives are endless date nights and while that could be true, it is not. Even when you don't have kids, you do still have adult responsibilities. We did sneak away for a Monday evening date in Broad Ripple, though, and it was awesome.

Trying out Condado Tacos

This guy loves tacos

After dinner stroll on the Monon

We even got ice cream at BRICs
(soooo good!)

Settling back in

To say that I had a lot of work to do when we got home on Wednesday evening would be a gross understatement. I signed in and worked for a few hours before unpacking and going to bed. I was off on time so I was up at 4:36 a.m. and signed in to work by 6 a.m. (which happens right at NEVER for me). I got a lot done that day and then that night, super late, Jackson got home from his work trip.

I was up again at 5:30 on Friday morning so I just signed in to work again. Jackson worked downtown and then we finally called it quits around 5 p.m. and headed to a little Mexican dinner! Chuy's was calling my name. We finally went grocery shopping and then went to bed super early.

I could get used to these productive early mornings, but by Saturday I was back to sleeping until 7! We were bums all weekend just watching golf and catching up on sleep. We did sneak down to Mama Carolla's for a date, but otherwise hardly left the house. It is always funny to me how some weekends are insane and others you're just a bum. I needed the quiet, though!

MacKenzie is glad to have us both back at home again. We've got a few weeks of just work and life before we head out on the 31st for our great Boston to Canada and back to Boston roadtrip until September 10th! We're ending this summer with a bang!

Paris to IND

Wednesday morning our little cafe was open again so we dined there, walked all around the neighborhood soaking in the final wonderful moment of Paris and then called an Uber (!!!!! The high life!!!!) to go to the airport. 

We arrive a little over two hours early and the place was a madhouse. It is a good thing we did not cut it any closer. You had to line up to print bag tags, then to drop your bag (Mom checks a bag which made my buying beauty supplies here possible—hurray), then for passport control, then for the train to your gate area, then for security, then to board the plane, then to go through special security because you were randomly selected like you always are (me!). I finally got on the plane about 5 minutes before we were supposed to take off. We ended up having a small delay for congestion issues but it was the closest I’d ever come to not making an international flight. I had to stay calm for Mom, though, as she was freaking out not so mildly.

Cappuccinos and chocolate bread AGAIN 

We got to Indianapolis, passed through passport control pretty quickly and I met up with Jackson for dinner. I then dropped Jackson off at the airport for his evening flight to Florida for work. Can you believe that? We were just ships passing in the night! I hurried home to see my girl MacKenzie!!

I think Mom had a pretty good time. We had amazing weather! We seriously felt three raindrops the entire trip. I am not sure that Mom has the travel bug, but I cannot speak for her. It was certainly different traveling with someone who wasn’t Jackson. He and I have such a system down that I had to really remember to look for bathrooms and remember meal times for Mom. Once you’re an adult you don’t spend that kind of time with your parents anymore so it was nice to make some memories and get to catch up for a week. That said, I’m read to sleep in a quiet room! ;)

Thank you for everything, Mom! I love you!

Jackson's gift from Paris- he loves it!

MacKenzie in her Buckingham Palace
tartan. She doesn't love it, but she
looks adorable in it!

Versailles

Tuesday morning we went to go to the little cafe again and it was closed so we went for a little larger breakfast. It was a good thing that we did that because I didn’t feed Mom again until dinner. I got a chuckle from the waitress calling eggs with breads a BIG breakfast, but she was sure impressed that we were ordering such a dish!

Cappuccino and breads 

Eggs and ham

We grabbed an Uber to Versailles (Jackson is so afraid I’ll be used to this luxurious travel style on our next trips—ha!) so that we could make our 9:00 to 9:30 window. Listen, the key to European travel is to run early by their standards. They are night owls so whenever you are the first to something, you’ll have less headaches.

We waited a few minutes and then made it into the palace. It was amazing. It made Buckingham Palace look like a shack. The rooms were so small and crowded and we were more interested in the gardens anyway so we toured rather quickly. We did enjoy the hall of mirrors, though. What an amazing room. After visiting their gift shop for some things to take home to folks (Mom is more generous than I am), we toured the gardens.

The Hall of Mirrors

Mom and I in the Hall of Mirrors

I loved the view

A gorgeous room!

Check out all of the chandeliers 

Mom.

Me.

It was so fancy!

Tiny beds!

I'd have MacKenzie in my portrait, too!

Check out those gardens!

A look at the palace

Trying to show how large the palace was

Walking through the gardens

Taking in the fountain show

I was amazed at how small the beds were!

More gardens

A look at the ceilings 

The in-law quarters FAR from the palace!

A view back to the palace

A pretty background

A look at how busy and large it was

It was a whopping 96 degrees for our tour, but we trudged around for over three hours soaking it in. I didn’t say soaking it all in because the gardens are 2,000 acres and we didn’t cover quite that much ground.

We eventually decided we were too hot and tired to enjoy any additional touring so we called an Uber back to the city. Ok, I could totally get used to such ease!! Mom is a loud sleeper (putting it kindly) so I needed a nap from her waking me up each night. I got a little power nap in before we went out for a final evening of exploration.

Another castle on the Seine 

It was fun to just soak it in. We went to dinner in a little cafe which was delicious.

The cheese here is just so fresh tasting!

Mom had a hamburger! HA!
I had a delicious salmon dish.

They know their way around seafood in these parts so I broke my own rules about seeing the ocean before ordering seafood!

I love this shot of the city from a bridge by our hotel

We went to the local grocery store to stock up on chocolate to take back home and then headed back to the hotel to pack up, clean up and hit the hay. It was a hot day of exploring, but Versailles is certainly worth a visit! 

Louvre & Paris Tour

Monday was another early morning. We grabbed breakfast at a local cafe—cappuccinos and chocolate bread! YUM!

Cappuccinos and chocolate breads!

We walked over to the Louvre for our 9:00 appointment time. It was really great to be there so early. We had a couple of rooms to ourselves which is unbelievable. We got to see all kinds of paintings and, of course, the Mona Lisa. She’s just a special the second time, I am happy to report.

A whole room to ourselves!

An English map!! It made the visit MUCH easier!

Jackson and I visited the Louvre earlier in the summer and missed getting a map in English which made navigation tricky during that trip!

I loved this ceiling

Liberty Leading the People

I just liked this one

MONA.

I liked the dogs in this one.

David with the Head of Goliath

We finished up at the Louvre and headed for Saint Chapelle. A gorgeous room made almost entirely stained glass. It was magnificent.

Magnificent. 

The room was an act of worship.

Then we strolled over and joined some new friends at the front of the line to get into the Notre Dame.

Notre Dame

Once we’d finished the morning tour, we grabbed another hop on/ hop off tour. This tour had a live guide in English and it was simply amazing. We rode for two hours without really noticing. I saw a ton of places I’d not seen before around the city and got some killer views of the Eiffel Tower, too.

Les Invalides where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried

Lunch in a cafe!

We eventually hopped off for lunch at a little cafe near the opera house. We then went on a second leg of the tour to see the other side of town.

Joan of Arc

We visited Sacre Couer—climbing to the top. It was quite warm out, around 95, so warmth plus the stairs meant Mom was huffing and puffing. The church and the views were worth her efforts, though.

We rode the buses until it was back to our neighborhood then hopped off for a little break. We were pretty sweaty and gross by then. After a little break and some washing up, we headed back out for shopping (their beauty supply stores are awesome), dinner (pizza) and a nighttime cruise down the Seine River.

We got on the boat at 21:45 which meant we were to the Eiffel Tower just in time to see its 22:00 light show. Amazing. We both absolutely loved it.

Isn't she lovely?!

It was a great day seeing ALL of Paris!!! The tour was certainly much better in Paris and I cannot recommend it enough!