Spring Break ~ France {Part 6}

These spring break posts are never-ending! :) Disneyland is over and  now we were off to the Normandy sites. I had wanted to stop at the charming port town of Honfluer on our way to the D-day sites but we were so exhausted from our Disney adventures that I decided it would be okay to skip it. That way we wouldn't be as rushed and could take our time. I think it was a good choice. Derek and I had been to these sites before but we wanted to get the kids over to see it while we're this close. This June marks the 70th anniversary of the D-day landings.

First stop the American Cemetery and Memorial
I can't help but get teary eyed when I come here. Thinking of the sacrifices of these men, boys and their loved ones back home.

 

 

Next D-day site, Pointe du Hoc.

 

 

all of the craters are where bombs hit

 

Is it obvious that they were happy to be able to run about?! After a long car ride and then going to a cemetery where we made them be reverent they were ready to let loose!!

 

 

 

too bright.....

 

 Next stop, Omaha Beach

 

Then we were off to Bayeux where we stayed for the night. This hotel was another interesting one but couldn't beat the price. So this hotel had certain hours that you could check in and then from a certain hour on the only way to access the hotel was with your room key. Derek went and checked in and took a few things to the room but then we went and explored the city of Bayeux. We were pleasantly surprised with it!!

 

It had a beautiful cathedral

 

 

 

 

 Blake staking his claim

There was a creperie on every corner. We figured it was finally time to have our kids try a crepe. So we found the cheapest place and we all had our own!

 

Then we went back to our hotel. Of course Derek went in with the girls and then I waited 5 minutes or so and went in with Blake. I had him walk behind me as the reception desk was really high and the lady wasn't paying any attention to us. We got past the desk and then Blake said, "We find Dad, Mom!!" I don't know if the lady heard or cared but I thought it was pretty funny. I wish I would have got a picture of our room. It was a double bed with a single bunk over the top and then another single bed by itself. The girls both squished together in the bunk and Blake had the other single bed. It really worked out fine for the size of our kids. The bathroom reminded us of a bathroom in a plane or cruise. It was so tiny!

 

Our last day of the trip was spent at Mont Saint Michel. It's such a stunning place. It was low tide when we went. Most pictures you see of it are at high tide.......here are a couple stock pics I found at high tide.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful, huh!?! It was still amazing when we were there. I don't think my pictures do it justice though.

 

 

 

 

 

The tide was so low we saw people walking out to the island in the background!

 

 He's watched his sisters pose a few too many times!!

 

The village itself was pretty neat. The paths were narrow and steep. Hard to tell in the pic.

 

And since Derek vows to never go back to France for sightseeing again (which I'm a little sad about because I would still love to see Southern France) then we had to get some gelato. This guy was in heaven!

 

We also had lunch while we were there.....paninis. We had to leave after that and start the long drive back to the port to catch the ferry. I had wanted to stop by Etreat for a quick look on the way but there was no way we had time, especially since we got a little lost getting to the port. Good thing it was delayed.

 

France really is a beautiful country though. I prefer the countryside over the cities, for sure!

 

The ferry ride back was interesting. Luckily it wasn't very crowded so we found a nice spot for Derek to lay down. Allie and I both started feeling sick on the ride back....I figured it was just us being seasick. I had to lay back in my chair. Allie laid down next to Derek and Avery entertained herself with a pen and notebook. Blake was so good! He just walked back and forth between Derek and I whispering, "I love you, Mom" and "I love you, Dad". He is such a good kid! All of our kids are pretty awesome! :)

 

Turns out that Allie and I weren't sea sick.......we had food poisoning. Allie only made it to school 2 days the next week and I wasn't able to do much of anything for a good 10 days. Yesterday was the first day I felt somewhat normal again. We did end up going to the doctor and he wasn't really sure what it was. He was guessing bacterial food poisoning so we got some antibiotics. Although now I am wondering if it was food poisoning and not just some nasty bug because Avery has diarrhea now and a low grade fever. It's never ending.

 

A few more pics taken from my phone

1st night in the Disney apartment. Blake asked Allie to sleep with him. I'm sure he was scared being in a new place......and he wasn't feeling the greatest.

Allie took this of Blake at breakfast one morning. They loved the Disney pictures and the Minnie Mouse chairs

 

As we were driving along we spotted Herbie!! They thought it was pretty cool that I took a pic of them.

A view of the scenery along our drive

Spring Break ~ France {Part 5}

Last Day at Disneyland

We started the day off at the Studios. Rode a few rides, went on the cool Tram Tour and then watched the stunt show.

 

Then we went to the main park and rode all of our favorite rides again, walked thru Captain Nemo's Submarine, shopped, etc.

 

A look at some of their autographs.........

 

 

Spring Break ~ France {Part 4}

Disneyland Day 3

Back to the main park today. Main goal was to get photos/autographs with the princesses. We went straight to the princess pavilion which hadn't opened up yet and the line was SO long. The girls were very disappointed. We just couldn't stand to wait in that line which was probably over a two hour wait. We didn't have a plan after that. We had pretty much seen everything in the park that we could think of so we just started walking around.

We decided to see how the line was for Big Thunder Mountain.......it was too long so we were going to get a FastPass for it but the machine was broken. We saw the big steamboat that we hadn't been on yet and decided to go for a nice leisurely ride on that. While waiting for the boat the kids took turns snapping some pics.

View of our favorite ride from the boat

 

 

Then we went to see Rapunzel -- she had her own meet and greet times apart from the other princesses. We got there before she was scheduled to get there. The line didn't look too bad, we guess about 45 minutes. Well, we were wrong. It took us about an hour and a half to get to her but it was worth it. She was our favorite princess. She was so good with the kids! While we had been waiting in line Blake started throwing a fit because he didn't want to just stand in a line forever. He just plopped a squat on the ground and wasn't going to move. So one of the ladies monitoring the line came and picked him up and took him up so see Rapunzel -- like she even called Rapunzel over to talk to him. When it was our turn, an hour later, she remembered him! (I can't tell you how many times Blake got special treatment/attention there. Everyone just loved him!)

 

Before we left she asked the kids for a kiss on the cheek. We didn't see her ask anyone else for that! ;)

and the crowd said, "awwwwwwwww"

 

SIDE NOTE: since we've been home we watched Tangled. While we were watching it Blake said, "that princess kissed me!" So funny. She didn't kiss him, he kissed her.......but he remembers it as her kissing him. Cute!!

 

More rides after that. Then we just happened to walk up to the start of a parade.....

 

 

Then we decided to check out the princess pavilion again. It was a 60 minute which was the shortest we had seen it so we waited. Derek and Blake went and did their own thing. The thing with the Princess Pavillion is that  you don't know what princess you are going to see. You get up there and find out there are 2 princesses there but you only get to see one and you don't really have a choice who you get to see. The people working have you close your eyes until you walk in and find out. Luckily we had our awesome autograph pages for specific princesses so I asked the lady if she would whisper to me who it was so I could get the paper ready. She started going through the pages and couldn't find the princess, which was Ariel. I told her we just saw her at the Studios yesterday. Sooo, she did let us go see the other princess. That was close! Could have been a disaster even though Ariel is Allie's favorite princess.

 

 

Then we went and staked out a good place for the late afternoon parade.

 

Then we rode more of our favorite rides and decided we would stay around until the night show again. We got an AWESOME spot right in front of the castle!

And that was a great ending to our day. Love the nighttime show!!!