Discoveries

We went to the White House Garden Tour with some friends. It was real cold and real wet, so we made it a quick tour.

Things I've Recently Discovered:
1. My students may be smarter/more knowledgeable than I am. Case in point: I am reading The Enormous Egg out loud to the class, and so we had to have a discussion today about what period the Triceratops dinosaurs lived in. This led to a looooong explanation from numerous students about the different time periods during which the dinosaurs lived. Huh?
2. If you read Charlotte's Web to your class, expect them to call every spider they see "Charlotte." They will also be upset if you insist on killing these spiders. You'll have to kill these spiders while they are gone or you'll never hear the end of it.
3. If your class finds out you're not only deathly afraid of spiders, but bees as well, they will try to find every opportunity to trick you into thinking there is a spider and/or bee on you. I may have shrieked today when I thought one of children was holding a giant spider.

Paris

These photos are up on facebook, too, but my mom doesn't have facebook. So it was necessary to blog about our vacay, too.  We took advantage of our sweet flying benefits and went to Paris! Cost of flight in economy: like $60. So worth it. On our first day we trekked out to the Arc de Triomphe.

 I'm generally against physical exertion or exercise of any kind, so my legs and feet were killing me for the duration of this trip. The staircase to the top of the Arc just kept going and going....

 But the view was pretty killer.

 Notre Dame. I sang songs from the Disney movie in my head the entire time we were there.

 We wanted to climb to the top here as well, but the line was CRAZY long and we didn't want to wait a few hours in order to walk up more stairs.

 So instead we climbed a bunch of stairs at Sacre Coeur. 

 The view here was also awesome.

 Katy and I took some jumping pics, but only after she biffed it in front of everyone on those stairs.

 Jumping in front of the Eiffel Tower.

 We made three trips to the Eiffel Tower. The first time we went the lines to go up to the top were long, so we decided to go early the next morning in order to beat the rush. Most of us got some bikes and cruised on over there. Best decision ever.

 This view was the best yet. But the elevator ride to the top: real scary. I had to close my eyes for part of it.

 Then we went to the Louvre. That place is so crowded.

 That night Katy, Andrew, and I biked over to the Eiffel Tower again to see it lit up at night and to see it sparkle.

 In front of the Seine.

 On our last full day we went to Versailles. It was crazy cold for most of the day, but it was easily the best part of the trip. I would live in that palace.

 Marie-Antoinette's hamlet was picture perfect.

 I excel at jumping.

Eating lunch on the steps of a cathedral.

Sightseeing is really hard and tiring. But Andrew and I flew in first class on the way home, so I guess that made up for a lot of the walking. And Paris rules. Hopefully we'll be taking some more sweet trips soon.