Monet's Garden

We took the kids out of school on Friday to go to Paris for the weekend.
I love living in Germany.  How cool that we can just take the weekend and go to Paris, France.

The drive to Paris was just beautiful.  

Our first stop was Monet's Garden in Giverny.
Look how pretty the little town of Giverny is.

We had to laugh at this little Stop sign.  

On the way to Monet's Garden we had to travel through these narrow streets.
It was a good thing there was not oncoming traffic.  EEEKKKK

So excited to see Claude Monet's Gardens. 

Claude Monet was one of the most Famous and accomplished French artist of all time. 

Bastianclan in Monet's Garden. 

There are two different parts to Monet's Garden.  A flower garden called
 Clos Normand this part of the garden is in front of his house.
And the second part is a Japanese inspired water garden which is located across the road from his house. 

I couldn't not even try and name all the different species of plants and flowers in this beautiful garden.

The Clos-Normand was modeled after Monet's own artistic vision.
He spent years transforming the Gardens.

I loved this little flower.  How beautiful! 

You can tour the interior of the house, and see the brightly colored rooms, and admire dozens of paintings.

All the rooms are filled with light and have a great view of the gardens.

Yellow Dining room

Claude wanted a blue kitchen so that guests would see
the right color in harmony with the yellow dinner room.
The walls of the kitchen are covered with tiles of Rouen

The Enormous Coal and wood stove kept the kitchen warm all year long.

There was beautiful artwork all over Claude's home.
None of the paintings were original for security reasons.  They were all copies or replicas.
This one reminds me of Anne of Green Gables.

Beautiful Brooklyn in front of the tulip gardens. 

We crossed under the road and when we came out on the other side
this is what we saw.  I think my favorite part was the Japanese inspired water Garden.  It was amazingly beautiful. 

Breathtaking right?  Here is the Famous Water Lilies pond. 

We had just started exploring this beautiful garden when it started to rain.
It started off with just a little rain and quickly moved to a torrential downpour.
We found shelter under some trees and just watched the rain.  It was kind of magical.

On one of the green bridges with the love of my life.

The rain just made the garden look magical.

Look at those beautiful raindrops on the flower.

This is the Green Japanese Bridge covered with wisteria. 

My Boys!

Close up of the raindrops. 

Kayden and the Gardens

Jer and the kids on the Green Japanese Bridge.

The boys searching for frogs. 

I love this man of mine.  Capturing several moments.

Chandler and the Famous Lilly Pond

My girl and me.  Pretty in pink!

Goals, I would love a garden like this someday.

Walking through the town of Giverny they had a little store blowing bubbles
Oh my goodness did our kids have a blast playing with these bubbles. 

Kayden trying to catch the bubbles. 

Brooklyn & Chandler trying to eat the bubbles.  

This was our hotel for the night.  Complete with a dog and a cat.

Our living room

The kids room

Can you see the Eiffle Tower?  Brooklyn was so excited.
Yes, it was kind of far from our hotel.  Brooklyn is so excited to see it in person.
We didn't have the time to see it this trip so she settled with admiring it from afar.

Here she is all lit up.  We love the City of lights.
Next trip Brooklyn, I promise. 

Legoland Birthday trip Chandler

 Chandler has been looking forward to his special trip for a couple years now.  It was so fun to surprise him and take him to Legoland.  Neither Jeremy or I had ever been to Legoland so it was a fun experience for all. 

. 

Two days at Legoland Deutschland.  This is going to be EPIC. 

My sweet Chandler could not have been more excited.

Waiting in line to buy our tickets.   We kind of scored on the tickets.  I had done some research and found out if you purchased a box of cereal at a German store with a 50% off coupon you got the Adult tickets for 22 Euro per adult and 18 Euro per child.  It was awesome.  Once you got into the park  you could purchase a second day for only 15 Euro per person.  So bottom line we got two full days at Legoland for 10 more than it would have cost for one day if we purchased our tickets online. Sweet! I love learning about deals and saving lots of money. 

While we waited to buy our tickets the Boys planned our day.

Chandler had several opportunities to take pictures with lego figures. 

I loved seeing all the lego statues all over the park.  They are very fascinating.

Of course our first stop was Ninjago Land!

Kai is Chandler's favorite Character.  Do you see that face?
I think that tells the whole story. Chandler was indeed in heaven.

Legoland is brilliant.  They had play areas set up for the kids to play
and the parents stood in the line.  

Here is Chandler making Kai

Another area of legos for the kids to play.  Do you see the buckets and buckets of legos?

Chandler with all the elements.
Air, fire, water, 

I'm not very good at shooting games.  But well done Jeremy! 

They even had lego statues that got wet all day every day.

Waiting to get on the water ride.

Love these two boys.

Another shooting game.  

Chandler was able to climb all the way up the coconut tree.

Fun Lego Sculptures. 

They even had building blocks at the restaurants.
Chandler was never bored.  He ALWAYS had something to build or create. 

The park was just beautiful.  In the states you don't really see gardens and grass and picnic tables. Here you could bring your own food and have a picnic and lie on the grass. Crazy.

Me and my 12 year old.  EEEEKKKK

Jeremy was a tad bit disappointed that the castle wasn't' made out of Legos. 

Flying Ninjago was Chandler's favorite ride.
The first day we waited an hour to ride this ride.
The second day we arrived at the park early and was able to ride this ride before the park officially opened
because they opened the park 10 minutes early!  As soon as we got off the ride, we circled around and rode it one more time.

Chandler took a driving class and was able to drive a real Lego car. 

He got is very own Drivers License.
(Before Kayden!) 

You know you are early when the sun isn't up all the way and you are the second family in line.

See how close we are to the gate? 

We are ready for day two at Legoland.

Jeremy and Chandler killing time while we wait in line.
for the most part the lines were not terrible. We were waiting about 20-25 minutes per ride.

This entire car/driver was made out of leggos 

This little guy greeted us as we entered our restaurant for lunch.

More beautiful Landscape.  I absolutely loved the waterfall.

Capuchin Monkeys. 

White Tigers

Chandler and Jeremy picked out some gummies for a snack. You got to choose the size of cup and then fill it with all the gummies you could fit. Yum.

We ate lunch the second day at a full service grill. The burgers were pretty good.

As they were getting ready for Star Wars Days in June, they were building a big Jabba the Hut. As park guests, you could help build Jabba!

Did you see how much work we put in?! We could have been riding the rides!
It was actully pretty cool to know you helped put together one of the big displays.

Here is what it should look like when it is done.

This was what it looked like at the end of our second day. The master builders had one more day to finish it.

Can you see Chandler's huge smile as he poses with his favorite Lego guy?!

Here was our hotel along the Danube River. It was beautiful.

This is the only time we have seen a car from Monaco.