Cultivating your marriage is so important. It's something that Elliott and I do not take lightly. After kids it can sometimes seem impossible, especially living thousands of miles away from family. We can't just get away for a weekend on a whim by ourselves. It takes a lot of planning and TRUST. I'll give a little back story. Before we moved here, we were praying that God would help us settle in quickly and find a church home. We had our old church family praying for us, our families praying for us, and God answered those prayers. We found Aviano Baptist Church and met some amazing people. Thankfully, we have grown in these relationships and trust multiple people with our girls. We knew that the friends that watched them would care for them like they were their own and that was incredibly relieving. So all I'm saying is, we didn't just leave our kids with strangers haha So build your tribe, find people you trust, and GO ON SOME DATES! And if you can plan a one or two night stay somewhere DO IT! Okay so enough of my rant on that. I'm just really passionate about people taking care of their marriages after kids because it is hard work, and if you don't, if you lose the fact that you two were first, then your marriage can fall apart. Your kids are not #1. That is not how God designed it to be. Cultivate that marriage friends! Make it a priority. It's not easy but it's so important.
(This photo is from Friday night when we got completely soaked. I set my camera on a ledge and we snapped it real quick hahaha)
So back to Paris! On Friday morning we headed to the Airport! Leighlyn basically pushed us out the door, so excited to spend time with Mrs. Grace! Haha The flight was just an hour and a half and we landed at 2:45. We then had to take the metro (which was SUPER confusing, but we did it lol) to the stop right by our hotel! We got all checked in by 5:30pm and then headed to the Eiffel Tower. We booked a hotel that was just a couple blocks away so it was a quick stroll. We knew the evening was calling for rain but hoped it would pass. We grabbed dinner, stopped by the hotel room to get our rain jackets just incase, and headed back to the Eiffel Tower so we could see it lit up! Ya know, cause that's romantic! haha Well as we were walking it started POURING! I mean POURING! There was no one else out which was nice, but we got absolutely drenched. We laughed A LOT and it is definitely something we will remember forever.
Elliott is the one that planned what we were going to be doing on Saturday because I didn't really have a preference! He ended up buying a Paris Pass that allowed us into all sorts of attractions and also got us unlimited tickets for the metro and the Hop On Hop Off bus! It worked out really well and we got to see everything that was on his list. So that morning we woke up at 7...without kids...we're crazy. and went to breakfast! We were informed that they had a place that served American breakfast, which I know you all might think is super weird but I promise it's not. After living in Italy for almost a year, we miss American Breakfasts so bad hahaha So this place was called Breakfast in America and I had THE BEST french toast ever. After breakfast we walked to Notre Dame this was around 10:30. We stood in line to tour the church and then we had to reserve tickets for a time to go up in the towers! That ended up being at 12:50, so we got on the Hop On Hop Off bus for an hour and just rode around the city! It went in a loop so we ended up right back at Notre Dame and did our tour up into the towers! There were A LOT of steps.
After Notre Dame we got back on the bus and rode over to the Arch De Triumph. This was the #1 thing my husband wanted to see and he was so excited! We went up to the top of it, took some photos and when we were done we got back on the bus to the Eiffel Tower so we could finally go all the way up! We stood in line for about 2 hours, got our tickets to ride the lift up, and eventually got on it. It was A LOT of waiting, but definitely worth it! When you go up you stop at the first section, get off and then get in line for another lift that takes you all the way to the top! I'm not going to lie, it was a little nerve racking getting up there! It's so high!! But we made it haha It was a really neat experience. We walked around the top of the tower and then headed back down. At this point it was around 7pm and Elliott wanted to watch the tower light up at sunset so we headed to the Palais de Chaillot and sat on the stairs. It was a beautiful night and there were tons of people all around waiting for the Eiffel to shine. Once the sun set and it was dark, we were starving. We didn't realize that it would take so long for the lights to pop on so we didn't end up eating until 11pm! We ate at a little place called Cafe Primrose which was just a couple blocks from our hotel. The next morning we woke up to the sound of the market right outside our hotel! As we headed to the metro to go back to the airport, we strolled the market and bought some Macaroons. This trip couldn't have been more amazing and we are so happy that we had the opportunity to go to Paris alone! We are so very thankful for Grace and Melissa for watching and taking such good care of our babies so we could enjoy ourselves and have a romantic getaway.
