Still Summer?

T-minus one month until I leave for Costa Rica! Just yesterday I had a Spanish Skype Interview with Veritas University (the university I will be attending) in order to find the level of Spanish I should be placed in. The interview went quite well! Better than I was expecting anyway… I spoke for thirteen minutes straight in Spanish. I was pretty nervous beforehand, just hoping that I would understand half of what she was asking me. I ended up really enjoying the conversation and having to speak in Spanish! That bodes well for the semester ahead of me! I can’t wait to become more conversational in Spanish!

Jeremiah is down to only three weeks left in his internship! But as of August 20^th, he is also now in school full time (A senior! Where did the time go?). That means he is very busy fitting in 40 hours of work, 15 credits of school, and homework. But he is managing, taking it day by day and still very much enjoying his internship. Proud of how hard he is working, and amazed at how he manages it all! 

While Jeremiah slaves away, I feel guilty that I have quite a bit of free time before I leave for my study abroad! I am definitely enjoying the free time and trying to treasure it before I no longer have any summer to enjoy! So yes, it is still summer for me! I have been keeping busy with a few different activities… Babysitting, crafting, working, and reading to name a few things. Wicked is coming to Gammage, the theater that I work at, and it is here for six weeks! So starting tonight through the time that I leave for Costa Rica I will work/see Wicked 20 times!! It’s a good thing I enjoy the show, but I’m not sure how much I’ll like it after the 10^th time! Also I just started up an online business class called Essentials of Selling. I have decided I would like to pursue a minor in Business, so this will get me three credits closer and so far I am enjoying the class!

Here are some of the crafts that I have been working on!

A tic-tac-toe board for a game area at my friend Heather's wedding.

Decorating mugs- always wanted to try it!

Stenciled a map of Europe on this box for a place to store all of the ticket stubs I collected in Europe! Then drew the map of our route.

 All of the paper/stubs from our trip!

Books I’ve read this summer that I highly recommend: Columbine by Dave Cullen, Seductive Poison by Deborah Layton, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, Paper Towns by John Green. These are just some of the books I’ve read this summer. I love having the time to read as much as I want when I’m not in school!

By the way I have phrased the beginning of this post it would sound like Jeremiah and I never see each other! While the next three to four weeks will probably be that way, we made our last few weeks of summer some to remember! I’ll show in pictures what we’ve done.

Jeremiah and I attended Heather and Kohl's wedding! Heather pole vaulted with me in high school and was/is one of my very good friends!

The usual silly pictures with these kiddos!

Family homemade pizza night!

A beautiful AZ sunset (same night as the pizza night)

We moved in Jeremiah's brother, Nathan, into his dorm at ASU's Polytechnic campus! While we were helping him move in, I was mistaken as a CA twice! I guess I have a certain look about me??

Nathan's very ASU-spirited room!

Many nights spent just hanging out with family. 

 Spontaneous trip Salt River tubing. Picture taken using my GoPro camera. 

Jeremiah and I have a new obsession with "Cookie Butter." Tried it in Europe and found it here at home... This stuff is dangerous! 

Played at church last weekend and had an amazing time! Love making music to worship God! With Jeremiah there too, it's even better!

LSP Welcome Back Picnic- some of my best friends from the organization!

My whole 2013 cohort!

Had Me a Blast

Woah, what is this beneath my finger tips? H- h- ... hard keys?? After five straight posts composed from my iPad along European train tracks, I must admit it feels strange to be writing with a physical keyboard again. But that, needless to say, is probably my smallest lifestyle change since coming back to the good old U S of A.

I'll get right to it:  my internship with Medtronic. I've been working there for almost six weeks now, which means I'm already halfway done! I remember thinking in April of my Disney internship last year that a twelve-week internship would feel very short, and now that I'm experiencing a twelve-week internship, that notion is even more cemented in my mind.

It's been a great first half, though. I was brought on as a mechanical engineering intern into Medtronic's Product Analysis Lab, where they perform failure analysis on the hybrids that either didn't pass testing or failed in the field. (Hybrids are circuit boards, and Medtronic Tempe Campus manufactures the hybrids that go into all their pacemakers and other cardiovascular devices.) It's a really neat place to work because the lab has some seriously high-tech equipment that they use for their failure analysis:  scanning electron microscopes, x-ray machines, plasma etchers, vapor deposition machines... You get the idea. I'm surrounded by equipment that costs more money than I'm likely to make in a lifetime.

In terms of why I like my internship, though, the equipment is just the superficial tip of the iceberg. First of all, I'm learning a TON. Probably because I'm working in a lab of almost exclusively electrical engineers and chemists. Oh yeah, and there's one geologist. But no mechanical engineers! Consequently, I've been building lots of great cross-disciplinary knowledge, in addition to skills that will serve me well even in a mechanical engineering career.

So what exactly have I been doing? Well, to put it one way, I'm the PAL's wire bond fairy - I'm here to make all their wire bonding troubles go away. Wire bonding is a way of electrically connecting integrated circuits (ICs) to the substrates they're mounted to. Normally it's easy to do, but when the PAL gets failed products, they have to use some very destructive techniques to extract the ICs, and these techniques tend to make the ICs very hard to wire bond. I'm working on developing new means of extracting the ICs in order to curtail the gray hair syndrome that appears to be spreading through the department as a result of wire bonding. It's slow going, but my mentor says I've been doing well, so I guess I'll take his word for it!

Most of all, though, I like my internship because of the company itself. All companies have mission statements, but in most cases, it seems like the missions are just words on paper, meant to improve the company's credibility. But at Medtronic, I feel like the mission is something I see employees consistently living out in their work. It's something that guides business decisions and inspires people to strive for continuous improvement. It's easier to get up for work each morning knowing I'm helping "alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life." And beyond that, the company seems genuinely focused on my own development as an engineer. The internship feels like a two-way street.

Sorry, that was pretty much a whole essay on my internship. In fact, that was probably enough words for an entire blog post... So I think I'll tell the rest of the story of the past few weeks primarily through pictures!

MY Fourth of July, spent on "A" Mountain with Nathan and Kevin. It's no lake house, but it was a good time!

Dbacks game with Nathan and Dad

Laser tag at Main Event with the interns (14 of us in total). We also went tubing down the Salt River last weekend! It's been lots of fun getting to know everyone. They're a great group of people.

Themed going-away party for two of our best friends, Kyle and Stephanie. Wishing them luck as they begin a new chapter of their lives in Wichita, Kansas! We're gonna miss them here in Arizona.

Date night at The Cheesecake Factory to reward ourselves for 1 week of no processed sugar + 1 week of no saturated fat. It was a long 14 days. But this made it all worth it!

Movie date with my two favorite gals. We saw Inside Out and loved it! Yet another creative and entertaining Disney Pixar film.

Other miscellaneous shenanigans with the Warren/Lucas babies. Life is rough ;)

Alright, Hannah, ball's in your court - which musical are you gonna quote next?

Summer Lovin'

After four weeks straight of seeing Jeremiah nearly 24/7, I went a week and a half of not seeing him at all! Quite the opposite side of the spectrum, but it was good preparation for my semester abroad I suppose. While I was gone he started his internship (I'll get back to that) and I spent time in one of my favorite places- Rochester, NY! Rochester is where I and my family are from and where most of my extended family still lives. I have been lucky enough to visit Rochester and my family every summer for as long as I can remember. I moved from there when I was 2, so while I didn't have any memories of it then I have many memories attached to it from all of my visits. Plus if you know me you know that my family is so important to me and what's better than being surrounded by the whole clan?? Though I wish Jeremiah had been there with me, especially because this was his second year in a row missing the trip, I know how important this internship is to him!

I'll let Jeremiah explain more in detail about his experiences thus far in the internship, but I know he's already made some great relationships with the other interns and has encountered very friendly and welcoming coworkers. He also made it through the tedious online training and is on to the good stuff! But he can explain more when he writes a post. Last week I had the chance to visit him at his work and to bring him lunch. It was really a different experience seeing him in this environment, but so cool! I've only ever known Jeremiah as a student so to see him in the real working world makes the future beyond school seem so close! He showed me all around the Medtronic campus including his workspace, where he eats lunch, and rooms holding some very important machinery. I try my best to follow along when he explains what he does, but it seems pretty complicated! I think my favorite part about visiting him at Medtronic and hearing him explain what he does is to see his passion behind the work that the company as a whole is doing. Medtronic makes pacemakers among other medical supplies and Jeremiah is always saying how he loves the impact that the company has on people and their quality of life. I think that just really says a lot about him and how he wants to better peoples lives. 

As for my trip to Rochester, my family is always a little complicated in getting to places, multiple flights, lots of bags, a little chaotic! But that's just us, and it works! So my mom arrived first, then me, then Brian, then my dad, Terrisa, Emily, and the three kids, then finally Heather and George! Yeah, a little crazy! But I was just happy that everyone made it out since this was the first time in awhile that all of us were in Rochester together.

I spent time with both of my grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins. I did many things and really just a lot of family time, but I'll name a few specific things. One of my favorites was one night playing Upwords with my grandma in her new apartment (I won! Sorry, had to throw that in Grandma!) I love playing games with her and getting to spend one on one time. One afternoon we went to my cousins' two kids birthday party. They have a 1 and a 4 year old and there were a lot of little kids running around! But it was a great, Superhero-themed party and a nice way to get a lot of our family together too! That same night we went to one of our favorite ice cream places called Friendly's. We had dinner there too, but the real reason to go is the ice cream! They have this amazing peanut butter sauce that just makes their sundaes awesome. A lot of what we do while we're in Rochester is go to restaurants and have the food that we love and miss all year long because we can't get it at home in AZ! Sooo I had quite a bit of delicious food! This blog is probably making me sound like all I think about is food and eating bad-for-me foods! Needless to say I was excited to get back into a routine of healthier eating at home. Anyway, back to my trip, I ate lots of awesome food: peanut donuts (sounds strange, but actually delicious), Abbott's frozen custard, Carmine's steak sandwich, Friendly's sundae, Carbone's pizza... Yeah... We also went to the Strong Children's Museum, to my Great Aunt's pool to swim, Seabreeze Amusement/Water Park (has the oldest roller coaster in the US), had a cousin's night out, and many other things! 

Finally, on the Fourth of July we went to my Aunt and Uncle's lake house! We do this most summers and it is one of my favorite traditions! The lake house is on Lake Ontario and we all bring food and pretty much my whole family comes! Well, a good portion of the family from both my mom and dad's sides! We sat on the beach and out front just talking, playing some games... It's great! Then once it finally got dark we had a bonfire and watched fireworks all around us! Unfortunately, the day after the 4th I had to head home... But that meant- Jeremiah! 

Since I got back, Jeremiah has been a working man and I've been doing a lot of random things! For one, I got a shadowing position at a PT clinic! It's a geriatric outpatient clinic called Spooner Physical Therapy. Basically I just follow around the PT there and learn about what a career in PT is like! For PT school you have to get some observation hours so that you know what you're getting into. Makes sense! So I am doing that two days a week. I've also been babysitting, got a couple of pet sitting jobs, giving French Horn lessons, and relaxing! It's been a great summer so far, and I still have quite a bit more summer until my semester abroad starts! 

Together Jeremiah and I have enjoyed simply spending time together and with our families. We also went on a date to a place called TopGolf! Basically it's a big driving range, but has a fun competition component to it. We had been wanting to do that on a date for awhile and finally got around to it. We also went to one of my friend's wedding receptions, went to see "Minions" with Paisley and Terrisa, and had a really fun dinner/going away party with our friends Stephanie and Kyle! Little things here and there! Oh, and we've been doing some healthy eating! Right after I got back from Rochester we started a week of no sugar (excluding natural sugar) and then a week of no saturated fat! The purpose is to become more aware of what we are eating and what's in our food! It's been really good.

TopGolf

Ready for my friend's reception (new dress from Anthropologie courtesy of Heather)!

Until next time!

Hannah's Short Wrap-Up

As Jeremiah said, I had to write my own wrap up to our Europe trip as well! I just couldn't leave it with my last post. I have too many thoughts about the trip as a whole to do that! 

First off, I am so glad that Jeremiah and I decided to do this trip. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for planting the idea in our heads! I learned so much from the trip, both before with the planning and during the trip with the newness and uncertainty of it all. 

I am so grateful to Jeremiah for being my travel partner! Take him along if you want to go to Europe! First of all, before we left he was so on top of printing every document off and getting things done early. If you know him at all, that shouldn't surprise you! But during the trip he always remained calm when I got a little stressed, he downloaded an app for every country's metro system I'm pretty sure, he was directing me which way to go, he wasn't afraid to ask questions, and he put up with some seriously bad allergies with a mostly positive attitude. I was definitely lucky to have him by my side! 

As for traveling itself, I learned that pretty much everyone speaks English everywhere! It makes me want to learn all of their languages because we were always so relieved when people spoke English! I felt bad or ignorant for not speaking their language! I also learned that Europe has some amazing public transportation. The U.S. should take a page out of their book! The trains are going everywhere, all the time. 

Jeremiah and I feel like expert backpackers now! We had an overnight train, a very early flight, a last minute Hostel booking, a cancelled Airbnb, long walks with our huge backpacks, hand-washed our laundry, found and used a laundromat for the first time, rotated through only 4 shirts, and the list goes on! 

Of course, not everything was perfect (definitely not), and we certainly aren't actually "experts," but I am grateful for every part of this Europe trip and happy I could do it with my best friend! Thanks for reading everyone! As Jeremiah said, check back for updates on his internship and come September, more stories from my experiences abroad, but solo this time! 

Also, if anyone is curious and looking into backpacking yourself, I took a couple of pictures of what I brought, though these pictures don't include everything. Big backpack: 4 shirts (1 long sleeve, 1 t-shirt, 2 nicer shirts), two pants, two shorts, one maxi skirt, one jacket, one dress, flip flops, sneakers, Keens, two plastic bags, mini straightener, microfiber towel, sleep sack, toiletries.

Small backpack: Umbrella, Passport, phone charger, outlet converter, three small locks, one padlock, reusable water bottle, two books, journal, pen, money, money belt, credit cards, sunglasses, go pro, selfie stick.

 

Where Did My Four Weeks Go??

Well, it's finally come: my final blog post about our Europe trip. After two final days in London (for the second time, yes) we are at last wrapping up our four-week backpacking adventure through ten different cities in seven different countries with an eleven-hour direct flight back to Los Angeles, where Hannah's parents will meet us and drive us six more hours back home to Phoenix. That's our trip by the numbers, so to speak!

So what did we do with our two "bonus" days in London? Well, having been thoroughly convinced of the value of Sandeman's free walking tours in Berlin, Munich, and Paris, we decided we needed to do their London tour as well. And it was well worth it! We had a very good guide, who took us to Covent Gardens (which isn't actually a garden), St. James' Palace, Buckingham Palace, St. James' Park, Big Ben, and Parliament Square, and a few other places. Though we'd seen several of these stops during our stay in May, it was nice to hear more about the history of it all.

By the way, if you'd shown this post to fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, he probably wouldn't have believed that twenty-year-old Jeremiah actually wrote it, based on that last sentence alone. I used to hate history. It was my least favorite subject all throughout school. But after these last four weeks in Europe, I think I've developed a better appreciation for it! I still would never take a history class of my own free will, but I think there's something to be said for experiencing it in a different way. If only I could've been given a free walking tour of Ancient Mesopotamia, the Vietnam War, and everything in between.

On that tour, we stopped by Trafalgar Square. You know, the one with the big lions you can climb on? Except this day, you couldn't. There were temporary walls set up all around the square, covered by posters advertising an event called West End Live. Our guide told us that it was an event going on this weekend meant to celebrate the culture of West End, known mostly for its plethora of big-time musical theater shows. And how better to celebrate that than with free, live musical numbers from some of the best musicals in the area? Hannah and I looked at each other like, "Uh, yeah, we have to go to that!" So we made plans to go the next afternoon, during our last day in London.

First, though, we spent the morning of our last day visiting King's Cross Station to see Platform 9-3/4. We were a bit underwhelmed; I think we'd expected to see the actual platform where they'd filmed the Harry Potter scenes, but in retrospect, I suppose it'd be silly to dedicate an entire, functional train platform to a spot for tourists and Harry Potter fanatics. Still, it was kinda neat! They had a queue set up where you could wait to get your picture taken with props that made it look like you were disappearing into the wall to get to the platform. They even made it some poor sap's job to hold your scarf and toss it into the air during pictures for a more realistic running effect. We got some good shots! And we also stopped by the Harry Potter Shop, where they sold really neat but really overpriced HP merchandise. It was fun to look through stuff and decide which characters had the best wands.

We then took a nice long walk through cool, cloudy weather to get to the West End Live event at Trafalgar Square. It was even more impressive than I expected! They had the actual casts of all their local shows performing numbers straight out of the musicals! We saw stuff from Phantom, Les Mis, Mamma Mia, Jersey Boys, and several other shows. It was perfect weather for the event (by Arizonan standards at least), but after a few hours, our feet were aching. We checked the schedule and didn't see any other shows we recognized, so we decided to walk up to Oxford Street for some window shopping and Ben's Cookies.

By the way, I know in my May post I mentioned that Ben's Cookies were great, but I think we must've caught them on an off-day last time, because this time they were about ten times better. We got three cookies to share the first day, and went back for two more the second day because they were so amazing. Our favorite was the oatmeal raisin. It was so, so soft, which was miraculous because they didn't achieve this by under-baking the cookie. Somehow they've managed to make thick, fully baked cookies that maintain the soft, moist texture of underdone cookies. Our May cookies were drier and crumbly in comparison. Still great, but nothing like the cookies we had this time around. They may very well be the best cookies I've ever had. Only Paradise Bakery can compete!

After killing some time in the stores on Oxford Street, we wandered through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to see Kensington Palace again, since it's only about ten minutes from our hostel. Then the clouds, which had looked ominous all day, finally opened up with some rain, and since we didn't have anything else planned for the day, we went and found a cheap dinner and went back to our hostel. Good thing we did, because it only rained harder after we got back! Still, it was a really great last day in London - and all of Europe, for that matter.

So, yeah! That's our four weeks in Europe! It feels weird to think of going back to ordinary life, where we don't need WiFi to access the Internet, where we have more than four shirts to pick from, where we can't eat pastries and cookies and gelato every day because we're using cars - not our feet - to take us everywhere.

Mostly, though, it's just crazy to think that this enormous trip, conceived almost a full year ago, is coming to a close. Once we began actively planning, it felt like I'd divided up the timeline of 2015 into two parts: before Europe, and after Europe. Now that this whole trip is behind us, it's time to take the leap into the second part of this year, which will be highlighted by my internship with Medtronic, Hannah's twelve weeks abroad in Costa Rica, and the start of my SENIOR YEAR OF COLLEGE. Like, seriously, where has the time gone?

Maybe that's why it feels so difficult to end this trip. Putting Europe behind me inherently reminds me of how close I am to the rest of my life - my last year of undergrad, the start of my Master's, and the beginning of my career. I'm in such a pivotal point in my life! And it's scary! But it's also REALLY exciting. So don't mistake my shock for fear and my nostalgia for sadness. I'm stoked for what lies ahead, and even more stoked to go through it all with Hannah by my side.

And of course, you can continue to read about it! The end of our Europe trip does not mean the end of our blog. It is, after all, named after us, and we will continue to exist after our trip. Granted, our lives won't be quite as interesting to you, or at least not in the same way, so don't be expecting posts every three days like we've done this last month! We'll probably go back to a monthly schedule under the facade of posting "every two weeks." I mean, that's practically our trademark.

Thanks to those of you who have loyally read every one of our nine posts on Europe! Hannah's gonna have one more coming soon after this one, to do her own little wrap-up of our adventure. So keep an eye out for that, and I'll see you in a month!

Er, my mistake. See you in "two weeks" ;)

Pariseauxtre

Did you think we'd forgotten to write? It's been awhile! At least, for a backpacking trip that is go go go it's been awhile. We spent the past five nights in Paris, France! That's a pretty long time in backpacking terms, but it seemed to fly by. Before I begin, I have to explain the title. Jeremiah was humorously annoyed at how the end of French words is often silent. He kept saying the end of the word and I would correct him, saying it should be silent, but then he would just go off about how if you don't say the end of the word no one can know exactly what word you're meaning. For example, we had a semi-lengthy conversation about how "le" and "les" sound the same, but you would have no idea if you're referring to the plural or not. Soooo we created a nonsensical title where the end is silent to represent our frustration with this particular part of the French language. Actually, it's just his frustration. It doesn't really bother me at all.

We arrived after a long day on a few different trains from Switzerland. While Switzerland was absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite places, it's not exactly the most convenient for traveling to and from. But nonetheless we made it to Paris. We found our Airbnb stay quickly, but it was an apartment building with a bunch of people and we had a hard time getting into the building because we couldn't figure out how to get someone to buzz us in. We eventually were able to walk in after some people, but then none of the doors were labelled so we didn't know which door was his! We ran into a woman and asked her if she recognized the man we were supposed to be staying with... She didn't, but we had his number so she called him for us and was able to figure out which apartment room we needed to be at! She was so helpful and we were so appreciative of her kindness!! We have encountered some very helpful and kind people on this trip which has been a big blessing. So it was almost looking like another bad Airbnb situation, but not to worry! It worked out! It turned out that it was a very small apartment that he owns and just rents out so we got the little place to ourselves! Complete with a balcony which we enjoyed. 

Where we were located was in the heart of an area called Montmartre. Basically it's more of an artsy, contemporary area of Paris, and located in the middle of that at the top of the hill is the Sacre Couer Basilica. We walked up the many steps to the top for a beautiful view of Paris and also to tour the Basilica. It was very crowded in the area, but we still enjoyed the Basilica and also enjoyed walking around Montmartre. It is really cool to see all of the people walking the streets eating crepes, sitting outside the open restaurants drinking wine, and artists up and down the street, it felt very Parisian to me... Or what I imagine Paris to be anyway! 

The next day we found a bakery right by our apartment for breakfast and it was amazing. The pastries were so good, it was nearly magical! Jeremiah and I were so impressed that we subsequently made that our breakfast spot for the following few days! Pastries in hand, we found another free walking tour by the same company with whom we did our last two free walking tours. It didn't disappoint! We were taken past Notre Dame, the love lock bridge, Saint Chapelle, the Louvre, The Tuileries Garden, and many more places! We've really liked these walking tours because they take us all over the city and give so many great stories and history. Plus, they're free (minus the tip)! The end of the tour left us at the end of the Champs Élysées, so we grabbed some crepes and wandered up the Champs Élysées in and out of a few shops toward the Arc de Triomph. The crepes were also amazing, by the way. The Arc de Triomphe is surrounded by one of the largest roundabouts in the world and it seems like complete chaos! So we were glad to only be looking at it, not driving in it. We got to the Arc under the street and it is massive! A very cool sight to see with a little memorial underneath it that we visited. Then we went back to Notre Dame to visit the inside. Yet another beautiful church! Notre Dame has a bit of a different feel to it though... Darker and more gothic I would say, but just as great! We ended the night back at Montmartre wandering around the area again. We just really enjoyed the atmosphere there! 

The second full day we decided to visit the Chateau de Versailles. WOW. You've probably heard it mentioned before, the gaudy and gorgeous and over-the-top Versailles. Yes, it is all of those things. I had been there before, but it is still just as impressive the second time. Unfortunately it was packed that day!! The line to get in took about an hour and a half. But once we finally got into the palace we got audio guides and took our time wandering through the rooms and staring open mouthed at the gold and glass and glitter! Versailles also has very extensive gardens which we looked at but didn't wander through because apparently on Tuesdays it cost 10 extra  Euro just for the garden! Other days it's free... Seriously? We were kind of annoyed, but we still enjoyed our time there. Plus we found another small nearby park to enjoy our lunch in. 

Once back in Paris we went to the Eiffel Tower! And don't worry, we were extra aware of possible pick pocketers! I was extra aware our whole time in Paris actually! Anyway, we visited perhaps the most iconic part of Paris and it is very impressive! It's bigger than I remembered and Jeremiah and I spent awhile just taking pictures and admiring it. We walked slowly under and past it and then sat on a nearby bench for awhile. It was nice to just take the time to appreciate it. We decided we didn't need to go up in it because we had already gotten a great view of the city from the Sacre Couer. The rest of the day we pretty much just wandered around the city until it got dark and we went back up to that very spot at the Sacre Couer to see the Eiffel Tower lit up! While we waited for it to get dark we got to see a very nice sunset as well. 

Now you'll never guess what we did our next full day! Or maybe you will if you know the two of us well... We decided to go to Disneyland Paris! At the beginning of our trip we had decided that we were definitely not going to go, because we've been to Disney so many times before that it wouldn't be worth our time in Paris. But as it got closer and closer we kept thinking about how fun and once-in-a-lifetime it would be and decided to go for it. We were very happy with our decision. We took the train out, got a park hopper ticket for the two parks there, and spent the whole day there! It was really fun to compare it to Disneyland and Disney World. We did some of our favorites like Thunder Mountain and Rock'n'Roller Coaster and tried some new rides like their Indiana Jones, Ratatouille, and Crush's Coaster. While we have of course loved every experience from our trip, this one holds a different special place in our hearts because we are just both huge Disney fans! It was a really fun day and a nice way to switch things up and add in a little piece of home into our Europe vacation! 

For our last full day in Paris we first went to Sainte Chapelle. It's a church with basically wall to wall stained glass! Holy cow, it's beautiful! The stained glass is so intricate and lights up the whole chapel. Not only that, but all of the detailed stained glass is a depiction of many of the books of the Bible. It's really incredible. Then we ventured over to the Louvre to spend basically the rest of the day! I'm sure you've heard of the Louvre as well... The world's largest museum! I'm convinced you could spend weeks in there. Well, if you read everything you could spend weeks in there. We just spent a majority of the day, and I feel like we only scraped the surface. Of course we first stopped by the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Two of the classics that you basically have to see if you go there. It's pretty crazy to see the number of people crowding around the tiny Mona Lisa painting! Especially because on the opposite wall there is a massive painting that only a few people seem to pay any attention to. After we made the obligatory stops we just wandered in whichever direction we felt like going. I enjoyed the Egyptian, Greek, and Oriental Antiques the most. But really half the experience is just being in awe of the sheer number and variety of pieces they have. The museum's collection is incredible. I have no idea how they obtained quite as much as they have! We were pretty wiped out after that, but we stopped to have a nice dinner on our last night in Paris. Jeremiah's parents generously offered to pay for a nice dinner out for us! Thank you Dwights! We both have such awesome, generous parents. Our dinner was delicious and a great way to wrap up our time in France.

Very early this morning (I'm talking 4 am!!) we got up to gather our stuff and get to our plane flight back to London! I apologize if it seems like I lacked creativity in this post, but I am blaming it on the long day that I've just had! I've basically been on my feet since 4 am, so you can't blame me! Stay tuned for our wrap up in London!!