Aaron Baillio’s Blog

Hey, I’m trying to get into YouTube so I have created a new web page on my blog just for videos.  I am trying to figure out how to add you as friends so you can see my other videos.  Be on the lookout for an email.  Till then, look to the left and click the link for Video!

Well, I guess this is what we look like to french people!   Man, we had a great time in Paris.  It was so much more fun without the kids (but don’t tell them that!)  So, we dropped the boys off at a friends house around 9:30am on Friday and we drove to Saarbrucken to catch the 11am non-stop, high-speed train to Paris.  It was Kristin’s first train ride!  Nothin to special, especially since their was no air conditioning and their was an obnoxious American sitting in front of us.  Oh well, what can you do?

So, we get to the train station around 1 and we went straight outside and got a table on the street at a cafe and had some lunch.  It was so relaxing and fun.  Then we went backt o the train station and bought a 2 day all you can use metro pass.  It was well worth it!  So we hopped on the metro to our hotel.  The hotel was in a great location.  the hotel itself was about what I expected.  I tried to get the cheapest hotel I could find downtown.  So, it was on par with that.  Small room, hard bed no a/c.  Oh well.  So, off we went to the Champs-Elysees!  The most famous avenue in the world!  All the fancy shops are there.  We actually did go into Louis Vuitton.  Geez!  Small little purses going for 1000 Euro!  It was nuts, but it was fun to see where the rich go shopping.  Most people in there were just wandering around looking like we were.  We did actually see some purchases though.  Anyway, at the end of the avenue is the Arc de Triumph, and triumphant it is!  We didn’t climb it but it was pretty cool. 

From there we went on to the Eiffel tower.  It is amazing how dominating that structure is.  The wait to get up to take the elevator was an hour, and that was just to the second floor.  It was another 45 minute wait to go all the way up!  So, we stayed on the 2nd floor which was plenty high to get a good view of the city.  We just enjoyed the view, got some hot pain au chocolats and looked at Paris.

So, after the Eiffel tower we went back to our room and got dressed up.  We walked to a little sqaure that had a bunch of restaurants so we had our pick.  We decided on a little Korean restaurant.  It was really good!  They actually bring your food out on a little electric griddle that is small enough to set on your table and the food stays hot and cookin while you eat!  It was cool.  So, that was a really nice evening. 

Sleeping that night was a different matter entirely!  Our room didn’t have an air conditioner and we only had one window.  So, we tried sleeping with the window closed but we were roasting in no time.  So, we opened the window.   But, the window opened to an atrium instead of outside so we heard every idiot coming in and out of the building.  So, coupled with the hard bed….it was a long night.

Anyway, so day 2 arrives.  We had a nice breakfast at a street cafe which was nice and relaxing.  We took the metro to the Hotel de Ville which is the city hall for Paris.  Man, what a palace!  It looks really cool with a neat garden.  We walked a couple blocks to Notre Dame which is my absolute favorite.  Just the stories and how French it is…I love it.  Plus, there is so much mysticism and stuff with that church.  The inside is really cool with a lot of history.  I guess the church had fallen into disrepair and the city actually fixed it up after Hugo’s Hunchback novel was published.  We also learned that the big gargoyles were put on during the early 1800’s instead of when it was built.  So, we waited an hour to climb the tower but it was well worth it.  We saw the transcept where Esmerelda was hidden in the church.  Then we went out and saw the gargoyles and looked out over Paris.  It was cool to imagine what life would have been like 500 years ago when there weren’t cars and buses and so many houses!  We also saw the bells that are also as infamous as the church.  All in all, a good visit. 

For lunch, we stopped at another cafe right in front of the church and just enjoyed the atmosphere.  From there we went to the Louvre.  Again, wow!  Aside from all the art, the museum itself is a work of art!  But we saw some cool stuff.  We saw “Winged Victory”, “Madonna on the Rocks”, “Mona Lisa”, “Hercules Battles the Hydra”, “La Liberte Guidant le Peuple” and a bunch of other stuff.  So, it was pretty cool.  We only did one wing and we were beat.  So, we walked down to the Seine and just sat and relaxed.  Then we went to the park and just sat in the shade and talked.  That was about it!  We went to the train station, got back home around 10pm and pretty much fell asleep on the spot. 

Paris Trip

Well, as you all may know, I am totally hooked up to the blazing fast interweb.  So, we have been able to make use of all the cool features of the information super highway.  One of them being Skype. 

 To most people, it is an interesting way to do VoIP for free.  We use it for web chat mostly so people can see us from so far away.  Well, we bought a Skype In number which means we bought a US phone number and anyone in the US can dial it and it wil lring us here in Germany!  Since long distance calls to other states in the US are virtually free, I thought this would be a good way for friends and family to call us. 

 Here is the number: 405-445-0128.

It may be a little quirky at first until we figure it out, but give us a call on that number and see if it works!  But please, do not call us after 10:30pm our time.  So, that would be 4:30 Eastern, 3:30 central, 2:30 mountain and 1:30 pacific.  Or you could call us after 7:30am our time which would be 1:30am eastern, 12:30am central, 11:30pm mountain and 10:30am pacific. 

So, I think that is all on that.  We had a fun weekend.  We went to 2 birthday parties.  One was for a 2 year old named Chase and that was fun but it rained so we were in and out the whole time.  On Saturday we went to a roller skating rink for Jana (that is pronounced Yana).  It was pretty fun.  Will actually got to skating by himself by the end!  It was pretty cool…I was very proud of him.  He really liked it.  I also took Asher around but I just held him.  It is so funny because most of the adults we went with hadn’t been on skates since they were teenagers!  But, we all had a good time.

Kristin had here first pre-natal visit today.  It was a little strange because for one they told her it was to early for them to do much.  (So why did they have her come in?)  And second, the doctor actually advised her not to tell anyone yet about her pregnancy but to not worry.  So, we are not sure what to think but she does go back in next week.  Kristin has been very sick though so we have no reason so far to doubt that things aren’t progressing normally.

Well, I think that is about all!  Till next time…

Well, we had a blast these last few days doing stuff for Will’s birthday.  So, Friday we left for Gunzberg which is about a 3 hr drive from our house.  Man, there was tons of construction and lots of stop and go traffic and of course the boys didn’t sleep at all so it was rough.  Although at one point we did get to stare at a ferrari that someone was towing.  Anyway, we got to our little hotel.  The room was tiny, but it had a king bed and a seperate bunkbed.  We went and played on the playground they had for an hour to try to ware out the boys…it didn’t work.  They had a trampoline that they both really dug.  It was cute watching Asher trying to get around on it.  Sleeping that night was…a nightmare!  Both the boys couldn’t sleep anywhere else but it the bed with us and they were so excited that it took them forever to fall asleep.  So, I think by 11:30pm they fell asleep.  I barely slept cause there was no air conditioning in the room and then everyone woke up at 5:45am!    It was nuts.  So, we had to wait around till 7am for breakfast.  Breakfast was nice.  Then we left the hotel around 8:30…well, the park didn’t even open until 10!  So, we did the drive by tour of a couple of citites there and saw some cool stuff.  At least Asher took a nap before we got to the park.

So, the park was pretty cool as well.  There wasn’t a ton of stuff for Will to do, but we rode all the things he could ride on with me or Kristin.  Lunch was really good…and there was a lot of it too.  Kristin had a 20 in hot dog and I had spare ribs.  Will had a little sausage swirled around a skewer.  It was cool.  There was tons of stuff built entirely out of legos.  Just check out the pictures.  You can also look at http://picasaweb.google.com/aaron.baillio. 

We left around 4 and just drove home.  We didn’t want to battle the kids for another sleepless night.  Both the boys fell asleep for the first 2 hours and only woke up because I had to get some gas.  So, all in all it was a fun trip.  We stayed home from church on Sunday and had roastbeef (Will’s favorite) and did the cake and presents.  It was pretty fun.

Finally, I have only told mom and dad so here is the news for the rest of you…Kristin in pregnant!  I know we said we wouldn’t have another in germany, but what can you do?  We are looking at sometime in March.  So, with that I will leave you!