A week in a day!

Today I think we completed a Paris triathalon, or maybe even a decathalon. We packed more into one day then I think some people do in a week here! We started off the day with amazing coffee, croissants and fresh pressed juice then headed to Aquaboulevard - a huge indoor water park. We went 2 years ago and I swear it's the only reason the girls wanted to come back to Paris! We swam and went on the slides for about 2 hours then made the day even better (according to 2 small children) when we had lunch at Hippopotamus. Chloe's favourite animal is the hippopotamus and this restaurant has quite the theme going... including pencil crayons bearing their name and irritating plastic toothpick things in the shape of hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) that I'm sure we'll find spread out amongst our things for the remainder of the trip. I must say my steak, green beans and red wine were quite delicious despite the fact I was staring at a hippo head the whole time.

We thought we hadn't had enough exercise so we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe to check out the view. Despite the fact that it had been raining on and off all day we took our chances and thankfully it was only spitting when we were at the top. It was a great view and I'm really glad we did it - we intended on doing it last time but the weather didn't cooperate. The girls then thought it would be a great idea to head off to the Eiffel Tower and climb it as well even though (admittedly) our legs were all a wee bit fatigued at this point. The lines weren't bad so we decided to be wild and crazy and actually pay for the elevator this time! (Last time there was a 2 hour wait so we just walked up it instead, today it was a 45 min wait.) So, we were right at the very top and it was a beautiful view, although I'll admit to having a massive amount of goosebumps - it was cold, windy, and kind of rainy! Despite the weather the girls insisted on having a ice cream cone which I thought was insane... Jeff and I had coffee instead. Nothing says 'trooper' like a kid with a hoodie pulled up licking an ice cream cone! We are staying about 5 minutes from the Eiffel Tower so we headed for home to get some warmer clothes on. Thinking that we hadn't exercised enough Jeff and the girls did a quick 100 m sprint for some insane reason - it was not my idea.

As we walked out the door for dinner a torrential downpour started - so much rain that we actually huddled under an awning for 10 minutes hoping it would pass. When our hunger outweighed our need to stay dry we bravely entered the rain and I ruined my good hair day. This lead us to a nice restaurant where after finishing dinner Julia fell asleep on her seat... at 10 pm. I neglected to mention that the girls slept for only 6 hours last night before undertaking this marathon and were amazing the whole day. I also forgot to mention the 9 metro rides we took as well as the many, many kilometres we walked today... they are amazing kids! They collapsed in their beds without a complaint and I am about to join them in slumberland... Jeff has already beaten me there.

Time to rest my weary feet and recharge for tomorrow!

PS - I don't know why the two pictures went under each other like that, I tried to change it and it wouldn't let me so I just left it. If you find this esthetically unpleasing I apologize... just close your eyes.