Day 5: church and the Louvre – and how this all came together.

Church was about 8 miles away from where we were staying, so we left about a hour and a half early. Riding through the city with 14 bikes and 4 baby strollers is quite the ordeal.

I guess I should explain how we all got here. 3 years ago Brittany and I took our three kids, 2 brothers and a friend down the Loire river for 2 months. When we returned from that trip we decided to take another similar trip when our next baby turned 2. So we had another baby 2 years ago, and put this trip on the books. About a year ago we met the Stewart family and they seemed very interested in doing a similar tour with their 6 kids, so we invited them and they actually made it happen! I guess that is what happens when you re-introduce yourself to a former business acquaintance at your kids soccer game! A few months later I met a lady named Dian that also expressed interest, so I invited her and she came too, she’s a bit older and is using an electric bike.

All of these people got the memo that this was a kids trip, and that they’d need to be good with traveling how we typically do, which includes stopping at every park, and basically making decisions based on what the kids would want. (Don’t ask me how we ended up on a train with an ETA to our campsite around 12:30am) Anyways, we were happy to invite others to come along.

Kenny, my younger brother, who came on our last trip, also joined us. He’s awesome to have around and my kids love him. He adds a great element to the trip and we’re lucky he was available to come, again!

Lastly, the Pugmire’s. Last month Matt and his wife Ashley invited us to their place in Georgia for a little get together and as we were leaving I got the thought that their current situation would enable them to join us. His wife is a few months pregnant, and they have a 2 year old, so I didn’t think it was very likely. Well, fast forward 2 weeks they committed to come and I helped them arrange the gear and now they’re here with us!

Anyways, back to church. We attended the Paris ward, and from there we went to the Louvre to enjoy some art. We RANDOMLY ran into our next door neighbor and her daughter, very cool! The kids were done after about 45 minutes, and having had less than 6 hours of sleep the night before, and the kids only having 7 or so, we were all toast. We felt a new hope when we heard there was a tactile section where we imagined lots of cool things for kids. After about 20 minutes of searching for it we arrived! Kinda. The tactile section ended up being a small room with naked statues and my kids feeling up the butts of small statues and laughing. I guess I didn’t know what to expect, something like discovery kids? 🙂 anyways, we got them out of there and called it a day.

We ended the day, and spend the rest of the day organizing our gear and prepping to leave the next day. Not too restful, typically on Sunday we can take a legitimate rest day.