Hello sunshine, we've missed you so.

Collecting glass, she had "painted" her nails earlier in the day with a marker.

Notre Dame with Sun

 I think the sun came out today just in time because Todd was about to move us to a more suitable climate if it did not come back out.  Yesterday we had school and then after a run we went to the Eiffel tower park to play in the few rays of sun we were getting that day.  It was amazingly crowded.  Completely packed.  Even the kids seemed to think it was not worth the effort to find a spot on the play structure.  So Austin and Jackson played catch with their tennis ball and the girls collected glass.  There is a lot of broken glass in the rocks around the parks and it's like glass in the ocean that has been smoothed by waves, this smoothed by the  constant stream of feet.  So after we played a while we came home and ate Tacos.  Yes I can make tacos here.  It takes some looking at the store but you can find tortillas and what else you need so it's  a piece of our routine here.
Bed again is allusive.  Todd and I stay up far far too late watching movies he's downloaded and TV shows.  Today we got up, looked outside and the sky was BLUE.  Ya the color after green, before purple.  I knew Todd was going to go to work

Like birds looking for crumbs girls looking for glass.

Run with sun and if you look close PDA

so I got up got school going and left for a run.  I know half of what I write about is running but it's become an fundamental part of my life here.  Much like eating whole loaves of bread and chocolate from a jar(nutella count now at 5 jars.)  I think the two have something to do with each other?  But it is also really fun.  It's like part run, part exploring.  With the sun out today it was really fun.  There is a monument called the memorial de la deportation.  It was built to remember the 200,000 people taken from France to concentration camps during WWII.  I studied it in College because it's Architecture that it meant to convey an experience.  This one is meant to make you experience in a small part what it may have been like to arrive at a concentration camp.  There are narrow walkways that take you down to the level of the river.  It is cold, dark, ugly, and hauntingly sad.
But it is completely effective, as you cannot help but sense the horror that must have been that experience.  There is a neat poem there that says,
 I have dreamt so very much of you,

I have walked so much,

Loved your shadow so much,

That nothing more is left to me of you.

All that remains to me is to be the shadow among shadows

To be a hundred times more of a shadow than the shadow

To be the shadow that will come and come again into

your sunny life. By Robert Desnos

I like how here feet don't touch the ground.

 Who himself was deported to the camps.
"We forgive but never forget." is also inscribed on the memorial.
So after running 8 miles, taking in Notre Dame in the sun and enjoying my own shadow for the first time on a run I came back to reality.  We had our classic lunch...bread with various toppings. And then the kids and I headed off to a new park that I had spotted on google earth maps.  It was about 1 mile away and so I asked the girls if they would rather walk.  They said they did so we hooked up the leashes and away we went.  It's in a different direction than we normally go so it was fun to explore.  The park was fun and we got the biggest

These guys fishing on river.

 

Cotton Candy I have ever seen.  Which made the park a huge hit with them, they cannot wait to go back, shocker.  We came back and took naps...so you can bet we will be awake at 2am, again.  But what does it really matter anyways?   We will have company next month which will be fun.  We are planning a short trip to Barcelona, Spain.  It's actually cheapest to fly us all so away we go.  We debated this a lot because we are actually quite comfortable here and the idea of going back to an airport with our kids is almost enough not to make us want to take advantage of our geographic location and see somewhere else.  So Todd and I both sucked it up and are making plans.

What the tower looked like yesterday...lovely.

Memorial des Maryrs de la Deportation