Best Friends

At first Maggie would get a little grumpy when Dylan crossed paths with her food, she's quickly learned better!

Momma's Bed ~ Puppy Up

Nothing better than a curl up sleeping buddy. When putting Dylan to bed she'll tell you exactly what she wants - "Momma's bed, puppy up". Not sure which girl likes it more?

Chocolate Clown Face

No comment needed ~ she's trying out for the circus.

And Back To Brussels ~ Almost Home

After a week in Paris we drove back to Brussels to catch our flight home. Along the way we stopped off to check out this really cool road that is on the Race of Flanders bike course - we also stopped off in a little town to check out a bike museum Matt was dying to see - not only was it nap time (so two of us waited in the car) but the museum was closed, sorry Matt!

The hotel that Matt booked said it was at the airport - what we didn't expect was literally it was at the airport. We had a nice quiet evening to pack everything up and get some sleep before adventure into another 12 hour flight with a toddler. Here's a funny shot of all our bags (and kid) packed up on the airport carts in the hotel lobby (Dylan loved it).

After checking out we crossed the passenger unload area right into the airport - this picture is standing in the hotel doorway. It was soooo easy. When we got to the ticket counter there wasn't a soul around - I was a little worried that our flight was canceled but nope, just no one around. Very strange.


Here's a funny video Matt shot of Dylan's newest favorite thing to do - her dad showed her this one and she had tons of fun. You can only guess what we did every lay over we had - luckily we didn't have many. And the flight, for those wondering went just fine - of course it did when you have Curious George playing on DVD (for another 10 hours) :)>.





Awe back home! Good to be home after being on the road for a month (a long weekend in Bend, Or then out of the country for 3 1/2 weeks). It was the first trip I was actually a little glad to be heading home. Someone asked me if Dylan got a lot of presents for Christmas - I said she got a lot of experiences AND best of all she was so happy to see all her toys they were as good as getting tons of presents. The only problem about coming home was dealing with the jet lag alllll over again - at least this time we were a little more prepared for it! AND the best part about coming home seeing our 'puppy' (aka Maggie)!

Happy New Years Paris Style

Awe Paris at the ripe old age of 22 months - what a lucky girl! And at this point in our trip we are into a traveling groove. We arrived in Paris on New Years Eve around 5pm to find out that once again the apartment I pre-arranged wasn't going to work out - I was quite mad to say the least. Dylan is screaming up and down the street excited to be out of the car, Matt's chasing after her and I'm trying to figure out how to make an international call and use my rusty french to try and talk to people to make other arrangements. It wasn't so much the money lost that I was mad about (we've since gotten that portion back) it was the time in arranging another place - ON New Years Eve evening with a toddler! Luckily it all worked out, we were able to book a hotel for a few nights before Matt found a great little apartment in the Montmartre district - which we loved.

Our New Years Eve was pretty low key - we found a quite little restaurant and had a yummy dinner and then headed back to our hotel. It was an early evening for the Clarks. The next day we headed over to the Eiffel Tower, which apparently there was a big hoopla the night before because there was all kinds of trash - confetti, champagne bottles, paper, beer cans.... Well little missy being the eco girl that she is saw all the garbage and started picking it up saying "trash" and taking it to the garbage can. Well this was cute for the first few minutes but after 5 and not seeing the end of the garbage in sight we had to steer her in another direction as we'd probably still be there picking up all the trash!

One thing that really helped our travels in Paris was our sitter, Madison, taught Dylan a few french words - like Bonjour and Merci - with just those few words and that cute little face the French were like pudding in our hands.




Here's Dylan back on the Chou-Chou, like I said before it was her favorite part of the trip. She even memorized the entrances and when we'd pass by one she start yelling "chou-chou, dadda chou-chou".


Sweet picture of a girl and her dad.
Here's a few shots of Dylan and what we called her "chou-chou" dance as she'd get so excited to see another train pass by us. Her arms would start waving, her legs start jumping, and she'd yell (loudly, I might add) "Chou-Chou, Chou-Chou, bye Chou-Chou".


Well Dylan learned quickly that when in Paris you shop and being our girl she learned quickly you shop for shoes. She eyed a nice purple suede pair in this window - luckily it was after hours and they were closed!


Uh, guess someone was a little hungry...

Driving miss momma.

Awe, Notre Dame.


Back at the apartment Dylan found a tool kit. Usually we wouldn't really let her run around the house with a screw driver and hammer but after constantly through out the trip telling her 'don't touch this and don't touch that' we figured the girl needed a few toys to play with. And by the looks of her from the picture she had it all figure out what tools you use to fix what.

Here's a picture of the Sacre Coeur right by where we were staying. One night we hiked up the hill to check it out - it was quite a sight and even better was the view of all of Paris!




The next day we found a really awesome little bakery just a few blocks from our apartment. We stopped in for a baguette and found ourselves munching on chocolate croissants and cappuccinos and warm steamed milk for miss d. It was one of those really fun unplanned moments.



Back at the apartment again and I guess this time the dryer needed fixing - yes, those are wire cutters, come on the girl needed something to play with!


We even had her reviewing maps for the next day's event.

(notice the crossed feet).

"Hum, well if we took that subway to that stop then transferred to the red line...."

Awe the Pere Lachaise Cemetery - one of my favorite places to visit in Paris (besides my very favorite little Indian textile shop - which we did find!). It's a very old and very beautiful cemetery - I just love it. It was a nice day and we thought it would be a great spot for Dylan to run off some energy.







Okay so maybe she ran off a little too much energy! Before heading back to the apartment we ducked into a bike shop Matt wanted to check out - honestly we weren't in there very long when we looked down and found Dylan passed out cold. We weren't sure what to do (as if we moved her it would risk waking her up) - We felt a little bad as she didn't look to comfortable but figured sleep out weight comfort. I wrapped my scarf around her head to keep it warm and make it a little darker for her to rest. We ducked into a restaurant and had a nice quiet little lunch together (as usually one of us is chasing after d). We even got to enjoy our after lunch cappuccinos!

Bath time fun!

Make sure you read all the labels Dylan.


And here's a little video of Dylan running after her dad in the Pere Lachaise Cemetry.

Christmas in Brugge

Awe Brugge, what a beautiful city and the perfect place to spend Christmas. It was our second week in Europe and we all seemed to be finally sleeping through the night. We arrived in Brugge to find the apartment we had reserved ahead of time was a scam (a long story I wont get into) so we scrambled to find a really sweet Bed and Breakfast just outside of town (the town was booked up due to it being Christmas). Our hosts were amazing and the place was great, the even had chickens!


Matt was off to start his filming project for the cyclocross camp so it was just us girls to explore Brugge. After a fabulous breakfast we bundled up and headed off for a day of exploring. Always an adventure in a different place - buses, food, getting around, money - but we did it! By day two we had the town down! And by day three all of us girls caught colds!

As you can see here it was still very cold! The trick was to keep moving!



On Christmas day everything was closed and Matt was off to work again. Jill, Dylan, and I found an ice exhibit that was open so we headed out to go check it out.




On one of our walks around town Dylan came across a poster in which apparently she fell in love with...

Next thing we knew she was kissing this guy! Don't tell her dad!

In the center of town there was an ice skating rink set up. Dylan loved watching everyone ice skate.



Here we are waiting for the bus.

Brugge at night. It was all decorate for the holidays. So pretty.



And this is what Matt was up to during the days. He'd leave really early in the morning and not come home until late at night. He was in his cyclocross glory as it's really a huge deal over in Europe. Thousands of spectators, lots of bikes, beer, and some funny stories.


Auntie Beans was with us for the first two weeks of our trip. It was great having her along! Most of it felt like a blur between Dylan being up all night and then catching colds. She was a trooper and a great sport (even though I knew she was freezing her booty off). We had some great laughs and it was just nice, as always, to get to spend time with her!

Here's a picture of Dylan and I off on our own, as Auntie Beans just left to head back to Seattle and Matt was still working. We ventured into town to do a little shopping and watch the horse and buggies.


Miss D checking herself out in the mirror. She was making very funny faces at the girl in the mirror (which just happened to be herself).


Here's our B&B hostess, Els, and her daughter, Clara. They just loved Dylan and asked several times if Dylan could stay. They were fabulous and took very good care of us during our stay - even did our laundry!

We were in Brugge for 8 days. It was a great city, we liked it very much. It would be really fun to go back in warmer weather and ride our bikes as it was a huge biking city and very easy to get around.

Here's a video of Dylan watching the horse and Buggies go by. Oh she loved watching them - she'd yell and scream, clap her hands, stomp her feet, and yell more more every time they'd go by! She looked like one of those windup clapping dancing monkeys. Ha!