Paris: the Prequel

For some time we have been planning to take Dallin to Paris for his 16th birthday.  Last week, the plans came to fruition.  But before I begin the travelogue, I must start with what happened before we left.  You see, we planned to leave April 3, a Tuesday.  The week before we left, Eliza got sick with a quick bout of the stomach flu.  No fever, just a nasty 5 hours of throwing up.  I worried that it would cycle through the family, but when no one got it for a couple of days, I thought we were out of the woods.  Friday came, and Grandma and Grandpa Jeffs arrived.  Saturday morning Rick ran a race, Daniel and Eliza had soccer practice and then we all settled in to watch General Conference.  That night, after the Priesthood session, Dallin got sick with a very familiar stomach flu.  Uh oh.  Sunday evening, Audri was hit.  Monday I packed and tried frantically to get everything prepared to leave.  That night, went Rick arrived home from work, he found me moaning on the bed, complaining of my stomach hurting.  You guessed it, I was hit.  14 hours before I was to leave to fly over the ocean for the first time in my life, and I was puking.  It was a nightmare.  Late at night, when I stopped, Daniel appeared at my door, not feeling well.  I had to take care of him, because Rick was downstairs starting to feel sick himself.  So, at 10:00, Daniel started, then Rick started about midnight.  It was fast and furious, and the only consolation I could find was that maybe I would be so exhausted that I would be able to sleep on the plane.  We "got up"  (were we ever really asleep?) Tuesday morning, and got in the car to drive to Chicago to catch our flight.  Wow.  What a way to start.  In the end, everyone got it except Dailie, even Grandma and Grandpa.  The irony, we had ALL been well ALL winter long.  Go figure.

Stay tuned for installments about the trip.  I want to get this all down, even if you tire of reading it, but it may take me awhile.  Apparently life doesn't stop for you to catch up when you leave the country.

* I'm adding this after initially writing this post.  The flight was fine and uneventful.  We flew from Chicago to Philadelphia.  From there we flew to Paris.  I didn't sleep very well on the plane, but I did sleep some.  Somehow I remembered airplane seats larger when I was thinking of sleeping on the plane.....Anyway, it was all exciting when we arrived in Paris.  We rode the train from the airport to a stop just a couple of blocks from out hotel.  I was actually amazed at the amount of grafitti we saw on the way.  When we arrived at the hotel, where we hoped to just store the luggage until chick in time, they informed us that our room would be ready in 5 minutes!!  Yea!!  It was 10 in the morning.  So, we were able to unload in our room before heading out for the day.  We had fun telling each other what "time" it was.  Sometimes we'd give the time in Peoria, sometimes the time in Paris.  We drove each other a little crazy with that.  Here we are in our little home in Paris at the Hotel de Suez: