Our New Home

Time for a tour of our new house! Matthew parents are letting us stay in their guest cottage until we are able to get a house of our own. It actually is really nice to be so close to family.

Here is our little house.

The view from our front door. Angelina is really enjoying the sun and weather.

Going around the side of the main house.

Closer to the back. Lovely mountain and ocean view. Be jealous.

And we've reached the back yard. I should have taken the photos earlier in the afternoon while the sky was clear. But we were busy organizing our cottage and finding places for stuff and I took pictures during a break.

The other side of the backyard. If you could see a little further on the left side, you would be able to see the cottage we're staying in.

And the view from the other side of the pool.

When I got back, Angelina was sitting in one of our favorite spots to sit in. There are two reclining chairs in the cottage and we like to sit there to look out the window and feel the breeze coming through.

Maybe once we get the cottage cleaned up and our stuff put away I'll take some pictures of the inside. But right now it's a bit of a mess and I don't want people to see that.

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We Made it to Maui

After nearly a week of driving from Dallas, TX to San Diego, CA and a 6 hour flight we arrived on Maui yesterday.
The animals were champs the entire time while traveling. They did excellent on the plane too. Angelina was the most scared and did whine some, but is anyone really surprised by that?
We spent all day yesterday unpacking and cleaning up the cottage we're staying at to make it feel more like home. This morning I woke up at 3:30am since my body is still on Texas time. When Matthew woke up we drove to Haleakala to watch the sunrise. A must see!

Just before the sun started to come up.

There it is!

Seeing the sunrise is a very popular thing to do at Haleakala, so it reaches capacity quickly. We had to watch from the lower lookout on the other side of the crater today since it filled up. Still an amazing view. I even overheard one tourist say "I didn't even know that was on my bucket list of stuff I had to see,"

The other side of the island, where we actually live now.

We stopped for breakfast at Kula Lodge on the way down the mountain. It was super delicious and also had a great view, but I left my camera in the car. 

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Permits

The permits for the animals came the other day. Now the only thing we need to cross off of their to-do list is to get their health certificates, which has to be done within 10 days of our arrival in Maui. Less than a month away till we arrive at our new home. And our shipping container shows up in 11 days, guess we should start on finishing packing soon. 

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Paris

Next stop on our tour: Paris!

After we got off the train from London and checked into our teeny tiny quintessential Paris hotel we hit the ground running. First stop, Arc de Triomphe.

I promise Matthew was having a good time, it just doesn't show in this photo.

And this is the ONLY photo I have of us together.

Oui Paris!

We stuck around the Eiffel Tower until it lit up and had some dinner at a cafe below it. Yes, we did have french fries with our meal. We even got a light show with blinking lights on the tower.

And our last stop before heading back for the evening was to see the Louvre Museum lit up.

Day Two 

Into the Louvre!

We saw so many amazing works of art! But It was time to get some food.

I actually had "eat at Angelina's" on my Paris bucket list and there was one in the museum. Their hot chocolate is to die for.

I had a huge sugar rush after this. So yummy!

Back to the exhibits. The first selfie.

And another bucket list item: Ladurée macarons.

Day Three
Matthew's mom, Janet, flew through Paris for a conference she was giving so we got to spend a day in Paris with her. Matthew and I went to Sacré Coeur Basilica in the morning to check it out.

Janet, Matthew, and I then spent the afternoon at Musée d'Orsay soaking in some of our favorite impressionist artists. We weren't allowed to take any photos inside though so I don't have any photos from there. I was in awe the whole time, I couldn't believe I was getting to see some of my favorite pieces of art that I've only seen in picture in person. Quite amazing.

Day Four
We said goodbye to Janet after we had breakfast together and headed out to enjoy our last day in Paris.

Neat buildings and architecture was everywhere I looked. Seems to be a common theme in Europe.

One of the many bridges that is covered in love locks.

Matthew taking a break after figuring out how to get to Notre-Dame. He's holding a painting that we got along the river from a vendor. I'm hoping we get it framed soon.

Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Replica model that was inside the church.

Last look before we head back to the hotel get our bags to head to our next stop.

We took an overnight train to Venice. This was our cabin on the train. It was interesting trying to sleep on a bunk and being woken up every time we rolled into a train station because the train stopped moving.

And that's Paris folks! If you would like to see all the photos that we took click here. See our previous stop in London. Up next, Venice, and Rome {one, two, three}.

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