blessing day & road trip

it's official!  cruise is one blessed baby!

my parents and in-laws flew in for the big event and it was so nice to see them . . . and have their help with mr. baber. ;)  who me?

while my parents were here we did some serious road trippin'.  (i can already sense that this is going to be a super long post.)  first we hit brussels and visited b's sweet parents and sis.  

we hung out downtown, ate the most amazing waffles in the entire universe, took a stroll around a chateau, took a freeze-frame picture, and explored napoleon's waterloo.

cruise got pretty sleepy during the chateau jaunt, so he wasn't available much for pictures.  hopefully the stroller brake was on . . . 

my dad is really into history, so on our way out of town we also stopped by WWI cemetery, flanders field.  

cruisey got pretty sleepy again nestled against his dad's belly.

my dad of course became besties with the guide, and we listened to stories and history while admiring the pristine grounds, and processing all of the sacrifices made for our quality of life.  the fear and loss people experienced was so tremendous.  it's hard to know how to express enough gratitude.

our next stop was normandy, france and the WWII museum.

we tried to take it all in--imagining what the beach looked like littered with warfare.  we cried, and my dad gave a sweet prayer.  we had lots of moments of silence.

the scenery was spectacular, but you could feel that something catastrophic had happened there.  it's like the earth was still emotionally scarred from it, and would tell people through an eerie, inexplicable, majestic silence.  

some of the earth's visible scars could be seen at pointe du hoc.  brady shows the scale.

a german bunker at pointe.

there were lots of big guns around.

and a cute little baby.

next stop: paris!  

 at the louvre.  above is b's mona lisa impersonation.

and some cheesy tourist shots.  we ended up having plenty of time to goof off because THE LOUVRE IS CLOSED ON TUESDAYS!  we actually knew this because this is our second time trying to go to the louvre on a tuesday.  live and hopefully learn . . . for the 3rd time.

cruisey was a champ.  he just slept, looked around, giggled, talked, slept, talked, and slept so late that we'd have to wake him up in the morning.  ahhhh, love him so.

 i love gold!

and then after the whirlwind trip, we all got ready for a nap!