Grammy & Paps are here!!!

A week after Gran and Brittiney left, Grammy and Paps arrived.  We were thrilled to see them and they were so excited to get to see us and meet Emerson! I was definitely glad to have some help again! They were great help and took a lot of stress off of me.  Paps was brave enough to drive around, so they would help pick the kids up from school and run to the grocery too. 

One of the things here that I do not enjoy is having to drive to school frequently.  Drake goes everyday and is too young to ride the bus, so that means I am at the school twice a day and sometimes more than that.  It's only a 15 minute drive to get there, but with traffic it takes me about an hour in the mornings to get back home, and in the afternoons I have to get to the school about 45 minutes early just to get a parking space.  

Parking, as usual, is just a pain here.  

Every time I go somewhere for the first time, I always ask two questions....is there parking and is it street parking or a parking lot.  Very important to know because a lot is easy to park in but if it's street parking it could take me an hour to find a spot.  I also like to know if there is a bathroom, they are hard to come by here.  Which is probably the reason we see so many men stop to the side of the road to pee (which is kinda gross, they don't even try to hide behind their cars) or because they don't want to pay to use a bathroom, which is very common.  It could be 40 cents or I have even seen it where it is more than a euro.  They want you to help pay their water bill...pretty smart actually.

Anyways, back to Grammy & Paps...

They even took a few excursions on their own.  They drove to Waterloo to see the battlegrounds and museum, and they also have been to our town center a lot to eat at different restaurants.  They have been to more places than we have, so I always like to know if the food was good and if it seems kid-friendly.  So many places over here are not kid-friendly but they sure will let your dog come in!!  That, I definitely don't get...  

The kids had a winter break while they were here, so we decided to travel through France towards Normandy and hit a few stops a long the way.  My friend Theresa and her kids joined us for the week and we had a fun roadtrip through France....

Our first stop was Rouen, France.  We knew there was a beautiful cathedral there and this is also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.  

Notre Dame Cathedral in Rouen....apparently there a many Notre Dame churches around France.

Paps had read that France had some good cider, so he decided to try it at our first restaurant stop. He must have liked it because he drank that whole glass!

It was a short but sweet visit to Rouen.  We had a few more hours to go til we would reach our hotel, and since the reception desk was only opened certain hours (just have to deal with those little unusual things here), we had to move a long to our next stop.