The Walker Family: Vive la Paris and Brussels

For Spring Break this year, we traveled to Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium where we spent a week enjoying lots of great sites, food, and beer!

We started the trip in Paris while staying in a cute tiny apartment in the center of the city. There was a crepe stand outside our front door that we went to each day, and the girls discovered how much they love the French cuisine! One of our first stops in Paris was, of course, to the Eiffel Tower. We got some nice family photos, and as Justin put Taelyn back on the ground after the photo, he unfortunately split his only pair of pants on the trip! He also had to walk around in them for a few hours before we had a chance to go to a store!

The girls were very excited to the Eiffel Tower. They were thrilled to then find out that they were signed up to run a race there. The race was affiliated with the Paris Marathon which Justin ran the very next day. For the girls' race, they ran the farthest they have ever gone at 1.2 km (the distance of 3 times around a track). Taelyn had an awesome run and was smiling the entire time. Kaelia was excited to start but got a bit grumpy when she saw how chaotic it was with lots of other little kids. She cheered up, though, once her daddy jumped in to run with her!

The Girls Post-Race with Medals

We also got to watch Justin's race the next day. There were a couple of access points to the course within walking distance of our apartment, and the girls had a nice time cheering him on.

Next, we hopped around to all of the major sites in Paris. Since Justin and I have been to Paris before, we didn't go inside the places like we did the first time, but it was nice to see everything again. Justin and I set up a scavenger hunt again of time where we printed pictures of the places we wanted to go to. When the girls found one of those places, they took a picture of it and checked it off in their scavenger hunt booklet. They also kept travel journals where they drew pictures and wrote about their favorite moments of each day. It was a great way to get them interested in the sites of the trip and help them remember their travels.

To top off Paris, we ended up at Disneyland. The girls dressed up in princess dresses while we were highly entertained with rides, characters, and the overall ambiance. One of the highlights was the Finding Nemo ride - a fast-paced roller coaster that the girls were tall enough to ride. Then the girls got a chance to meet Stitch from Lilo and Stitch, and we got to see him again in a live show. It was an interactive show where Stitch and the host called up various volunteers from the audience. After interacting with a few kids, they came over the Justin (Stitch referred to him as Mr. Justin from USA) and tried to frame him for stealing a ship that Stitch actually took. We all had a good laugh out of it all.

After Disneyland, we got on a train to Brussels where we spent the second half of our trip. The scavenger hunt became even more critical here as Justin and I had quite a few places that we wanted to see and spend some time at. So the girls searched around the city for us to spot out those places, and were excited each time they came across a great find. One of their favorite stops was at a statue of a dog that is about to pee on the sidewalk (the Zeneke Pis). They loved this dog and found it hilarious. There are also two other statue fountains in the city of a male and female peeing.

We all also loved the waffle stands. They had dozens of Belgium waffles covered in various toppings such as chocolate, whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, and Nutella! They were delicious and messy!

Another highlight in Brussels was the indoor water park. There were several waterslides, a wave pool, hot tubs, and a kids water playground. Surprisingly, the outdoor portion of the park was also open, so we got to go on a few more waterslides in the cold. The girls rocked the slides, both inside and out. Our family favorite was the canon ball where we slid down tubes and shot out in to the outdoor pool like a canon ball. Taelyn also really enjoyed the wave pool and even climbed up a rope and dropped down in to the pool. Kaelia loved all of the waterslides and then resorted to the hot tub after she got cold.

A trip to Belgium would not be complete without the beer, so Justin and I also visited quite a few pubs. They had very unique atmospheres, and the girls were able to stay entertained. One pub even had marionettes where they put on little shows for the kids while the parent enjoy the beer. Unfortunately, the shows were not playing when we were there.

After the trip was over, the girls went over their scavenger hunt pictures and journals with us. We can tell that they are proud of their pictures and work and that they really came away from the trip having learned a bit about both cities. It's great to hear them tell us all about the sites that we saw and include the names of each place. Here is some of their work!