Freestone's TYOT!

 The Ten-Year-Old Trip has become a firmly entrenched tradition in our family.  Each trip has evolved into its own special journey, with Freestone's big trip being no exception.  I don't know exactly how this happened, but my parents were going to Paris and there was one of those amazing airfare deals and before you know it, Scott's trembling hand was poised over the "Confirm Now" button on Travelocity.  Reason lost out to carpe diem and Freestone's Ten-Year-Old Trip was booked not to San Francisco, but to Paris.  And guess who got to tag along?  Tiny Tizzy!  The older girls have been green with envy, knowing what they're missing out on.  They accuse Tziporah of already having been to Paris, albeit as a 7-month-old fetus.  But still!  Last year, Freestone has confidently told his teachers he would be in Paris for a week, thinking that saying it enough times would make it come true.  I was so sad to leave him at school with his embarrassment and disappointment that day last fall, as we drove away to the airport and the adventure he would be missing out on.  This time, it was all about Freestone.  It's always sad to leave some of us behind, but it's oh-so-wonderful to get one or two of them away from the pack and experience their personalities in their full glory.  Freestone and Tziporah were perfect travelers from start to finish.  Freestone never complained, even when he had to have been awfully worn out.  He was curious and cheerful and fun every minute.  And Tziporah!  You're going to get sick of me raving about how she was universally adored everywhere we went.  In the background of virtually every picture we took, there are admirers.  I had heard that babies and dogs are adored in Paris, and I can confirm that the baby part, at least, is true.  There is a cultural adoration and tenderness for babies and children in France that we saw in everyone from teens to grandfatherly men.

So here are our adventures...

 By the time we left the SLC airport, we had taken a couple dozen pictures.  So it was good to get on the plane and have a different backdrop for these cute faces...

 We flew to the Dallas airport, which Freestone absolutely loved.  He kept saying, "This is fun."  We picked up some Sees chocolate for Sarah's friend Renee in Paris, who lent us her travel crib.  Freestone had fun browsing the candy store where we got the chocolate.  Little did he know, the trip would get even more exciting than the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport!

Last year when we were in Dallas, we got the news that Ari couldn't dance in Nutcracker this year because of missing a rehearsal for the trip.  This time, Ruby called while we were in Dallas and said she needed a ride home from ballet because her knee had blown out worse than before.  Within minutes, my dear Tiffany was on her way and the rest of my shelter girls were lined up ready to help.  We were joking that Dallas was bad luck for us.  I so wanted Ruby's knee to be healed, but it wasn't to be.  I was relieved when we got to Paris, to hear that she had survived Nutcracker rehearsal, even though she missed an orchestra concert that the teacher said they couldn't miss unless they were dead.  I had told Golda to email the teacher and use the term "Blew out her knee and can't walk," and the phrase, "My parents are out of town and I can't drive her there or carry her onto the stage,"  or something equally dire-sounding.  Fortunately, Mrs. Tuke excused her.

 Anyway, with all the excitement at home, it was hard to get on the plane and be out of reach for nine hours, but it was Freestone's time and it was time to turn our attention to the journey of his ten-year-old lifetime.  The flight was exciting.  Scott and I were talking about something President Uchtdorf said about flying, that it always surprises him that people complain about the size of their bag of peanuts when they are doing something pharaohs, emperors and kings would have given everything to do, just a hundred years ago.  You're flying through the air!  Can you just marvel at it for a moment?!  So we did.  There were five babies on our flight, and all of them got an extra empty seat to stretch out on.  We got the royal treatment.  All the babies were perfectly behaved, especially Tizzy, of course!

 Freestone was tired when we arrived in Paris, but was excited to hop on yet another mode of transportation, the RER train into the city.  It took us to within a block of our apartment.  Could it get any easier than that?  Nevertheless, we created a hilarious spectacle leaving the metro stop.  Scott had just said, "Now, let's not look like tourists with all our bags and the stroller and everything."  Ten minutes later, the stroller was wedged into a turnstile, I was crawling around on the ground trying to dislodge it, Freestone's bag was stuck in another turnstile and our suitcases were strewn about, blocking everyone's way, just waiting to be stolen.  Like anyone would want them.  People were just trying to get past us to get to work!  Dumb tourists!  I still laugh.

 We did blunder our way out from underground, to the breathtaking scene of the Seine and Notre Dame, just waiting for us right where it's been for 850 years.  Tziporah looked her most darling peering out of her first Parisian window.

 Freestone found a sticker on his shirt that marked our trip perfectly: "Ten Years."

 

Freestone loved the demitasses, even to drink water out of.  Like his school spirit sleeves?  They are all the rage at his school, and he had to bring them because he didn't think anyone in France would have them.  He was right!

Trajan and Coco and Bill arrived shortly after we did, giving us time to wander the neighborhood and watch Freestone take in his new surroundings and sample our first gelato at Amarino.  We rested for about five minutes before Freestone was raring to get out and do something.  We like to ruin our kids early.  Can you give someone ADD? 

"Let's get out there!  Paris awaits!"