Getting an Eiffel
While gymnast Shawn Johnson East picked up a gold medal and three silvers while competing at the 2008 Olympics, one could argue she deserves some more hardware for taking her whole squad—husband Andrew East and their kids Drew, Jett and Bear—to Paris 16 years later.
"I gave birth to Jett while Tokyo was going on," the athlete explained to E! News of welcoming her son in July 2021, "missed the Winter [Olympics]. I am craving the Olympic atmosphere. So we will all be there. We will be a circus walking, but we will be there."
A trip down the Seine and a visit to the Eiffel Tower were highlights of the madness. "We got to see SO many historic buildings," Shawn shared on Instagram, "and the kids loved it."
Revisiting the Old Stomping Grounds
Getting to watch Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, Suni Lee and Hezly Rivera compete for the U.S. gymnastics team was a "full circle" moment, Shawn declared. "It sounds very cheesy and cliché," she told E! News, "but there is some sort of sentiment to being back at the Olympics, 16 years later, with my husband and my babies."
Though she acknowledged her 4-year-old daughter would likely judge just one element of the competition.
"Drew does enjoy watching gymnastics strictly for the leotards," Shawn admitted. "So she'll enjoy watching the leotards for maybe 20 minutes. And then we'll be good with it."
Sightseeing With Her Bébé
Though she acknowledged their weeks-long European adventure was ambitious, "We'll just figure it out," Shawn vowed ahead of the trip. "Our kids are very used to traveling."
After visiting Paris' Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre along with a series of shops and restaurants, Shawn declared the outing, "Another day for the books."
Ciao, Italy!
The East fam sandwiched their stay in Paris with jaunts to London (where they enjoyed high tea and a visit to Buckingham Palace) and Sorrento, Italy.
"We're going to tour around Europe for a month," Shawn told E!. "We're going to do it all. We're doing trains, planes, and automobiles and boats."
When in Sorrento...
Though Shawn cracked the highlight of the trip for her kids would be an outing to Disneyland Paris, she and Andrew enjoyed their beach day in Italy.
Getting Their Sea Legs
"If you asked us why we bring our kids on vacation, we'd say it's because we'd miss them too much," Shawn shared of taking their whole crew on the epic adventure. "But if you asked us on a deeper level, we would say because life is so much more fun with our kids by our side."
Having the chance to create core memories with their trio of tiny humans "is our dream come true," she continued, "and getting to see their faces light up with each new experience is worth every second."
Back to Reality
The pair took in one last day in the Italian sun before heading home to Nashville. As Shawn declared on Instagram, it was the "trip of a lifetime."