The 2024 Paris Olympics brought countless shows of strength and speed on the track, in the pool and atop pretty much every gymnastics apparatus inside the city's Bercy Arena. 

And then there was the little-celebrated feat taking place just steps away in the stands. In the event of traveling with three kids under 5, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson East and her husband Andrew East have a strong case for gold. 

"We will be a circus walking," Shawn, 32, joked with E! News before making the trip from Nashville to France with daughter Drew, 4, and sons Jett, 3, and Bear, 8 months, "but we will be there."

And, dare we say, they totally stuck the landing—sandwiching their visit to the Games with jaunts to London and Sorrento, Italy. 

"It actually exceeded any and all expectations," admitted Shawn. "It was chaotic, but actually manageable." 

A definite highlight for the athlete—who flipped her way to four medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics—was attending the gymnastics all-around competition in Paris with Andrew, 32, Drew and her mom Teri Johnson. 

"I didn't know she would last two minutes or 10 minutes or the whole time," Shawn acknowledged of her preschooler, "and she actually really enjoyed it."

Particularly the part where she got to watch Simone Biles do her thing. 

"She kept asking, 'Mama, where's The Best?'" Shawn revealed. "And it's because I kept talking about Simone, how she's the best. So instead of calling her Simone, she's like, 'Mama, where's The Best?'" 

And though Drew is still pretty committed to her dream of figure skating, noted Shawn, "She thought it was so special and it was. It was just a really cool full-circle moment." 

But as much as Shawn would give their experience at the Games a perfect 10, "Some of our favorite times were outside of the Olympics," she acknowledged. "I will never forget there was one night where we had finished dinner and we were running around, playing chase in the yard, looking at the most beautiful sunset. We just got to be a family and experience a new place, which is really fun."

Leaving behind the habits of their Nashville life—which includes late afternoon snack boards, Jett taking on sous-chef responsibilities for dinner and the busy parents saving any leftovers in their go-to Rubbermaid Brilliance containers—allowed them to vault into the unknown. 

"It was fun because we're pretty routine-oriented at home, so each day looks somewhat the same," explained former NFL long snapper Andrew. "But just taking a little trip outside of our normal routine unlocked a lot of really precious memories where we're doing dance parties in the living room in the morning and at night."

And they offered E! News a peek inside the magic, sharing an exclusive look at photos from their "amazing" European getaway. 

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." 

Their trip down the Seine was a highlight of the madness. "We got to see SO many historic buildings," Shawn shared on Instagram, "and the kids loved it."

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."

"Mom & Dad are on minimal sleep haha but having the absolute best time," Shawn declared on Instagram after their trip down the Seine River and visit to the Eiffel Tower. "Wouldn’t trade it for the world."

As for their trip to the famed monument, "There are 1,665 steps," Shawn shared on Instagram, "and we carried our kids up every one of them." 

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."

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."

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.  

"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." 

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."