As I'm sure many of your families do, our family has a tradition of reading a special "Story A Day Until Christmas". There are numerous versions of this, but I wanted to send Bryan one that would work for missionaries. I know there are rules about what reading materials they are allowed, so I spent some time combing through past Christmas Ensign issues and gathering Christmas stories that would work. I know they are allowed to read the Ensign, so these should be perfect! I printed one … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Nine) VENICE!
Time to go home :( It was really hard to leave! We were picked up by a water taxi right outside the front door of our hotel. We enjoyed the ride through the canals, leaving Venice behind as it wound its way towards the Venice Airport. So glad we got to take this trip with Bryan! We will remember it FOREVER! … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Eight) MY BIRTHDAY IN VENICE!
TODAY WAS MY BIRTHDAY...IN. VENICE. HOLY. COW. Best birthday present EVER! Today we started with a tour of the Doge's Palace on St Mark's Square. The Doge was the leader of the Venice Republic. There were BEAUTIFUL rooms here, but we weren't allowed to photograph most of them. Our tour also took us across the Bridge of Sighs, which was used to transport prisoners from the courtroom to the dungeon prisons. It was named after the lamentations prisoners uttered … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Seven) VENICE!
Today we left Tuscany, taking a bullet train (First Class!) from Florence to Venice! What a trip! We were zipping along at 180 miles/hour! Yet it didn't feel like it because it was perfectly smooth. Someone in our group commented, "I really thought this would go faster" because it was so smooth. Then we looked up where the current speed was posted, and it was 180 miles/hr! We had lunch on the train. Stepping out of the train and out into … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Six) TUSCANY!
Today we traveled through Tuscany to Florence! This was a BEAUTIFUL drive through Tuscany. Along the way, our Disney guides told us lots of information about Italy. We even got a little Italian pronunciation lesson from Marco (who is from Northern Italy). I really loved the time in the bus when we got to hear from our guides. Marco liked to joke about how totally NOT Italian the Olive Garden is. He also talked about a lot of misconceptions Americans have about … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Five) TUSCANY!
I LOVE TUSCANY! This was probably my favorite part of our trip. It is SO BEAUTIFUL here! We started the day at a family farm where they have 250 acres, run by four generations of family. Here one of the family members was showing us the name of their farm and telling the story of how her family came to own it years ago... One of the family members, Sarah, taught us a pasta making class - all by hand. We all had our own boards where we were told to use "two handfuls of … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Four) TUSCANY!
Today we hopped on the bus and left Rome behind to travel through Umbria, one of Italy's most beautiful and historic regions. It's called the "Green Heart of Italy" and features Etruscan ruins, historical monuments and some of Italy's oldest churches. We started the day in the medieval hill town of Orvieto (meaning "old city"). This beautiful old city was built over an ancient volcanic butte overlooking vineyards and villages. It was once populated by the Etruscans, … [Read more...]
Italy! (Day Three) ROME!
This was our last day in Rome. We started with a walking tour of Rome. First was the famed Spanish Steps...Girls posing, then the boys... Kind of a shame that the church at the top of the stairs was being cleaned on the outside. The scaffolding is not pretty when taking pictures :( This was the home of the famous sculptor, Bernini... One interesting thing about Rome is that no one here has a water bill. They have … [Read more...]
Italy Trip! (Day Two) ROME!
Today we started at the Vatican! Vatican City is pretty amazing. This is the home of the Pope, and when we got through the gates, we saw that there were thousands of chairs set up. We were informed that the Pope addresses the world every Wednesday, so the chairs were set up in preparation for that address happening the next day. They do this every week. Wow! We got there early so we would be at the front of the line to go in St Peter's Basilica. This church … [Read more...]
Italy Trip! (Day One) ROME!
Mark and I decided it would be fun to do a Senior Trip with each of our kids around the time of their Senior year in high school. It would allow us to spend some one on one time with them while also traveling somewhere we've never been before. Bryan is our oldest, and he picked...ITALY! I can't begin to tell you how excited I was that he picked Italy! That has always been the one place, at the very top of my 'dreams' list, that I have always wanted to see! Mark … [Read more...]
Shooting the gingerbread houses…
We've had this tradition for almost 10 years now, of taking our rock hard gingerbread house, the day after Christmas, void of all candy, out to use for target practice. Everyone always looks forward to it and we have a blast (pun totally intended)! :) We drive out into the Arizona desert, and set up. Mark and Josh both brought a bunch of guns. They usually start everyone out with the small caliber stuff, shooting out the stained glass windows and smaller stuff on the … [Read more...]
Yay!!! It’s Christmas Day!!!
Christmas morning is always the wonderful culmination of so much planning and waiting. It's such a blast! My favorite part is seeing all the gifts our kids give each other. They work hard to earn money and save up for just the right thing for each person. They anxiously await to see how excited their sibling will be about the gift they know is "perfect". They are so cute with each other. Bryan designed this poster in Photoshop and had it printed. It had … [Read more...]
Christmas Eve Traditions
Christmas Eve we always have the kids open two presents, one of which is pajamas, and the other is a book. After dressing pajamas, we take a family picture. Then we read "The Polar Express" and "The Night Before Christmas". We finish with the actual Christmas Story read from the Bible. Then the kids sprinkle "reindeer food" on the front lawn to help Santa find our house and to give the reindeer something to eat while they are waiting for Santa. We put out cookies … [Read more...]
Mesa Temple Christmas Lights
Every year, one of our traditions is to go see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple. They go all out and it is simply BEAUTIFUL! They have different Bible scenes depicting Christ's birth all over the grounds... Afterward, we stopped at a stand across the street to get Fry Bread...yum!! Really fun night! … [Read more...]
Arizona Sunsets and Cubscout Fun!
I really couldn't do the sky justice tonight with a picture, but this was my attempt with my phone. I know I've said it before, but Arizona has the most beautiful sunsets in the world - every. single. night. I am blown away by how vivid and gorgeous they are - how quickly they change. Love them so much! Kyle's pack meeting this month was a bike rodeo. The cub scouts had a blast learning how to fix their bikes, learning how to stay safe, and using this jump... Way … [Read more...]
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