Turkey Day

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone again for another year. We had the family all over at our house for dinner yesterday and the house was pretty packed. We had Mike's family there, Peggy's sister Lynette's family there as well as Sara's parents and sister in law. We had three tables full of people as well as kids up at the bar. I've never seen the dining area so full of people, food, chairs and conversation. It was a little chaotic at times, but it was also really fun. We feasted on lots of yummy food, played games provided by Michela and Peggy and the kids were everywhere!

Our Last Park Day?

The other day the weather was so nice. When I picked up Chase from school I announced that we would be going to the park after lunch. Chase and Aria were bouncing off the walls. So after lunch we headed over to a park off of 1600 N. in Orem with our friends and next door neighbors, the Petersons. Chase and Michela were off and running as soon as they got out of the car. Aria is getting so big now, she was climbing up everything and testing my mother hovering skills. It's so hard to let this little pint sized girl try out things that seem a bit on the scary side to me as her mother. But she is determined to try out her big girl skills and I've decided to let her go for it. Here she is climbing up a little slide. She started to slip towards the top. I moved in to help her when she yelled, "No Mommy" and got her footing and successfully made it. She was so proud of herself and I was so proud of her too!

Chase made friends with the other little boys there and had a blast racing around the play structure. He is such a little monkey.

It was fun watching Chase be an awesome big brother with Aria. Those two have a love/hate relationship. They can get along so well sometimes and then other times it's pure craziness between them. This day it was all about kindness and love. :) Chase was so good about making sure Aria was safe and taking her for rides down the big twirly slide.

I'm so thankful for the beautiful days we have had this fall. I'm thankful for this beautiful world we have to live in. I'm thankful for beautiful healthy children. I'm thankful for being a Mom. And I'm thankful for the joy I see in my children's faces.

Cruising

We just got back from our cruise very early Sunday morning.  It was so much fun!  What made it even more fun was that we went with our friends Steve and Laura Gardanier.  Steve had us cracking up the entire time.  We spent a week in Italy before the cruise and then left for the cruise out of Venice.  We visited Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kudasai, Turkey; Santorini, Greece; and Corfu, Greece.  I just uploaded all of my pictures to my computer, so it will take me a little bit to weed through the photos.  Thanks to Jeff and Jessica for taking such good care of our children while we were gone.  And thanks to our neighbors for making getting to school so much easier.  I'll blog about the trip after I get all of our clothes washed and everything put away.  Going on vacation is so much work!  :)  Now will someone please stop the room from rocking, I'm not on the boat anymore!

Greece

I was so excited about going to Greece. Greece is somewhere I have always wanted to go. The first island we went to was Santorini. This was what you would envision Greece to look like. Lots of whitewashed building with pops of blue roofs and doors here and there. When the cruise ship was getting closer to the island many passengers nearby me thought there was snow on the mountains of the island. When we got a little closer you suddenly realized they were buildings!

We had to take boats into the little pier where you could either ride a tram up to the city of Fira or ride donkeys up a switchback road.

We opted for the donkeys and had so much fun laughing the entire way. The donkeys knew where to go and there was no way to control them. It was absolutely hilarious!

The city was so pretty but it was nothing compared to the city of Oia! Talk about gorgeous!





This is where they filmed the Greece scenes in "Sister of the Travelling Pants". I just wanted to keep taking pictures of this extraordinary city built into the cliffs. I tried to guess which house was Lena's Grandparents. Doesn't this look like the front door?


And here is the little dock and pier where I think they filmed the scenes in the market. I would have loved to spend an entire week on this island!









The next island we went to was Corfu. It was a lot greener than Santorini and hilly. It was a bit of a let down after the previous day, but it was still a lot of fun walking around the city. We made friends with the ballroom dance couple on the ship, turns out they were from Utah, and they took us around to some of their favorite spots. We had the yummiest chocolate and banana crepes. It was a great end to our cruise. What a wonderful experience this whole trip was. We felt pretty darn lucky to have been able to go on it.

Turkey

I was really looking forward to seeing Turkey. I thought this would be the most foreign place on our trip. I was surprised that the city of Kudasi didn't feel so very different from everywhere else we went, but this was definitely a place to remember. We were able to go on a tour that took us to a few places. Our first stop was the House of the Virgin Mary. This house has been rebuilt on top of where the original house was built. This is supposedly where Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John the Beloved lived after they had left Jerusalem after Christ was crucified. I was surprised to feel a special spirit here. It was pretty cool to think that we were walking where Mary and John might have walked.










Down the hill a bit was a wishing wall. There was a little spring there that people were supposed to drink from and then they would write their wish or dream on a scrap of paper and tie it to the wall. It was amazing how many people have done just that.

Next we went to the Ancient City of Ephesus. This is where the Ephesians (look in the New Testament) lived. The city changed locations three times because of earthquakes and wars. We saw the third and most current location. The city had been covered and it is now under major restoration.







There is a main road that takes you through the city.




We were able to peer into where the rich citizens used to live and the tile floors were amazing!
We were also able to see the public bathroom. This was reserved for men only and it was outdoors. Our tour guide said that when the weather was cold the rich men would have their servants go sit on the cold marble to warm it up for their masters. Yikes! They also had musicians playing so that no one outside ot the walls could hear anything. That's one job I would pass on. The seats were super close to each other. They sat cheek to cheek!






Here's a picture of the Goddess Nike. Her body and dress make the swoosh!
The libray was amazing. It was two stories high!










The most beautiful thing was the theater. This is where Paul preached to the Ephesians. It was huge! I couldn't believe how good it looked.
When the city was prosperous there was a big river that connected the sea to the city. Boats could come right up to the city with goods to sell and trade. This is a picture of the road that went down to the pier. This is where Cleopatra and Marc Anthony rode when they were on their honeymoon.



Next we drove up into the hills to this tiny little town where we ate lunch. We sat outside of this restaurant and were served some very yummy food. The treat was the baklava at the end. Holy cow, that was so tasty!

Our final stop was to the Cathedral of John. This was once a small church, but over time they had added on to it until it was quite big. This is supposedly where John was last seen.
The coolest thing was there was a baptisimal font in the ground. One where you would have had to walk down into the water and deep enough for baptisms by immersion.
Turkey was a very interesting place. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to visit these special places and see a different country and culture.

Croatia

I was really excited that our first stop on our cruise was in Croatia. I have heard about the beauty of the Croatian coast, but I didn't think I would ever see it for myself. Dubrovnik is a coastal town with a beautiful old city that is surrounded by a huge old wall. You have to go across a bridge and through a gate to enter the city. The old city has basically one main wide road with little side streets branching off from it. Right when you come into the city there is this huge old fountain. It used to have something like twenty heads around it that spit out water, now it only has about seven that work.
There is an old fortress outside of the city walls up on a cliff. The water is so blue there! I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was.










Here is a picture of the writing. I don't know how anyone could read it.










The highlights of the trip were the gelato (I can't believe I am saying this but I think the gelato we got in Dubrovnik was the best gelato I've ever had!) and getting to walk on top of the city wall. The views were amazing and I loved looking down on all of the little houses from way up there.











We were able to end the day watching the sunset paint the city in a golden wash of color. Such a beautiful day!

Venezia

Ah, the city of Venice. What makes this city so special? It has a different feeling to it that you can't quite explain. I love all of the beautiful bridges, the warm colors of gold, rust, orange and the streets that wind all over the city.

I love that there are no cars and so many beautiful boats and gondolas to ferry you around. I love the wide open St. Mark's square and the intricate Byzantine architecture of the cathedral with its colorful murals.

I love the smell of the sea air and the romance of the old city. Who wouldn't fall in love with this place?!

Tuscany

After the Cinque Terre we headed to Pisa. Of course it was pouring rain the whole time we were in the car and then it suddenly stopped as we pulled into Pisa. Mike and I have been to Pisa before, but we didn't get the chance to go up the tower. We got our tickets and were able to go up after only a short wait. The stairways are pretty narrow.

It was funny walking up because you would be totally hiking up the steep stairs and then you would get on the opposite side of the tower and it almost felt like you were walking down. A lot of people were pretty dizzy and disoriented by the time we got to the top. The view was beautiful!

Here is a picture of the baptistry and the duomo. You can see that the lawn was being mowed while we were there. That's a serious mowing job! Here is also a picture of part of the city.

We did a little shopping in Pisa and then we drove to Siena. I called the hotel as we were getting near Siena so I could ask for directions. The guy at the front desk was oh so helpful. I told him where we were getting off the autostrade and I asked him the best way to get to the hotel. He asked, "You aren't here?" Ah, duh! I couldn't understand anything he was saying! We finally got there while it was starting to get dark. We walked to the city center, got a little bit lost, but had a fun time. Siena is such an interesting little town. The old city looks like it is probably the same as it was when it was first built. The streets wind around and all empty out into the main square. It was too dark for pictures so we investigated the city and had some wonderful dinner.

The next morning we decided to make a stop in Florence on our way to Venice. We hadn't had too much luck in the shopping department so we were happy to find a huge open market in Florence. We found some great stuff and took a little walk to see the duomo, bell tower and Ponte Vecchio.

This is inside the dome of the duomo. The paintings are probably seven stories up!

I love this bridge, it is has such character. Florence is one of my favorite places to go in Italy. I could spend days wandering around this beautiful city.