Last week we went to Newport Beach because Zac was working there, and my family came out as well. For those of you who don’t know, I spent most of my childhood in Oak Park, CA (we moved to Dallas when I was 13), so I was excited get back to California for a few days.  Of course the weather was cool and breezy (I broke out my long pants for the first time since March), and the traffic was crazy, but we had a good time.

We spent most of our time at the beach, where Adelyn had a little adjusting to do.

Day 1: She would NOT touch the sand, much less the water, and cried whenever she got even a fleck of sand in her shoes. She spent most of the time being held.

Scared of the water

Day 2: I talked her into walking in the sand barefoot, and Zac taught her how to build a sand castle, which she loved. But the ocean was still a source of terror for her.

Playing in the sand

Day 3: She is running in the ocean! Yay! She loves to run, and she loves water, so finally when she realized she could run IN the water and it wouldn’t sweep her away, she was LOVING it.

Loving the ocean

I loved digging my toes into the sand and soaking up the sun. And spending some time with Cami and Scott, who live in Utah. We also went to Downtown Disney, Panda Inn (LOVE LOVE LOVE this place), Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach (to roast smore’s and see my cousins and their cute kids), Fashion Island (mall), and the Block in Orange (another mall). Sounds like a lot, but it really was a nice, relaxing trip. Someday we should try out the beaches a little closer to home.

Lego Store at Downtown Disney

Smile!

A little ice cream at the end of a busy day

Listening for the ocean in a shell

Love my family

The latter weekend we spent most of our time on the water. We stayed at the Lodge, which is right on the lake, and has a boat ramp right outside the hotel. The weather was hot, hot , hot and the water was hot too, but it was somewhat refreshing. We all skiied and wakeboarded, although Scott is leagues ahead of the rest of us, we had lots of fun. Addie LOVED the boat. She got very attached to her life jacket, and was very good about keeping it on all the time. In fact, she got excited about putting it on.  She mostly sat in the boat and watched everyone else ski/wakeboard, and would always tell me when someone fell down (“Scotty fall down, Mommy”, repeated over and over). She loved when we stopped for a break and all jumped in the water. She absolutely loves to swim. She has gotten over any fear she had of water, and now jumps in full force.

We also went golfing one morning. Broken Bow has a beautiful golf course that is always empty, so we played 9 holes one morning before it got too hot (haha, yeah right). Scott’s clubs are up in Utah, so my dad brought him a few of his clubs, but didn’t have an extra golf bag, so he brought a box. It was pretty funny looking. I took pity on him and let him share my bag. We had a great time, although I think my dad was the only one who ever got a par.

Also a great find in Broken Bow: Papa Poblano’s for dinner. Great Mexican food!

We had a great time, and we’ll be back soon!

But she had a great time with her Daddy, and I had a great time with the girls!

Our hotel was close to Times Square, so we were probably there every night, just doing some shopping, eating, shows, shopping, and eating.

Times Square

We went on the “Top of the Rock”, where you take a trippy elevator ride up 65 flights to the top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It has a great view of New York, except on foggy/smoggy/hazy days like this one. Maybe all days in New York are this way, but oh well. We went on the NBC Studio Tour, and saw the set of SNL and some other shows. I can’t believe how small the sets are in real life! Their magnifying cameras are amazing! My favorite part was the gift shop, where I wanted to buy every $25 t-shirt there. But alas, the anticipated shopping trip to H&M that followed was worth forgoing the “Michael Scott Paper Company” shirt.

On "Top of the Rock"

View of foggy New York

30 Rock!!

After our NBC Studios Tour

Stained Glass at St Patrick's Cathedral

We went to St Patrick’s cathedral, Trinity church, and Riverside church, which are all beautiful, and remind me of Europe in a lot of ways. But they are here in America! The stained glass is breathtaking.

Hot Dogs

Metropolitan Museum of Art

I had to get  a hot dog from a hot dog vendor. It’s just a New York-ish thing to do, right?

Then on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was an exhibit on fashion, which is totally Cami’s thing, and Picasso, which also floats her boat (she was a humanities major). I liked the Monet’s the best. Then we wandered Central Park, and watched people play frisbee, eat lunch, and watch the boats on the pond.

This sandwich is bigger than her face

We love Broadway shows! We saw “In the Heights”, a modern love story about growing up in Washington Heights, which I really liked, and “West Side Story”, which I was a little less impressed with. I think there is just too much snapping and dancing without singing in that one. Juliana’s high school version was more entertaining for me.

In the Heights = two thumbs up!

Matchy matchy

We took the boat to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was hot and muggy this weekend, so it was nice to get out on the water. We only climbed the pedestal of the statue, but that was enough for us! We had a great view of New York Harbor. Ellis Island is a historical monument. You walk in the building and can just imagine what it was like for immigrants to wait and wait and wait to be processed, always in fear that some little thing would make them “ineligible” to stay here, only to be sent back to their homeland. The museum is simple, but creative, and there are quotes and recordings from people who came through here. I really liked it.

On the boat to the Statue of Liberty

There she is!

View of New York from Liberty Island

Grant's Tomb

Next it was up to Columbia. My dad was going to school at Columbia when Cami was born, so we visited the University, as well as Riverside Church and Ulysses S. Grant’s Tomb, which are nearby.  We also saw Cami’s first home, a tiny apartment on Riverside just a few blocks from campus. My mom regaled us with Cami’s birth story as we walked to the hospital where she was born. If I moved to New York, I would want to live on Riverside. It is so beautiful, and less crowded than where we were staying.

Doors of the beautiful Riverside Church

Riverside church's tower

Visiting Columbia

Cami's namesake?, next door to the hospital where she was born

Lunch at Penelope

What a great trip! It was quick, but we managed to squeeze in tons of stuff. My camera battery died one day, so the other stuff not pictured here includes:

• FAO Schwartz
• H&M shopping extravaganza
• Central Park
• Dinner at Stardust (most fun restaurant experience EVER)
• Shopping on Canal Street
• Wall Street/NY Stock Exchange
• Ground Zero

Let’s go back soon!

Favorite Sorrento things:

• Shopping and walking around town. Sorrento is small compared to the other tourist towns we visited. It has shops and restaurants and gelaterias (very important), and not much else. We walked down to the pier, we shopped, we ate, we watched the sun set from our balcony.
• Pompeii – an ancient city that was covered in ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. The town was buried and preserved until the 1700s, when excavations began. It was amazing to walk the streets of this city and imagine what life was like back then. This city was at its height during Jesus’ lifetime, so although I’m pretty sure Christ never visited Pompeii, I’m sure the lifestyle was similar.
• Along with that, we went to the Archeological Museum in Naples, which has artifacts from Pompeii that survived – paintings, frescoes, mosaics, dishes, silverware, vases, statues, etc. Unfortunately the Mosaics room was closed, but we got to see everything else. It was neat. Although it’s too bad we had to go all the way to Naples to see it. Naples is kinda rough…
• Amalfi Coast drive. Wow. So beautiful. We took a bus, which wound around the cliffs of the coastal mountains in a one lane highway, squeezing past cars and mopeds going the other way. Scary. But it was really beautiful, especially Positano, where we walked down to the beach and stuck our fingers in. The beaches are really pebbly there!
• Pizza in Naples. I wanted to go to the famous L’Antica da Michele pizza place, but the only day we were in Naples was Sunday, and they were closed. But the pizza place across the street was open, so we grabbed some pizza there, and it was delish! I love my American Pizza, but Italian pizza is so yummy! I swear their tomatoes are different than ours.

Roma – The Eternal City, The City of Love, etc

• Rome is seriously magical. We got there in the afternoon, ate dinner, and then walked around Rome until it got dark. Rome at night is another world. The lighting is all orange light, so that it resembles torchlight. So Rome honestly feels like an old city, since there are no LED screens or florescent lighting anywhere. you feel like you are walking through ancient Rome. We saw St. Peters, Castel Sant Angelo, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona that night.
• Ancient Rome – the Imperial Forum, Arch of Constantine, Palatine Hill, Arches of Titus and Septimius Severus. This is where Rome began and was ruled. The Senate where Julius Caesar was killed, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Saturn, the Via Sacra (Main Street), the Basilica (governmental seat), the church where Peter the Apostle was (maybe) imprisoned, the COLOSSEUM. It’s all here. Right smack dab in the middle of modern Rome. We spent all morning here, taking audiotours and learning all about the beginning and end of the Roman Empire.
• St Peters/Vatican City. This was an all day event. St Peters Basilica is the largest Catholic church in the world, and probably the most decorated. It houses Michelangelo’s Pieta, and multiple works by Bernini, including the altar  and the huge brass canopy over the altar. It also houses the tomb of St. Peter, and the tombs of many Popes. It is so ornately decorated, you really have to see it to believe it. We toured the Vatican Museums as well, and ended in the Sistine Chapel. I feel like Michelangelo and I should be friends at this point, as now I’ve been to his hometown, his tomb, and all of his greatest works. Great job on the Sistine Chapel, buddy. Really, it is amazing. To think that he literally craned his neck to paint a ceiling for four years, and on fresco! It is almost emotional. Once again, you have to see it to believe it. It was so beautiful, we stayed in there for a half hour just looking and looking.
• Catacombs! We went to the Catacombs of Domitilla, and did some underground hiking. This is where the early Christians buried their dead, instead of cremating them like the Romans did in that time. This was a sacred burial, because they were buried near family members and martyrs for the Christian religion. Romans did not treat Christians well at that point in time. Now, there are no bodies there, just holes in the walls. But what I liked were the frescoes and writings that have survived all these years.
• We were SO EXHAUSTED by the end of our trip, that we spent a good portion of time in the hotel spa and relaxation room. At first I was worried about wasting time that could have been spent sightseeing, but as one of our reasons for this trip was to just be together, we decided this was a worthwhile usage of time. We missed our little girl a lot, but to just be together, without any responsibilities, was refreshing.

Venice activities included:

• St Marks Square: the Byzantine style of St. Marks Cathedral was so different from every other church we’d seen. It reminded me of something you’d see in Moscow or something (not that I’ve been there, but I can imagine). No pictures inside that one.
• Doge’s Palace and Correr Museum – Neither were particularly inspiring, except that through the Doge’s Palace you get to walk across the “Bridge of Sighs” and into the prisons. I think that bridge is famous from a movie, but I’m not sure which one. No picture of that either, it was covered by scaffolding and advertisements.
• Cruising the Grand Canal – we were cheap and didn’t take a gondola ride, but even riding the water bus with 100 other people, you can find a corner and watch the world go by in a slightly romantic setting.
• Frari Church – we took an audio tour from Rick Steves on this one, and it was good we did. Don’t you think that the more you know about a place, the more you appreciate it? That is how we felt about this one. And by the way, if you EVER go to Italy, you MUST consult Rick Steves’ website, and download any audio tours he has on iTunes. They will save you money and give you all the information  you could want for wherever you are going.

We had 3 days in Florence, and spent the first two exploring the city, and the 3rd out in the Cinque Terre, or “Five Lands”, out on the coast.

• Duomo – HUGE church, complete with a tall bell tower (campanile) and a baptistery across the square. This place is covered with statues, green and white striped marble, sculptures, gold-leafing, and more. We went to the Duomo Museum to see all the original sculptures from the 1500s (the ones on the church now are copies), and the original doors to the baptistery, which were made out of GOLD, and depicted Bible scenes (made by Ghiberti).
• Michelangelo’s David – WORTH EVERY PENNY. Go see this in the Accademia Museum. It really is amazing. It is 17 feet tall, and the detail and emotion that Michelangelo sculpted into this piece of marble is incredible. The fake one out in the Uffizi Square is cool too, but the real one is stunning.
• Churches – Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce – both include tombs of famous people, Michelangelo being one of them, and were beautiful and worth visiting.
• Uffizi Gallery – This museum traces the history of art from Medieval times (1300s) to Renaissance (1400-1520) all the way through to modern art. But the focus is on the Renaissance, since it started in Florence. It was cool to see how art evolved, and how new ideas and techniques caught on like wildfire with all these artists once the Renaissance began. I can now tell you at least 3 differences between pre-Renaissance art, and post-Renaissance art. I felt very educated after touring this museum.
• Ponte Vecchio Bridge – The only bridge to make it through WWII undamaged, and it is chock full of gold and jewelry merchants. It looks like there are little houses on it when you see it from the outside.
• Piazzale Michelangelo has the best view of the city, across the river and up quite a few stairs. We made the trek in the rain, but we were rewarded once we made it to the top with a beautiful rainbow over the city as the rain stopped and the clouds thinned.

• Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, where the “Sound of Music” kids sung “Do Re Mi”. It was really beautiful. Oh and we saw two brides taking pictures there – one in a modern white wedding gown, and one in a dirndl.
• Salzburg Dom – this was our favorite Cathedral so far, although the exterior isn’t really amazing. The interior, especially the ceiling, was amazing! The artwork was beautiful, but the sculpted ceilings and walls were so detailed. I can’t believe they did all of that by hand!
• Mozart’s birth house – there is a museum there that tells about his family life, and has some original artifacts, letters from him, and one of his harpsichords. Very cool.
• Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg – The palace wasn’t that great, but the Trick Fountains around it were hilarious. Apparently the archbishop who built it had a sense of humor, and would surprise his guests while out walking in his garden with hidden fountains of water. It is all natural,  built near a spring that still supplies water to the fountains today. Most fun tour of a palace ever!
• Hohensalzburg Fortress – Original fort on the hill, and had a great view of Salzburg
• Vienna Haus der Musik – Music museum which included exhibits on the great Viennese composers, and where I got to conduct the Viennese Orchestra.
• Vienna Boys Choir – this was something I was really excited about. We ended up seeing them in a Mass on Sunday morning, and I loved it.
• Boat Tour along the Danube – not recommended. Mostly we just saw graffiti along the walls. But it was nice to get off our feet, since we were walking everywhere.
• Speaking of walking, the public transport in Germany and Austria were awesome, and easy to figure out. Subways, buses, and trains! Who needs a car?

• Schloss Nyphenburg, which was the summer residence for the Bavarian Royalty.
• Touring historic Munich, or what was rebuilt after the American’s leveled Munich in WWII.
• Residenz which was the Bavarian seat of government.
• The Dachau concentration camp memorial.
• Toured the BMW factory in and watched how the robots build BMW 3 series. (Sorry no photos allowed there, darn, this was one of Zac’s favorite things!)
• Castle day in Hohenschwangau, Germany.
• Eating huge pretzels and  wiener schnitzel.
• Driving on the autobahn fearing for our lives… driving 140 km/h = 87 mph.
• By the way, German public transportation was the best.

That isn't how you store deodorant

One night we came back to our hotel room, and this is how we found the deodorant. We’re pretty sure we didn’t leave it that way in the morning. Our hotel housekeeper must have taken a few minutes to get it to stand up on the rounded cap. Practical joke, or has she really never seen how deodorant stands up?

We are back from Europe, and we will post more pictures of our trip when we get the energy. Maybe tomorrow….

We will give you more information when we get home about all of our travels but we are killing time while our clothes are in the wash.  Hilton Garden Inn, thank you for having a washer and dryer so we do not have to use the sink.

Sorry our writing is so weird, we are using a foreign keyboard, and there is no apostrophe. And no °at° sign, and apparently no quotes…

View of the ranch

This place was beautiful! The barn was basically a huge home with a big room that could serve as a bar, concert venue, or reception center. There were a few other homes on the ranch, where we all slept for the night. There were Hummers, Jeeps, and 4 wheelers sitting around with keys in them if anyone wanted to go exploring. There were streams, hills, a shooting range, and lots of yummy food cooked by our host and the brides family. We had a great time, and are now planning a yearly pilgrimage down to Tarpley to take in the beauty of this place again and again.

As soon as we got there, all the boys went to shoot guns…and some of the girls. Kami and I decided to hang with Tara, and help out around the house. The boys had lots of fun.

Zac got to shoot the big gun

Matt has good form

The wedding took place the next day. Tara married Damon, who has 10 siblings, who were all there! Talk about love and dedication. I think they had a great time all together. The wedding took place in the San Antonio temple, and it was such a beautiful ceremony. Tara looked beautiful, and they both looked so happy!

Temple Spire

Tara, Damon, and friends

Kami and Matt at the temple

Zac and I

Ring Ceremony

Later that night, they held a ring ceremony for the rest of the family, and it was so sweet to see Tara and Damon talk about how much they love each other, and look forward to learning to love each other more each day. We love Tara and Damon, and we wish them lots of happiness!