A call for pictures

We are planning a fun trip to san francisco to see Adelle blessed, but we are starving for pictures of the newest Keyes baby, also of Evelyn and Melissa and Lance. We know they are so very very busy with the new addition, but we love them and wish to see them sooner. We hope they come out and stay the summer? Not to be pushy but we respectfully request additional neice/grand-daughter sightings. Love the taylor family

vacation pictures

Our Year of Travel

I know that many people will find this strange, but I am sort of a homebody...not someone to take too many risks, and not someone who has ever yearned for adventure and travel. So for someone who really doesn't like to travel and has only really been between utah and my home-town in california, 2009 is going to be the year of travel. After San Francisco and sadly sadly missing out on Adelle, we went with all of Lane's family 12 and older on a mediterranean trip. That means Aubrey got to go. This means that all of our pictures are generally of European landmarks with Aubrey in front of them. Lane went to Italy on his mission so he was probably the most excited of anyone...like a kid in a candy store. I sort of have a fear of flying (I know...it kind of goes along with my boring lack of adventure stuff) so of course on the way to the airport I wrote out a will for where the children should go if we die. Lane's family would pretty much be wiped out so it left me with "my family" as options. (I tried to picture lance and melissa raising 3 additional chilren in san fran). We flew for over 20 hours and arrived in Italy. We left Utah in the morning and got to Italy in the morning. We took a bus to Venice, traveled our luggage to a storage facility and toured Venice all day with no sleep. That night we took a train to Florence, walked about a mile to our hotel (Which must have looked hilarious...13 people marching through the town with luggage and backpacks) and walked around florence, slept a few hours and than took a bus out to Pisa and then back to Florence (saw Michaelangelo's David which the girls were seriously embarassed by) and then took a train then several subways to Rome (all with luggage in tow). That night we walked through the sites of Rome (colloseum, trevi fountain, etc) and the next day toured the Vatican. I think the vatican tour was torture because it was like 100 degrees and 90 percent humidity, we were extremely tired and the guards would not let you lean or sit or rest anywhere for aproximately 4 hours. We did see the famous ceiling of the sisteen chapel. I must mention that at the colleseum they said that the smell of blood was so strong that they covered the stands in perfume to drown out the scent (gross). All in all we must have walked 100 miles. We all had bloody blisters and I think I lost 10 pounds despite eating my share of gelato and pizza (so good!).

We then went on the cruise to ciccily, athens, ephesus (turkey) and crete. We were lucky to hook up with a guy on the cruise who was a church history expert and so we got some excellent information on some of the biblical sites from an LDS perspective. I really enjoyed Turkey where we visited a site that some historians feel Mary (mother of Jesus) was taken after Jesus was crucified, and ephesus where some say Paul preached to the Romans. I took time to read those chapters in the bible following the tour to get a better perspective. I also loved seeing the acropolis, parthenon in Greece. I had just finished reading the Lightening Thief series (which I would recommend to anyone 10 and older) so I had brushed up on my greek mythology. I took almost 600 pictures so I will only include a few, but family may have to sit through a more thorough and boring vacation report. I felt pretty safe until the plane ride from New York to Salt Lake. The last 20 minutes of roller coaster like turbulance reminded me of why I generally stick to the roads. I am glad I didn't orphan all my other children and I am glad to be home. And we really are home. While we were away the pre-qualified buyers on our house suddenly failed to qualify...I think this year has been generally quite the wild ride. On a side note since there is an 8 hour time difference I have been waking up at like 2 and 3 am ready for the day.

San Francisco Pictures and Welcome Adelle

So I finally got my pictures loaded onto a computer. I know everyone wanted to see pictures of the "famous dogs". It was so fun seeing melissa, lance and evelyn. We are so happy that Adelle has arrived and can't wait to see her at her blessing in July. Her pictures are so beautiful. Melissa says that Adelle is calm and sleeps a lot, which is good. Evelyn loves her and wants to hold her and love her.

San Francisco

Melissa told me a quote by Mark Twain. He said, "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Needless to say it has been a little chilly and moist. My hair is extremely naturally curly here. I look like I have stepped right out of the eighties. Melissa and Lance live right by the golden gate bridge in the heart of san francisco. It has been so fun visiting with them. So far we have gone to the beach and seen pelicans (right by Robin Williams house), gone to Lance's dental school for a tour, and gone to fisherman's warf where we bought some delicious sourdough bread. We also saw the famous Bushman jump out and scare a tourist (the tourist was seriously freaked out). Brynna also saw seals there and got to sit with "famous dogs" for a picture. Melissa would really like to have the baby so we are going to walk the bridge today. We also plan to make some freezer meals for when the baby does arrive. They always come eventually. Evelyn has been a joy to be with and has loved having Brynna to play with. I actually love to be called grandma again.

This was Brynna's first airplane ride. She whispered to me during the flight that she thought heaven was in the clouds below us. She loved watching the clouds and she tried to find our house as we left Utah. On a side-note anyone who knows Brynna very well knows she has had concerns over "death"for the last few years. So she was a little anxious about the airplane ride prior to the trip. She had a nightmare for a few nights before that the "plane crashed into the water". I had no idea that the oakland airport is right along the coast. So as we were coming in for a landing it looked like we were going into the ocean until the very last moment when the runway suddenly appears. So for the last five minutes of the plane trip Brynna was terrified despite my attempts at reassurance. She kept saying "we're going into the water...we're going into the water". When we landed on dry land the relief was evident to the entire plane full of people as she exhuberantly excaimed, "We didn't go into the water!" I have never seen such relief on a child.