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.

House Woes

OK so I never thougth it would be so hard to buy a house. Our contingency runs out in 5 days and our offer we have had on a house for 6 months still won't come through. I think something strange is going on in that area of American Fork. Also we did not get the house in Highland. They would not say how much it sold for, just that someone came in with a huge down payment. I hope it wasn't the person who commented on "the landscaping". We love our house, our neighbors...especially our neighbors, so I am deep breathing trying to tell myself that if things were meant to work out they would. I was watching the kids playing in our back yard with the neighbor kids on memorial day and just felt very grateful to live by such great people.
I love a recent article in psychology today about failure. Since I feel that I am often in that state. The article writes, "failing better boils down to controlling our emotions, adjusting our thinking, and recalibrating our beliefs. It states that "adversity, setbacks, and even trauma may actually be necessary for people to be successful and fulfilled."
I also meant Monday and wanted to express my gratitude to my grandpa and all other servicemen for the service to our country. My grandpa passed away a few years ago, but he fought in WWII and we loved him. He would never talk about the war because he said, "it brought up too much". He couldn't even watch a war commercial or movie because it took him back to the war too quickly. He said it changed him in ways no one could ever imagine. He had a hard life even when he returned home...and I think his wife and children struggled due to some of those lasting effects. I cannot imagine the sacrifice of all those servicemen and their families who sacrifice so much to maintain freedom in our world. Probably more important than house stuff.

american idol sort of

If anyone is feeling sad about not being able to vote for american idol anymore...you know having withdrawals...Aubs is in that Mormontimes contest again and could use any votes you used to give to Adam or Kris towards that contest. If you don't want to...tired of voting for anyone...that's good too. I must state Nathan Osmond is pretty good. http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=757&nocache=1