We got a dog. It was a little spur of the moment. We all decided we all wanted a shih tzu. The kids looked a few times on craigslist and didn't find anything that looked right. Then last Sunday Aaron found one so I texted her. We went and saw him on Monday and he looked good. He was a little skinny it had been a while since he was groomed, but he was so calm and easy. He was in a house with several little kids. We were thinking we'd have to check out several dogs, but we brought home the first one we looked at. So far he's been good. He had a few accidents the first day, but then he's been fine. He sleeps in his kennel. And he's so good with the kids. I love that he doesn't shed.
Sunday, August 23, 2015
August 23, 2015
School starts tomorrow. We met everyone's teachers this week. I especially love Seth's teacher. That makes it easier to spend all the extra time driving him to the other school. Danny and Rachel have schedules that I'm really happy with. Aaron is happy with his teacher. I don't really know her. I still really hope he can switch to sky pointe.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
August 16, 2015
We had a great trip to Visalia. We did some shopping, went to Adventure park because Ruby wanted to go to the place with the games where you get a cup of money, swimming at the neighbors' house, and we rode the train from Hanford to Fresno. The kids thought that was great. We walked around for a couple hours and rode home and ate at Superior dairy on the way home. My dad made a knife throwing target for YM and Danny had a great time with that. We had a family party there for Rachel's birthday. We went out to Sizzler for dinner and then had cake at home. We gave her her Iphone there. She thought it was great.
For Rachel's real birthday, she had McKayla over for a lateover and they went and got manicures. Then the next day we took Danny and Rachel to the temple. It was great. It's so nice to have the temple that is so accessible and kids who want to go. We want to try to get a regular trip going once a month and maybe rotate through different parents driving. I think that will be so helpful to the kids to keep their testimonies strong.
Seth got in to Sky Pointe too. I thought the boys had no chance this year. I went ahead and registered him. I'm hoping Aaron will get in too, but that isn't as likely since we're only one week out from school starting. So now my carpooling will be a little crazy with kids at 2 different elementary schools, middle school and preschool. The legislature just voted for kindergarten to be all day for everyone starting next year. So it'll be a little sad to lose Ruby all day, but it'll be so nice not to have a middle of the day pickup.
I've started doing family history. Bob's uncle Jody has been doing a lot of work on ancestry.com and he shared it with Bob. So while I was at my mom's I had her show me some things so I can try to combine the two sites. I've found a lot of names that way. Also there were a lot of names just waiting because it's been a long time since someone in Bob's family has done family history. It's nice to have something I can do. My family has so much done. My mom spends hours and hours to just get a name or 2. The church has been saying to "find your cousins" so I figure that doing Bob's names is like finding my cousins.
Kata and my mom have both been telling me about books they've been reading about the Second Coming. So I read a couple. I think I need to work on my food storage and emergency preparedness.
For Rachel's real birthday, she had McKayla over for a lateover and they went and got manicures. Then the next day we took Danny and Rachel to the temple. It was great. It's so nice to have the temple that is so accessible and kids who want to go. We want to try to get a regular trip going once a month and maybe rotate through different parents driving. I think that will be so helpful to the kids to keep their testimonies strong.
Seth got in to Sky Pointe too. I thought the boys had no chance this year. I went ahead and registered him. I'm hoping Aaron will get in too, but that isn't as likely since we're only one week out from school starting. So now my carpooling will be a little crazy with kids at 2 different elementary schools, middle school and preschool. The legislature just voted for kindergarten to be all day for everyone starting next year. So it'll be a little sad to lose Ruby all day, but it'll be so nice not to have a middle of the day pickup.
I've started doing family history. Bob's uncle Jody has been doing a lot of work on ancestry.com and he shared it with Bob. So while I was at my mom's I had her show me some things so I can try to combine the two sites. I've found a lot of names that way. Also there were a lot of names just waiting because it's been a long time since someone in Bob's family has done family history. It's nice to have something I can do. My family has so much done. My mom spends hours and hours to just get a name or 2. The church has been saying to "find your cousins" so I figure that doing Bob's names is like finding my cousins.
Kata and my mom have both been telling me about books they've been reading about the Second Coming. So I read a couple. I think I need to work on my food storage and emergency preparedness.
Monday, August 3, 2015
August 3, 2015
We've had a busy summer! We got passes to Cowabunga Bay because we thought we didn't have as many trips as usual. Ha! But it's been so fun to have them. We try to go every week we're home. Ruby and Seth are tall enough to ride most of the rides now, but they each have to have someone older than 16 go with them. So if Bob goes with us we get to ride all the rides, but that's only been 2 times this summer. So on all the other weeks we spend a lot of time in the lazy river, wave pool and kiddie slides. It's still super fun, though. Seth even rode "The Drop" this last time we went. You have to be 48 inches to ride it. He barely is, but I thought for sure he'd want to wait another year. They put you in a tube and close the door and then the bottom drops out. Out of the blue, he said he thinks he wants to do it. So we went up there and we let several people go in front of us while he watched to make sure he wanted to do it. But then he did it and he loved it! He even went again. He's a little thrill seeker. He likes the bigger roller coasters at Magic mountain too.
Right after school got out, we spent a night at the Excalibur to celebrate their graduation from this year of Mom School. We got 2 rooms and played skipbo. We had fun at the pools Thursday night. Friday we got up and went to the Coke store and M&M world. We had such a great time at those. We watched a 3D movie at M&M and then we ordered different sodas from around the world at Coke.
My tingly arms are getting better. They did a bunch of tests and couldn't figure out why it's happening. I haven't done much exercise with my arms and I think all our vacations have helped because I didn't have to do much cleaning. They still tingle sometimes, but it isn't as strong. And I can't sleep on my right side, yet, but my back is usually just fine now.
The girls had their dance recital. They did great!! It was so fun to watch. I'm so glad they have this cute little place for them to dance. Sandy and May came too. While they were there, Sandy mentioned they need a new dog walker. Danny and Rachel got the job. It's been awesome for them. And they earn a lot of money.
After girls camp, Danny went to Scout camp. He had a good time. They camped lower on Mt. Charleston, so it was a little hotter for them. Bob went for the last couple of days. He came home Saturday morning and that night the Deans came to stay with us that night and then we drove to Mexico on Sunday. Celise Salmon's family has a beach house south of Rosarito and she invited a few families to come stay. We also met the Mechams there. They have kids Danny, Rachel and Aaron's ages. So there were plenty of kids for everyone. We stayed from Sunday to Thursday. We had a fabulous time. The house had plenty of room for all of us. It was cloudy most of the time and a little cold at night. We had the beach to ourselves every day. The kids played in the sand and boogie boarded for hours every day. Because the beach wasn't used very much, there were hundreds of perfect sand dollars all over the beach. The kids collected buckets full. The kids played fun games at night. We went to a little tourist market one day and the kids all bought cheap souvenirs. Rachel bought a purse. Danny got a hat. Aaron bought a hammock for his bedroom. Seth bought a crossbow. And Ruby didn't like any of the junk so she decided she wanted her own trip to Winco to get candy when we got home.
We got home from Mexico 5 minutes before Ryan and Venessa got to our house for 4th of July. Kristal and Dan came too. We had a great time with them. We swam in the pool, the adults went to the Stratosphere one night, we did fireworks and ate good food. There were tons of illegal fireworks this year. Our neighbor behind us did them for hours. We had such a good time watching them in between doing ours, until we went in our backyard and realized it was covered with cardboard and other things that had fallen when the fireworks exploded. It took us an hour and a half to clean up our backyard. Everyone left on Monday.
Then that Friday we left for Lake Tahoe. We got there in time for their airport's airshow that Kevin organizes every year. It was so fun. They had lots of airplanes we could look inside and they had airplanes flying all the time doing tricks and showing off. They kids watched a puppet show and Ruby got her face painted. They had all these cute girly designs of butterflies and flowers, but when she sat down and they asked what she wanted, she pointed right to the big black batman mask. We get to eat lunch in the VIP tent and we had snowcones as we walked around.
Sunday we had our annual family testimony meeting by the reservoir. It was nice. And then that night we went to Sugar Pine state park and Amanda took our family pictures. They turned out great again.And then we walked around and had fun. We went to Donner lake one day and put in the jet ski and kayaks. We went to the neighborhood pool and played tennis and went to the bmx track. We went to Watson lake. It was so fun. It was this tiny lake with tons of tad poles. The kids put the kayaks in and paddled over to "Tadpole Terrace" where there were tons of them. Ruby was fearless with them. She'd reach right down and grab a frog or tadpole as soon as she saw one. Her brothers would even call her over to get some for them because they were a little grossed out by the slimy things. We also went of a hike around the lake and had a picnic there. And then we had a day at Sand Harbor. We just did the kayaks because the lake is too low for the jet ski. The kids found a great place to catch crawdads and Amanda cooked them up for them again this year. We played games every night and Danny joined us this year and he loved it. Kevin and Amanda are such wonderful hosts. We have so much fun with them and we're so glad they let us come every year.
We left Lake Tahoe and headed to Utah for the weekend because Bob's college friends were getting together. We stayed with Wendy and Ryan, who are so kind to let us stay there. I was so happy to get to see them, especially since they weren't able to come to Tahoe this year. We got together with Trina and Sarah for breakfast on Saturday and then that afternoon we went up to Salt Lake to Jeff's house for a barbecue with all Bob's friends and their families. Everyone had a great time. Bob stayed longer with some of the guys. Sunday we got to stay at Wendy's and play in their great backyard and walk on the trail that goes behind their house. Monday we headed home and stopped at the Dean's house for a couple hours on the way home. The kids loved to have that time with them.
Rachel left yesterday (Sunday) to go stay with my mom for a few days. She flew all by herself. Then we'll all get there Thursday night. Bob will stay until Sunday and then fly home and we'll stay until the next Thursday. We have to be home that night because Bob is taking Rachel to a concert of a band they both like that night for her birthday. Then the next night she'll have a party with her friends on her actual birthday. And hopefully then next day we'll be able to take her and Danny to the temple to do some family baptisms. We've been saving lots of female names for her.
Then we'll just have a week until school starts. Danny and Rachel are starting at Somerset Skypointe. It's similar to ours, but it has a real school building and we've heard great things about it. The kids might stay there for high school too, so it'll be nice for them to try it out this year and then Danny will be better able to make his choice for High School. And Ruby will start preschool. She's so excited and so am I!
Right after school got out, we spent a night at the Excalibur to celebrate their graduation from this year of Mom School. We got 2 rooms and played skipbo. We had fun at the pools Thursday night. Friday we got up and went to the Coke store and M&M world. We had such a great time at those. We watched a 3D movie at M&M and then we ordered different sodas from around the world at Coke.
My tingly arms are getting better. They did a bunch of tests and couldn't figure out why it's happening. I haven't done much exercise with my arms and I think all our vacations have helped because I didn't have to do much cleaning. They still tingle sometimes, but it isn't as strong. And I can't sleep on my right side, yet, but my back is usually just fine now.
The girls had their dance recital. They did great!! It was so fun to watch. I'm so glad they have this cute little place for them to dance. Sandy and May came too. While they were there, Sandy mentioned they need a new dog walker. Danny and Rachel got the job. It's been awesome for them. And they earn a lot of money.
After girls camp, Danny went to Scout camp. He had a good time. They camped lower on Mt. Charleston, so it was a little hotter for them. Bob went for the last couple of days. He came home Saturday morning and that night the Deans came to stay with us that night and then we drove to Mexico on Sunday. Celise Salmon's family has a beach house south of Rosarito and she invited a few families to come stay. We also met the Mechams there. They have kids Danny, Rachel and Aaron's ages. So there were plenty of kids for everyone. We stayed from Sunday to Thursday. We had a fabulous time. The house had plenty of room for all of us. It was cloudy most of the time and a little cold at night. We had the beach to ourselves every day. The kids played in the sand and boogie boarded for hours every day. Because the beach wasn't used very much, there were hundreds of perfect sand dollars all over the beach. The kids collected buckets full. The kids played fun games at night. We went to a little tourist market one day and the kids all bought cheap souvenirs. Rachel bought a purse. Danny got a hat. Aaron bought a hammock for his bedroom. Seth bought a crossbow. And Ruby didn't like any of the junk so she decided she wanted her own trip to Winco to get candy when we got home.
We got home from Mexico 5 minutes before Ryan and Venessa got to our house for 4th of July. Kristal and Dan came too. We had a great time with them. We swam in the pool, the adults went to the Stratosphere one night, we did fireworks and ate good food. There were tons of illegal fireworks this year. Our neighbor behind us did them for hours. We had such a good time watching them in between doing ours, until we went in our backyard and realized it was covered with cardboard and other things that had fallen when the fireworks exploded. It took us an hour and a half to clean up our backyard. Everyone left on Monday.
Then that Friday we left for Lake Tahoe. We got there in time for their airport's airshow that Kevin organizes every year. It was so fun. They had lots of airplanes we could look inside and they had airplanes flying all the time doing tricks and showing off. They kids watched a puppet show and Ruby got her face painted. They had all these cute girly designs of butterflies and flowers, but when she sat down and they asked what she wanted, she pointed right to the big black batman mask. We get to eat lunch in the VIP tent and we had snowcones as we walked around.
Sunday we had our annual family testimony meeting by the reservoir. It was nice. And then that night we went to Sugar Pine state park and Amanda took our family pictures. They turned out great again.And then we walked around and had fun. We went to Donner lake one day and put in the jet ski and kayaks. We went to the neighborhood pool and played tennis and went to the bmx track. We went to Watson lake. It was so fun. It was this tiny lake with tons of tad poles. The kids put the kayaks in and paddled over to "Tadpole Terrace" where there were tons of them. Ruby was fearless with them. She'd reach right down and grab a frog or tadpole as soon as she saw one. Her brothers would even call her over to get some for them because they were a little grossed out by the slimy things. We also went of a hike around the lake and had a picnic there. And then we had a day at Sand Harbor. We just did the kayaks because the lake is too low for the jet ski. The kids found a great place to catch crawdads and Amanda cooked them up for them again this year. We played games every night and Danny joined us this year and he loved it. Kevin and Amanda are such wonderful hosts. We have so much fun with them and we're so glad they let us come every year.
We left Lake Tahoe and headed to Utah for the weekend because Bob's college friends were getting together. We stayed with Wendy and Ryan, who are so kind to let us stay there. I was so happy to get to see them, especially since they weren't able to come to Tahoe this year. We got together with Trina and Sarah for breakfast on Saturday and then that afternoon we went up to Salt Lake to Jeff's house for a barbecue with all Bob's friends and their families. Everyone had a great time. Bob stayed longer with some of the guys. Sunday we got to stay at Wendy's and play in their great backyard and walk on the trail that goes behind their house. Monday we headed home and stopped at the Dean's house for a couple hours on the way home. The kids loved to have that time with them.
Rachel left yesterday (Sunday) to go stay with my mom for a few days. She flew all by herself. Then we'll all get there Thursday night. Bob will stay until Sunday and then fly home and we'll stay until the next Thursday. We have to be home that night because Bob is taking Rachel to a concert of a band they both like that night for her birthday. Then the next night she'll have a party with her friends on her actual birthday. And hopefully then next day we'll be able to take her and Danny to the temple to do some family baptisms. We've been saving lots of female names for her.
Then we'll just have a week until school starts. Danny and Rachel are starting at Somerset Skypointe. It's similar to ours, but it has a real school building and we've heard great things about it. The kids might stay there for high school too, so it'll be nice for them to try it out this year and then Danny will be better able to make his choice for High School. And Ruby will start preschool. She's so excited and so am I!
Sunday, June 21, 2015
June 21, 2015
Girls camp was great. I loved getting to know my beehives better. And it's so fun to have Rachel in there. Rachel ate too much at dinner one night and threw up and felt sick for a day. We did a life line activity where we held an egg and were blindfolded and had to move along a rope while people tempted us to let go. Rachel bore her testimony and was one of the first girls to do it. She did great. My tingly arms were all better while I was at camp.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
June 14, 2015
My weekend in Arizona with the girls was fabulous.
School is out. The last few weeks were a blur. We've been out of school a week. It's still busy, but at least we sleep in.
We aren't doing screens until 5:00 everyday unless I have to go somewhere and then they can have screens when I'm gone. It's been awesome. We also got passes to the YMCA to help give us something to do. Danny, Rachel and Aaron can workout in the gym with me and Seth and Ruby go to the childcare. It works out great. Track was great for Rachel. She slimmed down quite a bit, so I'm hoping to keep her more active. We also got passes to Cowabunga Bay. It seemed like our summer was going to be a little quiet, so we spent a bunch of money on these activities while we're here, but now it turns out we have every weekend booked for the whole summer and most of the weeks.
My hands have been going tingly. It's been pretty bad for the last 3 weeks. It's a little annoying during the day, but it's really bad at night. There's only one position I can lay in that doesn't make my hands tingly and it's much worse at night than in the day. I've been going to doctors and haven't found out anything yet, but about a week ago my primary care doctor prescribed some kind of nerve pain medicine that also helps me sleep. It's awesome. My life is so much better with it. Without it, I was awake for at least 2-3 hours every night. I don't know how I would go to girls camp without it. I've been to my primary care doctor and an orthopedic surgeon and had xrays and an emg, but they still don't know why. Next they are going to try an mri.
Girls camp is Tuesday. I'm excited to go to camp with Rachel and her friends. It should be lots of fun. Then the next week is scout camp. And the next day the kids and I leave to go to a beach house in Mexico with the Deans and several families from our ward. And the day we get home from that Ryan and Kristal are coming to our house for 4th of July weekend.
School is out. The last few weeks were a blur. We've been out of school a week. It's still busy, but at least we sleep in.
We aren't doing screens until 5:00 everyday unless I have to go somewhere and then they can have screens when I'm gone. It's been awesome. We also got passes to the YMCA to help give us something to do. Danny, Rachel and Aaron can workout in the gym with me and Seth and Ruby go to the childcare. It works out great. Track was great for Rachel. She slimmed down quite a bit, so I'm hoping to keep her more active. We also got passes to Cowabunga Bay. It seemed like our summer was going to be a little quiet, so we spent a bunch of money on these activities while we're here, but now it turns out we have every weekend booked for the whole summer and most of the weeks.
My hands have been going tingly. It's been pretty bad for the last 3 weeks. It's a little annoying during the day, but it's really bad at night. There's only one position I can lay in that doesn't make my hands tingly and it's much worse at night than in the day. I've been going to doctors and haven't found out anything yet, but about a week ago my primary care doctor prescribed some kind of nerve pain medicine that also helps me sleep. It's awesome. My life is so much better with it. Without it, I was awake for at least 2-3 hours every night. I don't know how I would go to girls camp without it. I've been to my primary care doctor and an orthopedic surgeon and had xrays and an emg, but they still don't know why. Next they are going to try an mri.
Girls camp is Tuesday. I'm excited to go to camp with Rachel and her friends. It should be lots of fun. Then the next week is scout camp. And the next day the kids and I leave to go to a beach house in Mexico with the Deans and several families from our ward. And the day we get home from that Ryan and Kristal are coming to our house for 4th of July weekend.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
May 19, 2015
We went camping last weekend. We had a mother daughter campout for activity days and yw. We didn't get that great of a turn out. Partly because it's May and partly because mom's don't love to camp. Maybe next year we'll open it up to all the women of the ward. We also had a hard time getting priesthood to come. So Bob and the kids came and one of the other leaders' families came and they slept in the next campsite over. It worked out well. It was nice I didn't have to spend more time away from my family. The temperature was good, but it was super windy. I think it helped that last time we camped it was like that. So this time it didn't bother me as much.
The kids are so busy with all their activities. Somehow most of the kids are double booked this season. Danny is just doing one basketball team, but somehow they have several games most saturdays and they're doing lots of tournaments. But they haven't had a gym to practice in, so that's been a little nice. Aaron is doing basketball and the school track team. Rachel is doing dance and track. Seth goes several times a week to karate. And Ruby is in dance. We didn't plan on track happening. But it's worked out well and has been good for Aaron and Rachel.
This weekend I go to Arizona with Amanda and Wendy. I'm so excited!
The kids are so busy with all their activities. Somehow most of the kids are double booked this season. Danny is just doing one basketball team, but somehow they have several games most saturdays and they're doing lots of tournaments. But they haven't had a gym to practice in, so that's been a little nice. Aaron is doing basketball and the school track team. Rachel is doing dance and track. Seth goes several times a week to karate. And Ruby is in dance. We didn't plan on track happening. But it's worked out well and has been good for Aaron and Rachel.
This weekend I go to Arizona with Amanda and Wendy. I'm so excited!
Thursday, May 7, 2015
May 3, 2015
Our trip was fabulous! We had good weather. It only rained one day even though it was forecast to rain a lot more than that. But most days were windy and that made if feel colder than I was prepared for. But it was probably better to be a little too cold for all the walking we did than if it was too hot and we got all sweaty.
So Bob picked up my mom from the airport on Wednesday at 7. He brought her home; I had about 30 minutes to tell her about the schedule and everything and then she drove us back to the airport. We had a 5 hour flight to New York that night. It worked out perfect because we got into New York about 6 and we went straight to the statue of Liberty. We got the second boat out there and we had no crowds at all. We had a great time walking around and then visiting ellis island too. By the time we were done it was starting to get crowded. Then we did a super walking tour of southern Manhattan. We saw Wall Street and the Bull statue and the new world trade center and the 9-11 memorial. That was really cool. And we went to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ate pizza at Lombardi's. That was really good. We sat for a bit at a public library, where we got in trouble for sitting in the children's section and then I got in trouble for sleeping at a table. It was a lot of walking that day. But it was just the start for our trip. Then we headed back to the airport for our second red eye.
We flew 8ish hours to Milan the second night (Friday). Bob was amazing at setting up all our transportation for the trip. He had trains and buses and metros all mapped out and tickets ordered and everything went so smoothly. We walked through downtown Milan to our hotel that morning in the rain. It turned out that it was fashion week in Milan while we were there and they were setting up to host the world's expo in a few weeks so things were busier and more expensive that usual. I was impressed with how thin and pretty most people were there. We got our hotel and walked to a market and had some great pizza that day.
It was hard to sleep at the right times that night. It took me several days to get over my jet lag. Bob did better than I did. I was ok if we were doing things, but whenever we sat on a metro or train or anything, I fell asleep. The second day in Milan (Saturday), Bob booked a 3 hour bus and walking tour. We went to the cathedral where the Last Supper is painted, and the Scala opera house, Scorza Castle and the Galleria shopping center where the first Prada was.
After that we took a bus to Bergamo. It's a city on a hill about an hour from Milan. It's a really cute little Italian city. We rode a funicular up the hill. They had lots of shops and a cathedral and cobblestone roads. That night we took a flight to Paris. We got to our hotel about 1:00 in the morning. We stayed at a nice hotel in a great area. It was called Hotel Demeure in les gobelins. We had a couple grocery stores, a bakery, creperie, kebab place and Metro stop on our road.
Sunday was really cold and windy in the morning. We went to sacrament meeting where we sat behind a woman from Utah and a woman from Norway. They had earphones for us in English. Then we went to Notre Dame. We waited in line to go to the top of the towers. That view was awesome. We had our first french crepes across the street from Notre Dame. They weren't as amazing as I had hoped they'd be. We went to the Pantheon and Pompidou Center.
Monday, we went to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours there. It was amazing. I loved all the super decorated rooms near the Mona Lisa. We walked through the whole museum, but about hour 3, we hit fast forward and breezed through a few of the rooms. Then we walked through the jardin tuileries right outside of the Louvre. We walked to the Paris Opera House. We walked around the outside and then decided it was too expensive and wasn't included in our Paris Museum Pass and we'd already seen an opera house in Milan so we didn't go inside. Then we went to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was beautiful and so was the view. And then we went to the arc de triomphe.
We had pastries from the bakery nearby for most breakfasts. We also had Macarons there. They were awesome. Tuesday we went to musee d'orsay. We loved that one. But we also really liked that we went to the Louvre before the Orsay because we still took over 2 hours there, but if we had to do the Louvre after the smaller one, it would have felt more overwhelming. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We only took the stairs to the 2nd floor. But it was still a great view. That evening we took a river cruise on the Seine. That was cool to see all the locals come hang out by the river. We were hoping to see everything lit up, but we were just a little too early. So then we walked over to the Eiffel tower again to see it lit up. We got there just in time to see it sparkle at 10:00. That was awesome.
Wednesday, we rented a car in downtown Paris and Bob drove through those crazy streets. We drove out to Versailles. We stayed there for half the day. It was beautiful, but so super crowded. We didn't even see all of the main castle because it was so crowded. It was nice the grounds were so big. We enjoyed those and saw all of the lower houses and Marie antoinette's house. Then we drove another hour to Fresneux, France. I thought that was funny, like Fresno. We stayed at a Chateau there. Bob did an awesome job finding the place. The actual castle had mostly fallen down, but they'd restored all the side buildings and we stayed in one of those. It was beautiful and peaceful. We ate dinner there. We had pheasant and salmon and it was all delicious and french.
Thursday we drove to the airport and flew to Venice. We stayed in a great little flat outside of the main tourist area, which I loved. The tourist areas were so crowded. It was a little overwhelming. The owner of the flat met us with the keys. She talked with us for about an hour about all the politics and history of Italy. Bob was very impressive with how much he knows while he talked to her. We went out that night and walked around and had gelato and I had lasagna. It didn't have any cheese sauce in it. I don't know if that's an Italian thing or just that restaurant, but I think I like american lasagna better. We also went to St. Marks square. Being out at night I was impressed how much the sky with the ocean clouds looks like the ceiling they painted in the Venetian hotel.
Friday we took a walking tour of Venice and then rode on a gondola. There's only a limited number of actual gondoliers so to ride a gondola by yourself costs $80 for 30 minutes. We shared it with 2 other couples.
Saturday we took the water taxis to Murrano and Burano and Torcello islands. The glass and lace islands. Those were super fun. They were less crowded and fun to see. Especially Burano because the houses were so colorful.
Sunday we got up early and took a train to Milan and then flew to NYC. It was so nice to be heading back to America and closer to our kids. We got in around 7 to New York. I was so tired. It felt like 3 a.m. Bob got us a great hotel. We stayed at the Hilton on Times Square. That worked out great so we could see Times Square at night. We walked around for a while and Bob got some dinner and we went to bed.
Monday morning we got up and Bob found a place that was supposed to have good donuts that was about a 20 minute walk. That turned out to be one of my favorite things about New York. We went out about 8:30, right when everyone was walking to work. It was fun to see what that's really like for people who live there and not just all the touristy stuff we were doing. On the way back we saw a foot locker and decided to stop in because Danny had been trying so hard to get these red shoes he'd ordered for his birthday. They were backordered and then they sent the wrong ones and then they were backordered again. So we just thought we'd check it out. And they had them! It was so fun to surprise Danny with them. The rest of the morning we walked around Central Park. It was a great day for it. All the tulips were out and the trees were blooming. When we'd been in NY 12 days before, the trees all still looked dead. So it was nice to catch some Spring. We also ran into Line, from Norway while we were walking in the Park. It was such a blessing. She's a nanny there and we just happened to walk by her in this enormous park. It was fun to chat with her for a while. She also mentioned Norwegian air has cheap flights sometimes. So now we have all these grand ideas of taking our kids to Norway. Then we ate lunch at a great deli and flew home.
It was so wonderful to be home to our kids. They did great while we were gone. My mom stayed for 9 days and then Erica Kelly, a college girl in our ward, stayed the last 4 days.
So Bob picked up my mom from the airport on Wednesday at 7. He brought her home; I had about 30 minutes to tell her about the schedule and everything and then she drove us back to the airport. We had a 5 hour flight to New York that night. It worked out perfect because we got into New York about 6 and we went straight to the statue of Liberty. We got the second boat out there and we had no crowds at all. We had a great time walking around and then visiting ellis island too. By the time we were done it was starting to get crowded. Then we did a super walking tour of southern Manhattan. We saw Wall Street and the Bull statue and the new world trade center and the 9-11 memorial. That was really cool. And we went to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ate pizza at Lombardi's. That was really good. We sat for a bit at a public library, where we got in trouble for sitting in the children's section and then I got in trouble for sleeping at a table. It was a lot of walking that day. But it was just the start for our trip. Then we headed back to the airport for our second red eye.
We flew 8ish hours to Milan the second night (Friday). Bob was amazing at setting up all our transportation for the trip. He had trains and buses and metros all mapped out and tickets ordered and everything went so smoothly. We walked through downtown Milan to our hotel that morning in the rain. It turned out that it was fashion week in Milan while we were there and they were setting up to host the world's expo in a few weeks so things were busier and more expensive that usual. I was impressed with how thin and pretty most people were there. We got our hotel and walked to a market and had some great pizza that day.
It was hard to sleep at the right times that night. It took me several days to get over my jet lag. Bob did better than I did. I was ok if we were doing things, but whenever we sat on a metro or train or anything, I fell asleep. The second day in Milan (Saturday), Bob booked a 3 hour bus and walking tour. We went to the cathedral where the Last Supper is painted, and the Scala opera house, Scorza Castle and the Galleria shopping center where the first Prada was.
After that we took a bus to Bergamo. It's a city on a hill about an hour from Milan. It's a really cute little Italian city. We rode a funicular up the hill. They had lots of shops and a cathedral and cobblestone roads. That night we took a flight to Paris. We got to our hotel about 1:00 in the morning. We stayed at a nice hotel in a great area. It was called Hotel Demeure in les gobelins. We had a couple grocery stores, a bakery, creperie, kebab place and Metro stop on our road.
Sunday was really cold and windy in the morning. We went to sacrament meeting where we sat behind a woman from Utah and a woman from Norway. They had earphones for us in English. Then we went to Notre Dame. We waited in line to go to the top of the towers. That view was awesome. We had our first french crepes across the street from Notre Dame. They weren't as amazing as I had hoped they'd be. We went to the Pantheon and Pompidou Center.
Monday, we went to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours there. It was amazing. I loved all the super decorated rooms near the Mona Lisa. We walked through the whole museum, but about hour 3, we hit fast forward and breezed through a few of the rooms. Then we walked through the jardin tuileries right outside of the Louvre. We walked to the Paris Opera House. We walked around the outside and then decided it was too expensive and wasn't included in our Paris Museum Pass and we'd already seen an opera house in Milan so we didn't go inside. Then we went to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was beautiful and so was the view. And then we went to the arc de triomphe.
We had pastries from the bakery nearby for most breakfasts. We also had Macarons there. They were awesome. Tuesday we went to musee d'orsay. We loved that one. But we also really liked that we went to the Louvre before the Orsay because we still took over 2 hours there, but if we had to do the Louvre after the smaller one, it would have felt more overwhelming. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We only took the stairs to the 2nd floor. But it was still a great view. That evening we took a river cruise on the Seine. That was cool to see all the locals come hang out by the river. We were hoping to see everything lit up, but we were just a little too early. So then we walked over to the Eiffel tower again to see it lit up. We got there just in time to see it sparkle at 10:00. That was awesome.
Wednesday, we rented a car in downtown Paris and Bob drove through those crazy streets. We drove out to Versailles. We stayed there for half the day. It was beautiful, but so super crowded. We didn't even see all of the main castle because it was so crowded. It was nice the grounds were so big. We enjoyed those and saw all of the lower houses and Marie antoinette's house. Then we drove another hour to Fresneux, France. I thought that was funny, like Fresno. We stayed at a Chateau there. Bob did an awesome job finding the place. The actual castle had mostly fallen down, but they'd restored all the side buildings and we stayed in one of those. It was beautiful and peaceful. We ate dinner there. We had pheasant and salmon and it was all delicious and french.
Thursday we drove to the airport and flew to Venice. We stayed in a great little flat outside of the main tourist area, which I loved. The tourist areas were so crowded. It was a little overwhelming. The owner of the flat met us with the keys. She talked with us for about an hour about all the politics and history of Italy. Bob was very impressive with how much he knows while he talked to her. We went out that night and walked around and had gelato and I had lasagna. It didn't have any cheese sauce in it. I don't know if that's an Italian thing or just that restaurant, but I think I like american lasagna better. We also went to St. Marks square. Being out at night I was impressed how much the sky with the ocean clouds looks like the ceiling they painted in the Venetian hotel.
Friday we took a walking tour of Venice and then rode on a gondola. There's only a limited number of actual gondoliers so to ride a gondola by yourself costs $80 for 30 minutes. We shared it with 2 other couples.
Saturday we took the water taxis to Murrano and Burano and Torcello islands. The glass and lace islands. Those were super fun. They were less crowded and fun to see. Especially Burano because the houses were so colorful.
Sunday we got up early and took a train to Milan and then flew to NYC. It was so nice to be heading back to America and closer to our kids. We got in around 7 to New York. I was so tired. It felt like 3 a.m. Bob got us a great hotel. We stayed at the Hilton on Times Square. That worked out great so we could see Times Square at night. We walked around for a while and Bob got some dinner and we went to bed.
Monday morning we got up and Bob found a place that was supposed to have good donuts that was about a 20 minute walk. That turned out to be one of my favorite things about New York. We went out about 8:30, right when everyone was walking to work. It was fun to see what that's really like for people who live there and not just all the touristy stuff we were doing. On the way back we saw a foot locker and decided to stop in because Danny had been trying so hard to get these red shoes he'd ordered for his birthday. They were backordered and then they sent the wrong ones and then they were backordered again. So we just thought we'd check it out. And they had them! It was so fun to surprise Danny with them. The rest of the morning we walked around Central Park. It was a great day for it. All the tulips were out and the trees were blooming. When we'd been in NY 12 days before, the trees all still looked dead. So it was nice to catch some Spring. We also ran into Line, from Norway while we were walking in the Park. It was such a blessing. She's a nanny there and we just happened to walk by her in this enormous park. It was fun to chat with her for a while. She also mentioned Norwegian air has cheap flights sometimes. So now we have all these grand ideas of taking our kids to Norway. Then we ate lunch at a great deli and flew home.
It was so wonderful to be home to our kids. They did great while we were gone. My mom stayed for 9 days and then Erica Kelly, a college girl in our ward, stayed the last 4 days.
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