Verona Italy

I just purchased "Letters to Juliet" on DVD and I LOVE it. I saw it when it first came out, it was just as cheesy as I thought it would be, but made me fall in love with Italy all over again. I would really love to go back to Italy. There is so much I have not seen. Maybe I will just move there and live the laid back lifestyle I would be so good at :)
But really I want to go to Verona, I want to see the house of Juliet. I want to write a letter pouring my heart out. I know, I'm pathetic. It sounds so romantic to me. So therapeutic. I'm not even sure what my letter would say but lately I can think of nothing more perfect for how I have been feeling. Maybe one day I will get there. I will sit below that balcony and write the most amazing letter. But for now, I will just blog about it

All day long just takin it easy

I love Lake Powell. My goal has been to have 1 powell trip a year and even though it was last minute, I was lucky enough to spend July 4th at Lake Powell. I barely knew anyone who was going but I had met 2 of the guys on the singles cruise this past Jan and one of the girls, Jodie, I have just gotten to know through mutual friends. There were 19 of us total and it was incredibly chill and had to be the most perfect powell trip I have ever been on. Everyone was chill and the weather was perfect, hot at night and cool in the evenings. Now I have a beautiful tan and a handful of new friends. I swear, lake powell is the best place in utah.
Jodie and I on the first day at the marina
1 of the speedboats we had and 2 of the girls out on the paddle boards. These were SO MUCH FUN!!! As soon as I have storage space I am getting me one of those
This is Kevin, the owner of the speed boat and one of the guys I met on the cruise

All the girls on the last day (well the last day for 5 of us, the others were lucky enough to stay until wed)

If you think you might come to California...i think you should

I was lucky enough to go home at the end of May to house sit while my parents were in Europe. Had a chance to catch up with some high school friends and my friend Lynsey came for about a week.

My huge obsession has to be Pinkberry, the best frozen yogurt I think I have ever had.

I even made it up to San Fran a few times. Doesnt this fruit look delicious?!
Peony's have to be one of my all time favorite flowers, Can you believe how beautiful these are?

On our last day we went to Santa Cruz to enjoy the sun and sand before heading back to utah (it snowed while I was gone)

Lynsey had never been to San Francisco so we went out to dinner, dancing, saw all the sites, and even managed to squeeze in a showing of Wicked. It was so fun, just wish we had had more time

I sure do love the Bay Area. It was the perfect mini vacation, minus puppy getting sick. Thanks for going out of town mom and dad! I will stay at Hotel Hammond anytime you are gone!

My Cruise!!!

On January 24th I boarded the Carnival Glory out of Miami. It was amazing! We had 300+ LDS singles in our group. There were 4 of us girls, me, Rosa, Debbie, and Tawni in a balcony suite. I got all the sun I could hope for, a great tan, met some amazingly cool people, and had a great escape from Utah. I wish I was still in Florida but sadly I had work on Monday and am trying to adjust to not having a full schedule. I miss my nightly comedy shows, watching the guys gamble all their money away, all I can eat all day long, Someone to clean up after me, and of course dancing the night away in the club. (im pretty sure without our group the club, "white heat", would've been dead.)

This is our dinner group on the last night. We had the coolest group of people. I must say, we were pretty entertaining. I think everyone wished they were at our table ;-)

My roomies, Rosa, Debbie, and Tawni

The casino was Egypt themed, this was my camel

Rosa and I got creative and made our own chili cheese fries...we ate till we were sick

One of the cool towel animals that was waiting for us every night when we went to bed

Cozumel

Our first stop on the trip. It was so fun! We rented scooters and headed off to the resort, Playa Mia

This is me with Chris, my dependable driver

Most of our group catching some sun at Playa Mia

Tawni and I

The girls in our group, plus Brady

The BEST Pico we have ever had, hands down

Rosa and I before boarding the ship and saying bye to Mexico

Belize

My Least favorite stop. I was off the ship maybe an hour and spent the rest of the time safely on board getting a tan. I loved the buildings and the weather but if you can't trust the cops, don't trust the city. We will leave it at that...

Honduras

When we got off the ship in Honduras it started pouring on us, so we ran for shelter and took a list of all excursions we could find that could still be done in the rain.




We settled on the Zoo and actually got a great deal for 12 of us. It was by far the coolest zoo I have ever been to. 86 animals and we were allowed to interact with almost all of them. My favorites were the Jaguar, the baby Jaguar, and the kinkajou. I couldnt believe I got to pet a 2 month old jaguar and hold the kinkajou. SO COOL!!!! I am in love and determined to find a way to own a kinkajou...yes, I want the cute little monkey critter to live with me!

Tawni feeding the monkey

My new little kinkajou friend
That is our cruise ship behind me

Some of the group with our tour guide, DeMary

Grand Cayman

Our last stop on the cruise was to the Grand Cayman. It was by far my favorite stop and I wish we had had more time. We couldnt pull all the way into port so we took a small boat to shore, where almost all 300 of us jumped on buses and went to catch yet another boat that took us out into the middle of the water, aka, stingray city! The weather was a little gloomy and we were worried the water would be cold. But when i finally got the courage to jump in, it was just perfect. The whole concept of swimming with stingrays scared me so bad. I never calmed down, even after being in the water for 20 mins. The tour guides laughed at me the whole time and called me a chicken. I guess I was screaming the whole time and would grab onto anyone in arms distance if one brushed up against me. But now I can say I did it!

The excursion took so long that we didnt have time to hit the beaches. So I guess I will have to save that for the next time I am there.

Counting down the days until this is my home for a week. LDS singles cruise, here I come!

Weekend getaways

Vegas

For memorial weekend and my good friend Nikki's birthday a few of us girls decided to head down to Vegas for some warm weather and a little escape. It was a perfect weekend! We got down there saturday afternoon and stayed till tuesday. We got a lot to eat, some good warm weather with lots of pool time, and as usual, half of Utah was there so we ran into friends everywhere we went!

Tawni, Nikki, me, Laura

Lake Powell

Last minute I decided to join my friends and head down to Lake powell for BroStock '09 (wakeboarding competition). There were 25 of us or so on the houseboat so it was a little tight but turned out to be one of the best weekends! There were about 15 houseboats lined up on our beach and the competition actually took place in front of us all. Tons of sponsers were down there giving away free stuff and people from all over the world were there to participate in one way or another. The weather was amazing, not too hot but warm enough to enjoy the water and get a good tan.

Up in the helicopter

BroStock camp

Lava Hot Springs

Another random weekend trip, I went to Idaho, to Lava hot springs, with some friends. It was so cold i would've been happy cutting the trip short. But I stuck it out! We got down there late friday night, luckily we got the tents set up before the rain started. Saturday morning we made the guys cook up breakfast, pancake, eggs, and bacon. Then headed to the river. I was very hesitant because, well lets face it, im a whimp! The girls opted for the 4 person tube so we couldnt flip, best decision of the weekend! The first few sets of rapids were crazy!!!! The guys wouldnt let us see the first rapid until we were all ready in the tube and there was no backing out. Marley the dog even ventured down the river with us, first time he swam the whole way...2nd time he ran along the shore! So yes, I bravely did it twice, there was no sun, the wind was blowing, and it would randomly start raining on us. It was COLD! Then to the hot springs, which we ended up going back to 3 times that day.

Next time I do that trip, I want sun and a scortching hot day.

Before:

After:

Lake Powell

I went down to Lake Powell for the weekend. There was a huge wakebaording competition and a ton of people. Im still trying to catch up on sleep and get my life back in order. Here is a picture, taken by my amazing friend Matt West, of the houseboat I spent most of my time on.

Yes, that is a helicopter about to land on top of the houseboat! I got to take an amazing ride and see the side of Powell you only see in pictures. I will update this soon with more pictures and stories from the trip

Bye bye Hawaii

Another vacation has come and gone and I am in a state of depression

Hawaii was amazing. Just what I needed

After my icky monday things got better. We still had a few lows, like baby Austin having a double ear infection with a fever of 103.5, but a quick trip to insta-care and we were good to go again! The girls tried snorkeling. Sophia LOVED it, Haley lasted about 3 minutes before the tears started.

James was a daddy's boy the whole week, so unless forced, he had nothing to do with me! Which was a nice change for him I am sure, he is afterall, stuck with me everyday of the week!

I got free time to lay out on the beach, shop, swim, and just relax!

I love the family I work for and I really had a great time with them, but when I had free time I realized, being alone in a beautiful place isnt all that exciting!

All in all I had a great time and feel so blessed to have gotten to go. The Taylor's were so sweet and did everything they could to make sure I had fun. Thanks Hill!!!

Now I just have to stay strong waiting for the snow to hit :(

Hawaii update

Oh how I love Hawaii...or maybe I love the idea of it! Don't get me wrong, I am loving being out of Utah and I love the beautiful island but this trip has had its ups and downs! My room is perfect, I even discovered today that I have a separate AC unit in my room...and I am blasting it cold, just how daddy likes it!

We got in Saturday evening and everything was great. We kept the kids up as late as possible

baby woke up at 4 am

the rest of the kids woke up at 5:30

I like to sleep in

No such luck

We get ready for church and I discovered I am in love with Hawaii wards. In fact I want to move here just because of the spirit I felt in that ward building. But after church we face a problem

How do you distract 3 kids from wanting to swim??

Solution: lets go for a drive!

Well this idea was a mistake!

A fun one but still not the best idea

We end up on the Hana highway

And let me say YUCK!!! Curviest rode i have ever been on. We stopped in the rain forest and saw so many beautiful things.

We should have turned around there

But no...we went all the way to Hana

Everyone was car sick and we were lucky no one threw up. I ha both girls curled up next to me with their heads in my lap.

I'm such a good pillow :)

Well later that night Haley comes out crying, and i smell throw up! ICKY

So we get her all cleaned up and she soon falls asleep on the couch. Well the next morning i wake up and feel sick to my stomach. After Violin practice we head to the pool. I am out there maybe an hour when I can't take it anymore. I bring Austin up for his morning nap and before I know it I have made a comfy spot on the bathroom floor and I have a new best friend! So all day Monday was spent in bed or in the bathroom! Not how I wanted my Hawaii trip to go.

But the sun came out today and I felt so good! I went for a jog, got some sun. Everything seemed on the up and up!

Then I got a call

Hillary had to take James to Insta-care, he had a fever of 103

Did I forget to mention that he started coughing on Sunday???

It is the worst cough I have ever heard from such a tiny man.

Well turns out he has a sinus infection!

His face was totally swollen and the sunburn was making him look worse! (while I was sick on Monday so was Hillary. She felt the same without the throwing up! So no one was really on top of the sunscreen!)

But we have medicine now and they had an amazing night of swimming and watching American idol.

Now by no means am I complaining about being out of Utah on a BEAUTIFUL island. But it sure hasn't been without incident. Now that things can only get better I cant wait for the rest of the trip!

This picture is from the first night. My little bugs all snug on Sophie's bed.

It's official

I leave saturday for Maui

Im depressed...

I really want to go to Mammoth for the weekend

But I really cant afford to take a day off work.
And if I take a day off work I really cant afford the plane ticket.
But I could really use a vacation. Sure a sunny one would be better then another snowy town.
New people and new scenery is very tempting...
So now I'm depressed which caused me to eat a package of Oreo's (one bag from the Costco pack!)

Which breaks my diet...which adds to the depression. Its a vicious cycle!

Fix it!!!!