Numbers from our trip to Europe 2011

I love our tradition of counting up events that happened after a trip and remembering our favorite moments. The trip went by in a flash and now it just feels like a blur or a distant memory, even though it was only a couple of weeks ago! Mom was saying that she looks at pictures of the places we have been, like Venice, and still she can't believe that we were actually there, as if it were all just a dream. Thank goodness we bought a ton of souvenirs so that we have proof that it wasn't a dream! Here are our numbers from the trip:

# of countries visited: 4 (England, France, Italy, and the Vatican)
# of cities visited: 5 (London, Paris, Rome, Vatican city, and Venice)
# of nights on the trip: 12
# of plane flights: 5
# of hotels: 2 (London and Paris)
# of monasteries we stayed at: 1 (Rome)
# of Bed & Breakfasts we stayed at: 1 (Venice)
# of train rides (not including public transportation): 3
# of boat rides: about 6 (we did one in Paris and a lot in Venice)
# of scoops of gelato: a lot, but we are thinking about 8 per person for the whole trip (WOW!)
# of slices of pizza: 4 per person
# of crepes: 4
# of pastries: can't count that number because we all had a ton, but some liked the pastries more than others
# of plays seen: 1 (The Lion King in London)
# of times Jason got lost: 0 # of times Lisa, Mom, and Dad got lost: well... let's just say we aren't as good as Jason and leave it at that
# of scarves bought: 26 (20 for mom and 6 for Lisa. We went a little crazy with them and mom kept seeing ones she liked so we would go on hunts to find them)
# of stairs climbed: probably over a thousand- and we felt every single one!
# of tired feet at the end of the trip: all 8 (we were exhausted!)

Favorites from Each Location:

LONDON
Mom: Walking across Tower Bridge
Dad: Westminster Abbey and seeing the grave of Charles Darwin
Jason: The British Library and the Ceremony of Keys
Lisa: Being back in London and seeing "The Lion King" with British accents!

PARIS
Mom: Seeing and climbing up the Arc de Triomphe and pastries
Dad: Spending time in the Louvre
Jason: Seeing Van Gogh at Musee de Orsay
Lisa: Walking around the Eiffel Tower at night

ROME/VATICAN
Mom: Good weather at the Colosseum
Dad: Seeing the Pantheon
Jason: Vatican City- the whole thing
Lisa: Sitting and enjoying the Sistine Chapel and gelato

VENICE
Mom: All of the boat rides
Dad: Seeing St. Mark's square
Jason: Climbing up the Bell Tower in St. Mark's square
Lisa: Sunset out on an island looking on to Venice

We still have plently to show and tell from this trip so don't think that we are done just yet!

Favorite Picture Friday: March 25th, 2011

Venice

As you have probably guessed by now, Jason and I have made it safely home from our trip. After a long flight home we all were so glad to see our own bed and slept great- despite the fact that we had to get up and go to work the next day. Just as Jason and I travel without stopping, we work just as hard as well. So that's why I haven't had time to post pictures from our last stop on our trip: Venice.
Venice was such an amazing place to see. It was so surreal that every time we turned a corner and saw a canal with boats and bridges we had to stop in awe. There is something magical and mysterious about Venice. We would walk around talking about how the existence of the city defies logic, but yet there we were enjoying the food and the scenery. Here are a few pictures from our time in Venice. More to follow.

The Rialto Bridge- probably on of the most famous bridges in the world, and definitely the most famous bridge in Venice.

Jason looking at the sunset over the water on our last night in Venice. Such a bittersweet moment because it was actually our last night on our trip. In this picture we are actually on a different island looking back on to Venice. We loved visiting the other islands nearby.

There was something so romantic about Venice.

A picture of St. Mark's square. One of the most beautiful things about Venice was the architecture of the city. The center of town was no exception.

Rome

Even though at this point we have already visited Rome and Venice and are on our way home I am trying to catch up on posts and atleast give you some pictures from those places. Rome was impossible to do anything with the internet because they didn't offer any at our monestary. That's right, we spent our 3 nights in Rome at a monestary! We were also located just outside the Vatican walls, so how much more appropriate could we be? You might think that it would have been an usual experiment, but we had a blast staying there and it was one of my favorite places we have ever stayed. The nuns that ran the place didn't speak a word of English, so my broken Italian and gestures were enough to figure everything out. The rooms were incredibly clean and we were just a 5 minute walk from the Vatican and seeing St. Peters square and cathedral.See the pictures below.

The name of our monestary where we stayed. It honestly was one of the coolest experiences we've ever had.







Here we are in St. Peter's Square in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. The balcony behind us is where the Pope resides.






Inside St. Peter's Cathedral. Probably one of the most beautiful, elaborate, and outrageous cathedrals we have ever seen!

We saw everything in Rome, from the Vatican Museum that includes the Sistine Chappel, the Colossuem, the Roman Forums, the Pantheon, Castle San' Angelo, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, a ton of pizza and of course so much gelato that I don't think we can look at any ice cream again.

Inside the Colosseum. What an iconic site to see on such a beautiful, sunny day.

Down below the main floor of the Colosseum.

Jason and Lisa at the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Getting gelato- honestly I don't remember what time of the day or where this picture was taken at, because no matter where we were in the city we were eating gelato... and loving it!!

Just a quick shot of some pizza that we sampled in Rome. Delicious!!

Bonjour from Paris

We arrived safely in Paris. We took the chunnel train to Paris and arrived yesterday morning to a beautiful spring day in the City of Lights. As usual, we didn't want to waste a single second so we started running around the town hitting all of the main highlights.

Our rooms are wonderful and in a great location- down the street and take a left from the Eiffel Tower! Seriously- it's like a distant neighboor.

The food is also wonderful here, as well. We made the mistake of showing Mom where a bakery is next to the hotel, and now all she can talk about is how to get some of the pastries back to everyone at home. I think if she tried to bring some back, they wouldn't even make it to the airport because everything is so delicious!

We've spent some time at 2 of our favorite art museums: Musee de Orsay and the Louvre. There is never enough time here to see all that we want to view.

Here is just one picture of us outside the Louvre, but I promise that once we are done we will do major posts about stories and include tons of pictures and videos.






One of my favorite parts so far was being able to see the Eiffel Tower at night. The last time we were in Paris Jason and I saw it first thing in the morning, but Mom and Dad wanted to see it at

night. All I can say is that we missed something so magical and wonderful. I remember thinking that the Eiffel Tower was this huge, impressive work of art that I greatly admired, but seeing it at night just makes you think how beautiful it is and it makes you fall in love with it- and with the one you are kissing under it! This video is when we were going for a walk at night and we are within a walking distance of the tower and I forgot that the sparkling lights happened so I was so shocked when I saw this:

London

Hello from London! It has been such a wonderful trip so far. Obviously we have made it safe and sound and are showing my parents the way London works. I just love London and how we get the convenience of modern day luxuries but we also get a historical experience around every corner. We haven’t even had time to stop to post some pictures, but here are a few to wet your appetite for when we get home and can post some more and tell the stories in full.

Here we are in front of Portobello Road, made famous in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Here we are enjoying the British Museum after viewing the Rosetta Stone.

Here we are shopping in one of the best shopping streets in London, Camden Locks.

This is a picture of all of us near Westminster in Parliament Square with Big Ben in the background.


In this picture you can see the great view from the London Eye. On the Eye you can see almost all of the major sites in London. We love going on the Eye and going on a long and relaxing journey with a 360 degree view of the city. The funny thing is that we actually got stuck in our little pod capsule for a few extra minutes. It was anything we were worried about because we got more than our money’s worth out of the trip.

Honestly there are so many great stories from just this one part of the trip that we will have a lot of writing to do when we get the time- which means you won’t get to know until after the trip. Tomorrow (today actually since it is 12:30am) we are waking up in a few hours to jump on the train for Paris. Hopefully our schedule will allow for more blog posts. Cheers!

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Favorite Picture Friday: March 4th, 2011

Hi! So, Lisa normally gets to do this, but I got to the computer before she did today. So, I wanted to post a map of where we are going. You can see the cities with the general route we are taking to get there. We like the call our trip a "Quick Sprint Through Europe." We are starting in London, then moving on to Paris, then Rome, and finally ending up in Venice. The other exciting feature to our trip is what we are taking with us. It's not luggage or anything of that sort- it's Betty and Barry. We love traveling and we are glad that they are willing to let us show them Europe. We are getting ready to go, so we may not be able to post anything else before the trip, so definitely look for updates from Europe!

View Trip Cities in a larger map

Month in Review: February

I can't believe it is already March! It feels like Christmas was just a couple of weeks ago, but now we are heading towards Springtime. Also, now that it is March it is really starting to set in that we are getting ready to leave on our trip to Europe in just a few days. It usually doesn't fully hit me that we are leaving until we are on the plane.
Anyways, we have decided to start a new monthly blog post called "Month in Review." Each month I look through the pictures we've taken and laugh at all of the random ones that didn't make it on the blog. So, at the end of each month we will post those photos that deserve some recognition.


Here is cute Drew who just won a ton of tickets at Pirate Pizza. Whenever there is a school holiday, we usually end of eating lunch at Pirate Pizza, our nephews favorite place to eat. Their new thing is to win as many tickets as possible in the game room. Obviously they are quite good at this!

During President's Day weekend we had our cousins come down and enjoy the warm weather. We all had a big dinner that was concluded with watching our nephews and the cousins playing games and making us all laugh.
Here is Melissa in her pillow fort we built.

Melissa and Aubrey playing catch.

When I attended my conference up in Ogden I was lucky enough to go hang out with my brother, Easton. He took me on a tour of Ogden, we played games at his house, and we also went and played minature golf. Here are some pictures of where we went and played that was decorated like the ocean and pirates. Pretty cool!

Easton making a winning shot. He totally killed me!

Earlier this month we went and saw the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when they performed at Dixie State College. It was so amazing! The best part of the whole performance was when Mayor Dan went up and performed "Are you from Dixie" with the rest of the choir.

Finally here is a picture of the gang going shooting. Honestly I don't even remember when this was, but it is most likely some weekend morning that we needed to get out.

February was a fast and fun month, where Jason and I were busy doing everything from the Parade of Home to traveling to Price for a baby blessing. We hope you had a wonderful month as well and are looking forward to another great month.