Valentine's 2011

After a lovely Anniversary, I took up the plans for Valentine's Day. Valentine's really hasn't meant too much to me for most of my life but now that our wedding anniversary is so close to it, it really makes it more special for me. Plus the colors remind me of my wedding red, white and black too! So normally I may not have thought too much about this day, I think now I will usually want to celebrate a bit more so we can just lengthen our anniversary out that much longer...

Last year we had sushi so this year I took us to a Indian Restaurant for chicken curries! We loved the atmosphere and it was crowded but less crowded than the normal food chains. And curry is one of my absolute favorites (David loved it too I hope, although I totally ate more than him, go me) - YUM!

Then we came home and I secretly decorated with some fun purchases. I bought Italian Soda syrup, sparkling water, cinnamon candy... David's been talking about the soda for awhile and I finally found the syrup. David gave me flowers before the dinner - so sweet :) - it was a lovely night together again.

(The glasses above were from our family dinner the night before our wedding - David's sweet cousins bought them for a memory ... what a great idea!)

2-12-11

HAPPY 1 YEAR OF BEING MARRIED!!!!

Yep, we hit our 1st Anniversary finally!  (2-12-10) Marriage is so great, it feels like we've been married forever in a good way...  We're still new at this but we love it all.  We celebrated with a lovely weekend in Midway, we didn't get too many pictures but we did find this great ice sculpture stuff - spraying water in the air and it turns out like this - crazy!

David planned the whole thing and spoiled me like crazy.  We had dinner at the same Bear Restaurant as last year, tried to stay at the same place (now it's a drug rehab place - ahahahah!) and just enjoyed no school/work.  David also took me to the Outlet Mall in Park City and we shopped as he purchased - I never would have thought of that idea for our anniversary but I loved it so much!

Thanks David for being the BEST husband and for a whole year together... and many more to come....

Ostia, Italy "End"

Our last stop.... Ostia Italy, a city where David served and also very close to the airport. We took the train from Naples to Rome (grabbed some Gelato and gifts) and then the metro to Ostia. Ostia is on the west coast with a beach :). Our hotel was right on the street of beach property. The hotel's got worse and worse as we kept traveling - smoke etc so we weren't too impressed. It was New Year's Day so most stores were closed, but we walked the beach shores and found a good calzone place too!

We went to bed early so that we could catch the earliest flight the next morning. We were there 2-3 hours before the flight left, but waited in lines the whole time barely making our flight, and not sitting together at all!! We have no luck with airports these days!!?!?! I was pretty upset not to fly 12 hours next to David, but we survived with movies and movies and a quick meet up in the isle...

Now we're back - what a wonderful vacation!!! Couldn't have asked for anything more, except that we didn't have to go back to work and school... we wish... :)

Napoli, Italy

So we made it to Napoli after a 2 1/2 hour train ride south and a few metro's to the upper area that was a bit less shady... (Wed Dec 29th). We didn't have too much time before it was dark, and David's first coaching words when we arrived were: Keep to yourself, don't look at anyone in the wrong way, or provoke anyone... So, I was on my guard and a bit nervous the whole time we were there!! But he kept me in the safer areas luckily :) Here's our hotel - it was bigger than all the others and they upgraded us later too!

We walked around as the evening started and even took a ride on the Funicular - this is an rope train that goes back and forth up and down the hill and there are two that counter act and pull one up or down, etc. It is pretty awesome and there's a famous song that we all know that actually is about it! I'd have to hum it to you for you to even know that you know it...

That first night, and basically all the nights in Napoli stores closed early and we also went in early just to keep it safe, since it was close to New Years and either people were celebrating or possible fireworks :) (we'll get to that). Napoli is a crazy city. Napoli is a coastal city - it is in a valley sort of, the lower area is filled with masses of people, more of the poor area, lots of little shops, center of the city, train station etc. One side is higher up where we stayed - below is the view from the upper area - our hotel and a bit further up area too... The upper area is a nicer area with more strip mall and grocery stores rather than the small walk markets down at the bottom. The other side is actually a volcano! It erupted many many years ago and the people continue to live closer and closer to it, funny! Here's the view from the top:

Here are some Napoli views during the days - I loved finding cute buildings, or castles or the ocean! There were castles all over the place, in the top or bottom of the area.

Here's a view from the water - and even some fishermen with the freshest fish sale you can get....

Napoli is more of the bottom city. They drive crazy and honk for turn signals - they go so fast they don't care about pedestrians. The streets are dirty too - they let the trash go in the streets till either the trucks pick it up or they just burn it!

After walking in the lower areas we found a Catholic church (while in Rome I thought the Catholic churches felt "different" but it was pretty at least) - well in Napoli I actually felt the spirit a bit in this church - probably since it was such a bad area anything felt better! So here's what it looked like:

And... you can't forget the real Italian Wood Oven Pizza!!!! So we ate this at least 3-4 times, once at the place where it was first created... Here's us eating it and taking a break :)

Most evenings we came home early as the town shut down for New Years Eve events. David showed me a lovely tradition of Pandoro cake (where you buy in a bag, add powdered sugar and shake) and red Fanta :) We watched our iPod movies, played banana grams, and even napped in the evenings.

New Years Eve we headed out for the best fireworks show ever! David had brought me here at this time just for the fireworks- yep, I'm a fan! It was actually pretty scary as every person is allowed to by the huge show fireworks and let them off. We were careful as we walked to our lookout and watch the fireworks from below shooting off in all directions. The people don't really care where they aim or who they hit! (No joke people died that night and every year!).... Anyway, it was very nice of David to think and bring me there :) We enjoyed as much as we could and made it back to sleep safely too.

The next morning we were up early and headed back to Rome and to Ostia for our last night... Vacation almost over, wow, it went fast.

Rome, Italy

We arrived at Rome Christmas afternoon and David took me straight to the Trevi Fountain that has several statues by Michelangelo - we actually stayed right by it in a place called Barberini.  After four days there, it really felt like home and I was starting to know my way around.  Still, didn't speak to anyone but David so that was limited, but Rome is amazing!  It's a definite tourist place, shops all over with little tourist statues, shirts, food, etc.  We stayed right next to David's favorite tie place (we definitely bought more for his tie collection), next to a really good gelato place, and even next to our dinner out for Christmas!

So we had our first Italian pasta dinner on Christmas at a wonderful restaurant.  But, we have to tell you that food in Italy is expensive!!  Not only do you pay for the meal, but the bread/appetizers are like 6 Euro, the water 3 Euro, sitting at a table 5 Euro.... we still are amazed and missed the free-ness of America for that part.

Next up was Sunday (Dec 26th) and we took this as a more relaxing day.  My luggage came the night before, and David's Sunday night - so I wore a dress, David his jeans.  He got to see several families and friends in the small ward.  I had a translator there to help too!  We decided to visit the temple site location for the soon to be Rome Italy Temple.  It's a huge, very nice and green lot that I can just imagine a great temple being there.  It's not right in the old city/tourist part, but still in a nice area.

 Above are the gates onto the lot and it shows our LDS church as the property owners and that we started building on the lot this fall 2010.

 Monday was the "pack in as much as you can from the top to the bottom of the old Rome sites!!!"  David had it all planned out and to be honest, I was pretty nervous.  It had and was still cold, but I had my jacket now and hand warmers so it was only my feet that froze.  We started at the Trevi Fountain, then up to the Spanish Steps, down to the twin churches, the 3 fountains, the Parthenon, then to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Rome Forum and the Colosseum.  We walked to all and then took the metro to St. Paul's Church.

The Trevi Fountain - we lived about a 5 min walk from here

The Spanish Steps - there were tons and tons from the bottom to top of city - this was the most north part of our Monday walk around Rome...

 Here we are in Piazza del Poplolo - where the twin churches are in the picture below.  This is actually where the Rome riots were the weekend before we were in Rome...  The flowers above have a story... they were given to me by a peddler who just wanted $$ for us to by them for me - he gave us three and we kept telling him no.  Finally he said they were free but after he took our picture and we didn't give him Euro's still, he took them back!  haha, everyone is trying to get money here as it is a poorer area after the Euro's took over.

 Below are just a couple pictures of the 3 fountains area - Piazza Navona.  It's an outdoor plaza with these 3 big fountains throughout it and lots of vendors put their carts up all around.  This was in the movie Angels and Demons where the one guy almost drowned.

Here's the Parthenon from the outside - they're always maintaining their structures so there's always construction.  The inside is the cool part, if you know history this circular hall was created with a hole at the top and I believe one of the first especially w/out pillars to hold the inner part up!

 Tomb of the Unknown Solider WWII fixture below

 Here's a church artifact - below is David standing above the jail where the Apostles Peter and Paul were when they wrote some of their letters to the different groups of people - in our bibles!

Above is the entrance to the Roman Forum - this is the historic area that Rome has kept artifacts, parts of building structures, etc from "b.c."!  It was amazing to see the wide open area that used to have full buildings, and at least Rome still had some.  Wars destroyed a lot and they tried to re-build what they could.

 These are some of the many cobble stones laid many many years ago...

 If you look closely above you can see where we're headed to... the Colosseum!!  It was great, everyone said it wasn't as big when close up, but I still felt pretty small next to it.  This was their area of the time and they would fight animals, fill up with water, etc.

 And lastly was Paul's Cathedral.  The statues of the apostles were great, Peter held the keys, and each had an antidote relating to them.  And inside we didn't take too many but it's a large church with Paul's tomb, all the past Pope's pictures, and many many drawings.

 

 

 These places were amazing!  My favorite was seeing the Rome Forum with all the ruins and also the Colosseum since I've seen that in movies and pictures forever.  I also really liked the church that is David's favorite - they built it after Paul died and brought his tomb there along with many other church things that seem similar to our day...  We made it back to our hotel by 2ish and crashed until we went back out for dinner and gelato (Gelato every day!!)

Tuesday we bought tickets to the Vatican Museum and spent the day looking at art and the Vatican City.  I can't believe all the art they have in that museum and some of the most famous paintings like the School of Scholars by Rafael.

 This is a picture by Rafael that has to be kept in a very cold room...

 These are tombs found

 Above and below - they have full long rooms with tapestries above, and maps, below

Below is a full wall mural that Rafael did - The School of Scholars - amazing!

 And of course, the Sistine Chapel with full art throughout the room done by Michelangelo - this is Rome's temple, like LDS, except they let visitors in all day.  Kind of strange to me!  But it was fascinating, very hot with the crowds of people, and trying to keep looking up at the ceiling for the God touching Adam's hand, etc...

 And outside of the museum and chapel is the Vatican City....

 Awe.... cute couple

We also saw St. Angelo's castle (above) ... at this point the movie Angels and Demons sure does come to life (we watched that around New Year's Eve and it was fun knowing we were just there!!)  Gelato and dinner again along with the Trevi Fountain and shopping for souvenirs.

David's so cute! Here are some of our favorite sandwich and gelato shops!!...

Wednesday we left our luggage at our hotel (on purpose) and headed to Naples... Napoli for a few days. Its a bit more shady so we decided not to drag our huge suitcases all over the place, it was a good idea.  On to Napoli....