When in Rome

Tessa and I met up in Minneapolis, MN to fly on together; through JFK to get to Rome. I had a close call with airsickness on the third flight.. but thankfully got some Dramamine down in time to just pass out the rest of the 7 hours. We landed in Rome and were picked up by our chauffeur in a Mercedes (we thought we were hot stuff, but then we came to realize that Mercedes are like the Honda of Europe.. but we still loved it!), then taken to our hotel; the Hotel de Principi. 

A concierge at the hotel gave us a map and circled all of the things we wouldn't see on our  bus tour the  next day, so we had some goals to meet. We took a taxi to the Vatican first, then walked the rest of the city, weaving in and out through streets that sometimes did and sometimes did not appear on the map we had.. Trying to avoid the speeding vespas, honking horns, and read the street names in the building sides was something all together different than experiences we've had in the US. 

Vatican City:

Deciding not to pay the seemingly hundreds of Euros for a guided tour, we walked the 15 minutes around the gate to the front of the museum entrances, paying 15 Euros each, and being able to go as fast as we needed to, to make the rest of the sites before nightfall:

The Sphere:

a hallway full of statues:

one of the many domed ceilings:

Lots of these pictures I took just to be able to stare at later, just to buy us some time... I love seeing the detail in all of these carvings:

I cannot imagine how much time it took to weave these tapestries, or to paint these walls and ceilings. I kept thinking about the law of consecration in our church, and how we are supposed to devote our time, money and talents to the efforts of the church. These artists are a shining example of that to me! (I'm not certain all of them went unpaid, but I imagine they did)

The Sistine Chapel: I thought I had missed the Creation of Adam... but can you find it? Sure glad I broke the rules and took some pictures! ha!

Winding through the streets of Rome was one of my favorite experiences of the entire trip. Something so cozy about how small the alleys and streets are, people nestled in together, with gelato shops appearing out of nowhere, and the smell of Italian cooking in the air. Everything, delicious.

Piazza Navona:

The Pantheon:

Piazza di Montecitorio

Then we passed the Piazza Colonna, but I didn't get a picture..

The Fontana di Trevi, or Trevi Fountain, was absolutely brimming with sightseers (and it wasn't even high season yet!)

He said, "Kill me! Kill me!" (the sword was pretty hefty)

What I thought were the Spanish Steps... I was wrong, and Tessa knew it!

Here are the real Piazza di Spagna, looking back from where we'd come:

We made it back to the hotel before nightfall, but still took a taxi to avoid the big park, which the concierge advised us not to walk through at night. From our hotel we could see St. Peter's Basilica, but just barely in this picture:

us mail

After the trip to Utah, I caught up on my 'correspondence' over the course of two nights.. I piled everything together and realized I might be one of the people keeping the post offices open. ha! Mont already knows to call them each 'presents' - which they are, of a sort. 

Fabergé

Anyone else notice this morning's Google Search image? I remember seeing eggs like this in my grandmother's curio cabinets in her foyer in their Bellevue home... As a little girl who dreamt of pumpkin coaches, glass slippers and all things sparkly and grand, these always held a draw for me. Don't they just look like little polly pocket carriages? See how easily my imagination was swept away by these??

We've been back in ND for about a week and a half now, and have already become used to the slow pace once more. It's nice and I've realized it feels like home after all.

Happy Faberge Day!

family pre-wedding dinner

The night before weddings, the Reeders hold a dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was a lot of fun seeing Aimee's family again; we hadn't seen them since we moved from Alaska - it was two of our worlds happily crashing together. 

This is the big bunch of parents, siblings, grandparents and sponsor parents (the Panns are honorary parents for Mark and Michael from the Air Force Academy):

Here is Mark with his Grandpa Benson, his namesake. In the background is Grandpa Benson's dad, President Benson. I still think it's so fun having a family tie to him: 

We all turned the microphone usage into a game; for every time you got up to it and told a story / piece of advice / or anything at all, you got to put your name in the jar to win another jar of a yummy mix of jelly bellies. It made it a lot more fun and we had a lot of laughs and some sappy tears. Mark and his brothers said I got the firecracker award for my 'bit of advice.' The evening was perfect, and even Aimee's dad won the draw, lucky guy:

dress up

(Emmy in a borrowed bow from Aimee, post - bridal shower; turned Emmy into a little lady from the 40's... she felt so beautiful while eating her grapes! I wish I had a video of her preening like a little peacock. Having a daughter now I find myself saying "the cutest thing" far too much!! I just love her..to pieces!)

celebrating a grand mother

The day before Mother's Day, my Aunt and Uncle usually hold a lunch to honor my Grandmother Barrett, who is standing below in her royal blue with long stranded pearls. What a woman.. today she told us the story about how she won a school fist fight cause her dad taught her how to punch. It just wasn't quite what we were expecting, but we were all smiling. 

Speaking of smiles... I do believe this is the first one of Mont EVER smiling on 'command' - and it looks like it. I love it so much! I think this is another fridge photo.. I love that he's so happy to be playing trucks with my Uncle Brett (my mom's brother). Lucas is his new best bud, too. 

In order from left to right, top row then bottom: 

Aunt Ruth, Tessa, Grandpa J, Grandma Cleia, Karsten, Emmy, Jayci, Devin, Keri, Collin 

Uncle Brett, Mont, Lucas

Then Aunt Ruth swapped with Mark, but by then Mont had lost his smile and had hijacked both trucks. 

I realized as we were in the back yard after the majority had left, that this is the only place that Mont can play where I had played as a little girl.. made me really miss the Mustang St. house even more than normal. (the mustang house is where I was a baby - 14 yrs) 

Seeing these two playing in my shadow was just so perfect for this Mother's Day weekend.. 

made me so happy. This is the weekend of nostalgia for me!! 

Too bad this is off-focus.. this little girl loves all things grown-up. Even if it's just her that thinks it's grown up. Little girls are such funny little things, aren't they?? 

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niemory lane

I'd been wanting to go to Provo for a while now to take a stroll around campus just for nostalgia's, and last night was my chance. After the kids went to bed, I drove to the little city to have a bite to eat with my roommate from when we were there at BYU.

She told me Horne Hall (I know..) was next up to be torn down to make way for the newest and nicest dorms in the state of Utah... they were beautiful! .. not these... the new ones. Just take my word for it. 

Here's Horne Hall in all it's sunset glory:

Our old dorm room... 54. Right there in that doorway was where I opened the door to Jordan and met her for the very first time! That vent in the bottom right hand corner is where we would scare people walking past with screams and monster noises.. we were the typical weird freshmen that are everywhere else in collegeland: 

Annnnnd.... can anyone guess who's house this is??? 

Holy shmokies I saw it in person! I felt like the paparazzi.. 

but I was just too excited!

pool party

Yesterday was a pool party of the best sort, with two happy kiddos splashing away. 

But just as a special treat, I got two really special photos of Emmy, showcased at the very end.. enjoy.. 

I'm sure when she's a teenager she'll wish she could burn them. 

Emmy was dancing to the beat of Mont's splashes: 

Then she saw a plane.. she loves motorized anything nearly as much as Mont:

Then things started to get whacky:

Feeling a little funny:

What sound do you think is coming out of her sweet little mouth?

Here's the cream of the crop:

FABULOUS fridge material ... for years to come, I'm sure!!