Happy Halloween!

I love this holiday! What other time of the year can I drop my kids off at school and be stopped by a crossing guard with batwings coming out of her head? What other time of the year can I see Indiana Jones skateboarding in front of my house and a pink pirate riding a scooter by? What other time of the year can I avoid dusting for a whole month and say "It's part of the decor!"?

Speaking of decor, gotta love this bunch. Every year I look forward to their annual visit.


And speaking of visits, my parents decided to hang out with us on Halloween this year. Yeah for Friday Halloweens! Here's Grandma and the girls at Gardner Village.


My ghouls have been planning their costumes for quite some time. And, with the exception of Kristina, they have coordinated with their friends.

Here's the scary bunch.


This bunch is almost too cool for Halloween. I mean it--this is the only picture they would let me take.


Here's the pretty bunch.


Here's the blonde bunch. Any other Hannah Montana and Lily's out there?


Oh, and here's another scary one---Dean, channeling his aging rock star. Monkees anyone?


So did I dress up? Actually I did. I threw on a witch hat during the school Halloween party I volunteered at. I intended to dress up as Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas to hand out candy but the trick or treaters started early and I never got the time. I promise, I didn't intend to be so boring. But someone's got to work behind the scenes.

This was Kristina's first Halloween. She was excited for the costume part but not too sure about the trick or treating part. Why would crazy Americans give out candy for free? (Why do we do this?) She hit the jackpot.


Would you look at all of this stuff? I am going to have candy wrappers all over my house for days to come.


Tomorrow, I start taking down the Halloween decor and tackling a month's worth of dusting. And before I know it, it will be time to start putting up this stuff (thanks Mom and Dad for the early Christmas gift).


But before the jolly old man starts taking over the scene, I can still relish this just a little longer. "Isn't it beautiful?!"


Happy Halloween everyone!

Family Legend---Shawn, Mitch and a Really Mean Dog

This story is the stuff of legend, at least with my kids. The story of Shawn, Mitch and the mean dog. I have shared it with my kids since they were small. I have shared it with my primary classes. I have shared it in a talk given at church. My kids have shared it in talks given at church. When I was teaching primary this last Sunday, I used this story and before I had even gotten to the good part all of my primary kids said "Oh, yeah. We remember this story." And they proceeded to listen intently as I retold it with the appropriate "OHHHHH" at the right point in the story. So let me share it with you now. Shawn and Mitch, feel free to comment if I get anything wrong. But this is how I tell it.

Meet my brothers, Mitch, on the left, and Shawn. Once upon a time, they had a very faith inspiring experience.


For whatever reason, these two missed the school bus one day and decided to walk home. First of all, considering that we lived on Overland Ave in Burley, Idaho, not necessarily a safe road, this probably wasn't their best decision. However, off they went. As they walked along, they saw a German Shepherd dog across the road. This dog was mean and he meant business. He saw lunch meat in these two boys. Well, Shawn and Mitch, realizing they were in trouble, decided to do something which was a little surprising for two boys of this age. Throw rocks at the dog, you ask? No. Run screaming and yelling as fast as they could from the scene? No. Flag down the nearest car for help? No, they'd done that once before much to my parents' embarrassment but that is a story for another day. Freeze and hope that the dog got distracted? No. These two decided to pray, right there on Overland Ave. And do you know what happened? That dog decided to attack. He ran across the road straight for those two tasty looking boys and just as they thought they were about to die, a Trans Am came along and hit and killed the dog. Now, if that isn't heavenly intervention, I don't know what is. And so, my brothers are still alive, and all of us have to say that prayer works.

Now, if you ever doubt the teaching ability of this story, let me tell you that Christian, at five, remembered this story when faced with a vicious dog. Yes, the neighbors' feisty white fluffy dog (sorry, Christian but it just wasn't as scary as a german shepherd) would terrorize the kids as they walked past the yard. One day, as Christian walked home, "Fluffy" came running only this day, the gate was open. Christian knew his leg was destined for "Fluffy's" jaws. But did he panic? No, he remembered Shawn and Mitch's story and he prayed. And guess what? The owner came out and shut the gate and saved Christian. Maybe not as powerful as a Trans Am but life saving and faith affirming all at once.

So there you have it. The family legend. And I swear, I haven't embellished. Shawn actually corrected me a while back. You see, I used to think it was a semi truck that hit the dog but he informed me it was a Trans Am. So I have adjusted my story accordingly (although I admit, I told the semi version a few times before corrected).


Aren't they cute?!

Happy Birthday Sidney!

Wow, my baby girl is 9 years old! Happy Birthday Sidney Lou Who! We love you!

Chocolat

One last picture to share from our trip to Europe and this one is my favorite. My friend, Janette, took this in the prettiest little "Chocolat" shop you've ever seen in France, near Versailles. I believe the expression on my face says it all. There is nothing quite as amazing or so sweet as chocolate in the heart of Europe. I believe that the wrapper of a Dove candy I opened once says it best, "Chocolate always loves you back."


À bientôt.

Nice, France

Our last stop on this cruise was Nice, France. Here is another place I wouldn't mind having a vacation home in. We were torn on what to do in this port. Monte Carlo was just a bus ride away and there was a lot to see in Nice as well. However, we decided to visit a medieval village called Eze instead.


This village is built on the top of a hill. It's a pretty steep climb to the top. So of course, before climbing, one must have something for strength. Baguettes, especially hot ones, are so much better in France than anywhere else.


Eze is tiny with little steep twisting streets. Villages such as this were not for the feeble. Heaven help the handicapped or the elderly in the medieval days.


We discovered that there was a hotel in this tiny village. We peeked inside of one of the rooms. Very nice. And when we checked out the prices, we found that if you want to visit from January to March, it is actually very reasonable. It would be fun to come back and spend a night in this place. If you ever come, know that there is a bell boy to bring your luggage up the hill. Just make sure you are generous with your tip.

After Eze, we toyed with the idea of taking a bus to Monte Carlo but decided to head back into Nice. We were short on time so we decided to just go and see what we could see in about an hour. We made it to the shore and touched the Mediterranean.


We had a teenage boy in our group so we ventured ahead to make sure the beach was safe for teenage viewing. This beach was pretty mild. Other than a naked two year old, not much to see much to the relief of the teenager's mother.

Near the beach was an open air market. It was fun to just wander. Flowers everywhere. Nice is known for its flowers. And there were vegetables, spices, and pastries. We bought some of these and they were yummy.



I can't tell you much more about Nice because after wandering the market, we had to catch a bus back to the port to get on the cruise ship. Of all the ports, this was the port I felt that we saw the least in.

And thus our cruise ended. The morning after Nice, we docked back in Barcelona and then flew home. It was an amazing once in a life time trip and I am so glad we were able to go. But now back to real life, work, laundry, etc. It's good to be home to the kids but oh, I don't look forward to worrying about what to eat each night. Wish my home had a cruise ship dining room and buffet where we could all go whenever we were hungry.

Florence and Pisa, Italy

Our next stop, Tuscany! Yes, we docked at a little city called Livorno in the part of Italy known as Tuscany. I can't even tell you how beautiful our drive was from Livorno to Florence. Green hills, vineyards, olive tree orchards. Here is a view of our future vacation home.



Don't you all want to come and visit us here someday?

Florence was amazing. Our driver in Rome had told us that Florence was like an outdoor museum. He was so right. Here we were in the city where the Renaissance flourished.



Everywhere you turned there was something interesting to see. We started off the day by climbing the bell tower of this church (I think this is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. I wish I could tell you for sure but by this point in the trip, all of the church names were blending into one).



414 steps later...,



we had a breathtaking view of the city. Here is the top of the cathedral viewed from the bell tower.



We even watched a student protest come into the piazza below from the bell tower(they were protesting cuts in university funds).

We didn't spend any time in museums here. We had decided that instead of visiting museums, we would just wander the streets since Florence is much like an open air museum. The bridge behind us is the Ponte Vecchio.



It is known as the "Old Bridge" and is in fact the oldest bridge in the city. It is full of little shops. Here is one of the shops.



Looking pretty old isn't it? I was dying to go inside one of the apartments above these shops. I really wanted to see what it was like.

Here in the piazza by the Uffizi Museum, we saw a whole assortment of statues.



The copy of Michelangelo's David stands here. The original stood here once but was eventually moved to the Galleria dell'Accademia museum. We decided to just see the copy and unfortunately, found it under scaffolding. Had we known this in advance, we would have paid to go to the museum to see the original. Many of our friends who went there commented on how amazing it was.

When we entered the piazza in front of the Santa Croce church we saw this building covered with paintings.



As I said, it's like an open air museum here.

Here is the Santa Croce church.



Inside Santa Croce, we saw the tombs of Galileo, Dante (although he's not actually buried here), and Michelangelo. The three mourning women on Michelangelo's tomb represent architecture, painting and sculpture.



We ran out of time in this beautiful city. On our way back to the ship, we drove to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower.



And of course, we had to take this picture along with every other tourist there (notice the man in the background doing the same thing).



I did one too. It's cheesy I know but isn't it a requirement of visiting Pisa? We wanted to climb the tower but only so many people can go up at a time so you have to purchase tickets for a certain time. The next available time was at 5:00 and we had to leave at that time to get back to our ship. Once again, something for another trip.

Rome, Italy

The day after Naples, we arrived in Rome. So little time, so much to see.

We started our day out at the Vatican. We had hired a tour guide for a three hour tour. Thank heaven we did because Luisa kept us on track. Without her, we would have wandered aimlessly and spent the whole day here and still not seen everything that could have been seen. Luisa helped us catch the major highlights. Here is a view of the garden. St. Peter's Basilica is visible.



I took so many pictures here and I can't even begin to share them. Here though is a shot of what was once the library. Picture desk after desk of priests studying here.



The Sistine Chapel was definitely the highlight of the tour. We saw Michelangelo's beautiful ceiling and his painting of the Final Judgment. We were not allowed to take any pictures in the Sistine Chapel so I don't have any to share. But take a minute and google it and learn a bit about it. It was very impressive.

St. Peter's Basilica was closed to the public while we were here because of a commemorative event (the anniversary of the death of one of the Popes). I was disappointed we didn't get to go inside but we did take some pictures in the Piazza in front of the Basilica. We saw the Pope on the big screen outside as he was officiating.






After the Vatican, we went to a little Pizzeria by the Pantheon. Okay, this place was awesome. You walk in, select a pizza, they cut you a big old slab, weigh it, fold it up and wrap it in paper and hand it to you. It was delicious. As we sat outside eating it, I thought, "Here we are, eating pizza next to the Pantheon. How cool is this?!"



After pizza, we looked around the Pantheon. Amazing.



And I listened to this man play his violin outside. I gladly tipped him before taking his picture. This is one of my favorite photos from the day.



Then it was on to the Trevi Fountain. It was so crowded here, not at all like I had pictured it from "Roman Holiday". Dean and I did throw a coin in so hopefully, we'll be back to Rome again.



Because the day was such a whirlwind, we drove by a few other sights and then went to the Colosseum. Amazing. Outside the Colosseum...



Inside...



We were almost out of time when we exited the Colosseum but we did have a few minutes to wander around the Forum.



I so wished for more time here. Rome wasn't built in a day, it shouldn't be visited in just one day either. Again, Dean and I will have to come back someday.

Naples, Italy--Herculaneam, Sorrento

We had hardly rested up from our day in Valleta when we were in Italy. Our first stop was Naples. First of all, can I say that the drivers in Naples are insane? We saw a mother driving down the street on a scooter with her toddler in front of her, both without helmets. When someone in our van commented on it to the taxi driver, he said, "That is nothing. Wait until you see a mother, father, and two or three kids on a scooter." We also saw a scooter and car accident. Both seemed to come out okay. Thank goodness most of the cars are tiny like this Fiat.



By the way, Dean is now on the lookout for an old Fiat. If you know of one, let him know.

Nearby Naples is Pompeii, the city buried in ash in 79 AD by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. On the other side, closer to Naples, is Herculaneum (Ercolano in Italian) that was buried by lava in that same eruption. Herculaneum was actually discovered first and the archeologists thought it was Pompeii. It was later they discovered the true Pompeii. Pompeii is huge. Herculaneum is not so huge, only because several apartment buildings were built around it and it is not possible for them to excavate further without tearing down the buildings. Herculaneum was a resort town. We decided to visit this one because of the time factor. It was pretty amazing. You could see mosaics, paintings, tile work that was preserved. We were only supposed to spend two hours here but were all so fascinated that we ended up staying there for three.



The only downside to three hours in Herculaneum were that we didn't have time to drive all the way down the Coast of Amalfi as planned. However, we did make it to Sorrento which was beautiful. Here are the bunch of us on the way to Sorrento.




At this overlook, we found all sorts of locks. I guess this is how you declare your undying love. You drive up on the coast, put your names and date on a lock, lock it to something and throw the key in the ocean. All is great as long as you don't break up (grin).



In Sorrento, we ate pizza. Since pizza was founded in Naples, we figured we should have it here. Very different from American pizza but also very good.



In Sorrento, we happened upon this little wood makers shop. He makes wood inlaid boxes. We bought Sidney and Kristina music boxes here. This man has been making these for 20 years, his father for 60.



Sorrento had some amazing wood work. I found a nativity that I would have loved. But everything is very expensive here, cheaper than Rome, but still very expensive. Not quite sure how these people afford to live.

Once again, Dean and I are going to have to come back here. We didn't make it to Capri or Positano which we would have loved to have seen. This is the downside to a cruise because the time is so limited. But hey, it's still amazing to have been here.