Barcelona, Spain

Asleep in the lobby waiting for our rooms

The fountain and light show



Gaudi's House of Masks

Some columns in the Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia... It is SOOO large we couldn't get a shot of the whole thing

Gaudi's interpretation of the Nativity Scene

Mom and I decided to go a day earlier than the cruise began so that we could have a tour of Barcelona. The day we got to Barcelona was a very interesting one. We arrived in the early morning but the hotel wouldn't allow us to check into our rooms until 4pm. Mom and I were EXHAUSTED after our 12 hour flight to Barcelona and we couldn't keep our eyes open. A lot of the group that came a day early with us went out sightseeing but mom and I were WAY too tired. We crashed in the hotel lobby until our rooms were ready :) Once they were ready we went straight upstairs and fell asleep. When we woke up we weren't sure how long we had slept. We knew it was 6:00 but we didn't know if it was 6 that night or 6 the next morning because it was slightly dark outside. We finally figured out that it was only 6 that night so we decided to go out on the town. We really wanted to call home and let our husbands know that we had made it but finding a phone was an adventure in and of itself! We spent two hours trying to find an international phone card. First, we went into a little convenience store and asked a man if he sold phone cards, he didn't speak very good English but he seemed to understand what we wanted. He handed us a phone card and told us we could call home with it. Then, we told him that we wanted to buy food and all of a sudden he could speak perfect English! We thought this was slightly odd but realized later that we had been ripped off. After searching for an hour for a phone that would let us use the card he sold us we found out that the card he gave us wouldn't allow us to call to the U.S. What a slime ball! So we found someone who did speak English (which was nearly impossible) and he showed us the card we needed and what phone we needed to use for it. I finally got to talk to Rick! That was wonderful. Mom called Dad and got the update from home and then we headed over to the famous light and fountain show that Barcelona has. The next morning we went on a tour of the city and saw some incredible architecture done by Antoni Gaudi. We saw his House of Masks, his Park Guell and the famous Sagrada Familia. I cannot believe what an amazing architect he was, his taste is not exactly my style, but I can definitely appreciate his style. After our tour of Barcelona we boarded the ship and were off!

Malta

Malta was very beautiful, almost everything was white. This is mom standing outside of the city entrance.

A view of the Maltese coastline from my cabin balcony

St. John's cathedral... we weren't allowed to use our flash inside the cathedral so the pictures we got are really poor quality but I still wanted to show a few different views of the amazing cathedral

The whole floor was lined with these beautiful tombs. They painted very detailed pictures on each tomb.

The whole cathedral had very intricate gold carvings

This is a picture of me outside of the Cathedral in the courtyard.

Our very first port was in Malta, it is an island off of Greece. Mom and I didn't book an excursion this day, we decided to take it easy and just sight-see on our own. It was a very beautiful island. We visited St. John's cathedral and went into many shops on the main street on the island. We were very impressed with how well the natives there spoke English, one guy even helped me find a phone that I would be able to call my hubby on....that made me like the island even more :)

Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri

Mt. Vesuvius...this is a view from our Cabin balcony when we first pulled into the dock.

Mom in front of the "Town Square" in Pompeii

Me in front of the "Town Square" in Pompeii

More Ruins

A plaster cast of a victim of Mt. Vesuvius


This stop was a lot of fun. First, we went to see the city of Pompeii. Pompeii is a Roman city that was buried and completely destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. I was SOOO excited to see Pompeii because I had just finished teaching my students all about Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii the week before. I was fascinated by the city and the architecture. They were very ahead of their times. Many buildings were still standing and were very solid. After we spent a few hours in Pompeii we headed over to Sorrento and had a wonderful Italian lunch. We then got on a clipper (a fast boat) and went to the island of Capri.

ROME!

The Colosseum!!


The inside of the Colosseum


The amazing Trevi Fountain


St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican

A view of the Vatican, this is where the Pope comes out once a week and addresses his people.


Okay so this day was AMAZING! We docked in Rome at 7 am and didn't leave until 7 pm. It was a full day of walking around and me and my pregnant body was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day! We had a blast though and saw so many incredible things that you have only read and heard about. It was so exciting to actually see the history I had learned about my whole life! We started out at the Colosseum , then we headed over to the Trevi Fountain, saw many exciting things like the Spanish Steps and then headed to the Vatican. The Vatican was absolutely AMAZING, my very favorite part of the whole day was the Sistine Chapel. This was so beautiful and I just cannot believe that a mortal man made this awesome creation, Michelangelo was truly a gifted and talented man!

Florence and Pisa

Funny story... Mom and I were shopping in the marketplace in Florence and taking goofy pictures with all of the Italian leather and these two Italian guys saw us and said, "Take our pictures! We are famous Italians!" My mom laughed and said, "Okay." But when she pulled the camera up to her eye they said, "No! She needs to be in it too!" So I got my picture with the two famous Italian boys in the marketplace...I was hoping I would meet someone famous on my trip :)

Mom with an Italian leather purse

Me holding my shopping bags...look at all the Italian leather purses in the background! So fun!

The Duomo, a famous cathedral in Florence


The beautiful cathedral in Pisa, including the Leaning Tower

The Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Buying Pinocchio souvenirs for my fourth grade students. When I told the lady I wanted 25 keychains, she didn't believe me :)


Our next stop was in Florence and Pisa, Italy. This day was absolutely incredible! We started out visiting a beautiful cathedral in the center of Florence and then mom and I did a lot of shopping. We heard that Florence had the best shopping of all of the stops and boy did we hear right! This is where we got almost all of our souvenirs for home. After we shopped for a while the group headed to see The David statue done by Michelangelo. This was one of the most incredible things that I have EVER seen and also one of the most emotional things that I have ever been through. I know, I sound like a huge dork.. I mean, who gets emotional over a statue right? Well, me. I can't believe how beautiful The David was. It seems almost impossible that a human carved that out of stone! I absolutely LOVED this part of our trip. We weren't aloud to take pictures of The David so sadly there aren't any on here, it doesn't matter though, pictures just don't do it justice. After we saw David we went to Pisa and saw the leaning tower. It was so cool! You grow up your whole life hearing about the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and it was so surreal that I was actually standing in front of it!

Just an aside...the author of the original Pinnochio was born in Florence, Italy so there were Pinnochio figurines everywhere! I decided to bring a Pinnochio souvenir home to my students. I searched all day and finally found the cutest little key chain Pinnochios, the last picture is of me buying them!

Nice, Villefranche, and Monte Carlo

Our last day we visited Nice, Villefranche, and Monte Carlo. It was so much fun visiting the famous Casino Royale in Monte Carlo! The gardens surrounding the casino were beautiful and breathtaking. Mom and I spent a long time taking pictures in the gardens of the flowers, fountains, and ducks! The top picture is of mom standing in front of the famous casino, the middle one is of me in Nice and the bottom one is of me outside of the Casino Royale.

Baby Girl at 21 Weeks

Okay, now here are my 21 week ultrasound pictures. We discovered at this appointment that she is just like her daddy and is a tummy sleeper. She just nuzzles her nose straight down and sleeps on her tummy. The doctor even took a pic of her little foot, it is from the bottom like you are looking at the sole of her foot, her heel is in the air and her toes are pointing down. It actually made it really difficult for the doctor to tell if she was a boy or a girl. He said, "If I had to say right now I would say it was a girl but lets wait til next appointment to say for sure because she should be on her back then." Well, next appointment, sure enough she was on her tummy again :)

More baby pics

Here is our sweet baby girl at 18 weeks. I love these pics! Her cute hand is right up next to her face and the last pic is of her foot. The doctor measured her and told us that her femur is already really long....big surprise with a 6'5 daddy, a 5'9 mom, 6'10 and 6'4 grandpas, and 6'7-6'9 great- grandpas! She is going to have to be a volleyball player or something :)

The First Ultrasound!

This is our little baby at 12 weeks on August 3rd. I know it has taken me FOREVER to post it and I am so sorry! It has been a crazy last few months. I couldn't even believe how amazing it was to see this tiny little thing inside of me! It made it seem so much more real. It is a very active little bugger. It barely sat still long enough to get this picture :) At one point it was flipping so much that all you saw on the screen was two tiny little feet. How precious! Stay tuned for the next ultrasound picture...coming soon.

Rick has been messing around with photoshop this last week. He did this cool picture the other day. I was pretty impressed! This is a picture from our wedding day and the little girl is Martina, the daughter of a couple that Rick taught on his mission in Chicago. She is so cute!

Cedar Breaks National Monument

I'm not such a fan of this picture, the background is amazing, however I am not so much :)  Rick put this on without my permission.  I'm pretty sure my mom is going to lecture me on how bad I am slumping...right, Mom?  Anyway, at least the scenery is beautiful and we had a great time!

Rick is finishing up his last class to get his Associate's Degree...Geology.  For his final project he had to go to a National Park and take pictures and identify the concepts he has learned in his class.  Sunday we drove up to Cedar Breaks National Monument and it was breathtaking!  We got some beautiful pictures.

On the Farm

This is a picture of the farm that Rick is working on this summer.  It looks so peaceful and serene....However what Rick does there is far from that :)  He has had a very tough summer working on the farm but he has gotten a lot stronger, and a lot darker!

Preggers!!!!

So I am finally posting again.  We haven't had many interesting and exciting things to post this summer because all we are doing is working and going to school.  But yesterday we found out something exciting that is DEFINITELY worth a post!  I AM PREGNANT!  Yay!  We are so excited!  I'm going to be a mommy!  Rick is going to be a daddy!  We are going to be parents!  How crazy/exciting is that?  Well if you can't tell, we are pretty excited.

Rick thinks its gross that I took pictures of my "pee sticks" but he doesn't understand the importance of "Creating a Lasting Legacy" (right, mom?).  So hopefully you aren't too grossed out by these pictures :)

So I guess I will tell the exciting story of how I found out.  I woke up at 4am yesterday morning (June 11) knowing that I would be able to take a test today and I couldn't go back to sleep.  So at about 5am I got up and took a test.  It was one of those tests that has the one line if you aren't pregnant, and two if you are.  It said on the box to wait three to five minutes for the results.  I waited three and didn't see a second line and went back to bed pretty disappointed.  Rick left for work at 6am and I got up at 7am.  I went into the bathroom and saw a faint second line!  It was extremely faint but there nonetheless.  I immediately started researching on the internet on whether a faint line meant "yes".  I read information saying that it almost always shows as a faint line and it wouldn't show at all unless you were pregnant.  Of course I still didn't want to get too excited in case it wasn't real but I had to call someone!  I called my mom and she was excited, but like me, trying not to be too excited.  She gave me the advice to take the digital kind (the ones that say "pregnant" or "not pregnant", takes a lot of the guess work out) the next morning.  I agreed and hung up.  About twenty minutes later I couldn't stand it anymore so I drove down to Walmart, bought a digital test and took it immediately.  The entire three minutes I was waiting for the results I was shaking!  I wanted it to be real SOOOO bad!  Three minutes later I saw "pregnant" and started screaming!  

Rick was at work and I really didn't just want to call and tell him the news over the phone so I had to wait until 6pm to tell him!  I decided to tell him in a fun way.  A few weeks ago we were watching the movie "Juno" and one of our favorite characters from The Office (Dwight) had a small part in the film.  One of his lines was "Your eggo is preggo".  We laughed hard at that and Rick has quoted it a few times since then.  So, I decided to go to the store and get a box of Eggos.  I put them in the freezer with a sign "My eggo is preggo!"  When I got home from work I acted like my ankle was hurting and asked Rick to get me an ice pack out of the freezer.  He went to the freezer and was looking everywhere for the ice pack and completely missed the huge sign in front of his face!  Then, he picked up the box of eggos looking behind them! Duh! So finally I had to say, "Rick look in your hands!"  He looked down and didn't get the joke at all.  He was like "preggo?"  A few seconds later, I said "Are you kidding me?!" His eyes finally lit up in understanding and he said "What!?  No way, you're lying!"  I ran over a gave him a big hug.  He couldn't stop smiling.  But then he said again, "I still don't believe you."  So I showed him the "proof".  He was in shock but very excited also.

We are so excited and couldn't wait to share it with all of our friends and family.  I have had about ten people tell me it better be a boy (my husband included)  :)  I just tell them, "Really, its all up to Rick!"