Friday, January 30, 2009

Randomness

Dear slopes,
I know that you haven't seen me around lately. I know I miss you too. I just had to give you up for something better. (A trip to Europe) But I think of you daily. The winter seams to drag on without you. Who knows when I will see you again. I may have to settle for less. Like sledding.

I hope that you are doing well.
sincerely,
Snow bunny #2

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Christmas is officially over.... We took down our tree today.

We spent the last two hours vacuuming pine needles out of our carpet. And by we, I mean Will. I just figure, hey they make the house smell good lets just leave them there. Good thing I have Will to keep me in check. Our tree was completely dead so there was a trail of pine needles from where the tree was to the door. Will picked them all up by hand. Jk our vacuum did...pretty sure it will never work again. Any way...here are some pics to send off Christmas.

Our Christmas Festivities included....
Hanging out with the fam

Making gingerbread houses
Going to see the Christmas lights in Spanish Fork
Going to see the candy windows on Center
And of course building a snow man. This was Wills first snow man. Not bad eh? He did turn into the Joker after the candy disintegrated. It was pretty scary, which is probably why someone knocked his head off.

Friday, January 9, 2009

The longest post ever!

This is the start of the longest post ever. We just got back from our European vacation, and it was amazing. I have 700 pictures on my camera! It will be fun to sort them out! Please excuse my typos, I'm sure that I will have many.

Day 1: Germany. We left for Germany on Christmas day and arrived on the 26th around 11:00am. Lesson #1- Germans=Crazy drivers. We started out going the speed limit and we were getting passed like crazy! (Only on the left by the way) So Will adapted to the new driving customs fairly quickly and picked up the pace. We first head to Marksburg Castle. Every few minutes we pass a small town with an old church always in the very center. The drive was beautiful. Marksbug Castle is up on a hill at the outskirts of town.




Day 2: Zurich, Switzerland
We head into the city to do some shopping. We see the train station and head back to our hostel only to find out we have to go back to the train station to change our money. We go see the temple in Bern and call it a day.







Day 3: Rome
We leave for Rome at 6am, but it was so dark that we couldn’t see the Swiss Alps. So we decided to wait for the sun to come up to continue our drive. Around 8:30 it started to get light. We were glad that we waited. We stopped in Florence and went to the Michelangelo’s museum and snuck a picture of David. We arrived in Rome around 8pm and took the metro into town to figure out the bus route.








Day 4: Rome
Lesson #2- Always verify your bus tickets IMMEDIATELY after boarding. The stop right after we got on, the bus Nazi’s got on. I just didn’t think about verifying our tickets. But apparently it is a 150 euro fine if you don’t verify your tickets as you board the bus. I got us out of it by throwing a fit! Go me. Which was good because it would have ruined our amazing day we had ahead of us. Rome was my favorite! The architecture was amazing. We saw the Colosseum, Arc di Tito, Palatino, The Vatican City, Basillica S. Pietro, Pantheon, Palazzo Monteatorio, Fountain de Trevi, and the Plazza Del Popolo! The Colosseum was breathtaking. We had delicious ice cream. Lesson #3- Make sure to check the commission fee before you exchange your money. We were in too much of a hurry to pay attention to the red glowing numbers informing us that the commission was 19% so we gave them $200 and got back 106 Euros. We also went shopping and Will found a nice Suit.


























Day 5: Nice, France
We stopped to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I wanted a sweater from Italy but the one I liked was a X-small. I decided to just try it on. The lady working the booth said “This for you is impossible” Thanks. Of course we had to take pictures of us holding up the tower. We were also able to purchase the expensive memory or a 37 euro parking ticket. Italy was out to get us.
We also stopped in Monte Carlo, Monaco. We say the princes palace and went to a cassino to watch people play 21. The streets were horrible. It was like we were driving in a big bowl of spaghetti.








Day 6: Marseille (December 31st)
We took a ferry to the Chateau D’If and the Islands Friouls. On the Islands we found the ruins of an old town on the edges of the cliffs. There weren’t any people around, we had the whole Island to our self. We missed the ferry by 5 min so we had to wait a ½ hour for the second one. We got back to our hotel and fell asleep. We woke up at 11:59 and went outside to celebrate the New Year. Marseille is a very stinky city.











Day 7: Marseille
We went to the beach and saw the replica of the David. We saw a nude woman on the beach, but she was far away so we couldn’t see anything. We went to Parc Borely and rented a Balladine to ride around on. Then we went to the Our Body exhibit (Body Worlds)








Day 8: Biarritz
We go to the beach and the Rock of the Virgin. The beach was Beautiful. We successfully find Will’s friends house from his mission. BUT SHE WASN’T HOME! Sad say. We went back twice with no success. We had dinner and then saw the light house.








Day 9: Bordeaux
We stop in Arcachon to see the Dune de Pyla. It is a sand dune sandwiched between the forest and the Atlantic Ocean. It was so amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice. We arrive in Bordeaux, do a little shopping and head for bed. Hiking up the Dune de Pyla was exhausting.







Day 10: Paris
We arrive in Paris and head out to see the Eiffel tower. They were having a car show at the bottom. We also saw the Statue of Liberty’s little sister. We went back to our hotel and watched Elf.





Day 11: Paris
We walked...a lot. It started snowing! Yup snow, apparently Utah wanted to remind us what we were missing out on. First we headed over to the Arch De Triomphe. Then we walked over to the Louvre. We were there for 3 ½ hours and we still only got thru ½ of the museum. It was HUGE! We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and a million other paintings and sculptures. My favorite was the Apartments of Napoleon. The Gardens out side were beautiful covered in snow. We went shopping and had dinner at Vesuvio on Ave. De Champes Di Ellysees. Then we went to see the bedazzled Eiffel tower.















Day 12: Belgium
We leave for Bruxelles and stop in Brugge. It is a small town also known as the Venice of the north. It was freezing! Then we head for Bruxelles and spend the rest of the day shopping. We had to spend the rest of our Euro’s.




Day 13: HOME
We head back to Germany to catch our 11:40 flight. We came with in seconds of missing our connecting flight in Charlotte. We arrived in Salt Lake only to discover our bags had not been so lucky. But all was well, we got our bags delivered to us yesterday. We are so happy to be home!