Thursday, July 22, 2010

First Camping Trip for 2010

A couple of weekends ago we were able to head up to the mountains and get in our first camping trip of the year. Calogero and Shane did some fly fishing in the Provo River (Shane's First Time) while Ashlee and I sat on the bank and read some juicy mags. It was a beautiful day and the fishing was relaxing and successful. (Other than Calogero getting sandwiched between two rafts coming around the bend. )
















Calogero's first catch of the day. (Sorry the pic is a bit blurry)
















So this was Ashlee's first camping trip in forever and a decade but the girl did well, Bear Grylls would have been proud!


The four of us playing some cards and enjoying our beautiful campsite.
















Chef Calog always doing the cooking.
















It was a great weekend can't wait to get back out there and enjoy our beautiful mountains.


P.S. Stayed tuned for Europe Week 2 I had to postpone it until next week, sorry.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Europe Trip Week One!

On May 29th, 2010 Calogero and I left Salt Lake and began our 36 hour journey Europe. (I am of course including our long layovers in New York and Venice in this total)
I can't even tell you how excited I was for this trip we have been talking about it for like two years and finally started planning it and setting dates at the beginning of this year. So here is a little break down of our itinerary.
Day 1 - 2: Travel
Day 3- 6: Sicily, Italy
This is where Calogero's Parents are from and the majority of their family still lives here. It was great to meet everyone his family is so nice and welcoming, but they are for sure crazy Italians to the core! Also no one spoke any English so when it came time to meet up with Shane and Ashlee in Rome I was so excited to have someone to talk to that Calogero didn't have to translate.
Day 7 - 8: Rome, Italy
I LOVED Rome! It was so beautiful and full of incredible history. I was constantly in amazement that I was standing in or looking at structures that were build in B.C., and that they were still in great shape. I would definitely go back to Rome.
Day 9 - 16: Mediterranean Cruise
I will post about this later this week. You are already going to be on picture overload, sorry.
Do you think we packed enough! Oh my gosh never again please take it from us if you ever go to Europe (and you have to go in your life it is amazing) please backpack. Do not bring suitcases the cobblestone roads aren't suitcase friendly and they are just plain inconvenient. Backpack!















Beautiful Church in Palermo, Sicily.















Inside the Capital Building of Palermo. An amazing room filled with with the story of Jesus in Gold Tiles. The intricacy was incredible.















The courtyard of the Capital Building in Palermo.















This is the church of Santa Rosalia in Sicily. This Church is built into the mountain so the walls and ceilings of the church are all part of the mountain.




















The Catacombs in Sicily. I was so excited to see this National Geographic did a story on them last year and I was just amazed. There are people who died in 1800's who still have their hair, fingernails, and skin it is crazy because they are not in boxes they are all out in the open air, incredible. Calogero kept calling me creepy because I took like a billion pictures down there.



















Calogero's Dads side of the family has this cute little country house in San Guiseppe (this is where his parents Guiseppe and Vita grew up) We spent the day there eating, sleeping, and visiting relatives. It was nice to get up into the mountains and out of the heat for a day.
The picture of the country side is the view from the upstairs window.




















Mondello Beach was our first beach day for the trip. This place is incredibly beautiful and everyone told me it was not even one of their good beaches. The water is so clean and clear you can see to the bottom at night. We spent the day there laying n the sun, playing in the beautiful water and getting 20 minute massages from a very sweet Philippine lady for 5 Euro total. Best 5 Euro i spent all trip.
There is a Restaurant on the beach called Calogero's I loved it his name is so common there no one accidentally called the guy Pedro, oh Americans.




















Onto beautiful Rome and my English speaking best friends, Shane and Ashlee!
We got there around 2 grabbed some yummy pizza (the official food of the trip along with Johnny Rockets) and headed out for some sight-seeing. The first and only place we saw on day one was the Colosseum. Incredible how huge and beautiful it is I can only imagine what it looked like in 80 A.D. We spent hours here just wandering around and enjoying learning about all that went on there.




















Day 2 in Rome we started the day off with the Roman Forum.




















Just some Photos I took around Rome.




















Funny Story! So we are at the Trevi Fountain and Ash tells me I need to throw coins over my shoulder into the fountain and I will return to Rome one day. So we grab some coins head down to the fountain tell the boys to take a picture for us. One, Two, Three we both throw our coins into the air. Ashlee's land perfectly into the fountain while mine go up into the air and right down her shirt! How I have no clue but the boys continued to snap action shots of us trying to retrieve the coins while all laughing uncontrollably. So extra good luck for me! Sorry Ash... So here are
some action shots for ya.



















Pictures do not do the Pantheon justice it is massive and to detailed. I loved the Trevi Fountain I could have sat there for hours it is so big and beautiful. It's funny when we were looking for all of these places other than the Colosseum you walk down all of these small streets and alley ways and you totally think you're lost because it is so quiet. Then you turn a corner and your in a huge piazza with thousands of people I loved it.


The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel were very cool; they do not let you take pictures of the Sistine Chapel so you will just have to take my word for it, it is beautiful. Michelangelo truly outdid himself. The picture below is my favorite hallway in the Vatican Museum it was long and gorgeous from the ceiling to the floor. There are 1700 rooms in the Vatican and I am pretty sure we saw the majority of them we were dead by the time we finished our tour.




















So we saw and toured pretty much everything in the day and on our last night there after a yummy dinner we decided to walk to everything again at night. We heard they light everything so we had to check it out.


















I loved Sicily and Rome I can't wait to go back! Stay tuned for week two sorry for the picture overload!

Friday, January 8, 2010

A Day in the Snow!

Last Saturday Calogero and I headed up to Solitude Nordic Center with the Browns for a day of XC Skiing and Snowshoeing. We are all totally virgins to both of these activities so I was excited to give them a try.
XC is fun, great exercise, and requires a lot of balance (trust me I have the bruise to prove it). You should totally give it a try but take a lesson it is not as easy as it looks. Those ski's are freaking skinny.
Snowshoeing is super easy no lessons needed but beware of the super deep powder I went down chest deep a couple of times when we were trying to take some short cuts. Calogero was there to pull me out thank God; because with no strength from laughing hysterically I would have been so stuck.
I was so focused on learning how to XC Ski I totally forgot to take pics so here are some of us snowshoeing. Isn't Utah just beautiful.



























Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from my WONDERFUL Family to yours!
Sorry I was having major issues loading photos for the last two weeks so that is why this is so late. I hope you all had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2010 here we come! Can you believe we are already a decade into the 2000's wow how time flies.
I have been thinking back on all of the great things I have been able to do not only this year but for the past ten years. God has truely blessed me with a great life and I am always thanking him for those blessing big and small I always know you are behind them all.
Lets make the most of this year: do those things we keep putting off, have some BIG adventures whether close to home or far away, find a cause, project or even a certian someone to really help out this year, and enjoy time with your family and friends.
Love you all Happy 2010!