Amy and Liz and Aaron Watson

Amy got hooked on country music.  I remember a time when she would loudly protest having any country music playing in the car.  But, now she has a thing for it.  She and Liz bought tickets to an Aaron Watson concert held in Idaho Falls.  Apparently if Amy is going to make this lifestyle change, she is going to have to have much bigger, poofier hair.

Aaron stuck around after the concert and met his fans.

Photo Booth

Amy and Liz and their photo booth antics.

Sleeping Amy

This isn't the first picture that Amy's friends from college have taken of Amy sleeping.  Here she is fast asleep in Liz's bed.  Liz lives across the hall from Amy, convenient for when it is just too far to go back to her own bed.

Flat Amy

A couple of weeks before our trip to Europe, I had an idea pop in my head that I thought would be a fun way to include Amy in our travels.  Ever heard of Flat Stanley?  I suggested one night that we should create a Flat Amy to take with us.  Kristen was all over the idea, and after I printed a picture for her, she set about creating a Flat Amy.

We didn't tell Amy about it hoping it would be a good surprise.  She was just a little (read "a lot") sad that she was missing out on such an amazing vacation and feeling stuck going to school in the summer.  We were sad that she wasn't able to join us; she is always a lot of fun to have around.

Turns out we missed her immensely but had a lot of fun posting pictures of Flat Amy throughout Europe.  And Amy?  She loved Flat Amy and looked forward to posts of where she would turn up next.

Hallstatt, Austria

Venice, Italy

Florence, Italy (turns out Flat Amy likes naps as much as Amy!)

Isle of Capri, Italy

Forum - Rome, Italy

Coliseum - Rome, Italy

Vatican Museum - Rome, Italy (Flat Amy can photobomb with the best of them!)

When Amy is Home...

I can always tell when Amy is home.  She drinks from the water bottles that I use for exercise and then just puts them back in the fridge half full.

Father's Day

Chris' Father's Day was delayed by one week so that we could celebrate at home with him.  And bonus, Amy got to celebrate with us too!  He certainly is a loved husband and father.

Surprise from Amy

A couple of days ago Amy was lamenting that she was having a bad day and bad week.  She asked if she could come home for the weekend.  I had to run to take Kristen to piano lessons and said, "Ask your dad."  A little bit later I received a text saying, "Dad said no."

Fast forward to Friday evening arriving home from our date to the Home Free concert and one, Misha was still awake and two, Amy popped out from the kitchen and yelled "Surprise".  When I received her text, the thought flitted through my mind that maybe she was joshing me, but I dismissed it and didn't think about it again.  I even FaceTimed with her and Liz on Friday afternoon.  She gave me some bogus idea that she and Liz were going to Bear World outside of Rexburg.

Misha even had to drive to the airport by herself to pick Amy up.  That was a little freaky for her.  It has been a fun weekend with Amy and a wonderful surprise.  She spent Saturday on the lake and woke up Sunday morning with a pretty intense sunburn on her face.

Amy is certainly missed and loved by her sisters and mom and dad.

She leaves Monday morning at 6:15 for her 8:15 flight.  Chris has a flight at 11:00am, so he will just take Amy a lot early and then find a place to work for a couple of hours.

Home Free

Chris and I had tickets to a Home Free concert on Friday evening.  They are a male, all-vocal country music group.  All vocal means they make all accompanying instrumental and harmonizing sounds with their voices.  The concert was a little disappointing in the amount of time they actually sang, but the music was good.

Monster Storms

We had two monster storms roll through on Monday and Tuesday.  The Monday storm dropped lots of rain in a short amount of time as well as it pelted us with hail.  Unfortunately we have drainage issues around our yard.  Fortunately, we now know exactly where they are.

Kristen and I spent an hour trying to scrape and shovel the pathway breeze off of the grass as our neighbors mulch blocked the pathway to the established river.  The water then created its own river around the tree, down the path, and onto the grass.  What a pain.  Kristen commented, "Is this our Family Home Evening?"  Yes.  Yes it was.

We had to create some pathways so the water would go where we wanted it to go.  So much fun.

Watch Out!

Someone, not a resident of our neighborhood, must have come around the corner in to our neighborhood a little too fast without realizing that there was a pillar and then a gate.  They didn't get much further than the pillar.  And yes, they fessed up and insurance information was taken.

Our friends were visiting the neighborhood and asked for the gate code.  I replied, "You won't need it."

Priest Calendar

When we were in Rome, and especially around Vatican City, we joked about the hot priest 2019 calendar that we saw everywhere.

Puppy Pics

Misha hung out with one of her friends and kept sending me pictures of puppies.  She wants a dog.  She's not getting one, but she wants one.

The Incredibles 2

My girls have been anxiously waiting the arrival of The Incredibles 2...for 14 years.  I remember the first time we saw The Incredibles and thought surely a sequel would be in the works with that ending.  Who knew it would take 14 years?

And to make our day even better, I recently signed up for the Premium AMC Stubs yearly membership. We purchased our tickets through the app for $5 each (discount Tuesday), skipped the line as we entered the theater, and the girls got to line up in the Premium line for popcorn and soda for $5. Each time you buy tickets you earn points toward a reward. We were glad we didn't have to wait in the line as the theater filled up with lots of little young'uns. The family next to us had to split up and found seats that were close to each other. I am glad we went early!

Cooking at College

I love that one of my favorite soups is one of Amy's as well--White Bean Chicken Chili.  And biscuits.  I taught her how to make great biscuits (though she probably needs to invest in a pastry blender now.  It works better than your fingers).  She didn't have a dish for baking the biscuits so I suggested she go to Deseret Industries to find one.  I also love that she FaceTimes me on her shopping adventures with Liz.

Garage Sale

A family in our ward lost their dad a couple of weeks ago to colon cancer.  In an effort to provide service and extra funds, the Relief Society hosted a fund raising garage sale.  There were a lot of donated items, time, and money and we were grateful to be a part of it.  The girls and I helped to price and sort items as well as spent most of Saturday morning at the garage sale helping.

Here's Kristen modeling some child-size sunglasses.

Snapchat Fun

My girls have fun snapchatting with each other.  Sometimes I get to see their pictures to each other.

Misha, Kristen, and I were shopping in Target.  Kristen went off on her own, and Misha and I wandered a bit trying to find her.  Misha shapchatted this pic and caption to Amy:

After finding Kristen, Misha sent this picture to Amy:

A Capella Camp

Kristen attended A Capella Camp the morning after arriving home from Europe.  The Camp started on a Monday morning and ran the entire week from 10 am to 3 pm.  On Friday at 2 pm a mini concert was held to show case all that the kids had learned through out the week.

The kids all did great, but Kristen was pretty devastated.  For each of her solos, the microphone went out so that you could barely hear her.  Her lips were moving, but little sound was heard.  She sadly lamented that the whole week was a waste for all the work she had done.  I argued that she had fun, she learned new skills and techniques, and she made new friends.  She agreed, but she was still pretty sad.  I love how she can reasonably talk about her misfortune and then look at the bright side.

Busy Day at the Temple

I arrived at the temple just as this group of young people were walking to the Baptistry.  This was just half of the group, as the other half walked around the other side of the temple.  They were part of a youth conference group from a Ken Caryl Stake.  A second group arrived around 12:30 pm.  It was a busy day--a first for me since I started volunteering in the temple.  My four hours sometimes has a tendency to go a little slowly when there are no patrons at the temple.  Today the time flew.

Misha's Beach Night

While in Europe, Misha began planning to have friends over at the beach for a little jet ski fun.  Half way through the evening they headed to the grocery store to pick up burgers to BBQ instead of ordering pizzas.

They had a great time hanging out around the fire pit.  I was still recovering from jet lag so when Misha asked to stay later than 10 pm, I would only go as late as 10:30.  I was just too tired to stay awake any longer.

A Little Too Much Sun?

Amy spent the day playing at the waterpark in Rexburg with her friends.  Though she applied sunscreen, she might have needed to reapply it a little bit more.  Can you say ouch?

Day 17-Home

Chris was probably the saddest one of the bunch having to stay in Europe.  He was headed to Munich for the night to retrieve his luggage from his friend Stig and then continue on to England, France and then back to Rome to finish up over the next ten days.  He can’t say anymore that he has only seen Rome at night.

We walked many miles throughout the city in the morning, afternoon, and evening.  Many miles throughout Europe--142 miles over the past two plus weeks--according to my Fitbit.

Chris and I were up before his alarm went off at 6:15, I guess just anticipating the day.  We had showered the night before, so really it was just some final packing up and getting the girls going.  Misha and I had found out that we were both upgraded to first class.  Since we couldn’t check Kristen in online (she was too young), we had to wait to see if she got the upgrade as well.  She was a little bummed to think that maybe she would be flying in Economy Plus by herself.

Chris had arranged for transport to the airport a couple of days prior, so when we arrived in the hotel lobby with our bags in tow, the driver was there as well.  When Chris plans his time to the airport for travels on his own, he cuts it as short as possible.  We could have used more time as the look of the gate agent clearly showed her disapproval.  We had to say goodbye to Chris after checkin since he couldn’t go through our security with us.  Always a lonely feeling to say goodbye after being together so much.

I got the dreaded SSSS on my boarding pass which meant I would have to go through extra screening at some point.  We determined to give Kristen my backpack and empty all of my pockets to expedite the process.

We almost got through customs when we read a sign that read kids under 14 couldn’t be processed at this location.  The agent wasn’t so specific here and said just get out of the line and go all the way to the end to the left.  So stupid.  No wonder the gate agent was disapproving of us cutting it so close on the time.

I found another guy to ask where we were to go and interrupted his phone call to inquire.  He directed us to another long line.  I said no that we had been at the front of a previous line and he indicated that we should just stay where we were in the diplomat line.  We would have never made it otherwise.

While in line, Chris texted that Kristen had been upgraded but would need to have a new boarding pass printed.  She and Misha urged me to run ahead and get started on the secondary screening process while they took care of Kristen’s pass.  Without any carryons and nothing in my pockets, there was little for the agent to search.  I was done and waiting for the girls as they nodded that I should go ahead.  I shook my head.  There was no way I was letting them out of my sight until we were all seated on the plane. 

We walked on the jetway together only to find them closing the business class door.  I yelled, “Wait!” And they simply said to go to the other door.  It was with a lot of relief that I finally sank in to my seat.  Kristen was at the front of the section, I was in the middle, and Misha was a couple of rows behind me.  Whew.  That was cutting it too close.

This was my only picture of the day.

Our flight was nine hours long and when we weren't eating a meal, I was typing and listening/half watching movies.  So much typing and without a decent keyboard either.  The time passed quickly for me (without any sleeping), and we landed in New Jersey for a three-hour layover where we were lucky enough to enjoy the new Polaris lounge.  We gratefully found a quiet corner to wait until it was time to board.

I tried my hardest to not sleep on the last flight, but my body clock was thinking it was the middle of the night.  So hard to stay awake.

As we landed in Denver, I texted my friend Maria that we had just landed.  She left for the airport then, and after retrieving our luggage, we waited maybe two minutes on level six before we saw her pull up.  Perfect timing.  So glad to be home.

Day 16-Orvieto

A couple of weeks ago when Chris' realized that his work schedule would have him back in Europe on Monday morning after leaving on Friday, we both concluded that it just made more sense for him to not fly home with us.  Then he realized that he would have two weekends alone in Europe and asked if we minded hanging around a couple of extra days to spend the first weekend with him in Rome.

After our second day in Rome, we decided that we would see all of the major tourist sites in the city by the third day and really wanted to find a day trip to a smaller city with less crowds and awesome views.  Orvieto fit the bill.

Getting to Orvieto was an hour train ride outside the city and another early start to our day.  We had maybe five minutes to snarf down our breakfast and then run to the bus/tram stop.  And then we waited.  You just never know if the buses and trams will be on time or not.  We decided to hop on a tram since our bus wasn't appearing and as soon as we got on, our bus rumbled around the corner.  We rode the tram for one stop.  Got off, hopped on the bus, took it to the subway station, ran down the stairs to just catch our subway, train.  Once we got to the train station it was an all out run to the furthest possible loading dock in the station. Now I have endurance to run distances, but I am not a good sprinter.  And to keep up with my long-legged peeps was near to impossible.  Chris got to the the train and kept running past cars and running (apparently he was tall enough to see the full seats inside), but I just kept yelling in my head, "Stop running past all the train cars and get on the train!  Seriously. Get. On. The. Train!"  I was dying.

We made it with literally minutes to spare.  It took me probably twenty minutes just to cool down enough to stop fanning myself.  Sweat was dripping, and I am sure it was not a pretty sight.  All throughout Europe I had kept a folded pamphlet in my backpack specifically for the purpose of fanning myself through hot flashes.  Hot flashes and now all out sprints.

People had to move their bags from their seats to give us room to sit close together and weren’t exactly happy for the inconvenience.  Oh well.  The train was full. Chris did not offer to help anyone lift their luggage this time.

But we made it and we had a delightful day ahead of us.  Orvieto had been recommended to us by a few individuals, so I was excited to explore. 

As we rode I listened to some Time Out For Women talks from 2017.  They were inspiring.  Kristen’s headphones weren’t working so she shared my headphones and enjoyed the talks as well.

Orvieto sat high up on a hill and the easiest way up was to catch the funicular after you left the train station.  Chris has so much travel savvy; he stopped just as we got off the train and bought tickets from a magazine stand.  We walked on to the funicular while every one else stood in line at the funicular office to get tickets.

We stopped first at a bakery for bread as we walked toward the Duomo and you’d think my girls hadn’t had carbs in weeks.

We checked out the striped Duomo and Chris disappeared to buy tickets for an underground cave tour.

Most of the homes in Orvieto have caves dug out underneath (following strict specifications).  Today they are used for storage and wine cellars, but years ago they were used for olive oil production, storage, and pigeon nests.  They ate the pigeons.  Cool tour with Rosita our guide, who was animated and engaging.

Olive press

Pigeon nests

We lunched at Il Dialogo and apparently I was not the first to inquire about purchasing one of their water bottles.  The manager said I could if I wanted to pay 20 euro.  When they first started using the bottles they ordered about 200.  People, such as myself, had wanted to buy them, and they were now down to 20 bottles.  I declined.

We walked along parts of the city wall.  The views were amazing.  Pictures just don't do the panorama and variations of green any justice.  Our afternoon was spent wandering the city, eating some gelato, and enjoying fewer tourists before descending to the train station via the funicular.

I snapped a few more pictures of Misha for senior photos

All the Fiats lined up in the piazza by the Duomo.

It had been an action-packed two weeks ,and I think we were all feeling a little worn out.  Misha opted not to come down for dinner with us as we chose to eat at Mattarello next door to the hotel.  We got a chuckle out of the notation on their menu. "Pasta with chicken and pizza with fruit are not Italian food.  Please don't ask us to cook these for you."

We packed up our leftovers for Misha and returned to our rooms to pack, chatting with Amy as we did so.  Ciao!