Beautiful Ride Day!

Yesterday was the perfect day for a bike ride. We rode to Larimer Square for some gelato at Gelazzi (my new favorite place!). They have the best gelato I have tasted outside of Italy. Definitely get the pineapple and strawberry. Then we rode on to Confluence Park to people watch and back home. It was so relaxing and felt so nice to be outside. Grey loved being in the trailer and watching everything go by.

Summer & Cheat Day

Happy Summer! One of my favorite things about summer is all of the fresh fruit. I have been loading up at Sunflower Market and putting fruit in and on everything I can think of!
Yesterday we had a church activity at the park. It was SO cute!!! Grey was still a little young, but had so much fun. It was the cutest activity to celebrate all the birthdays in primary. Jared has been doing Eating for Life/Strength for Life for three weeks now. He has been doing GREAT and I am so proud of him. He gets one cheat day a week and yesterday he really wanted Famous Dave's BBQ. So I drove 20 minutes each way to the closest one to pick up the "Feast for Two." It was MONSTROUS! I got it home and they hadn't given us BBQ sauce, which is the best part! So Jared ran out to Safeway and picked up a variety (3 kinds!) of sauces to try. The sad part is that we almost cleared the entire platter. Then thanks to Carrie, we needed two XL chocolate malts to top it off from Bonnie Brae Ice Cream. MMMMM! Yes, I am still a little sick thinking about it.

Random things

So I want to start out by reminding you to wash your veggies! Not only because of all the salmonella-ridden tomatoes, but I saw something at Target that made me scrub my veggies extra hard. I watched an employee walk by and pick up a head of broccoli that had been sitting on the nasty floor and put it back in the pile of produce to buy. UGH!!! I don't even want to think about what is on the bottom of peoples' shoes.I had Grey's cousin, Ryan, over last week and took a picture of the two of them snuggling up in my bed. It was so sweet. Don't they look like brothers? They definitely act like it. I love it!

Today Grey got really quiet so I went to go check on him. He had gotten into my purse and was sucking on a big square of chocolate and saying, "yum, yum." He was really happy about it until I took it away. I think this boy has a thing for chocolate. Remember this incident? and this one?

Still laughing...

I bought tickets for an early Dad's day gift for Jared & I to go see Jerry Seinfeld last night. I was expecting him to be funny and entertaining, but it was HILARIOUS!!! Jared & I were rolling the entire hour and a half and I think I had a few tears. I have so much more respect for him now after watching him live. Before he started, Jared and I were looking at the huge stage with just a microphone, chair and a bottle of water. We were pretty amazed that he could keep such a large crowd laughing hysterically for that long by himself. If you ever get a chance to go see him, DO IT! We also got a yummy dinner and gelato for our night out. Thanks mom for taking him for the night!

The Cruise Highlights - Part 5

I am a little embarrassed by how much everyone is going to learn about me now. When my sister & I get together we are pretty much dorks! I guess we step back in time and definitely do not act our age... It was such a fun trip and especially fun to spend so much time with Heather. Thank you Jared, Pam, Jodie & Mom for all the help with Greyden!!!

The start of the cruise!!! Leaving Barcelona...

We got bumped up into a large oceanview stateroom. WAHOO! The ship was amazing with so much to do. I still can't believe how big a cruise ship is and that it can float.

Since this was my first cruise, I did not know that everyone has to be a part of a safety demonstration. Everyone has to follow the drill with our life jackets and go to the emergency meeting place. I know it is meant to be serious, but I could NOT stop laughing. We spent our time taking pictures and making safety videos with Heather's video camera instead of listening to where we were supposed to go. We ended up in some crew area and had to work our way to the meeting spot. Ooops...

The Royal Promenade (shops, bars and restaurants)
We got these cute little towel creatures at turn-down service with chocolates on our pillows every night.
We played and lost at Bingo twice... This is my happy face before we lost.
We played in our window a lot. It is so fun being dorky sisters together!
We made new friends at dinner and other places on the boat
We got to eat multiple desserts at dinner. One night I ate three (after a five course dinner).
Until next time P!!! Thanks for the fun time. Love you!

Palermo, Italy - Part 4

The day in Palermo was very interesting. We shared a taxi with some friends we met to see a few things in the city. They suggested the catacombs and said it was like a tomb. I was shocked when I walked down the stairs to find thousands of mummifed corpses hanging from the walls with no glass or anything. I could have touched them. It was CRAZY!!! Some still had hair and teeth. There were children as well, which was extra creepy. I tried taking pictures, but I had to be sneaky and they turned out really blurry.We had a taxi driver that kept waiting for us and trying to give us a tour of the city. We told him no and to take us to the cathedral. Well, he took us on a tour of parts of the city anyways and charged us more. Surprise, surprise. I kind of figured that would happen every time he pointed a new place out. The history in Palermo was amazing. It is very close to Africa and has a lot of interesting cultures mixed together. We went to a tiny chapel that dates back to the 1100's.

The floor inside the chapelRight next to this chapel was an incredible cathedral. I love all the mosaics and murals on ceilings, floors, walls... everywhere. They really took pride in their work.After our taxi-guided tour, Heather & I made an attempt to get on a bus to the beach. It was disastrous! The city was so chaotic and stressful and we couldn't figure out how to buy the stupid ticket. So we went back to the ship and sat at the pool. Much more relaxing anyways...

Cagliari, Italy - Part 3

Cagliari, Sardinia was my favorite place by far! I have always loved Italy and this was no exception. Besides the amazing food and gelato, there are so many things I love about it. I was definitely sad to leave this place.

The beautiful flowers in every window and doorwayAgain, I love the buildings. They are so unique!The narrow streets with cobblestone or stamped roadwaysAnd of course the amazing churches

Marseille, France - Part 2

It rained ALL day in Marseille, so I didn't take my good camera nor did I take many pictures. We got there and my sister realized she had forgotten the umbrella and all the info on what to do in Marseille. Needless to say we didn't really know what to do once we got there. We found a metro station and stared at the map hoping something would pop out as interesting. Then we wandered back up to the Old Fishing Port and looked for something to do.

We came across the most touristy thing I have ever done in my life! But it was perfect for a rainy day with no clue as to what to do. We took a little tram up to a famous church. It played music for us and everything. The church was incredible!Notre Dame de la GardeAfter that we found some cheap umbrellas and wandered around town. I would not leave without a 'pain au chocolat' and I bought 4!

The old fishing port--you can see Notre Dame de la Garde in the center on the hilltopA view of Marseille and some islands including Chateau d'if (an old prison on an island)

My getaway... Part 1

I hope I don't bore everyone with the next few posts. I have had some requests for every detail about the trip, so welcome to my tour...
Heather & I spent two nights in Barcelona in a cute little hostel with apricot trees in a courtyard out the back window. We didn't have towels because they cost 1E and we kept forgetting to get them when the lady was around. So we had to drip dry in the shared bathroom, put our clothes back on our wet bodies and run back to our room. Good memories...
Barcelona was full of sightseeing, frizzy hair from the humidity, late nights, shopping at H&M, and lots of (mostly) yummy food!

Some of our favorite foods... bread and cheap brie

I liked this door with all the graffiti

One of my favorite things about Europe is the buildings. Everything is so old! They designed things so beautifully and with so much intricacy. I am in awe as I wander every little street. I love the shutters. I love the lamp posts. I love the hundreds of years old buildings surrounding me.This is part of the roof of the Sagrada Familia (designed by Gaudi for you history buffs).
It is still under construction and is AMAZING!And outside of the churchThe main market in town was crazy! It was a maze full of every kind of edible thing imaginable. The meat and seafood stands kind of freaked me out. I watched a butcher using an electric saw to cut pigs feet (with skin) in half. We did buy some fresh coconut from the fruit stand.


We walked up through a park (again designed by Gaudi) that overlooked the city. It felt kind of like Central Park. It made us feel like we were miles away from everything. It has amazing buildings that look like something out of a fairytale. The last night in Barcelona my sister and I went on a tapas tour which is the thing to do there. You go around to a bunch of restaurants and eat appetizers. The food was amazing. We got things like greek salads, spinach croquettes, frittatas and breads. It was lots of fun. We finished our night off with ferrerra rocher gelato in homemade ice cream cones.