Frist stop, Venice!

Once and for-all our trip to Italy will be blogged! It feels like such a long time ago, yet it feels like yesterday all at the same time, as I go through pictures of our trip. In November we flew Skyler's mom out to watch Westin. We did this so she could get some good quality one-on-one time with her grandson and I think it worked. She said he was an angel and they really enjoyed their time together.

Our trip to Italy began with a very long plane ride. Those of you who have travel to Europe or oversees know what I'm talking about. But I will begin this, by saying it's 10x worse when you are pregnant and nauseous as can be. Now timing didn't work out so well with morning sickness and our trip to Italy. There are some people didn't plan that part out so well, but let's move on shall we?

Our first stop was Venice, Italy. I could not believe I was in Venice. Oh, what a magical place, yes? Yes. This was definitely our favorite place. Probably mostly because it encompassed what I had always pictured Italy to be, or at least what I pictured the city/island itself to be. The buildings are beautiful and old. The sad part was the graffiti. It wasn't everywhere, but it was in a lot of places and I found it unfortunate that people would care so little to defile such beautiful old buildings. I felt this way with a lot of Italy as we traveled around, a lot of graffiti in Europe!

We stayed at a quaint Bed and Breakfast while in Venice (not pictured). It was a darling little place right across from a chocolate shop. The man who owns the B&B does pretty much everything himself except clean the rooms. He makes his guests a lovely breakfast every morning. This is where we were introduced to Blood Orange Juice. We'd actually never had blood orange before and it was quite good. Later on our Italy trip we bought our own carton on it at the market. Our B&B was very close to the Vaporetto, or the water bus. We used the vaporetto probably just as much as we walked. We did a lot of both. While we were in Venice, we noticed we didn't like the super touristy places and in Venice, the super touristy spot is St. Mark's Square. We cringed in super big crowds. We did visit the San Marco Basilica, but decided to spare our money on the other crowded buildings.

I will be posting only a handful of pictures from our trip to Italy. I took lots, but at the same time, not as many as I would have had I felt 100% myself. Skyler actually took a lot more than I did. So for sake of time I am posting only a small handful from our trip. I'm hoping in the future to post more on my photo blog, but for now, here is a taste!

 Venice

In short, when I think back on Venice, I think: boat rides on the water, gelato, pastries and a good place to get lost! A few of the other sites we saw while in Venice were the Rialto Bridge and the Spiral Staircase. One of the most beautiful views was from the Rialto Bridge at night. I'll have to track down our pictures from there.

While we were in Venice we took boat rides to visit a few of the other islands nearby. We visited Murano and Burano. Murano we didn't love, Burano we LOVED! Murano was all about selling tourists glass products and Burano was just beautiful. Lots to look at and lots of color!

Murano

Burano

Skyler purchased a nice tie while in Burano... I purchased a cookie:)

Leaving Venice. Our last morning in Venice we were awoken early by the flood alarms. Venice floods pretty often. And as we took the Vaporetto out we were able to get a look at the place in it's flooded state.

More of Italy to come!

Let's catch up

Wow, it looks my blog has definitely been very unexciting and dull with the lack of posts and updates over the last several months. I don't know why I have been horrible at it. I guess my mind just hasn't been there, in the blogging mode. Reading blogs I do, writing them, not so much. I am thinking that may change when the baby gets here. I will want to flower my blog with lots of pictures of her for those of you who read this to enjoy.

Alright, so it looks like I left off with October. All that we have left for October, is of course Halloween! My mom had her 2nd annual Halloween dinner and of course we all dressed up. I failed to get pictures of her fun Halloween food, but here are the costumes.

Westin was our little clown

 

 Our very kissable clown!

 Jumping on the tramp with Uncle Brad

 

Red Riding Hood and a Pro Golfer

 And of course Trunk of Treating...

Mothers who know, do less

"Mothers who know, do less.  They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally.  They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home.  Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to spend more time with their children - more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying.  These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all.  Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world."- Julie B. Beck

I stumbled upon this quote this morning and I love it. It's a good reminder to focus on what is really important and eliminate all of the unnecessary stuff from our lives. I try to be conscious of this as often as I can and also try to be in the moment as often as I can, but I know there is always room for improvement.

(Picture from almost 3 weeks ago when I was 25 weeks along )

Family in October

October was pretty great this year. I mean it's always great anyways, because it's the best month of the year and all. But it was extra special because October is when we found out that we're expecting another baby! I think most friends and family know by now, I but I wanted to make note of it for remembrance and of course to make sure that everyone knows. We are so thrilled and so excited. Now that I'm past the sickness (have been for a month or two now), I can enjoy things from here on out; minus the uncomfortableness:) I was all tears in the ultrasound room when we were told that we'll be having a, "GIRL". We're excited for Westin to be a big brother!

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Whilst C'era was visiting in the fall, we went up to (my favorite place) the mountains and got a few casual family photos taken.

(A few test shots. I don't like standing in front of the camera, especially by myself:)

A visit from Shiloh

Skyler's brother, Shiloh, came to Utah in October and stayed with us. It was nice to have him visit and I enjoyed getting to know him better, since he lives in California and we never see him. I found that we had a lot more in common than I knew. One of the biggest things we have in common is a love for nature and being outdoors. He wanted to go on a hike while he was here so we took him up to one of the prettiest areas close by. It was very peaceful and so pretty. Hikes in the fall are a must for me!

Thanks for visiting, Shiloh!