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James made this marble works for Savanna’s birthday last year. I had a request to post a picture of it, so here you go! It is very cool and even though it’s almost been year since she got it, Savanna plays with it everyday. The house is covered in marbles as a result, but it’s worth it. James is already talking about building a new one for Miles.

I went to Europe. Here are some of the highlight pictures (as usual, click the for the big view).

I flew into Munich Germany to stay with friends who live south of Munich. The first day we went to a little town to see a sort of festival where they eat and drink and dress up cows. It was pretty but the cows made a mess all over the streets. You really had to watch your step.

Here you can see the town with all the people’s cars (the visiting tourists mostly).

A couple days later we went to Hohenschwangau castle…

And Neuschwanstein castle (purportedly the one the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland is based on).

The next day we went to Rosenheim, the closest city to where my friend lives (he lives in Heufeld I think). We saw a cool church and ate asian food (I had a salad with roast duck), my friend Burke and his wife Dixie had sushi.

The next day we went to Munich to look around. We saw a number of cool buildings andhad lunch at the Hofbrauhaus where Hitler did some evil stuff or something.

We saw a couple of cool churches.

And the glockenspiel at Marienplatz.

The next day we came back to Munich with a local who grew up there to see Oktoberfest. It was pretty cazy, tons of people eating and drinking and being silly. We went on the rollercoaster and ate some apple strudel and went home after checking out the madness.

They have teams of horses constantly bringing in the barrels of beer all day long.

The next day we were off to Italy in Burke’s car. On the way it started to snow as we reached the highest pass through Austria to Italy.

After stopping in Vicenza at the US military base for gas coupons (paying even insane US gas prices is better than European prices), we went on toward Venice. We actually stayed in a hotel outside Venice and took the train in the next day.

Piazza San Marco was pretty cool. The sun was in and out a bit but it was pretty nice.

Lots of gondolas, of course.

We then drove down to Camp Darby, a base near Pisa and spent a bit of time seeing the sights at Pisa and Lucca. Here’s me. I refused to do the ‘holding the tower up’ pose but I do have some funny shots of other people doing it.

These are some of the tiny cabins we stayed in on the base. It was pretty nice, if a bit cramped. The trees were cool.

We went to Viareggio one day to spend some time on the beach. It was relaxing and beautiful but a bit cold without the sun.

That night we had pizza. Yummy.

The next day was sunny so we tried the beach that was just down the road from the base at Tirrenia. It was really nice. I got a bit of sun burn.

On our way to Rome, we stopped in Florence for about 4 hours to see some sights and eat. It was really cool.

The Duomo there is one of my favorites.

We ate lunch at the big market in Florence and then drove down to Rome. The market had a large selection of cured meats and cheeses.

Our first full day in Rome we went to the Vatican Museums but had to stop for lunch first. We chose a pretty cruddy place near by the museum entrance and it was not so good. Probably the worst food on the trip. Still better than the army base food, though.

The musuems had all kinds of interesting rooms and artifacts. We were mostly there for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which I really liked but Burke and Dixie found underwhelming. There were too many tourists.

After the museum we went to St Peter’s Square (Piazza San Pietro). It was really pretty impressive, even with all the people milling about.

Inside the main cathedral was pretty amazing. Even with all the crowds it was still really beautiful and just an amazing work.

As the sun was setting on the side of the cathedral I got a couple cool pictures in ‘sunset’ mode on my camera.

That night, our hosts, Jeff and Karen Acerson (who were kind and gracious enough to let us stay at their beautiful home, the LDS Roma Mission home) took us on a night tour of Rome. I got some pretty cool pictures but it was hard to hold the camera still long enough for them to work out.

This is the Coloseo again the next day as seen from the Roman Forum ruins. A bit of a hike.

My last meal was veal in a lemon sauce at a great little restaurant but my favorite part was the honeydew melon and prosciutto. Mmmm. Of course, I got some gelato on the way back home, cinnamon and Sicilian fruits with dark chocolate flavors.

These were just a few of the pictures I took and only the highlights of our activities. I shot a bit over 2000 pictures with my trusty little Panasonic Lumix TZ3k, so I’m still sorting out all the good ones. I had a great trip, lots of fun and got to see friends I hadn’t seen for a while. Plus I got to go to Italy, which I had promised myself I would do ever since I left that great country in August of 1996. Still, it is nice to come home too.

This game is just too perfect. Simple, fun, the music is amazingly well-fitted to the theme of the game. Just… cool.

Grandma and Grandpa called us today and asked if we would like some free pumpkins.  The kids were so excited to go choose some.  Last year, I wasn’t feeling up to it as I was still in early pregnancy.  We took pictures of the event.  Of course, they talked us into some squash, tomatoes and grapes as well.  We are lucky to have the best grandparents in the world.

Brendan loves to watch the fish in our tank.  Up until yesterday, there was only one.  It was the lone survivor of our last batch.  We finally went and bought five new gold “Mickey” fish.  They have a spot on their tails that looks like Mickey Mouse.  We also got one snail at Jonathan’s insistence.  Brendan loves watching these new arrivals!  He also loves looking at the camera.

The kids finally got new pajamas.  Jonathan, of course, says he’s “Heatblast”…one of the Ben 10 aliens.  Marissa insisted on having the pink ones with horses.  Nana would be proud.

Jonathan went to a “Hero Party” today dressed as Ben 10.  For all of you without young boys at home, Ben 10 is a boy that owns a special watch.  This watch, called the “omnitrix” can turn Ben into any one of ten aliens.  Adam and I discussed buying a present for his friend.  Adam complained that we needed to get something cheap.  I reminded him that this friend had come to Jonathan’s party and had given him a really nice gift, so we needed to repay in kind.  “Or at least,” I said, “have it LOOK expensive.”  Adam took the kids to choose a gift.  I picked Jonathan up from the party and on the way home I pointed to the huge building by Gunnies that we call the “Monstrosity.”  “I wonder if they’ll ever finish that building,” I said aloud to Jonathan.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Actually, I think they started building it and then ran out of money…so they stopped building,” I commented.

“Yeah…and they’re probably all dead now.”

“What?” I querried.

“All the guys building that building…they’re probably all dead…they started it so long ago.”

I had to giggle a little to myself at his observation.  Then as we got home, I went to change out of my work clothes to be comfortable for the football game.  Adam came in and said, “So, I asked Jonathan how his friend liked her present.  He said ’she liked it, but I told her it was the cheapest one we could get.’”

“He said that!” I gasped.

“Yup.”

Be careful what you say around your children.  Everything is fair game for repetition.

I just wanted to post some cute pics of the kids! Enjoy!

One of my friends made this blanket for Savanna when she was born. It has since become her favorite possession. Known as “big blankie”, it goes everywhere with her and is almost a part of the family. I catch myself referring to the blanket at “her”. Whenever I wash big blankie it is a big deal and Savanna has to check the dryer a few times to make sure she is okay. One thing she started doing awhile ago was putting the corner of the blanket in her nose while she sucks her thumb, the ultimate comfort for my daughter. Recently, though it has become even weirder. She now has a specific corner she prefers for her nose, referred to as “the right corner”. I have been awakened several time in the night to her crying saying she needs the right corner. I hand her each corner and like a blind person touching someone’s face to see what they look like, she carefully examines each corner until she has found the right one, puts it in her nose, her thumb in her mouth and goes back to sleep. You know, this has just become a part of life at our house, but now that I am writing it down, oh boy!