Ciao Roma!

Well. I'm home in Utah now. I'm all caught up in Grey's Anatomy, the Office, and Big Bang Theory. My hair is cut and short. I'm getting caught up on my jetlag and trying to get unpacked and get my life together here. And part of that is getting my blog updated of my trip to Rome. So here you go. I wish I could have updated sooner, but I got home from Rome and I had to pack and clean to come home and had NO time whatsoever. Enjoy and leave comments! Hope you like the videos. They might jsut be funny to Kristi and myself, but oh well.


On the train riding from the Fiumincino Airport to Roma's Termini bus station. Really excited to be in Rome. I couldn't wait for Kristi to get there the next day. The ride through Rome was amazing. I kept seeing the most amazing sites and buildings and gorgeous people.


Kristi on day 1. We were walking through Rome.

Kristi and I in Piazza di Popolo in front of the Burghese Gardens

Touristy American Photo on the Lion Sphynxy thing

Piazza Di Popolo from the Burghese Gardens

Me in Rome. I love Rome.

I love my Best Friend. I love Rome.
So I love this picture

They have these fountains all over with spring water coming up fromt he ground. We filled our waterbottles up at them everytime we saw them. They were cold and delicious.
The Medici Village. Now that is a CRIB. THe back looked out over ALL of Rome. it was amazing.

The Trevi Fountain. Beautiful and amazing. Bernini...what a dream.
We threw in 3 coins to make sure we would come back to Rome someday.
Me in front of the Trevi fountain. I was like, hurry and take the pic so I can get back to eating the best gelato I've ever eaten in my life. (It was Nutella flavor and it was creamy and amazing)
Bernin and the Trevi Fountain...What a dream
The Pantheon. This building was AMAZING. It's amazing how pictures do NOT do something justice. I've learned that about Rome. Pictures do NOT do the sites justice.
Anyone know where this is?

That's right! The fountain of the four rivers!!!!! In Piazza Navona. It is one of the Alters of science from Angels and Demons. For Water. This piazza was amazing. Artists everywhere and amazing cafes and pizza and yummyness
Cute little building on a side street.
Castel St. Angelo. This is where the Illuminati Chapel is. The angels around it are Berninis. This was once Hadrian's Mosoleum. It was finished a year after he died, so then he was transfered there. Then later, it was turned into a fort. Now it's just awesome.


I love Italy. I just love it.

Just another pic of Castel. St. Angelo.


St. Peter's. This place was amazing.

We found this giant tshirt in our Hostel Room. Scary. I think it may have had Small Pox

So basically...BYU students can go into the Vatican....

Us in front of St. Peter's Throne. But I like how tan we are in this pic.

The Baldachino by Bernini. I was SHOCKED at how HUGE this is.
That's the thing about St. Peter's. You say, wow that's really big. But the closer you get to it you go. HOLY COW THAT IS HUMONGOUS. Same with everything inside. Another thing that makes you realize pictures don't do it justice.

St. Peter's Dome. Again..HUGE. See the four pictures around the base? Those represent the four apostles. This places was amazing.

Michaelangelo's Pieta.
Extremely beautiful and moving. Kristi and I just sat and stared at it for about ten minutes.

St. Peter's What a dream.

It was just beautiful and amazing. I LOVED it.

The swiss Guard. What hotties.

Alter of Science representing Air.

One of my favorite pastimes in any big city I visit. sneaking up on Pigeons.

Almost got him!!!

This is my favorite photo we took the whole trip. This was my favorite place to see and i love how excited we are.

That is my "Woah, that's huge" expression.

I just LOVED the colloseum. It was SO cool.

In the middle of all these Roman Ruins, they had these really lame modern art things. I hated them. And you know me, I love to mock Modern Art.

The Roman Forum. What a dream.

This building is huge. I mean...humongous. I mean...WOW. This picture does not in any shape or form do justice to how absolutely MASSIVE this building is.

The Ecstasy of St. Teresa. This is the alter of science for fire in Angels and Demons.
This is another amazing and beautiful Bernini. The church was TINY and VERY old. it was awesome though!

More Roman ruins. They believe these are the steps that Brutus killed Cesar on.

Here's some of my photography. This is the colloseum

I set this up and had kristi push the shutter.

The tiber
St. Peter's

St. Peter's Dome



And here are some videos of us in Rome. Hope you enjoy them. Hope you enjoyed my pics. We also saw the Sistine Chapel and the Burghese Gallery but you can't take pictures in either. Anyway, enjoy! Love you all! I can't wait to go back to Rome.

ABC's...only because Kandyce Tagged me...and I love Kandyce

ABC Tag-
A- Addiction - Facebook. And I hate it. Also these little chocolate creme sandwiches you get in germany.
B- Breakfast (what you eat) - Usually cereal or instant Oatmeal (thanks to Lia and Kristi for those)
C- Chocolate or Chips - Bella's chips...with Bella's Salsa. MMMMMMMmmm
D- Dessert or Appetizers - Depends on the dessert and the appetizer. Usually dessert though
E- Essential Items - Burt’s Bees Chapstick. I have like 6 sticks circulating through m y purses and pockets and luggage
F- Favorite Color - RED. it's so sexy!
G- Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms - Mmmmmm. GUMMY BEARS! Sooo good! Esp. here in Germany.
H- Hometown – I would love to Claim Redlands, but I probably should claim North Ogden
I- Indulgence - Code Red Mountain Dew
J- January or July - July…I'm done with winter by Jan, but I'm not done with Summer till September. July has fireworks and swimming and fun!
K- Kids - I never want to Au Pair again. I like being an Aunt, but NOT an Au Pair. And i am NOT ready to be a mother
L- Life isn’t complete without - Coco
M- Most exciting memory - sky diving! I'm taking Jess, my niece, for her 18th birthday
N- Number of brothers & sisters -4 sisters and 5 brothers
O- Oranges or Apples - Mmmm. California Oranges
P- Phobias or Fears - Isolation. Raptors. and a zombie Attack
Q- Quote - I do. Constantly. Right now "She swallowed her Gum" is in my head. (anyone? can you name that movie???)
R- Reading currently - D&C...and...The power of Now.
S- Summer or Spring - I always say Spring, but you know what? I like Summer. It doesn't switch between cold and hot so much in the summer.
T- Toenail color: Pretty hot pink! Woot!
U- Unknown fact about me - Um...I hate jelly with my peanut butter unless it's in a uncrustables. I love those little sandwiches
V- Vacation I want to go on - I want to go back to Hawaii. I just love it there. I also want to go to the Redwood Forest.
W- Walking or Running - Am I late or on time? :)
X- XRay or Ultrasound - Xray.
Y- Your favorite Food - Italian and India.
Z- Zoo or Bowling - BOWLING! AH! I can't wait to go bowling again! I love it!

Love Tanks, Tiramasu, and lovin mah coco!

Well. I'm halfway down with my last week. Thank goodness. I don't know if I'll survive. it's the longest week of my life and never ending. Like the never ending Story. it's the Never Ending Au Pair job. So we'll see yeah? I go to Rome in a few days as you can see by my countdown to your left. And time could not be going any slower. Everyone else keeps saying how fast time is going and I go...i think my life is on pause while everyone else's is on Fast forward.

I'll be glad to get home. And as excited as I am to see Kristi, I don't think my brain fully understands it's going to Rome. So it's...It's hard to be excited for that and not just want to be home. But I'm sure when I get there I'll be way excited.

I hate packing. I don't want to do it. I have to pack and clean out my whole room. The whole entire thing. Kristi packed for me when I came to Germany, because she's so good at organizing and putting things away. Anyway, i had a pretty good week last week. I tried to stay busy and it made most the week go faster.

I find it interesting how when you're leaving somewhere, that's when people tell you how much you mean to them. My last week in my ward and my last time at FHE, I've never felt that loved. holy moly. People were so sad to see me go. ANd those are two of the things I am going to miss most about Germany. My great ward and the institute.

Anyway, here are some of my pics from last week and at the bottom a video!

This is me with Sister Stewart and Sister Mortenson. I did a session at the temple with the missionaries. It was so great. I love missionaries. And guess what? I did my session in German. I undertood mooost of the stuff. It was really cool. At the very end though, I did the end in English. I was too scared to try it in German. It's all still very new to me.

This is a speed sign for tanks. Just in case there's a war again. This one is for a LOVE tank.

This is a view of St. Ursula's, the big church in Oberursel.



A much better church pic of St. Ursula's. You can see the old houses. Those houses are renovated, but are really like 500 years old. No joking.


This is Alte Oper. It's Old Opera House. It says, "The True, The beautiful, good"
(Lia, Doesn't that remind you of Truth Beauty, Freedom and Love?)


Me in front of the opera house in the pouring rain!


Why? Why do they even sell these. It only encourages people. (They were SHIIIINY)

McKenna and I stumbled upon the missionaries singing in the Zeil.


So I joined. This is me and sister Mortenson, my new best friend.


Hey! I'm trying to sing in German here!


Can't wait for her to get off her mission and get back to ogden so we can be friends!


This is me in the Römer eating tiramasu gelato


More of me in the Römer in Frankfurt


What can I say? I love my puppy.

And below is the video of the missionaries singing. I'm not in it, because I am filming. But enjoy! Love to hear from you guys. Probably my next blog will be Rome Pictures. But who knows, I might be able ot get my mother's day talk from church loaded on before then. (Yes I recorded it) Love you all!

24 years. My life so far

So I am 24. And I was thinking if I've really done anything in my life worthwhile. I guess I have. :) But I was just thinking of sharing the things I've done off of my list of 101 things to do before I die that I've done so far. I'd better get going if I'm going to do all 101 things. Right? Right.
So in no particular order here are the things I've done so far.

I've ridden a horse in a dress (not as great as I thought it would be)

Sky Diving! Greater than I thought it would be

Played a lead in Ragtime

Rode a tandem bike by the ocean

Saw a broadway show in NYC.
I've seen plenty more, but this was my first in NYC
All shook up, original cast

Go see the Taj Mahal

Eat dinner on the beach at sunset


See Sutton Foster Live
I saw her in Young Frankenstein the Musical

Learn to do Yoga.

Play the Tambourine in a band

Go snorkeling on a coral reef

Take out my endowments

See Rachmoninoff's 2nd piano concerto performed live, with my mom of course

Live in Europe. Check. Don't ever have to do it again now. I like the USA

Go to India to take care of Children and do humanitarian work

Get a puppy!

I've also been to the olympics and learned to play the guitar, but I don't have a pic with me to show it. I'll have to scan one in when I get home and add it.

Some of the other things I want to do is sing with Motab, visit the pyramids, Throw a masquerade ball, Ride in a hot air balloon, Breath Fire, Drive a zamboni, Spend the night in a light house, stay at the Grand Hotel in Mackinac Island in Michigan. Just to name a few.
And next week I'll knock off "Go to Rome." Since I go there soon! Woohoo. Well I guess I'd better get on the ball. Do one or two a month in order to accomplish everything.

My puppy, the wannabe doberman

My mom emails me lots of great Coco stories since I never get to see her. my dog is halarious. And I should keep a journal like parents should of their kids, but of course I don't.
One of my favorite stories...and mom, if I get this wrong, then fix it in a comment, is my mom made a pizza and left to do something and when she got back, half the pizza was eaten and there were little puppy prints in the pizza sauce.
But my mom sent me this one and I think it is halarious.
This is straight from my Mom's email:

"Ok -- Coco story!! FUNNY!! So, she was antsy to get out of the house all afternoon, and neither dad nor I would stop what we were doing to take her out. (Not just out for potty -- out for a walk! -- which she did not get in the morning, because I have been so lazy in the mornings, I've been laying back down on the couch -- and falling asleep. Today I was so sound asleep, when Wes came over at 7:30 -- I was almost too out of it, to even let him in.)

So -- when Dad needed to go to town, I suggested he take her with him (partly so I could have some peace!) And he did. When they got back, she jumped out of the car, and high-tailed it down the street with her ball in her mouth. He called, but she just kept going. Well, he had to go potty, so he came in the house and did that -- then went back out to find her. As he got close to the door, he heard her yelping for her life, (dad says her little yippy, help me, help me voice) -- and dad went out to the yard to see what was up == and here she came as fast as her little legs would carry her -- with a big black lab right on her tail! Dad walked out toward her -- and started yelling at the other dog. When he saw dad, he stopped, and turned and started back where he came from.

Well --- Coco ran up to dad -- stopped, turned around and noticed the dog was headed back, so gathering all her doberman instincts -- turned also and took off behind him, barking her little heart out. They got to the end of the street, and that big dog realized Coco was behind him, so he stopped, and turned -- when he stopped, Coco stopped -- realized the predicament she was in, turned around and boogied back to dad as fast as she could go -- yipping the whole way. Well, the lab realized he had the upper hand then, and took off after her again. Dad barely got out of the way -- Coco made a mad dash for the door, and ran right downstairs where I was. The lab stopped at the door -- dad came up behind him and shooed him off, came in and closed the door -- then came downstairs.

I was clueless, and thought they had just gotten home -- until dad told me the story -- I picked her up, and was laughing at her -- she just cuddled in my arms, shaking.

Silly little puppy! She's going to get eaten one of these days!

By the way, she totally lost her ball -- we went looking for it tonight on our walk, but didn't find it, until we got back to Kevin's, and he said, 'Coco -- I have something that's yours' and went over on his lawn and picked it up and threw it to her. :) "

Funny huh? This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Last time, the big dog followed her all the way into the basement. She was traumatized after that one.

Just some photography of Germany

Well i was bored the other day, so I went around the Frankfurt area and took some pics. So here you go. Nothing special really.

This is a building and fountain in Frankfurt
It's near the Romer, which is the really old part.

These clouds were amazing as I got off the train. I was really glad I captured the pictures of them. I love these pics

If you click on the pics, it makes them larger

This is a beautiful little house near the temple
I'm sure Fairies live here

This is part of the park/walkway in Oberursel

As is this