Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 9

 Alex still had his work conference on Saturday, so he headed out with the big suitcase and his carry-on.  That left me with my carry-on backpack and snacks to cart around after I checked out of the hotel.  I had to check out at 11:00am, so I had about 5 hours to find something to do.  I didn't really want to wander around Venice with my backpack and snacks.  After sitting in the hotel lobby for about 45 minutes, I walked around Mestre for about 1.5 hours.  It was hot and I didn't see anything that particularly caught my attention, so I decided to head back to the bus station.  Took a bus to the airport and then sat there for a few hours waiting for Alex.  At least it was air-conditioned, I could sit down, use wi-fi, and have a free bathroom.  

Our flight was Saturday evening the 21st, with our first flight from Venice to Switzerland.  They had some tasty chocolate as a flight snack.  We had to wait a LONG time in Switzerland to go through customs.  We somehow got in the slowest line.  By the time we made it through, we had to take off running to make our connecting flight.  We did make it and our 2nd flight arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia around 5:00am.  We paid for an expensive taxi to our Airbnb and then had time to nap for about 2 hours.  We then got ready and found our way to church at 11:00am.  We enjoyed attending the church service, which they provided translation for (via headphones).  One of the missionaries was translating into Russian or English, from either Georgian or English, depending on the speaker's language.  I thought that was pretty talented for him to navigate 3 different languages.  

We had planned to get our rental car at noon, right there at the church building.  We found this rental service that would meet you with a car at whatever address you chose.  We had a little snag in securing the car.  The guy showed up as planned with the car, but then he wanted proof that Alex had been driving longer than 2 years.  Since Alex had recently renewed his driver's license, it appeared that he had only been driving for a short time.  We assured the guy that he had over 30 years of driving experience, but they needed proof.  We had to have the kids track down one of Alex's old licenses and take a picture of it.  We couldn't get that until later that night (because of the time difference), but luckily the guy still took our cash, let us take the car (using it at our own risk) and send the picture later. The whole deal seemed a little wonky, but it worked out and we had a car for the week.

We actually walked around Tbilisi the rest of the day after getting back to our Airbnb because the driving was so crazy there.  We wandered all over Tbilisi.  We ran into the senior missionary couple that we met earlier in the day at church.  The city was interesting - beautiful architecture, cobbly streets, and this charm to the city.  Yet there was definitely a lot of graffiti, poverty, and cats and dogs wandering around.  It broke my heart to see some of the poor people sitting on the street trying to sell stuff.  We walked past a lady selling cups of apricots and then felt like we should turn around.  We bought a cup from her and she seemed SO grateful that we bought them.  It nearly brought me to tears thinking about it - she seemed glad that someone had noticed her.  

One of the most amazing places we saw was the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi.  The lighting was beautiful in the evening.  We also caught a nice view of the city from a church on the hill, but it was a steep walk to get up there.  

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 5-8

 We spent the next 3-4 days in Venice.  This was Alex's work trip, so I didn't actually see much of him these few days since he was gone from about 7:00am-6:00pm every day.  On Wednesday, I took a rest day.  After so much walking around in Rome and traveling around, I just wanted to sleep.  I slept until about 11:30am and then went to the grocery store in the afternoon.  I met Alex and his colleagues in Venice on Wednesday evening for dinner.  I was a little worried about getting myself from the hotel to the train station in Mestre and into Venice, but it was pretty easy.  I tried fried calamari for dinner, but the texture was pretty hard to stomach.  The grilled veggies were good, along with the gelato we had after dinner.  

I ventured out by myself on Thursday back into Venice for the day.  I decided to buy a day pass so that I could hop on and off of the vaporetto (water bus).  I thought that would be a fun way to get around.  However... it was hot and crowded, I had to stand most of the time on the water bus and had to wait in lines to get on.  I made it to Murano and Burano Islands and walked all over.  Murano was really cool because it's known for Murano glass.  They had shop after shop full of beautiful glass.  I didn't really have a specific plan for the day or how to get around, but I somehow got to a couple places I wanted to see and made it back.  Too many people, too much waiting and walking around, shopping, and navigating buses and trains - all things I don't enjoy, but I did it.  I managed to buy a few cool souvenirs from the glass shops.  I was really drawn to the glass creations and pretty necklaces. 

On Friday, the trains and buses were on strike, so I didn't get out to wander around.  I was content to relax at the hotel.  By Friday evening, transportation was back to normal, so Alex and I had dinner in Venice again.  Alex had pizza, I had stuffed lamb ravioli, and we tried cannoli for dessert - so yummy!

Italy-Georgia Trip, Day 1-4

Alex and I took a 2-week trip to Italy and the country of Georgia to celebrate our 25th anniversary.  We left a couple of days after the boys got out of school.  Alex had a work trip in Venice, Italy, so we went in conjunction with that trip.  We flew out on Saturday afternoon of the 14th and arrived in Venice on Sunday evening.  

On Monday morning, we headed to Rome.  It was a little crazy trying to find a bus to the train station.  We also had to drop off and store our big suitcase in Venice so we didn't have to cart it around in Rome.  We each just took a backpack.  We did make our train and got into Rome in the afternoon.  It was really hot for our 2 days in Rome and we did a lot of walking.  We walked at least 8 miles on Monday, so it was very tiring.  We saw St. Peter's Basilica, which was really amazing.  We went up to the viewpoint from the cupola, which was a little bit of a feat just to get up there.  We walked up several narrow winding stairways. The view was pretty cool and the inside was also amazing.  We definitely needed gelato in the afternoon.  We had pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner.   

On Tuesday we had an appointment at the Rome Italy Temple at 11:15am to do some temple service.  We left early, around 9:00am, which should have given us about an hour to spare before our scheduled session.  We took the Metro a little ways, where we were supposed to get off and take 1 bus to get to the temple.  However... the bus never showed up.  It was showing arrival time to be an hour late. We waited for a while.  Eventually we took another bus, which would then feed into a 2nd bus to get there.  That bus was also delayed, so we didn't make it to the temple until about 11:20-11:30am.  We missed our scheduled appointment for an endowment session, but we were able to walk in for other temple service doing proxy sealings.  I really felt the Spirit there and realized we were probably supposed to do those for our anniversary trip.  We were reminded of the same covenants we made 25 years ago.  I was happy to finally make it (back) to the Rome Temple.  We visited on New Years 2018 when it was being constructed.  We had just learned that Alex's brother had passed away the day before, so it was a tender visit to the temple site, knowing the significance of the work we do inside.  I said I would make it back to Rome Temple sometime, and we finally did.  I loved seeing the olive trees on the temple grounds. The sculptures of Jesus and the Apostles were also really special. One cool thing about our experience trying to get to the temple was that we met a family from Lehi, Utah on the Metro who was also going to the temple.  The dad saw us sitting there, thought we were members of the church, and with no prior conversation asked if we were going to the Rome Temple too.  We ended up sharing our whole adventure of getting to the temple with them.  We had lots of time to chat.  I don't know why we were supposed to share that experience, but I'm sure it was hardly a coincidence.  Maybe we needed to have those conversations with this young family who had 3 boys and 1 girl.  

We had a couple of hours after the temple on Tuesday afternoon, so we decided to wander over to the Trevi Fountain.  We had also been there on our previous trip to Rome, and I thought we should go see it again.  It was jam-packed with people, so we just squeezed in one photo and headed out.  No coins thrown in this time, but maybe we don't need to go back to Rome anyway... 

We had an early dinner on Tuesday and took a train back to Venice (which was delayed 2 hours).  We did a lot of walking in the heat and waiting around in Rome.  

 

June 2025 Misc

 Weston got a haircut in June and looking pretty sharp.  Savannah got contact lenses and worked on getting them in and out this summer before school started. We had a massive crop of apricots this year.  The photo is just a portion of the apricots.  The kids went to a swim party on the last day of school.  

Nathan attended the singles ward in our area this summer and got called as a ward missionary.  He got to perform a baptism and help out the missionaries with some teaching.  Alex and I were gone for Father's Day, but we celebrated a little early with some yummy meals.  We enjoyed watching the NBA Finals of the OKC Thunder vs Indiana Pacers. There were some close games.  I watched game 6 with Nathan that tied up the series 3-3.  We didn't end up watching Game 7, since it was on Sunday.  I tried to watch it from abroad early Monday morning but couldn't get it to stream. I was surprised that the kids didn't watch the game, particularly since it's our team and Nathan and Owen are so into basketball.  They decided to honor their Sabbath Day commitments, so that was impressive.  We were happy that OKC won the championship!

Savannah, Owen, and Weston went to young women and young men's camps towards the end of June. I didn't see very many pictures shared, but here are a few that were sent out.  They all had a great time.  The boys went backpacking.  The girls went to Catalina Island and did some swimming and fun activities there.  The last picture is from a youth conference that Owen and Weston went to another weekend in June.  Camps and conferences were spiritually uplifting as well as fun.  

Weston's 8th grade promotion

 It was promotion year for Weston as well, graduating from junior high.  He played in the band for graduation.  Weston got a couple of awards this year in an awards ceremony a week earlier.  He got a 4.0 and also awards for best student in History and English (I think?).  I missed his awards since it overlapped with Savannah's promotion ceremony.  He had a great year!

Utah trip

Savannah, Alex, and I took a quick weekend trip to Utah at the last minute.  We drove there on the Friday after Savannah got done with school.  (Owen and Weston still had school and Nathan was already working, so we went without them.)  We stayed with Alison and Micah.  My parents happened to also be there that weekend, so we got to see them too.  Savannah hung out with her cousins on Saturday while Alex and I went house hunting.  We were looking to buy a house in Provo for our college kids.  Since Nathan and Jared are already going to BYU, we have at least 6 years of kids living in Provo.  Our other kids want to go there too, so it could be a good investment.  We came away from the weekend a little depressed, not having found much of what we were looking for.  We did figure out what general area we liked around BYU, so it helped our online searching.

We went to church with Alison and Micah on Sunday and hung out the rest of the day.  We had some yummy food!  We also enjoyed meeting their new puppy Poppi.  

We drove home on Monday, so it was a quick trip.

Elementary School Graduate

 Savannah finished elementary school and now on to junior high!  She had a beach day, party, and some other end-of-the-year activities.  I helped at the 6th grade party.  (You can see that Savannah and I picked the same pink glasses to wear in the photos.)  The party was a baby picture guess, photo booth, food, and dance.   

I snapped a picture of her walking to school on the last day - our last walk to the school.  We've had kids going to this elementary school since 2012, when we moved into the neighborhood.  Nathan started there in 3rd grade, and Jared started there in 1st grade.  So we've had kids going to this school for the past 13 years.  The kids often walked together (or ran if they were late), and I know I'll miss their little bobbing heads going down the street.  I walked to and from school with Savannah the past couple of years since she didn't have her brothers to walk with her. Even though it was a short walk, I enjoyed our few minutes to chat each day. 

We snapped a picture with her teacher and then went out to lunch with friends on the last day of school.

It was fun to go to her promotion ceremony.  Each of the 6th graders got to say what their favorite thing about school was, and Savannah said she liked her friends.  They did a couple of songs and then got their diplomas.  We had cheesecake for dessert back at home after the ceremony.