New Queen Witch

Last night we packed up the kids and drove to Garnder Village for their, "So You Think You're A Witch" contest. It was fun to see some old friends and see the new talent. After each performance, from the back row, we held up score cards that said, "Scary, Hideous, 10, and -1" Alfonso has a toothache so one of his cards said, "My tooth hurts." And Ben had one that said, "Where's the bathroom?" We had a laugh or two. Here's some pictures from the evening.

With the winner, Carmen Mirandwitch and her ogre. Love the pumpkins.

Lucinda, Miss Utah and Carmen

Ben and Miss Utah (one of the judges)

With one of my personal favorites, Disco Diane. Her wand was an old school microphone.

Here's "Cure"ella who is devoted to fighting breast cancer. She was great!

2009 Royalty. Do you recognize Mildew Rose???

Back 2 School

The kids started school! Here they are waiting for their first bus ride.



After school I figured they needed a treat. Dairy Keen, here we come!!!

Mowsquatto Bitties

Apples to apples is one of my favorite games. My kids love it too. However because my 6 year old, Will has a hard time understanding who Dr. Kavorkian is, we got Apples to Apples Jr. for Christmas and it's perfect for all. I highly recommend this version if you have kids. (One thing I love about the game is that it encourages kids to read.) The other day we were playing it. The word was "annoying" and when Will played a card, with a huge smile on his face, he said, "mowsquatto bitties!!!" The card said mosquito bites. We cracked up and have been calling the pesky bites, mowsquatto bitties ever since.

Spencer's birthday was Saturday and we had a chance to go fishing! It was really fun, but the mosquito's were terrible. Most of us doused ourselves with bug spray. I went to spray Will but he turned it down. Usally I'd make him do it anyway but I checked him and the mosquitos miraclously seemed to be staying away from him. Well,in hindsight, perhaps I should have insisted. The next morning he looked like this: Covered in mowsqatto bitties. We went to Lake Teapot to go fishing & collectively caught 4 fish. Bt seriously, I think the mosquitos had more success, "peopling". Will had 13 bites on his face and 5 on his hands. He's looking better today but seriously folks, wear bug spray or you too could end up covered in mosquatto bitties.

p.s. Look for an upcoming post about my family's idea of Apples to Apples, Baby version.

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 3

Day 3 Venice and the middle of the ocean

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!! I gave Alfonso the cards that the kids made for him. It was fun.

Hey, I'm writing this on a boat in the middle of the ocean. Not just any boat, a 16 level floating skyscraper. Tearing through the water under a blanket of stars. That being said, let's rewind.

I discovered that the Hilton breakfast featured 13, not 11, different cheeses. Mozz. is my favorite. We woke up early, packed, got our luggage on it's way, & ate breakfast. We boarded a boat that took us to the cruiseship dock. We filled out our forms, got our tickets, cards etc. and got on the ship. And what a ship!!! I really miss the kids and feel quite homesick. I'm trying not to let it show. We had a nice drink party with a our Auto Owners group. Alfonso and I sat next to a nice couple. We visited a while and found out that they are from Salt Lake. Ed & JoAnne. The ship pulled out and we sailed down the Giudecca Canal escorted by some tugboats. Wow, the view of Venice from the top of the ship was incredible!!!

We chatted a while on the deck of the back of the ship and then we went to change for dinner. Dinner was good. We found Ed and Joanne and sat by them. 1 word: Risotto, Delish. 3 words: Brandy soaked Cake. Not so good. blech ech. But the waiters did this hilarious parade carrying the cakes through the restaurant and then this one guy danced with his cake 2 tables away.
I couldn't help but laugh and bury my face. After dinner, Alfonso & I went up to watch the sunset. Again we took lots of pictures. Back to the room. We thought we were going to rest, but no. There was a show and we thought, hey, lets go watch it. 10 seconds hadn't passed since we sat down before I noticed that the band wasn't really playing, they were faking it along with a cheap backup track. Ugh, it ruined it for me. Lets talk about the singers. They were great. The dancers were great. The faking musicians. TERRIBLE. I laughed so much. But I don't think it was supposed to be funny. Anyhoo. There you go. Did you know I'm in Europe and that in Europe it is legal to buy kinder eggs? Did you also know that I LOVE kindereggs?
Did you further know that we bought 4 for the kiddos? Just between you and me we bought a box of kinderegg candy bars too Did you know that I'm about to go and open my fourth one to eat? Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. I want to tell you what happened when I opened the sliding door on our deck and stepped outside. There was a gust of wind and the sound of rushing. It was the ocean water. We are on the 9th level and towards the front of the ship. The moon was so bright in the sky. Very cool!!!! a lot cool!!! But coolest of all is Alfonso. He is a really cool dad and a terrific husband. By the way, while we were walking around midship, this lady put some stuff on our hands to try to sell us some exotic & over priced dead sea scrub and lotion and stuff. Alfonso started freaking out like a little baby saying, "Ow ow ow! No this really hurts!" The lady was really concerned and immediately backed off. In truth, it hurt his hand a little, but he was just trying to get away from her without buying anything. He is so funny. A stinker, but a funny stinker.

A New Batch of Cousins

All of these beautiful babies were born in the year 2010. A bumper crop year for Grandma Jo and Grandpa Bill not to mention the entire family. My talented friend Julie Doherty took this wonderful picture. I just can't look at it enough :)

Family reUNION a.k.a. Christmas In July

Our family wanted to get together this summer. Which isn't an easy feat considering we are spread out across the country. So strings were pulled, airline tickets purchased, insane quantities of gas guzzled and we all met up at mom and dad's house. The weeks festivities include; a hike to elephant rock, a Mueller park cookout, a bouncy house, a scavenger hunt/massive water-fight, a full out Christmas party, and a sunny day @ Cherry Hill Water Park. We had SOOOO much fun. I think one of my favorite things we did was the Christmas party. Since we will not be able to be together this Christmas, we decided to celebrate it early. . . 6 months early. We drew names, had a $5-$10 spending cap, shopped, wrapped, listened to Christmas music, ate an AMAZING dinner, opened presents, and played with our new "toys", Grandma Jo even provided the PERFECT July stocking stuffer. . . SPARKLERS!!! Just spending the time together like that was really special to me. I LOVE my family. Here's a sneak peek from where I was sitting. p.s. Check out the stockings! That's not even all of them. Handiwork of mi beloved madre.

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 2

Day 2 Venice

Adventure 5. Breakfast at the Hilton. Amazing. fruit tart, different breads, mermeladas, a vast selection of cold cuts, over 10 different kinds of CHEESE??? New yogurts, fruits, grapes the size of a silver dollar. Sausages that melt in your mouth. Delicious.

Adventure 6.
The tours. Tour of the doges' palace or palazza ducola, a glimpse of venetian architecture, the art is ON THE WALLS, THE CEILING, BUILT INTO THE FLOOR. I was very impressed at the workmanship and craftsmanship in front of me. People really took their time to MAKE something BEAUTIFUL. I loved it.
The history. Different parts of the palace date back to the 1300's, 1500's etc. Our tour guide was spectacular. A great teacher and he really took his time to paint a rich picture of Venetian history. We saw state rooms, meeting halls, and even the prison.
Very interesting. We passed the bridge of sighs. We went into St. mark's basilica. Ancient building. Built in 1060 a.d. TEN SIXTY A.D.!!! Intricate REAL gold mosaics covered the arched and domed ceilings. There were even mosaics/tiling covering the entire floor. So many geometrical shapes, creating animals and patterns. We last visited the Murano glass factory. We saw a vase and a tiny horse be made out of glass. It was fascinating. The man had such skill as he molded and pulled at the glowing glass.
Did I say fascinating? The showroom made my jaw drop but everything was beyond expensive.
We took a second gondola ride, this time with 4 other strangers from our trip. It was fun but during the day the "streets" are crowded, the sun is hot and it's just a different experience. Our gondolier had a booming angry voice. And when we were caught in a real boat traffic jam, (1 narrow "street", 5 gondolas behind us, 2 in front, all waiting behind a motor boat trying to correct itself after having made a wrong turn)our gondoleir had something to say to the guys in front of us. I'm glad I didn't understand what it was. Adventure 7. Souveniers. Glass bracelets for those who helped us with our kids, a painting, 2 venetian masks, glass birds, necklaces for moms, whirley gigs for boys. lip gloss (because the bag with my makeup was still lost). 2 glass necklaces for me. 2 magnets. We wanted to buy a painting to take home with us. We met a man named Pichio? His paintings were GORGEOUS! He took his time to get a feel for the art we liked. He was very sweet. We eventually discovered he had L.D.S. family members (mormones as he said) he pulled out a pass-along card of Christ and some children. He was a neat man and gave us a 15 euro discout on our painting (in us dollars, that's like 20 bucks). I brought a Book of Mormon on the trip, I promised the girls in my ward that I'd give it to someone, and I was DETERMINED to give it to someone. You know, when you find something good you want to share it? Well I wanted to give my book to Pichio. When we got back to our room, I filled out a message, in english, to him and brought it with me on our return trip to venice, which is adventure #8.

Adventure 8. An unexpected trip back over to the fun. After the tour and souvenier purchasing day. . ., we well, I, was exhausted. WE got back to our room and I just LANDED on the bed. We found out that our luggage had in fact NOT been located and NOT been delivered. Let me refresh you, that means little to no makeup for me, no camera charger, no power converter, no jewlery, no laptop charger, no journal (hence my writing this using precious uncharged, unplugged laptop time), no hair accessories, no scriptures. The biggest emergency though was no camera charger. Hence no more pictures. (You'll notice that the pictures only cover the first part of this blog entry.) Alfonso got info from the concierge about where we could either buy a new camera or charger. And just minutes after landing on the bed, we discovered that in order to reach the shop by it's closing tmie 7:30 actually 19:30. We needed to book it over there PRONTO and we were off, jetting across the water on the hotel shuttle, running through the streets of St. Marcs. over bridges, through alleys, till we finally reached the photo store. . . @ 7:32. THE SHOP WAS CLOSED!!! Discouraged, we meandered around the streets till we found the Rialto bridge. We went to the top of the massive bridge to enjoy the view. Near the bridge we ate a delicious meal. Later we got some gelato and listened to some live musicians. I gave the Book of Mormon and note to a nearby vendor and friend of Pichio, who agreed to give it to him in the morning. When we got to the shuttle area, we discovered that the next shuttle wouldn't come for an hour. ayayay. We decided to try to walk to Zettara, the next shuttle pick up area in 20 minutes. It took over an hour to find our way. My dogs were barkin. My back was achin, but man, it was a beautiful place to get lost in. Some new friends through auto owners is lending us their camera. We talked briefly to our mom's on the phone and checked on the kids. I took a bubble bath and kept falling asleep in the tub. So so soo tired. But I eventually, safely, found my way to the bed and slept with visions of Venice dancing in my head.

You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 1

Alfonso qualified for a mediterranean cruise this year through his work. Cruise, hotel, airfare, some excursions, all paid for. I was beside myself with excitement - I've been wanting to go to Italy since I did my 6th grade country report on it. I honestly didn't think I'd get a chance to go there til later in life, if at all. But for some reason the day miraculously came and has now passed. I wanted to keep track of all the memorable things we saw and did, so I wrote it all down, one day at a time. Here's the first day.

Day 1 From Utah to New York to Venice

Really it begins with a blurr of packing, entertaining, birthdaying (hence the crown below made by my sister and nieces), and preparing for departure.

Leaving Mia was so hard. I probably kissed her 40 times that morning and squoze her hand extra tight on the way to the airport. Mom gave me a hug, got choked up, and said, "Mia will be fine. Have a wonderful time. You may never have a chance like this again." I needed that.

Adventure 1. Luggage. We thought we could carry on 2 each. Not so. So we performed a total luggage rearrangement right there at the check out place. Checked 2 in and ended up taking the extra as a carry on. But right before boarding the plane, there was an announcement that there was limited carry-on room and passengers for that flight could check in any bags they wanted to for free. So we were able to check in that bag after all. . . for free. Well, they lost it. It was left @ JFK airport and is now being flown to paris and will then find it's way to my hotel room.

Adventure 2. The flight. I've decided that an international flight is like a giant sleepover. . . on a plane. . . with a bunch of smelly strangers. And that I really REALLY can't sleep on a plane. There were two 12 year olds making out in front of us. Lady bizzarly stomping her foot next to us. The touch screens on the backs of our seats were a real bonus. Except that they were touch screens and required considerable pressure. When I strangely found my seat being vigorously shaken (it felt like someone was punching it) by the person behind me. Serious poundage. I looked @ alfonso in bewilderment and he looked back @ the lady behind me. She was completely wrapped up in playing and winning her game on the back of my chair till she realized what she was doing. "Oh, sorry." She said. I'm just glad that she stopped after that. We got a good laugh about it anyway. Adventure 3. My inflight playlist and a magic landing. You could brows throught hundreds of songs. My favorites were Cee lo green's Bright Lights, Big City, Love Gun, J. Legend & The Roots', Compared To What. Stuff by Miranda Richardson, Tim McGraw, Norah Jones. I also got that main song from Tangled, Now I see the light?Whatever it's called. I really like it and the words were very meaningful.It was playing as we touched down on italian soil. "All those years, watching from a distance. . . . I know I'm where I belong." I've always dreamed of traveling to Italy. My hayfever started acting up. I was just so full of GRATITUDE for this INCREDIBLE experience and humility for having this chance. Adventure 4. The water taxi. After arriving in Venice, we dealt with our missing luggage issue (boooo), and were escorted on a short walk to our water taxi. WE boarded the boat (alfonso said to sit in the back per richard's request). IT was such a fun ride.
We felt the wind in our faces as an old venetian style motor boat cruised us along the coast of venice. Taking us to our hotel, the Molina Stucky Hilton. We saw so many beautiful buildings and began taking pictures. Lots of pictures. Our career as asian photo taking tourists really took off. How do you not take a billion pictures of the most beautiful place you've ever visited? The hotel was AMAZING, the dinner, amazing, and our mini excusion afterwards. . . amazing. Our room was perfect. The dinner was delicious. Buffalo mozzarella - my new favorite. We decided to venture across the Giudecca Canal on the hotels shuttle boat, to the Zattere. First item of business, GELATO!!! For me, 1 scoop Cacao, 1 scoop twix. Alfonso got 1 scoop limona, 1 scoop melona. It melted so fast. We ate it like 2 year olds, giggling the whole time. We strolled along the rios gasping at the architecture, the flowers, the alleyways, and I realized that I'd found a place where every ally was beautiful. Seriously. We stumbled upon a community gathering. A play of some kind? Everyone was celebrating and having a great time. They gave me a candle to light when it got dark. I don't know why, but I was so honored that they would chose me out of all the other people there. I'm wierd, I know. They play started, it was a comedy in Italian of course. We listened and couldn't help laughing at everyone laughing at something we/I didn't understand. Alfonso understood a lot of italian. I guess Spanish and Italian are very similar. We topped the night of with late Gondola ride. (I have to tell you we rode the gondola's at the Venetian in Las Vegas on our honeymoon, where we were told that it was good luck to kiss under each bridge. So we were experts at the gondola thing :))The water was so peaceful. (GAG ALERT, GAG ALERT)Just like on our honeymoon we kissed under every bridge. That was fun. We tried to take pictures but it was so dark, we just wanted to remember how beautiful everything was.

After the ride, we passed by the celebration and watched the local children dance to american pop songs on a stage lit up with lights and smoke. It was so fun.

I woke up in Salt Lake, I ended the night in Venice. It was a very long, but very GOOD day!