a collage that deserves its own post and a giveaway!

i really did try to control my squealing over the tiny, adorable cars in italy. really, i did. but they are so cute!! (where cute is two syllables, i.e. "key-oot!") remember when i wanted a vintage mini cooper? well, now i think it's been replaced by a vintage fiat cinquecento. it has a 2-cylinder motor - can you imagine?! they are the ultimate bubble car. (btw, there's one for sale on ebay in spanish fork, utah, so anyone out there who wants to surprise me for halloween/christmas/mother's day, etc., please feel free.) they are so scrumptious, and pocket-size. perfect!!

i also loved this blue bike down here in the corner, and the red vespa. (i told kalei to get in the picture because of the leonardo da vinci poster [he's her favorite inventor], but really it was for the vespa.)

on to the giveaway!
this is our 200th post! wow!! so, to celebrate, feel free to leave a comment and we will randomly select a winner at family home evening on monday night, and send out something extra-special just for you - it's that easy! good luck!

collages galore

here are a few collages of my favorite photos from our trip! to begin, we have some photos of interesting italian fashion choices:
(in case you can't tell, some of the birds in the bottom left photo have feathers and/or feet still attached - yum!)
(oh, and i believe the shoes on the bottom right are being marketed at athletic shoes. very practical.)
(also, i'm bummed that my picture of kalei and i with the snakeskin-print toilet and bidet didn't turn out. it really left an impression.)

a few signs that cracked me up:
(i especially love how the children are running - they know how italian traffic is!)

a number of the fabulous doorways:

and a selection of the fabulous windows/railings:

some of the fabulous streetviews:
(everything was fabulous, can you tell?)

we had such a wonderful trip!!!! i hope kalei will remember the things she saw and experiences she had - i know i'll never forget.

last day

it's our last day in italy. *sniff* bethany and i are off to an outdoor market and a junk shop - can't wait!!

we have loved our experience, but i sure miss my boys. thanks, james, for supporting and encouraging me in this!!! and, thanks, bethany & company, for such a fabulous stay!!! same time next year?

Time at the Park

So it rained all yesterday, but today is perfect (go figure). After being cooped up inside, we (and everybody else) took advantage of the sunshine and went to the park. The boys totally enjoyed it, and Koa was great about staying with Kawelo, or getting him to follow him to where he wanted to play (usually the big twisty slide). There was one incident ... the boys went and hopped on the merry-go-round, which had kids already on it and a "responsible" adult pushing it around and round. As soon as they hopped on, the lady started pushing as fast as it could go - it didn't take Koa too long before he said "I think this is enough..." at which time she did stop the ride and let Koa off. I was not fast enough in getting Kawelo off before she started the spinning merry-go-round of death back up at warp speed. Another (older) kid jumped off, and seeing what fun that was, Kawelo started to follow suit ... luckily this woman had enough brain cells to stop the contraption, so that when he did hop off it wasn't pulling the centripital force used in astronaut training. Kawleo jumped off and started running toward Koa and the big twisty slide ... ever been to a minor league baseball game where they do the dizzy bat race? Well, Kawleo did his own version of that favorite between-innings entertainment, only it wasn't so funny. He ended up eating wood chips, and has a nice little scrape on his leg. However, as we were at the park on a perfect day, he didn't have time for crying - he just dusted himself off and went to catch up with Koa. Ahh, good times.

ciao!

ciao, peeps!

greetings from italy!

kalei and i are having the best time - bethany & company are making sure we are culturally enriched. this post covers the first couple of days we've been here -more posts to follow, i promise.

we flew into milan on saturday morning (10 am their time, 3 am central time). we blew thru passport control and customs (hey, if no one's going to be at customs, we're not going to complain - they might've confiscated bethany's six boxes of zip-locs!) after a 2 hour drive to torino, we arrived (alive, thankfully - the "speed limit" on the auto strada we took was about 100 mph - things go fast and cRaZy!) at bethany's house. it's so beautiful!!!!! i want to pry out a few doors and windows to bring home - i'll let you know if i have any success with that. we unloaded our suitcases and headed out into the town. our first stop was an outdoor mall - found james' gift - score! - then onto the piazza di vittoria in the heart of torino.
here's a look at the buildings surrounding the square:

disney xd had a set-up that day and the kids had fun trying out skateboarding, breakdancing, wii skiing, etc.

we had our first gelato! (i say first because, hello, we are getting it again - soon!) as you can see, it's so good kalei doesn't want to pause for pictures while consuming it.

on sunday, general conference didn't come on till 6 pm, so we checked out some parks.

this one had a war memorial. feel free to zoom in on the carvings. interesting. josh, what does "fervent rotae, fervent animi" mean?

this park had a fun zip line. go, kalei, go!

the next park had a fountain dedicated to the twelve months. kalei's april was almost modest - way to go, aprile!

near the fountain was a castle built in the 1880s to resemble a 15th century castle. it was open to walk thru, so of course we took advantage of the photo ops.

we walked thru yet another park on the way back to the car, and snapped this lovely picture. we are so excited to be here!! more pics later!!

Burning Energy

So even though Bess and Kalei are in Italy, I am still giving my students an exam tomorrow (6 pages of essay questions - I know, I'm mean), so the boys and I went into to work to make copies. While there we snapped a picture with our department head, Dr. Hey (aka Big Willie - he's a 6'10" former Louisiana basketball player who went up against Karl Malone in his high school and college career), and then ran stairs at the stadium (all in the name of fun and burning energy). Back at home we spent some time outside playing and getting dirty before the rain is supposed to roll in tomorrow. Fun times.

Zoo Diversion

The girls left for Italy today, and we took the opportunity while in Nashville to visit the zoo (as a fun diversion). The weather was perfect, not too hot or too cool, and no pesky bugs to speak of (other than those on display).


Koa was the navigator with his map that he got at the front gate. He expertly directed us to the exhibits that we promised in our last visit (more than three months ago) to see next time (how can he remember that we didn't hit the frog building in July, but I have to tell him seven times within a 3 second span to stop bugging Kawelo?).


We spent a lot of time looking at amphibians, spiders, and snakes (every little boys dream)...


and petting goats, and playing on the "jungle" gym (a nice concept, but every parents nightmare - with how big it is, the volume of children playing on it, and how many hiding places there were where an adult-sized person could not crawl into ... lets just say there were more than a few stressed out parents trying to keep track of their little ones).