ITALY

In March we took a trip to Italy with my sister Sher and her husband Brian and I am just getting around to blogging about it.

MILAN

First impressions definitely did not disappoint. Milan had impressive shopping and beautiful city streets.  We hit up some tourist attractions got an up close and personal glimpse at Lance Armstrong at the starting line of a bike race and then caught a train to Venice.

VENICE

This is What Venice looked like when we arrived.  BREATH TAKING! We took a water taxi to our hotel. (The only room we had booked for the entire trip since we planned the whole thing in two weeks.)

St. Marks Square. We had plenty of time in Venice to take in all the sites. Attended Mass at St. Marks Basically on Sunday. Beautiful!

This is a family picture...We left our Bambina with Callie, my mom, and Derek's mom while we were away (THANK YOU!).  We missed her A LOT...I kept this picture of her in my bag to show strangers. :)

The birds at St. Marks Square were hilarious! 

And a little frightening.  At one point I let out a very loud embarrassing shriek.  I think I might have a bird phobia?  We brought our own bread to feed the birds and the Italian Police got mad at us, SCARY!

I was so afraid it was going to poop on my head!  Brian took this pic up and coming photographer I'd say. :)

FLORENCE

We went on what would later be referred to as the Florence Death March. :)  My sister Sher had packed all the must-see museums into one day and we walked to ALL of them!  Death March or not it was fantastic!  It's interesting how each of the cities have their own flavor.

Walking through the shopping district.

SIENNA

This is us in Sienna we took a moped to a Castle in the Tuscan Hills.  Sound romantic?  It might have been if it wasn't so cold. :)

PISA

We didn't stay in Pisa... just a day trip to see the famous tower.  It was really sweet to see all the architecture that I had studied about in college.

CINQUE TERRE

All I can say is WOW.  This is the most picturesque place I have ever been to!  It's five colorful towns hanging onto cliff-sides over the Mediterranean Sea.  We stayed in Vernazza...and took an incredible hike between the different towns.

On our hike over-looking Vernazza.

Ok just one more pic.

My sister Sher is so AMAZING we planned on warmer weather (even though our brother in law Andy warned us) ... so I didn't pack warm enough, so my sister Sher lent me jackets and sweaters...she is the BEST!  

I think we took a thousand pictures just in the Cinque Terre...every time we looked around there was something more beautiful than before!

ROME

In front of the Trevi fountain.  Rome had great night life...the city is always buzzing...it's crazy to think that this was the center of the universe!

I think the Colosseum was what I was most looking forward to... and it did not disappoint!  The history is interesting... and the structure is so IMPRESSIVE!

Outside.

We found that we liked the street-side food the best.  It was nice to just pop in and have a tasty bite whenever you want.  This particular place had a hilarious butcher in back ... and cashier pictured with the white hat in front.

Vatican City...the Sistine chapel was really sweet...having been there made the movie angels and demons that much more exciting when we got home.

We spent our last night in Italy back at the Colosseum to check it out at night.  What a great adventure!  Just the beginning of many more to come with my wonderful travel partner ;)!

Day at the Zoo

On memorial day we went to Hogle Zoo. The ratio of people to animals was about 1000 to 1! It was sooooooo crowded! But we had a great time anyway. Auntie Sher met us there and her and Nyah had some quality bonding time checking out the animals.

This is Nyah scoping out the monkeys. Which were her absolute fav! I think she is contemplating how she can get into that cage?

We bumped into Sarah and Jayci I think Jayci gave the monkeys a run for their money on being Nyah's favorite thing at the zoo. :)

Walking with Dad.

Since the zoo was so crowded it was hard to get next to the cages but Nyah being so small took off on her own and pushed her way to the front (where she belongs) to get a closer look. That's my girl. HA! :) Nyah held onto her juice aka lifeline ALL day she is a juice-o-holic!

Partying Like Rock Stars With the Cousins

Nyah hosted a movie night party for her cousins. They decorated cupcakes, ate pizza, and watched a movie. Nyah was in heaven!! She loves to run with the pack...I think she wishes she could live with them. :)

Mothers Day at Grandma House

Playing dolls with Grandpa :)


Singing a little karaoke...she is such a little star...(this is the picture I'm going to use when she wins American Idol) HA! :)


We went shopping with Auntie Dee...and rode the carousal.

Nyah didn't love it so much...she got a little freaked by the scary looking animals.

Next to the park with Grandma and Auntie Andi.

Just some casual conversation with Grandma about nature.

Swinging is tops. :)

Fresh Out Of The Tub

I love when Nyah is fresh out of the tub! She is so shiny and smells like baby lotion. Yummm. She looks like such a baby in this picture and it was only a month or so ago!

Up-And-Coming Arteeeast

This is the first picture Nyah has ever taken. Officially. We were headed shopping...later that day I was up loading my pictures and found 15 of the roof of my car. :)

So independent

This is a video I took about a month ago...sorry still playing catch-up. Nyah has decided that she is much to old to be fed and now takes matters into her own hands at every meal.

Days Go By

Nyah's new pool! She loves it and insisted on getting in the other day at 7:00 at night when it was freezing!

Mowing the lawn with Dad...doesn't love it per say :)

So I was scrubbing the tub the other day and Nyah came in and tapped me on the shoulder and she was wearing my shirt! She went into my closet and pulled it off a hanger and put it on. I laughed way hard!!

Nyah is learning to feed herself, that is vegetable beef all over her face. Oh AND her new four teeth!!! It is not uncommon to head straight to the bath after meal time seeing as how more food makes it on her clothes, hair, and face then actually in her mouth.

BUBBLES! One of Nyah's first words and first loves. She can do them herself with this wand that makes ginormous bubbles. This day was also freezing but Nyah insisted that she make some bubbles. So Derek took her outside while I spied from the warmth of the house through the window.

Just a random pic. My sister Dee came up and went to baby animal days and we also made the most spectacular Easter treats. They were ART at it's finest. Fitting seeing how Dee is a high school art teacher.

Nyah and Raegan Hanging Out

Raegan came over to play a couple of weeks ago...Nyah loved it...she wants a sister soooo bad!

Nyah got the car on the left for Easter and Raegs insisted on trying her hand at it... :) Beautiful babies start your engines!

Baby Animal Days

Every year in Logan they have baby animal days where you can come pet...well, baby animals

Nyah held some baby goats and loved it... but I thought this picture was hilarious because it looks like she is being mowed down by a baby goat. I don't think she really was? However she has no fear and will run after the scariest looking animal.

Made friends with a baby duck then tried to choke it to death.

Wallowed with some pigs...at this point I was wondering if this was such a good idea. Literally wallowing with swines!!

So motherly, even to baby cows 8 times her size.

The bunnies were super cute until this one tried to scratch our eyes out...so we traded this nasty one in for a nice one. Nyah came away with battle scars.