Italy

When Pope John Paul II died in April of 2005, I was completely obsessed and I watched almost continuous coverage of his funeral and the conclave to elect a new pope.  I was fascinated by Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica.  So I was beyond excited when I had the opportunity to visit Italy that summer.  Here are the highlights.

Grand Canal, Venice, Italy

View from a gondola ride, Venice, Italy

Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy

Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy

St. Mark's Basilica, Venice, Italy

St. Mark's Square (Cafe Florian has the best gelato ever), Venice, Italy

St. Mark's Square with St. Mark's Basilica and the Campanile, Venice, Italy

Duomo, Florence, Italy

Baptistery Doors on the Duomo, Florence, Italy

Attempting to get an amusing photo at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Trevi Fountain, Rome, Italy

St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Inside St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

Pompeii (hot but fascinating place), Italy

Various views of the Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Inside the Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Forum Romanum, Rome, Italy

Triumphal Arch (Did you know that they are everywhere, not just Paris?), Rome, Italy

My tour guide asked me what my favorite city was and I told her Paris.  She then told me that after this trip my favorite city would be Rome.  Nope.  I love Paris.  But I feel like I didn't give Rome a fair shake.  I was only there three days and I spent one whole day at the Vatican and another whole day at Pompeii.  By the time I went sightseeing in Rome I was hot and exhausted.  After touring the Colosseum, I went back to my hotel for a nap in the air conditioning.  I have never done that before!  For my last night in Rome I took a cab here.

Luckily I threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain so, according to legend, I will be back!

Note:  These are the last of my digital pictures from my travels.  If you want to see pictures from the other trips I've taken since 1990, you will just have to come to my house and look at all of the scrapbooks!

African Safari

Canadian Rockies

London

Alpine Europe

Germany

Spain

Eastern Europe

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

It has become a tradition for me to take Sean and Tashena to a baseball game every summer so I took them to see the Bees play the Memphis Redbirds last night.  We had so much fun!  I like sitting outside with a great view of the mountains.

Sean likes going because he can get pizza and ice cream in a baseball helmet (which he keeps).

Tashena only goes to humor me...but I think she actually had a lot of fun because she didn't use any of her electronic devices.

She really liked the shirt I bought her (which is why she was willing to pose for me)!

The Bees didn't play very well (they were losing 9-4 by the time we left at the top of the ninth inning) but we still had a lot of fun watching them.  Sean has this funny notion that anyone drinking beer is "drunk."  There were some people behind us who were drinking and Sean kept calling them drunk.  He said he could act as goofy as he wanted because the drunk people wouldn't remember what he did in the morning.  (Where does he get these ideas?)  I don't know if they heard Sean call them "drunk" but they eventually left.  Ha ha!  All of the players have theme songs for when they come up to bat and one of the players had "Turn Down For What?"  For some reason I absolutely love that song so, whenever he came to bat, I would sing really loud.  At first Sean and Tashena were somewhat embarrassed but they ended up joining in.  On the drive home, I played it (yes I have it on my phone) and Sean started busting out his moves.  Tashena and I could not stop laughing!  So much fun! 

At the game last year.

Mary Poppins at HCT

I had so much fun last night seeing Hale Centre Theatre's production of Mary Poppins.  It is such an entertaining show and it brought back so many memories of my childhood.  It is the first movie I actually remember seeing with my Aunt Sharon and my cousins at the old Villa Theatre in Salt Lake. The musical tells the well-known story of how a nanny comes to Cherry Tree Lane to save the Banks children and ends up saving their father.  This is a big show and I am in awe of what director John Sweeney and choreographer Jenny Barlow were able to do on such a small stage!  The choreography is simply amazing, especially in "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Step in Time."  Kacey Udy, once again, outdid himself with the set design.  The Banks' drawing room rises from the floor and the nursery comes down from the ceiling.  The carousel the children ride during "Jolly Holiday" is fabulous!  Kimberly Olson Bunker is practically perfect in every way as Mary Poppins and I especially enjoyed her performance in "A Spoonful of Sugar." David Smith is totally endearing as Bert and I was very impressed with his singing and dancing in "Jolly Holiday" and "Step in Time." Abigail Edwards and Anson Bagley are adorable as the children and JaNae Gibbs Cottam (a frequent performer at HCT) is hilarious as Miss Andrew.  The entire cast does a wonderful job and the dancing is simply spectacular!  I highly recommend seeing this show with your children.  The kids in the audience last night seemed spell-bound and a little girl in my row gasped out loud when she saw Mary Poppins flying through the air (there was a slight glitch in Mary's flying apparatus but she informed us that it was because she had a new umbrella). The show runs through August 9 but, as usual, many shows are sold out.  Go here for more information and to purchase tickets.

Cascade Springs

Yesterday was a little bit overcast which, in my opinion, is perfect for hiking.  I live in an absolutely beautiful place and can literally get to any number of trailheads in the mountains within 30 minutes.  I decided to go to Cascade Springs and then drive the Alpine Loop from American Fork Canyon to Provo Canyon.  Cascade Springs is made up of a series of cascading waterfalls over travertine terraces.  You can hike the lower loop by the pools or you can hike the middle and upper loops to the source of the springs.  It was especially nice yesterday because it was cool and not very crowded.

After hiking around Cascade Springs, I drove the Alpine Loop.  It was beautiful and relaxing.

I love driving through the mountains (especially with the windows down while listening to Neil Young).  It was a lovely day.

OneRepublic at USANA

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is sit under the stars and watch an outdoor performance.  Saturday night was an absolutely beautiful summer evening and one of my favorite bands came to the Usana Amphitheatre for an incredible concert.  Needless to say, I was pretty happy!  OneRepublic started their set with "Light It Up" behind a giant screen, which whipped the 17,000 screaming fans into a frenzy before it finally dropped.  Whenever I go to a concert, there is always one song that I really want the band to play.  It is usually pretty obscure, so sometimes I'm disappointed.  But it just so happens that my favorite OneRepublic song, "Stop and Stare," is quite popular so they played it relatively early in the evening.  I loved it because it was an incredibly stirring performance with the entire crowd singing along!  I really love Ryan Tedder's voice and, even though it was a large arena with over 17,000 in attendance, he sang with such raw emotion that it felt very intimate.  Many songs began acoustically with one featured instrument and a spotlight (piano for "Apologize," Spanish guitar for "Counting Stars," and cello for "Secrets") and then built to a crescendo with other instruments and the usual light show.  They played a few songs from Native, their latest album, such as their catchy new single "Love Runs Out," "Preacher," and "Something I Need," but they kept the crowd happy with the hits "All the Right Moves" and "Good Life."  When they played "Come Home," they showed images from SLC projected on the screens and that definitely got the crowd cheering.  They ended their set with "I Lived," an incredible song that I want played at my funeral!  Listen to it!  For the encore, there was an amazing rendition of "Wonderful World" (did I mention that I love Ryan Tedder's voice?) and then "If I Lose Myself."  It was a really fun night of great music!

Note:  I also enjoyed the opening bands, even though I wasn't as familiar with them.  The first band was American Authors.  I didn't see their whole set because of an epic parking nightmare (did I mention that there were 17,000 people at this concert?) but I did get to hear their biggest hit, "Best Day of My Life," which was fun.  The Script put on a great show with charismatic front man, Danny O'Donoghue, running through the crowd multiple times.  I really liked their performance of "Breakeven."