44 and still kicking

I had a pretty eventful year, I lived in Missouri ( which to be honest was a lot of fun and way better than I had expected!)

And I lived in Arizona (which is never a bad thing with all my friends and my family near!)

And I lived in Italy... (I'll stay here a bit and let you know!

 I also played some new rolls like "Mom of an eagle scout" and if you haven't done that before, let me just tell you the badges I got from it grow in gray and are on my head! But... WOW!!

I gained a new child and that was a bigger celebration than we threw when we got any of the original four. We must love him something huge (we do!) We think they are a great couple and couldn't be prouder of how our family has evolved!

Missionary mom was a new role for me  this year as well. I recently heard someone say 

"It's the saddest happy you'll ever be" 

I can't think of a better way to describe it. We look forward to her letters because she seems to express so much happiness in working for the Lord, but also because we miss her as a normal part of our home and for the few minutes it takes to read it, she feels here.

The most fulfilling experience of my whole year was being able to attend the Lords Temple with my girls and my husband to feel the love My Heavenly Father has for them and for my family and for families in general. The eternal arms wrapped around us and the tender nudges to choose the things that bring us closer to him and bind us through His athourity with our families forever. 

Our family is in so many different places right now and yet we love each other and cheer for each other and spend time thinking of each other and while it is more different than I could have imagined, I find joy everyday in this family and in each one of its amazing unique individual members. It's the greatest gift I have. 

It's my Birthday in Italy

Not only should you celebrate your birthday well when you live in Italy, but you should have some of the best people in the world to your house in Italy to celebrate it with you!

Found this on the floor outside my room when I woke up

 I had dozed off a little early on the 19th ( all the sight seeing takes it out of an old girl) and Dan came in and gave me a hug and told me I had good friends. I made a happy little "Hmmmm" noise cause i know I do, but I didn't know he knew they were down stairs preparing an amazing birthday surprise for the next morning!

Lok at this... can any girl be more blessed! Just look at all the happy and all the love! AMAZING!

They made me breakfast, baked oatmeal with fruit, and fun fetti pancakes and juice ! it was so good and such a fun and relaxing day! The Ladies and I went shopping, always fun for me!

This guy spoiled me rotten! He had all kinds of tricks up his sleeves to make the day great and he did it all with a house full of guest and without breaking a sweat!

He found a lady who bakes with all natural and organic ingredients and had her make 2 of my favorite cheese cakes. ( I have a hard time digesting cheese cake made with typical store shelf ingredients, so this was super nice!) 

Blue berry cheesecake- YUM!

We actually had dessert before dinner because Dan had reservations for us that would run late and he wanted the kids to be able to participate in the singing and cheese cake fun! Always thinking!

These ladies helped primp me up for my big birthday dinner and were some great fun! It wouldn't have been the same with out them!

Napples

Will you just look at the view! No, not the water. its my friend. She came all the way from Baltimore and flew into Spain and Germany and drove to Italy to sit across from me at my birthday dinner! It is Beautiful!

That is capri behind me and Vesuvius behind Kasey

It was a wonderful birthday and the only thing wrong with it is that it cant happen every day!

Thanks everyone for a wonderful send off into 44!

Having company....

St Andrews in Amalfi

Paige and Hero at Pompeii

 We had the Caruthers and the Sargents at the same time to visit and it was a ton of fun! Extra teenagers to help with little ones, and visiting the Naples local hot spots we have seen a few times was a lot more fun with a group.  I didn't get a ton of pics cause I was having too much fun so you'll have to take my word for it!

Sorrento

Rob made me drive the Amalfi coast event though I have already blogged on how tough it was. This time I took Dan and he agrees, we are not Amalfi fans. Maybe if you come in off season we would be a little more inclined to drive you up there. However Sorrento is on the tip of what is considered Amalfi and if you like to have patio lunches and see beautiful views and shop little alley way shops. I will do that every day of the week! Look how much Kasey loved it!

Patio lunch in Amalfi

Pompeii

There are four different entrances to Pompeii, I believe I have now entered everyone of them! Its a huge place and although this time we spent nearly 3 hours, we still didn't see all of it.

Its so good to live here, its so good to have friends come and make once in a life time memories with us and its so good to eat good gelato and amazing cheese!

Please come back and visit again Caruthers Family!

(Sargents haven't left yet and there are more adventures to come before we stick a fork in this summer)

Picture Perfect

It is almost as if you couldn't take a bad pictures. It is so beautiful and almost unbelievable. Like you are inside a story book or a travel magazine. Look, Just look at how beautiful it is!

Paige and her friend jumping off the ledge

The water was amazing! The best part of the whole thing. Clear and  cool and so full of salt floating was not an option or something you had to try to do. Very relaxing!

more jumping 

HOWEVER: I would like to tell you something. Sometimes the pictures are better then the experience, or maybe sometimes just outside the frame of the picture is the negative part of the experience. Sometimes its a little extra graffiti, or maybe in the picture you cant smell the horrible sulfer smell. 

Today it was a lot of people , (its tourist season.) So many on the beach like seals on a rock, so many in the streets, Also a really long windy road that is small and then there are cars parked on either side and people walking and crazy drivers and busses too big for the road for about an hour. NO parking, now try turning around and driving back and forth on fore mentioned road trying to find a place to put your car because you have 3 beach ready teens in the car.

Then there was the stairs. Why when you see people enjoying the beaches on the Amalfi coast do none of them look like they just walked from cliff hight to sea level on a narrow steep set of stone stairs. Doesn't sound so bad does it? Ill admit I read about the standard 300 stairs to the beach and didn't think much of it. Well, I had to do them completely twice to fix my car situation and then the usual up and down to the beach carrying all the things people need to go to the beach.   300... that is a real number! No exaggeration!  Then there was the beach of softball size stones.

Don't get me wrong, I know how fortunate we are to be able to travel and to see all these amazing things, and we did have fun at the beach, I am glad we went, but there are many beautiful sand beaches with normal drives and parking  lots all at sea level. Im in Italy for Heaven sakes.
Sometimes the pictures just lie.

To future visitors who would like to go to an Amalfi beach bring a lot of money because renting a boat is the only way you are gong to get me back on one of them when there are so many beautiful beaches to go to!

Touring the towns in Amalfi is great, going to the beach is a challenge!

Sassi

The Sassi originated in a prehistoric troglodyte settlement, and these dwellings are thought to be among the first ever human settlements in what is now Italy. The Sassi are habitations dug into the calcareous rock itself, which is characteristic of Basilicata and Apulia. Many of them are really little more than caverns, and in some parts of the Sassi a street lies on top of another group of dwellings. The ancient town grew up on one slope of the rocky ravine created by a river that is now a small stream, and this ravine is known locally as "la Gravina". In the 1950s, the government of Italy used force to relocate most of the population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city.

Until the late 1980s the Sassi was considered an area of poverty, since its dwellings were, and in most cases still are, uninhabitable. The present local administration, however, has become more tourism-oriented, and it has promoted the regeneration of the Sassi with the aid of the Italian government, UNESCO, and Hollywood. Today there are many thriving businesses, pubs, and hotels there.

For such a small town it ha some pretty ornate churches!

A stone sculpture I picked up for Dan

This trip right here is the difference between visiting some place and living some place. This would not be on my top twenty list of you must see in Italy, but to have the luxury of time on your side it is pretty cool to get out and see the more obscure and down right old things in the world. I mean really the dwelling of the VERY FIRST EVER ITALIANS!

Do you see the caves out pass the houses?

homes built right into the hill- and this would be deemed more modern

You may notice all the buildings are the same color, unlike Napoli. This rock is indigenous here and everything is made from it. It kind of gives it a very washed out monotone look, but then it makes the hills stand out more and it is interesting to think of the ancestors who just carved the rock away to make caves verses those that brought the rock down and built with it. All the same rock!

We spent a long time trying to figure out if that was a real corps

strange skulls all over

In Italy you are meant to look up at every ceiling

of course a break for some food!