Happy Birthday to my Hot Husband!!

It is Matt's birthday today ... but it feels like we have been celebrate for over a week.

Here are 24 reasons why he deserves the best birthday ever ...

1. He is very ambitious.
2. He is the most kind man ever.
3. He likes everything I cook (even if I do not).
4. He is always happy.
5. He is a really good cook especially with Italian food. 
6. He is very smart. 
7. He is so thoughtful. 
8. He has a lot of patience. 
9. He speaks fluent Italian. 
10. He loves the outdoors. 
11. He is so much older than me ... all four months. 
12. He loves artwork and the Italian culture. 
13. He loves to hike. 
14. He shares my love of diet coke. 
15. He is very supportive of everyone. 
16. His favorite color is blue. 
17. He is a great photographer.
18.  He loves the beach. 
19. He has great sense of man fashion. 
20. He has a sweet tooth.
21. He is great at law school applications. 
22. He loves reading. 
23. He has an amazing testimony. 
24. He loves to laugh. 
25. He is the best husband for me and he just turned 24.

Mike turned 25!

My sisters husband mike turned 25 yesterday and although they are in Michigan and we miss them dearly and wished we could have been there to celebrate together. Well here are some reasons why mike deserves to have a great 25th birthday year.

1. He is very confident
2. He loves my sister
3. He is a steak and potato man
4. He is funny
5. He loves playing basketball
6. He says y'all
7. He loves polo shirts and sperrys
8. He walked with Court and I at BYU graduation
9. He is at law school
10. He is from Florida


Happy birthday mike!

Sicily ... finally editing the end of our Italy trip

This trip was probably my favorite so far. We were able to go back to where Matt served most of his mission. We traveled around Sicily for about a week and loved every minute of it. On Thursday we flew into the Catania airport. This was the city that Matt served most of his mission in. Matt's friends from the English course picked us up. It was way nice to meet them. The daughter spoke very good English which was nice for me to speak English and Italian with here. We went out to lunch to this yummy restaurant and Matt was in heaven. He was right when he said the food is better is Sicily. After lunch we went to the beach to cool off. It was nice to relax and catch up and meet Matt's friends from his mission.

A little later in the day we met up with the lady we stayed with. She was so nice. She was very patient with my limited Italian vocabulary. She had made a few plans for us with some people in the ward. We first made a quick stop at a lady in the wards 90th birthday. There were a lot of members at her house wishing her a happy birthday. Her home was filled with pictures of the temple and Christ. I loved the warm feeling of the people there and could tell why Matt felt such a connection to these people.

After the 90th birthday party we drove up to this town on mount Etna. It was a cute town where one if the members of the ward has an art studio. Her paintings were beautiful. After exploring her gallery we walked around the cute city to the this yummy restaurant. We ate some very delicious food and enjoyed every minute of it.

The next morning we woke up and got ready to go to the other side of Sicily to visit Palermo and Trapani. Before we began our bus ride we walked briefly around the city. Matt pointed out this old Roman ruins and I thought it was so neat to think how old they were and the fact that it was still standing. 

Our bus ride to Palermo was kind of interesting. Instead of a 3 hour bus ride it took more like 4 hours. It was beautiful to see all of Sicily but being stuck in the same spot for 2 hours while they tried to clean up a car explosion was not. The part that made this adventure so funny was that they put all of these cars inside of the tunnel without having the police and fire trucks come through yet. So a lot of cars and trucks had to back out of this tunnel on a very narrow road. 

When we finally arrived to Palermo Matt said he needed to take us to this delicious gelato place. It had so many yummy flavors it was hard to decide. You can tell from Matt's face that the day was made better just because of this gelato. He told me he had been waiting to go there since he left his mission.

After we ate Gelato we explored Palermo and walked past all of the tourist attractions. Matt never served in Palermo but it was in his mission and he visited there. We enjoyed our trip to Palermo but were ready to go to Trapani and meet some people Matt knew from the first area he served in.

In Trapani we were picked up by one of our friends Laura. We went out to dinner and walked around old town. I instantly fell in love with the city. It had much character and was beautiful. We walked around and talked with the members. We spoke Italian and English. 

The next morning we woke up and visited the church and the Branch President when Matt served there (also Laura's Dad). We then went up to Erice a cute little town on the top of the hill. We walked around and saw a beautiful castle, and cute little streets.

Palermo

The Church in Trapani

Erice

 

On Saturday we went to the beach in Trapani. It was beautiful, my favorite beach in Italy. We then took the bus back to Catania and lived through a volcanic eruption. Matt thought the eruption was cool, I was freaking out.  Luckily it only rained ash (for about ninety minutes) where we were and everybody was fine. The next day was Sunday and we went to Church in the Catania. Matt served majority of his mission in Catania. The people there had so much love for him. I instantly fell in love with them. This lady below touched me the instant I met her. Matt baptized her husband a few months before he died. She was so grateful for Matt. I did not know about this story. This lady had such a great testimony that she would be able to be with her husband again and was so appreciative of Matt. I know that this lady will be able to return to be with her husband again.

After Church we went over to our friends for Lunch where I ate way too much food. She made delicious food, because Sicilians are the best cooks in Italy and probably the world. After Lunch we walked around Catania and explored all of these neat places. It was such a beautiful place. We then went over to our other friends for dinner where we ate even more food! It was so much fun to be able to spend almost a week with people.

On Monday we went to Taormina

This trip was my favorite. I loved getting to know the people Matt knew and had made such an impact on his life. I also loved the beach, food, and how beautiful it was. In my dream world I would love to have a house in Trapani to vacation at.

Happy Birthday Courtney!

It is my little sisters birthday! Here are 22 reasons why she deserves the best day ever!

1.  She was a really cute little girl!
2. She has the most beautiful hair! 
3. She is really fun! 
4. She is very independent! 
5. She is very smart!
6. She is very hard working (she has two jobs right now)
7. She dresses very well! 
8. She is competitive! 
9. She is very kind! 
10. She is a great gift giver! 
11. She is a great baker! 
12. She loves Jesus Christ! 
13. She is my best friend! 
14. She loves to travel!
15. She has great taste in music!
16. She is a great sister!
17. She makes really good cookies! 
18. I loved being able to take classes with her! 
19. She always knows how to make me laugh! 
20. She is good at making things better! 
21. She is one of the strongest women I know. 
22. She is great at decorating!

WE LOVE YOU COURT AND WISH YOU THE BEST BIRTHDAY!!

I will update soon

We are back in the states. I have a job. Matt is finishing up his last year of undergrad. We still have to update about our last little bit of Italy. Life is good. We are just not good at blogging that is all the end.

The Last Week in Siena

After coming back from Sicily we realized how little we had left on our Italian adventure. The time had really flown by. I only had one week left in my class, and we had so much to see still in Siena. We decided to fully take advantage of our last weeks days and nights in Siena.

Matt met me almost everyday in Piazza del Campo where we would walk and get lunch and then begin to explore the city. We were able to see so many cool buildings and hidden treasures of Siena. Almost every night we went back into the city for gelato (as if we needed an excuse to eat gelato!) and to explore all the fun events at night. Siena was also having its Summer Jazz Festival so we went to that a few nights. The first time it was on the grounds of a convent that overlooks Siena, and the second time it was in the old Medici Fortress that was built during the Renaissance. Once we met the girls after we had pizza at our local pizzeria and went to the Jazz festival by this local church that we had discovered earlier that day. The music was great to listen to and the venue was really cool! After we were there for around thirty minutes we went to a party in one of the Contradas. It was funny because they had all ages there, a game from the middle ages was being played, dancing, and much more. We had fun dancing the night away with our friends.

During our last week in Siena we went to the Duomo in Siena. It was so beautiful. It was probably my favorite Duomo we went to in Italy. We also went to the tower of the Duomo. It was the most beautiful view of the city of Siena and the surrounding Tuscan countryside. There is so many beautiful things in Siena. It is truly the most beautiful city I have ever seen.

Matt's favorite store in Siena (It is full of beautiful ties)

Our favorite Pizza Place

 Us on top of the Duomo tower in Siena

In front of the Church in Siena

 

On one of our last nights in Siena we went to another Oca Contrada dinner with an adorable lady in the branch, and our friend Simone. It was such a beautiful night and the food was yummy. The first course was a very good pasta and for the second course we had rosted duck and roast potatoes. We laughed and talked in Italian with everyone the entire night. It was so much fun. Matt and Simone did say that they shouldn't have gone back for huge seconds on the pasta because the second course was so massive! I really do miss the branch in Siena.

 The view of Siena from the Oca Contrada's gardens (where we ate the dinner)

Oca contrada Dinner

During our last week in Siena we visited San Gimignano. It was such a cute little town. It is known for all of its towers. We walked throughout the adorable city in and out of shops and we eventually made it to the worlds best gelato place. It won the prize for worlds best gelato, so we had to go back twice. We loved the view of Tuscany. We also loved being in such an adorable Tuscan city.

Worlds best Gelato

We already miss Siena and wish we could be back.

The 5th Busy and Beautiful Weekend in Cinque Terre, Pisa and Lucca

It is amazing how fast time has flown by! We have only three weeks left and that feels weird, but we are loving our time here in Italy. We have done so much and still have so much to do. We had had so much fun and have enjoyed spending this time in Italy together as husband and wife. This week was probably our most busy week and weekend so far. On Wednesday we went out to dinner with a bunch of our friends in the Oca (Goose) contrada.They won the last Palio on July 2nd. It was really fun to enjoy getting to know and hanging out with Italians. We ate a lot of food, and were able to tour the trophies that the Oca Contrada won during different Palios. It was a really neat experience.

The street lights in the Oca Contrada

Then came our weekend trip...and a bit of a fiasco with travel plans. We were planning on getting out to Cinque Terre (on the Italian Riviera) on Friday night but our trip was postponed due to a national train strike...we are in Italy afterall. So thankfully Matt speaks Italian and was able to call the place we were staying and get our reservation changed to Saturday. That morning we went out to Cinque Terre. We were both so excited to go hiking and explore the coastline. We then decided on Sunday on our way home to stop in Pisa and Luca.

The View from our Room in Riomaggiore

We took the train from Siena to Cinque Terre. We stayed in a cute little apartment in Riomaggiore. It was a very cute little town with only a few restaurants, shops and is the farthest south of the five cities. When we arrived we quickly unpacked out workout clothes and set out to hike the trains in between all of the five cities. We took the train to the northern most city called Montorosso and began hiking from town to town working our way south back to Riomaggiore. We decided to do this because we would do the hardest hikes when our legs were the most rested. The first hike took us from Montorosso to Vernazza. Montorosso is the biggest city and has the biggest beach. It is beautiful but a little more overwhelming than the other cities.Vernazza was probably our favorite city. It was beautiful and small. It had a quaint beach. From Vernazza  we hiked through grape vineyards and olive groves perched on the steep hillside to Corniglia, which is the smallest town. It had only one gelato shop. The best part of Corniglia was the amazing honey gelato. They are known for having amazing honey and their gelato made of honey is very good. The hike from Corniglia to Manarola was closed because there was a landslide. We took the train from Corniglia to Manarola and then walked from Manarola to Riomaggiore. That short walk is known as the Via Dell'Amore (the street of love). It was filled with love notes and locks on which couples had written their names and then locked them on the fence. The hikes were great. They were gorgeous! The coastline reminded us a bit of Kauai...just more Italianized. It was so much fun to explore each cute city together and to have time to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the great hikes. When we got back to Riomaggiore that night we went and got dinner right away (we were hungry after a day of hiking). Matt got a clam and pesto pasta, and the noodles were made from chestnut flower. It was a local dish and very good! I had a baked fish which was also amazing! It was a very busy day and we had a ton of fun. 

 The next day when we woke up we spent the morning in Cinque Terre on the beach and then headed off to Pisa by 11. We only stopped for a short while in Pisa because we had heard from many sources that the only thing worth seeing is the tower the duomo and the baptistery. They were all really pretty but it was definitely not the nicest city we had been to so far in Italy. 

After we went to Pisa we went to Lucca and it was beautiful. Lucca is located in Tuscany. It is known for its massive walls that encircle the city and you can see why. There are beautiful walls that that have parks and trails all along the top of them.  Many people run, ride bikes, and walk around the top of the walls. There are parks and trees located randomly throughout the walls. Walking around the walls was really a fun experience. Lucca also had some beautiful Catholic churches. It was so much fun. We also found a yummy sandwich place that I loved...and we went back twice because the sandwiches were just so good! Our favorite was the soft goat cheese and sundried tomato sandwich. They were delicious. Lucca was a beautiful city and certainly worth the afternoon that we spent in it.

It was a very busy weekend and we saw a lot. It was a lot of fun. It felt like a very nice vacation in a very beautiful place! We are excited to go down to Sicily this next weekend (well really the weekend and a few days around it too) where Matt served his mission. Until the next post!