Where have the days gone?: July 2007

Tara's Wedding!

I spent last weekend flying to Seattle because on of my best friends from college was getting married! It was so great to see all of my roommates from junior year because we haven't all been together since graduation a year ago. We can't wait until the next wedding-hopefully someone gets married within the next five years! No pressure Sarah F or Becca!

I love my nephews...

I decided that I needed a change of scenery, so I am spending an entire week with my 2 brothers, sister-in-law, and my 2 nephews. It's been amazing. Although, my Hebrew studies are suffering due to my own lack of motivation and overwhelming frustration and better things to do-like playing with my nephews and chatting with my sister-in-law Denae! At then end of the week, my parents and sisters are coming up to join us all because Max is getting baptized.

In general, I like kids, but my nephews are amazing. I'm being completely unbiased with a completely objective opinion...haha or something like that! Seriously though, I am completely in love with them and fascinated by them. Mitchell is only a year and half, but he's so incredibly smart with a huge vocabulary. The doctors say that his intelligence level is about a 4 year olds', and he's about size of about a 3 year old. My favorite things about Mitchell are:

1.He calls me “Auntie Sarah.”

2. When he wants something, he'll used sign language to say please.

3. He has the cutest white boy dance ever.

4. When he asks what something is, and after you tell him he'll repeat the word over a couple of times. Then he remembers it later on!

Maxwell (Max) is a few of months old, and he's already so big. He's so incredibly content and happy (unless he's hungry-but give the kid a break! I'm crabby when I'm hungry too!) If he's fed and has a clean diaper-he just sits around and coo's and smiles. I love it!

So here's a couple of pictures...

Seriously, how can you not think they are adorable?

Mitchell loves food...I think he gets that from his Auntie...

My older brother, Brian is really into computers/he's a computer geek. Brian is hoping that his son walks in his footsteps.

This is Maxwell. The top picture is so funny. It looks like he's being mugged or something...

Amsterdam, Netherlands

The buildings are beautiful, and it reminded me of home in Pella, Iowa. I spent a couple of days in Amsterdam, and it was strangely familiar. Although, I didn't see anyone wearing wooden shoes or Dutch costumes. They also clean the streets with zamboni like machines unlike Tulip Time in Pella where we use buckets suspended from wooden yokes and straw brooms...

Narrow streets...not really made for 2 way traffic...

The house in the middle with the green first level is the Anne Frank House.

The canals in the NL are slightly better than the one in Pella...

House boats on the canal

Florence, Italy

I wish I had room to buy some local artwork, but I didn't think I could get it back to the US in decent shape.

Sunset...

The Cathedral - Santa Maria del Fiore was started in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio. Many artists worked on Santa Maria del Fiore, such as Giotto, Donatello, Paolo Uccello, Ghiberti and Luca Della Robbia. It is massive...in general churches in Europe of massive and so ornate.

This painted on the ceiling of the church. The at the bottom of the painting depicted graphic scenes from Hell and then moved up heaven and Christ.

Intersting building...I think it has a lot of character.

The view from our hostel...not to bad!

Outdoor replica of Michelangelo's David. We saw the real David in the Accademia Gallery, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures.

Finally some pictures from my Europe Trip: Rome

Everything that I brought to Europe!

Angie and I at the top of St. Peter's in the Vatican, Italy.

These small cars were everywhere. They are only a 2 seater, but the advantage is that they can park vertically on the side of the road because it is so short. Most of the cities in Europe were built so long along that they didn't plan for the need for parking.