Day 1: Paris

I have been putting this off for too long now because I have so so many pictures and it gets a little overwhelming for me to look through all of them but here I go. Disclaimer: I am no photographer so these pictures do not do Europe justice.

Here is the view outside our apartment... We had just arrived in Paris on a non-stop flight from Salt Lake City, bought our metro passes, wandered around the streets looking for our apartment and trying to get oriented when we looked up from our maps and saw a straight shot of the Eiffel Tower. It became a sort of theme where we would find ourselves in amazing places and not even know it.... we had to keep telling ourselves...LOOK UP!! instead of looking at the street signs, metro maps, etc..

We stayed in an "apartment" that this guy rents out to tourists and it made us feel so at home and a little less like tourists. The apartment was tiny and clean and perfect for us. We fell in love with the little courtyard that all the apartments faced in towards. It felt so safe that when we couldn't figure out how to work our key in the door lock, we just left the door unlocked with all our stuff inside. Luckily it was all there when we made it home that night.

The Siene River. So many beautiful streets in Paris!! We strolled around the city for the first few hours, to get oriented and see some sights.

Pont de l'Archevêché, a bridge that looks out over Notre Dame Cathedral, filled with "love locks," padlocks with initials of lovers, locked onto the bridge. cute, right?

Notre Dame cathedral from the Pont de l'Archevêché.

First photo with the Eifell.

We took the cheap route and used the stairs to get up the Eiffel Tower. This city has so many stairs. Seriously, if you are going to Europe, you need to train. We were so dead and tired at the end of every day.

We had to stay and watch the sun go down over the city.

We ended the night with a little pizza on the street. délicieux

excited about....

Staying here in Rome...

I really hope this is the view from my room. We are staying at a guesthouse called one step from peter. and I am loving the reviews on it. The fridge full of croissants, yogurts, and bread had me totally sold. That and the gelato shop two blocks away... I think I am most excited for the food in Europe.

Google Reader. It's a dream come true. I am probably the last person on the planet to discover Google reader. My life is changed forever... Kind of how emily just found out about hulu. What?!

Moving. Spending this week packing up our 2 and 1/2 year apartment to move up to salt lake county. Parkers job in South Jordan + only having one car = sick of commuting like crazy and spending lots of $$ on gas.

Car. We need to purchase a car this week so we will have one when we get home from Europe. Otherwise I may be taking the bus to work. Anyone have any tips for purchasing a car?

Mixed CD my seventeen year old sister in law made for me for my birthday.

Packing. For Europe! enough said.

this week is a crazy one.

house inspiration

I recently watched the movie "Life As We Know It" and I loved it but I am more in love with their house. Seriously, I want my future home to look like this.

2011

So I am a little behind on blogging this year but here is what we have been up to.

Parker sold his business, American Backhaul, in January.

I wrecked Parker's car:( Sad to see it go.

The weekend before Valentines, Parker insisted we go to Carrabas for dinner... and he surprised me with a trip to Europe. The tickets aren't actually bought yet but hopefully they will be soon and we will be going on May! He told me with a whole bunch of travel guide books to all the places we will be going and a fake ticket. I was so shocked.

Ate at the Smoking apple in Lindon. Delicious BBQ!

Bowling with the Davidson Family!
and Yes, I did beat Parker...best feeling ever!

And then Parker has been interviewing for jobs at a lot of different places. Hopefully we will decide soon on which one to take!

So far 2011 has been good to us. I have a feeling it is going to get even better!

3 years

I can't believe this day was three whole years ago. It has flown by so fast. Our first step out into the world, and we had no idea what life/marriage would hold for us...and we still don't, but I'm just glad to have Parker by my side as we figure this crazy life out!

So we sort of (actually totally) broke our budget for "eating out" last month, and that was excluding all the food we ate on vacation. So we pretty much ate like crap and spent a lot of money doing it. So in an effort to do better this month, I am going to be cooking a lot more!

Monday, I sat down and planned out about 15 meals for the next few weeks or so. Took me almost all day finding recipes that sounded good enough that I knew we would feel like eating instead of going out. That is usually our problem: even though there is plenty of food in the house, I don't feel like cooking or eating whatever we have, so I convince Parker to take me out (bad I know). The truth is, I actually like cooking a lot, I just have to be enticed by whatever it is I am making... and I usually hate making the same thing twice, so I am always looking for new recipes.

So far, so good.

Tuesday night I made tomato-basil parmesean soup in the crockpot. The recipe, you can findhere. It was actually in the BYU-Alumni magazine (wierd that I am an alumni, right?) and a friend recomended it. I really like a lot of the recipes that this gal does on her blog,http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/. She did a full year of only crockpot cooking and so there are a ton of recipes. Plus, I love my crockpot. It's so easy on days that I work. I get it ready the night before, have Parker turn it on when he wakes up, and I come home to a nice hot meal.

Anyways, the soup turned out amazing if I do say so myself. haha. I really liked it. Parker and Charlene did too so if you're in the mood for some hot tomato soup on a cold winter day, try it.
So anyways, sorry if I post a lot about food this month but at least you'll know why. If you have recipes for me, share!

San Diego

Sorry...More pictures from the trip... I could sit on the beach all day, listening and watching the waves crash in. It's so therapeutic. I take after my mother. Mark + Jen

Park and me...don't judge. Ate at Anthony's Seafood Grotto after a long day of golf. yummy shrimp. Oh... the crab cooker. delish. Oh wow. The Beach Break. A-mazing. You can probably tell we thoroughly enjoyed our food on this trip. I'm pretty sure I gained 10 pounds. Thanks to Mark for sharing this gem.We took a little trip down to the San Diego Temple. It was gorgeous and good to spend some time in the temple.We visited Old Town and the Mormon Batallion. We went on a tour in the visitor center about the Mormon Batallion with a class of 4th Graders. The Church does such a good job with their visitor centers. I would recomend going if you are down that way if you like historical stuff even a little bit. Seaport Village was kind of a bust. We were hot and tired and sick of walking around/shopping. So we headed over to Coronado Island to check out the huge hotel and relax, again, on the beach.

The end

Torey Pines

We took a little trip down to San Diego last week with Mark and Jen. Mark and Parker had their hearts set on playing Torey Pines-site of the 2008 U.S. Open. We got there super early so these two could warm up... We also had to get there early to get our name on the "twilight" list (play after 1:30) so it wasn't as ridicuously expensive. They were so happy to get on the course before 2:00. For a monday, the course was packed and I swear I saw Phil Mickelson.Eating Lunch before hand. We got delicious sandwhiches at a little shop down in DelMar and ate them at the course while we were waiting to get called on. These two were a nervous wreck before tee off. I think it was a combination of playing at such a "historic" course (as they kept reminding us) and paying that much cash for a round of golf.

I'm really glad Jen and I went along, if only just to see the view. It was a little hazy out at sea but there were so many gorgeous views.

We caught a gorgeous sunset on hole 17. The boys finished the 18th hole just as it was getting pitch dark. It was a great (long) day at the golf course.