something something b52s roam something

After Paris we went to Rome!

It was fun to see how different Rome felt compared to Paris: a little more gritty, colorful, and way hotter. Neither of us had been to Italy before, and neither of us spoke any Italian (I failed Duolingo), so it was a bit more of an adventure.

Beautiful streets! Totally different from Paris. I don't know why this surprised me so much, but I'm going to blame it on my American naivete. 

The Colosseum! Following Rick Steve's advice helped us avoid most of the line-waiting and his free audio guide was entertaining and informative. I LOVE RICK STEVES.

Roman Forum! It's incredible to me how intertwined ancient and modern Rome are. I loved seeing ancient ruins all over the city.

Like in Paris, we took a cooking class. This time, we made a full meal: two different types of pasta dough (semolina flour + water versus flour + egg), two different pasta sauces (tomato sauce, broccoli goat cheese-I don't even like goat cheese usually but this was SO good), fried zucchini blossoms, artichokes, and chocolate pear cake. This was awesome, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes to cook and will be in Rome.

We also did a food tour in Trastevere and I'm still thinking about this cacio e pepe and amatriciana pasta. 

Also, still thinking about this suppli (fried risotto ball). I would eat this every day if I could.

The Pantheon at night. I loved how walkable Rome was, which allowed us to see a lot of the major sites both intentionally during the day, and accidentally at night, while we were heading back to our Airbnb for the evening.

 Day trip to Tuscany! This was fun but also not, because a lot of it was geared toward wine tasting (which I didn't realize based on the tour description online). Worth experiencing the beautiful scenery and seeing the Italian countryside, though, even if we spent our lunch getting the elderly ladies seated across from us drunk by giving them all of our wine.

The Trevi Fountain was worth the hype. Rome has so many beautiful fountains but this was in a league of its own. 

 We also day tripped to Pompeii/Mount Vesuvius. The view from the end of the trail on Vesuvius was amazing, and this was definitely a highlight.

Pompeii was also incredible. I had no idea it was so large, and I wish we had had more time to explore it.

This mega cheese/meat/fruit/spread board was our dinner one night and now I'm asking myself why do we not eat this for dinner every night? It was fantastic.

We spent a day at the Vatican, seeing the museum/Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. These pictures don't do St. Peter's justice. We saw what felt like a hundred incredible ornate churches while in Rome (we'd pop in every one we saw while walking around) but this outdid them all. Absolutely amazing. Rick Steves also saved us hours of lines with a shortcut from the Sistine Chapel to the cathedral, so next time you're going to Italy, buy his dang book.

Pretty Piazza Navona, early in the morning before all the other tourists got there.

All in all, it was a wonderful vacation, and I feel so lucky that we had the chance to do this before I started working full-time and Aaron started fellowship. It's something I've been wanting to do basically since the last time I got on a plane to fly back to the US from France, and this trip did not disappoint. Thanks for having us, Europe!

midnight in...

Before moving to North Carolina, Aaron and I heeded Leslie Knope's advice:

"In times of stress or moments of transition, sometimes it can feel like the whole world is closing in on you. When that happens, you should close your eyes, take a deep breath, listen to the people that love you when they give you advice, and remember what really matters. And if you have the ability to go to Paris, by all means, go to Paris."

So, we went to Paris:

Our teeny studio Airbnb was right by the Louvre, so we walked past it every day. And one of those days, we went inside it and saw beautiful Winged Victory. We also saw the original painting of a 9000 piece puzzle that Aaron had put together, which neither of us realized was actually a famous Renaissance painting. Surprise! Paris, you're a thrill!

I don't think I appreciated how beautiful Paris was when I first visited when I was in college. Philly helped adjust my expectations for beautiful cities and MAN Paris is beautiful. I couldn't stop taking pictures of ordinary streets and buildings.

One of my favorite things we did was take a food tour of Monmartre, which culminated in us eating a meal of bread, cheese, meats, chocolate, and pastries in this cute little room, overlooking the street in the picture below. It was educational and delicious, my two favorite things!!

The other cool thing we did was take a macaron cooking class at a little cooking school near city hall. Once again, educational and delicious. Macarons are notoriously tricky, so it was awesome to have a professional show us what to do and what to look for. We came away with a box of ~40 cookies, which we snacked on the rest of the trip.

It was fun to show Aaron all the places I loved the last time I was here. Sainte-Chapelle was high on the list. While we were there, a boys choir was visiting and performed just one angelic song. We were so lucky to be there at the same time and get to listen to that little piece of heaven.

Couldn't pass up going to Versailles, even if it was chilly and rainy.

The opulence of Versailles was a sharp contrast to the elegant simplicity of the Mormon temple we walked over to afterward (of course our trip was during the two weeks of the year it's closed for cleaning, so we couldn't actually go inside. But the grounds were lovely!)

On our last morning, I made Aaron go to one last art museum: Musee de l'Organerie. I'm happy to report walking into that rotunda ringed with Monet's water lilies was just as moving 8 years later.

This is us in front of the I Love You Wall loving Paris with all our freaking hearts. Hope we'll be back someday <3

"this shall keep me safe from the hot mexican sun"

-me, referring to my SPF 50 sunscreen that I applied religiously

and also -Buster Bluth

A few weeks ago, Aaron and I took a graduation celebration vacation to Playa del Carmen in Mexico. It was the perfect opportunity to relax and do something fun before the monster that is residency began. 

Let's start with cenotes. Cenotes are giant sinkholes found throughout the Yucatan Peninsula caused by limestone dissolving in the earth. They make for awesome places to do my new favorite activity: SNORKEL. We swam in three different cenotes, two of which were underground, full of bats, and super cool (literally and figuratively). The other one was above ground and had the clearest water I have ever seen.

Underground cenote + Aaron's arm I'm too lazy to crop out. This was connected to several other cenote chambers that we snorkeled through. Not pictured, but also cool: there were a lot of long tree roots hanging in the middle of the cavern, growing toward the water from above the ground. 

Ultra clear water cenote + my blindingly white skin

So, let's talk about snorkeling. When I was younger, I was terrified of swimming in any natural body of water. I think it was mostly because I couldn't see what was under there and having some random plant or heaven-forbid fish brush up against me was horrifying. Guess what fixes that! Swimming in clear water with a snorkel mask! Having eliminated fear of the unknown, snorkeling was so much fun. We got to swim with turtles in the ocean twice. We also saw a couple of stingrays, a lion fish (!!!), lots of tropical fish whose names I no longer remember, and coral reefs. 

You know what is really hard? Taking pictures of fish. National Geographic photographers, I salute you. 

We went to two different Mayan sites, Tulum and Chichen (UGH I keep typing Chicken) Itza. Tulum is right on the ocean, and if I were a Maya, that is definitely where I'd want to have lived because it is gorgeous. 

Wouldn't you want to live in that stone hut? Iguanas could be your best friends! We saw a million of them here. 

Chichen Itza is further inland and is more restored than Tulum. It's actually a pretty big site.  I was expecting just to see the one iconic Wonder of the World pyramid, but there are a lot of other stone buildings and a huge ball court. Fun fact: the Mayans never used a keystone arch, so they had to use a ton of pillars in any large building to hold up the ceiling. 

skullz

While in Chichen Itza we overheard a tour guide throwing around the names "Nephi" "Lehi" "Lamanites" and we were like....MORMONS?! We had found the Book of Mormon Mexico tour group! Whenever I run into Mormons outside of church, it takes a lot of self-control for me to not be like "I'M A MORMON TOO! ISN'T IT CRAZY WE RAN INTO EACH OTHER IN THE WILD?!" I held back the urge this time though, and we continued on our heathen tour, learning about virgin sacrifices. 

I also wanted to record for posterity that we ate a lot of tacos and guacamole all over the place, and it was so good. Also, there was a little Venezuelan restaurant next door to our hotel, and that was also so delicious we went twice. Couldn't get enough of the kaxapas and arepas! 

Huge thank you to Wendy for loaning us the underwater camera so we could actually take pictures! If it weren't for that, all we'd have to document this trip would be a single photo of a taco on my phone (though maybe you'd prefer that after scrolling through this post). Yay vacation! Yay snorkeling! Yay tacos! 

holidaze

Hello!

Now that January is nearly over, let's jump right in and talk about Christmas in a series of paragraphs with zero well-written transitions:

We spent a couple of weeks in Utah visiting family, plus a night in Vegas seeing a Cirque du Soleil show and eating amazing steak. There was so much good food and laser tag, nerf gun wars, and little nieces. Also, catching up with old friends, "working out at the rec center", game playing, book reading, movie watching, and ukulele learning. Plus, watching my brother's rock band crush it at a battle of the bands. And! We saw the Hoover Dam, how about that? 

To elaborate on a few of those topics: 

I'm now obsessed with Brandon Sanderson books after reading The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance. I'm currently working my way through the Mistborn books (currently on The Well of Ascension and I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN. It's causing some strain on my marriage. Sorry Aaron.). Can someone else please read all of these books and then come to my house so we can talk about how much we like Kaladin and Vin and wish we were surgebinders or allomancers? Also related to reading, I read Amy Poehler's book (thank you thank you Amanda!), and I liked it! Have you read it? 

Abby (my youngest sister) taught me how to play the ukulele, and although I sound very plunky, it was super fun. I want a ukulele for my birthday now so I can sing and play all the Ingrid Michaelson songs I want (which will also probably cause marital problems). 

We got to meet our newest niece Bailee and also got to go to her baby blessing, which was neat. She is so precious and tiny. Our other nieces Brook and Brielle kept us very entertained with plenty of games and Taylor Swift dance parties ("shaky off!"). 

Aaron and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary by trying a new restaurant before we left on vacation, Little Nonna's. It's owned by the same people/has the same head chef as one of our other favorites (Barbuzzo), and it was excellent. But the best part was they gave us not one, not two, but THREE free desserts for enduring sitting near the door. We didn't even complain, the hostess just walked over and said, "Thanks for dealing with the cold! Dessert's on us!" That's one way to make sure we will love you forever and come back. So go to Little Nonna's if you're ever in Philly, for the best meatballs of your life and fantastic service. 

I fell asleep while watching The Hobbit #3.

We got an immersion blender for Christmas, and it is slowly changing my life. Things like homemade refried beans and pureed soups no longer seem impossibly inconvenient to make because I don't have to pull out a massive blender from the top shelf of my cabinet and deal with cleaning all the pieces afterward. Hallelujah! 

Photos:

Brielle wasn't sure this photo was something she wanted to participate in.

LASERTAG! My favorite of all active activities. 

Hoover Dam!

Thanks to our families for the gifts and making our trip wonderful! How was your break? Are you going to start reading all of Brandon Sanderson's books now? Have you already?! Are you a ukulele superstar? I want to know! 

a little party never killed nobody

Oh my poor, neglected blog. Someday I will stop doing travel itineraries and actually write something substantial, but today is not that day!

My sister Becky got married this August, and I got to fly out to Utah for it. I decided having siblings (or siblings-in-law in the case of my sister-in-law Rachel from last year) get married is kind of a weird feeling. A happy feeling, of course, but also a little bit like, hey! that is my family member and  I'm not so sure I want to share her with this other family. I imagine it's worse when it's your own kid. (Or maybe you're just really relieved they found someone to marry...okay, I don't know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, I really, really like Becky's husband and his family, but still. Family weddings seem to give me a weird mix of happiness/nostalgia/slight sense of loss.

Mostly though, this wedding was just a lot of fun.

There were gumballs in the bouquet and men in bow ties and cookies and milk at the reception and massive dance partying and striped paper straws and a giant gold sequin backdrop! AND a Tribe/Andrus family band performance complete with backup dancers! AND a twitter hastag! #beckyandstew

Despite whatever initial weirdly possessive wedding feelings I had, I couldn't be happier for these guys. They are a perfect fit and are probably the most fun couple to hang out with in the whole world. I wish they were my neighbors so we could dance party every night or maybe make some grilled cheeses.

Congratulations, Becky and Stewart!

nothing like a mild hurricane to spice up your beach vacation

We spent a week at the beach in North Carolina with Aaron's family a little while ago. My in-laws really know how to vacation. Every day we ate super great food, hung out at the beach, read books, and played games. Aaron and I loved getting to play with our nieces who are growing up waaaay too quickly between visits. Punctuating this lovely bit of relaxation were fireworks on the beach for the 4th of July and Hurricane Arthur. The hurricane was just the right amount of excitement without anything bad happening. There were crazy winds and rain, mild house shaking, a few hours without electricity, ocean swelling right up to the sand dunes protecting the house from flooding, and then no damage, except for a couple of screens in the porch being blown out.

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the fact that I ate fish every night for a week and was loving the heck out of it. If that's not life progress, I don't know what is.

Did you want to see some iPhone photos? It's like I don't even own another camera anymore: 

Brook amassed an impressive seashell collection.

The 4th of July sparklers I made Aaron buy

beach frisbee

A few hours before the hurricane set in

Thanks, Mark and Wendy! We had a blast!