Ah Florence...Ah Pisa

Ok, WE took a train to Florence (Firenze) which was pretty neat. (as soon as we figured out where we needed to go..firenze.. go figure. We saw some of the neatest country side of Italy that is straight out of the books! It was beautiful! After about 2 hrs we arrived in Firenze. What a neat city, though totally crowded with people and the CRAZIEST driving i have ever seen, down the skinniest roads i have ever seen, we saw some of the neatest stuff. We passed the 'Duomo' which you see Sammy and Andrew pictures of, what a crazy huge old church with the craziest rennasaunce archetecture!! it was thrilling, inside were some neat frescoes and statues and the Dome was designed and painted by Michaelangelo! everything is Michaelangelo in Florence. we went and saw the David' it was way larger than i was expecting. i took a picture of Deena right before i found out you weren't supposed to take pictures...oh well. I probably would have taken one anyway! i didn't use my flash for all you art junkies out there!......But the highlight of the trip was the hour and a half more trainride to Pisa! That place was awesome! the leaning tower of Pisa is soooo much taller in real life than you would believe! I think it is something like 400 feet tall. of course this is where Galaleo dropped the different sized balls from the tower to prove the velocity of different sized objects is the same. The babtistry is the other building in the pictures, it is the biggest in the world! the archetecture is just incredible! I must say i was in heaven and thinking that my mother would be in heaven here too! though more on that in my next blog of San Marino!!

Ahh.. Venice!

Ah. Venice - Indiana Jones....Yes we did see the library that Indiana Jones realized that X marks the spot, and eventually found the tomb of Sir Richard! We had such a good time at this incredible floating city! We got lost among the maze of narrow waterlined streets, it seemed at every turn there was some old gothic looking church or plaza with statues of famous people i had never heard of. The archetecture is amazing. i just cannot believe that this city is totally built over water! St Marks square is just amazing. the church tower for the cathederal is just enormously tall, and the art work in every nook and crany of that building is just exquisite! It was here that Sammy got to know the local Pidgeon population intimately! there were serioulsy hundreds of Pidgeons swarming her...(she did have a cracker) the Tourists (which is everybody) all flocked around taking pictures of Sammy with pidgeons serously covering every inch of her body! don't be surprised to see it in National Geographic or something!! We took a water taxi back to the train station wich was amazing. it went along the entire Grand Canal as they call it. What a fun way to see Venice! We saw the gondoliers and even passed one that was singing to his riders!! Way fun way to start our Italian trip!! Next up Florence!! will post next blog then.. Love you and miss you all

Happy Halloween

Wow, i cannot believe how serious some people take halloween in my neighborhood. The Bishops wife every year has the most crazy costumes and is really fun to go to her house. Our neighbor with the volkswagons, had some remote controlled candy tray that he could move all over the porch and was wearing buck teeth and had a shotgun on his lap and his wife was a cow that glowed in the dark. Then we stopped by Annies Grandma Elodies and this is what we saw(she says she loves halloween).... it was a good night for my kids (nice and warm so we made quite a haul!)

Back from the Shadows of the Past

Ok,

First off I want to congratulate Dan on his Fantastic, and burly beard!! Deena on being able to walk all over the the Yukatan, and Quintana Roo while pregnant. Angie for being able to speak spanish and her graceful bike riding skills at Coba, and i would like to thank myself for my appropriate sombrero!! What a cool trip this was, we decided to spend almost all of our time at different mayan ruins, Tulum, Coba, Chichen Itza, and some other smatterings of places that showed up. They were neat. We saw an actual 'ball game' get played at Xcaret (complete with fire). Got a ritualistic Prayer given to us by an authentic Mayan decendant around a flowering alter holding a smoking challace of tree resin, swam in at least 3 different cenote's, the one that Dan is diving in has no bottom!! Repelled down an over hanging cliff, zip lined the same area, kayaked a crocodile infested lake (we didn't see the crocodiles but were made absolutely certain that they live in it.) Had a mormon perspective guided tour of two of the ruins, which was facinating. meandered around Cancun, and went deep into authentic mexican villages where most people live in delapadated ruins themselves, there are dogs everywhere.
things i learned.
1 how anybody could not believe the book of mormon after studying it, and those lands I cannot understand
2 it is hot! muggy! no wonder the lamanites took to wearing nothing but loin cloths and shorn heads!
3. lots of mosquitos, i can't understand how the lamenites could wear nothing but loin cloths and shorn heads!!
4. every herb or plant a person would need to survive grows there!!
5. it is hot!
6. it must have been crazy coming up with the stones to build these buildings.
7. the Yukatan is flatter than the great planes and any mound you see is a ruin that hasn't been excavated yet!
8. the locals will try any means possible to get you into their stores!
9. i wouldn't want to win any sport they played back then!
10. if you want to intimidate any rival tribe or group just build a wall around your city with skulls carved on it of every major leader you ever killed in battle, and have it be huge and completely filled with skulls...(chichen itza)

all in all it was a great time and thanks to mom and dad for watching our kids while we were gone!! now, some peace and quiet.....then Italy!

body world exhibit

Ok, so Deena and I went to the Body Worlds exhibit in Salt Lake a couple of days ago. Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. People are lined up by the thousands to donate their bodies to Gunther Von Hagen for display. i am not quite sure what i think if this, after seeing the bodies (and yes it was awesome) i am not sure i would want my body splayed out in an unflattering position, holding my entrails up in my hand, or (as one display was setup) being in the arms of some female body in an acrobatic pose for the rest of eternity. That said i was very impressed with how these bodies were setup to display certain characteristics of muscle movement or body structure.

2. I don't know what the heck Plastanation is but all the bodies and organs where well preserved and there was no stinky fermaldahide-ish smell anywhere?!

3. Does anyone else think it is at least evil-doctorish, mad scientist, to take chainsaws to human cadavers to produce full body slides (for lack of a better word), or flair out muscles and rip open thoracic cavities to show every possible angle of the human body possible? it was awesome, but makes one think what they must be thinking as they actually cut into these people

4. the most amazing thing to me was the displays of arterial systems of the human head and various animals. i still cannot understand how they produce this. there is no bones skin or any structure other than the actual arteries and they have perfect shape of the body ....do they just dissolve the skin and bones out some how...i don't even want to think about it anymore

go see it!!

Caleb at the ode to Picasso exhibit

Caleb and Deena went to the Picasso exhibit in SLC a couple of days ago, and they 'bumped' into President Uchtdorf! Caleb shook his hand and talked with him for a little while! He says he felt warm inside while talking with him.. pretty neat experience. Even though the First Presidency is in SLC all the time, I think these occasions are pretty rare. I have never met any of the First Presidency ever, at least that I can remember. so everybody ask Caleb about his neat experience sometime!

Cool people that have bought snoasis.....

Ok, in honor of Dan's post about David Archaletta, i wanted to compile the list of (known to me) famous people and/or atheletes that have bought Snoasis..

1. David Archaletta (sp?)
2. Jeff Hornacek
3. Craig Bolerjack
4. Mark Madsen
5. Oldyn Polynese
6. Hersey Hawkins
7. Ruth Todd
8. Thurl Bailey

i would appreciate any additions that other workers may have served.