Catch up: bulleted novella edition.

Because my favorite thing to do on my blog is bulleted list, I am going to give you a bulleted list. Mmmm k?

Fun story first though. I am writing this on a train going from Florence to Naples. Fun story, huh?

Last part of Germany-

• ·      Went to a wooden carving store in Munich and it was incredible. Hand carved, hand painted. Beautiful nativity scenes. Wish I had a spare 500 euros to buy one.
• ·      Ate a magnum McFlurry. Magnum bars are sooo delicious so I couldn’t pass up on as a shake.
• ·      Bought some jean shorts that are really comfy,  and am incredibly glad I spent the money to get them because it is hotter than Haiti in Italy. They are my new BFF. {sorry, Betsy}
• ·      Tried on some leather leasderhousen and my legs thought they were going to suffocate because there is no breathing going on in that material.
• ·      Found that men in leaderhousen are almost just as attractive to me as cowboys are. :D
• ·      I may or may not have bought a traditional German dress. Ya know, the kind you see that has a cute lil apron with the sleeves off the shoulders and her bosoms are falling out? Well, I may or may not have bought an adorable blue one with pretty embroidery with a modest top. May or may not have. And it may or may not have a pretty white eyelet apron that goes with it. And I may or may not look fantastic in it.
• ·      Ate some more schnitzel
• ·      Skyped with Gma and Gpa cobb.
• ·      Watched an adorable video via email of my little niece, gemma being her cute, smilie self. :D made my whole life. Can’t wait to smother that child with kisses and loves when I get home
• ·      Went to church in munich and the ward memebers were amazing. So many people talked to us and a guy even invited us to the YSA dinner/ social event that night.
• ·      Went to the Englischer gartens. And have never seen so much green in my life. Pretty. Weird colored water.
• ·      Saw a slug
• ·      Saw the munich Olympic park and was amazed by the architecture.
• ·      Saw the Olympic pool and track and soccer field
• ·      BMW building
• ·      Went to the YSA activity and there were apx 25 people there, only 1 person was from germany. There were people there from 8 countries! Crazy. The Church is definitely spreading. Good work missionaries!
• ·      what appeared to be Ryan Reynolds. And then when I went to get a picture with him, I noticed it was just some guy that looked really close to what he looks like. Great LMH and all.
• ·      Got a cold and went to bed before 11pm 5 nights in row to try and pass it. I’m so glad it was a fast cold. Only lasted 6 days. And was gone in time for Italy. It was a blessing that’s it’s gone now. My colds drag on and on and on.
• ·      Ate nearly a whole bag of cough drops in 2 days. {did you know they sell cough drops here right next to candy. Like they are in between chocolate and European hard candies. Do people really eat them like candy??}
• ·      Saw the missionaries and I got really excited. I said “Hi Elders!” semi-loud and I’m pretty sure they a- thought I was psycho or b-didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand me. We’ll go with B.
• ·      Went grocery shopping for 14 people for 4 days, 3 meals a day. It was crazy.
• ·      Made 2 breakfasts and 1 dinner.
• ·      Made German food that I will make when I get home because it was yummy
• ·      Went to the documenta. It only happens once every 5 years. So it was kind of a big deal. But, it was not as cool as I had expected. I’m not too much into modern art. But some was pretty nifty. There was a section with cool eye trick paintings that made your head hurt to look at them and made you semi dizzy and looked cool.
• ·      Ate some nutella crepes. I love hazelnut!
• ·      Went to the most inept internet café of life. We were trying to print off our boarding passes so we could get our little happy selves to Italy to bask in the Tuscany awesomeness and it wouldn’t work for an entire hour. And we ended up having to go back the next day to attempt it again.
• ·      Half of facebook got engaged while I didn’t have internet.
• ·      Mailed a package home because I don’t have room for things anymore.
• ·      Went to see the castle in Kassel.
• ·      Saw an adorable, full grown, raccoon.
• ·      Took pictures of said raccoon.
• ·      Raccoon got closer and closer to us.
• ·      Backed up.
• ·      Raccoon followed
• ·      Snapped a few pictures.
• ·      Raccoon got even closer.
• ·      Started speed walking
• ·      Raccoon started running
• ·      Brianna started running.
• ·      Whole group started screaming like little girls as we ran down a hill in the middle of the forrest while a rabid raccoon chased us.  {okay, so  may have exaggerated that a little bit. But he really did chase us down a hill. And it really was kind of scary. And I really did run. And he really did chase us till we left the park}
• ·      Went back to dusseldorf to go to weeze to catch our hour flight to Pisa.
• ·      Tried to check in at our hostel next to the airport for the night- No reservation.
• ·      Beth gets out her sheet showing we booked it. Guess what.
• ·      We booked it for the wrong night.
• ·      Next good news-they don’t have enough beds for us.
• ·      Next item of good news- we booked our plane trip for a day later too.
• ·      So we had an entire day to hang out at the tiniest air port of man kind {next to Frankfurt-hahn. That one I think is tied for smallest.} and two beds for 4 people. I got the bed with no pillow and a 1/32 of an inch fleece blanket and beth got the floor with the comforter and pillow. All around it was a great nights sleep. {and this was the peak of my cold.}
• ·      So we checked in to our real rooms the next day and literally passed out from not sleeping the night before for nearly 5 hours.
• ·      Then I read my book of mormon for 45 minutes because the only thing to do I n weeze is go to the airport or chase a million {not kidding you} rabbits around the fields and forrest all day. Or get drenched by the rain.
• ·      Got cat called walking to the hostel from the airport. That’s a first, I think.
• ·       Met a really nice couple in their 60’s on their honey moon from Holland.

ITALIA!

• ·      Flew over some beautiful scenery.  Snow capped mountain ranges with little red-roofed villages nestled snugly in them.
• ·      Landed in pisa.
• ·      Got off the plane and immediately felt like I needed to drink a liter of water and put on more deodorant.
• ·       Keep in mind I had my life on my back {close to 30 pounds} in a black backpack that heats up faster than you’d think that helps keep me hotter than normal, a black camera bag, and my tan bag. All full. So lugging all this stuff around in 90+ degree weather was really fun.
• ·      We only had 3.5 ish hours in pisa till we had to catch a train to Florence. So after we located the right bus we needed to take to see the leaning tower and shoving more than a comfortable amount of people onto a city bus, and us with all our luggage, we made it to the tower. It was pretty nifty. And actually, the tower was leaning more than I had imagined it to be leaning. IT was pretty cool.
• ·      Took plenty of dorky pictures of ourselves next to it.
• ·      Ate pizza in pisa.
• ·      Train ride to Florence. But we have to have a trial because that’s what this trip is about. Learning all the ways that we can epically fail and have miracles that get us out of our hardships. We didn’t know we had to validate our train ticket. So when ticket master Luigi comes by and sees we don’t have a stamp on it he throws us off the train in to the middle of a dark alley where rapists and cereal killers live.
• ·      Just kidding, he hands us a sheet of paper in English {because I guess somehow he got the “American Tourist vibe”} saying how if we don’t validate our ticket we each have to pay 40 Euros. 40 euros??? Our tickets only cost 9 euros! But Mr. Luigi was nice enough to only make us pay 5 extra ones. So that was a miracle on 34^th street.
• ·      Got to Florence and got lost.
• ·      We lugged our luggage all around that city till my back felt like it didn’t want to be a part of my body anymore.
• ·      We finally locate our hostel after some help from this nice couple from London literally gave us their map and pointed out the street to us.
• ·      Inside our hostel room it was heaven at that moment. It was semi-air conditioned and it was magnificent. I then drank an amount of water that might have resembled the Atlantic ocean. :D

(Train travel update. I am just passing through rome. I’ll go here in a few days. :D)

• ·      After updating ourselves with the WWW we went out on the town and this, my friends, is when I fell in love.
• ·      Everything here is my favorite color. Everything is cute. Everything is romantic. It smells like flowers walking down the street sometimes. I feel like skipping or kissing a random Italian man to check off kissing in Italy off of my life’s to do list.
• ·      Ate not 1, not 2, but 3 whole scoops of Gellato. And it melted faster than you can say yum.
• ·      There are cute water fountains here that you can drink from, bath in, stick your face under, fill up your water bottles from, or just admire. It’s probably a must here otherwise there’d be a lot of people passing out from heat exhaustion.
• ·      We were on a bridge during sunset and I marveled at how pretty Tuscany was.
• ·      Saw a couple on a gondola in the water during this time and I’m pretty sure he was going to propose. Because let’s be honest, if this was just a date, imagine what kind of thing he’d have to do to propose. It was adorable.
• ·      Went to a little market thing and I bought a few souvenirs for people.
• ·      Went to the Accademia gallery and stood in line from 9 am till 1:30 pm to get in. I saw the David statue by Michelangelo!! And it is an amazing sculpture. Everyone knows this statue. It’s probably one of the most famous pieces of art every made but it was really cool to see. In all these art history classes I’ve taken I’ve learned a lot about this statue and the picture in all the textbooks and on the web do not do this thing justice. There are so many little details that you miss when looking at the pictures. Like his sling around his back, the veins in his arms and hands, and his neck muscles and Adams apple. It was a really neat experience and totally worth the really long wait outside in the heat of the day.
• ·      Tried to climb the Duomo but alas they were closed. L I was incredibly sad! So we took pictures outside of it instead.
• ·      Saw a parade that I’m still not sure what it was for. It was really long, almost all men in traditional Italian renaissance dress, some in armor on horses, and I was impressed they could wear that stuff in the heat.
• ·      A really annoying lady kept getting in our way to take pictures of the parade. She was literally in the middle of the parade and making people stop at her will so she could get a picture. She was just a tourist with a little point and shoot camera and I was baffled at her.
• ·      Saw the gates of paradise
• ·      Probably spent a little too much money on some things I can’t use till the future.  But it’s worth it. And I’ll be grateful I bought something nice in Italy.
• ·      Bought Betsy her souvenirc . :D
• ·      Ate some delicious food in a really cute little garden area. Mine had tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and egg plant. So good. Mmm.
• ·      Went to Michelangelo’s plaza {hiked a ton of stairs} to watch the sunset from high above the city. Best idea yet.
• ·      Watching the city change colors was beautiful.
• ·      We saw a few brides getting their pictures done. Jealous they have such a beautiful place to do it at.
• ·      Took some creeper picture of some cute couples
• ·      Watched the sun go down.
• ·      Rubbed the boar for “good luck”
• ·      Took a cold shower. Literally. Almost as cold as it could go.
• ·      And this is when I started to notice even more mosquito bites all over me.  I had about 5 I’d been itching all day but then I kept noticing more and more and more and more and more and more. And I’m pretty sure I was eaten alive by mosquitos in the period of 10 minutes. I have 7 on the top of my right hand, alone. It was hard to fall asleep last night because I was so itchy and hot. Poor lindy has one on her eyelid that swelled up. I did not know that bug spray was something that needed to be packed/bought. 
• ·      Packed up this morning.
• ·      Am on a train to Naples. Can’t wait to go to the beach! :D

fphew! that was a long one!

and here are a few pictures. 

XOXO. 

ii'm going to go explore Naples. and eat dinner on the beach while watching the sun set. 

The BFF gets engaged

this is the picture I have from the first day of our
friendship. I'm so glad I took it. I'm
not sure why she has that hat on....
typical Betsy

Once upon a time it was 7th grade. In Utah history class I met this funny and really loud girl named betsy. We talked a few times and at the end of the school year I invited her to my end of school year party. Which she never came to. The start of our friendship went well..... :P I'll never ever let her forget that our Bff status could have started 2 years earlier if she wouldn't have "forgot" about the party.
I don't remember having any classes with her in 8th grade, but I think you could trace our best friend-ness to the very last day of 9th grade. In Mr Crow's class. He was retiring and we were putting our heads and hands in his stocks. It was really funny. And we exchanged numbers and she then invited me to a party that summer. {Which I actually went to}. We did facials and nails and girl stuff. And then we started high school. And Ever since then, we've been pretty much inseparable.

excuse mt awkward years of pictures, betsy always looks like a babe.

we wear fun hats

 and sing karaoke

 Sometimes we grow mustaches

 Or go dumpster diving and find cool stuff

 have car trouble in california

 and go to the price is right

 we go to beach and look like babes

 and sled on cookie sheets

 and take great pictures when we're freezing with snow on our heads.

 we cook in our pj's

 and do each other's hair

 we go sunbathing in the winter

 and have Miss America parties

 We go hot tubing for new years eve.... and other things.

 and then roll in the snow

 We met obama in DC

 and try on sweeeeet christmas sweaters at walmart

 she's a fantastic model

 and bounce on exercise ball

 we clean the sink

 and go to dances on campus

 and wear great 80's makeup

 we love attractive cpt kirk

 we tube the provo river

 and put gum on the gum wall in seattle

 we wear bibs during bbq's

 and take great pictures in AP English

 we go star gazing on the high jump pads

 celebrate birthdays

 and take awkward bff pictures

 we go on limo rides

 go to midnight movies

 and celebrate beating mountain view in football

 we go to lagoon {and I look.... great}

 we visited USU together for the first time together.

 and go to Washington DC

 we made an 80's exercise video one time

 and have dress up days.

 and sometimes go on romantic tandem bike rides.

We're not at all the normal Best friends. Everyone has someone that they say they are best friends with, but Betsy and I are much more than that. I'm not sure how to describe  us or if there really is a title for us. In our whole friendship we've never fought. The few tiffs we've gotten into have never lasted. And we both know how to forgive each other really fast. We know each other's weaknesses, we know each others strengths. We are very very different people and we joke about how we don't even know why we're best friends because we don't have hardly anything in common. We were trying to come up with a list of things we had in common and the only real thing we could come up with was that we're best friends. And yet we've done pretty much everything together for years and years. We've traveled together {13 states i believe}, we've lived together for 2 years, we've gone on adventures, we've done dumb things, we've laughed till we cried, we bawled, we comforted each other, we've stayed up too late talking, we try to creep each other out and it doesn't work. I'm pretty sure people think we're entirely insane together. And we have to tone down our personalities when we're together when meeting new people so they'll be able to see we're normal before they think we're insane and won't want to be our friends. She's been my model for countless photo shoots and this girl can make any situation funny. Sometimes she tells me that we're only friends because I make her food and i think she's funny.

Betsy's the best. It's been incredibly hard to watch her find the man she's going to marry because I know that our relationship will change. But i'm really happy for her and I can tell that she's happy. A friendship like ours won't end because of a marriage. It'll be different, but Betsy and I are best friends forever. Our children will be best friends and probably marry each other and then we'll be related. That's the plan. haha. Hopefully Jake's okay with it. :P
 Our entire friendship she's told me she wanted me to plan her wedding because that's not her thing. I was really looking forward to this too, but I can't do it because I'll be in Europe. It makes me so sad! Although, I'm pretty sure if she got married while i was away I would not be going. Luckily, she's getting married a few weeks after I get home.
Anyways, Jake is a lucky man to be married to Betsy for eternity. I'm excited for you both!

I'm kind of in love.......

With this place-

{you thought I was talking about a man, huh? ha!}

{please don't judge my point-and-shoot camera abilities. They're lacking, I know. I should have brought my DSLR, but alas I did not.}

I went on a little drive today to look for some new locations for my photo shoots. plus, it was raining, and driving in the rain is relaxing to me. so, I was just driving around and I found gold. In plant form. I seriously cannot wait to do a shoot here. 

If i ever have another boyfriend, I'm taking him here for a romantic pic nic. With the cute picnic blanket my grandma gave me. 

p.s. are you engaged? And if you are, do you want me to do your engagement pictures here? 

my creative juices are flowing highly right now. So, let me know. It'd be a muy fantastico session.

If I weren't mormon, I'd probably want to get married in this place. I don't really know why I'm so giddy about it, I just kind of fell in love at first site.