2 weeks in and loving it

"I believe I am worth everything I want in life"

I heard this quote today and wanted to share. What a good way to see life.

Also, I'm loving Gavin's new album. He melts my heart. Enjoy....

I am loving Colorado. I went shopping in Cherry Creek and on 16th street. Denver definitely isn't lacking in the shopping department. I've been up to Fort Collins and over to Grand Junction and down to Colorado Springs and I can't get over how beautiful Colorado is. I love the beautiful trees and the fact that fall lasts more than three days here. I've spent this last week thinking about all of the blessings in my life. I don't know how I got so lucky. I have an amazing family and great friends and a fantastic job. I was nervous to move out on my own to a place where I hardly know any one but I have already met amazing people here. I'm not worried at all.

Life is good.

Home Sweet Home

So after dragging space bag after space bag and box after box up three flights of stairs I am officially moved in. My beautiful furniture arrived on Saturday and I couldn't be more in love with it. I keep pinching myself to make sure it's all real. My dad was such a saint for driving out here with me and getting me all situated in my apartment. I had my first day of work today... on my own... in my own territory. It went great! So here are the official pictures of my apartment. It still needs a few finishing touches but it'll get there!

 The entryway

 The living room

 The kitchen

 The bedroom

 The closet

 The bedroom again

 The dining room

The fireplace

The Next Chapter.....

I don't even know where to start.... I have failed in the blog department recently but with so many crazy and exciting things happening in my life I figured it's about time to get back in the game.

Here's what has been going on in the past six months:

             I won a game....                                                        I met some celebs.....

I have a new nephew.......                                             I GRADUATED!

I also started my new job as a sales rep for a medical distribution company based out of Salt Lake. I love my job so far and I am so blessed to be working for such an amazing company with equally amazing employees. My territory is all of Colorado and Wyoming. After looking at the options, living in CO or traveling two weeks a month to CO and living in Utah, I decided to take a risk. I am moving to Denver THIS FRIDAY. I have found the most perfect apartment in the perfect town and I am so excited and anxious for the future. I have been on a crazy rollercoaster of emotions the past few months. Stress, worry, excitement, anticipation, fear..... Its not going to be easy but I promised myself 2 years ago that if I had the opportunity, I would move somewhere I had never been before.

So here I am.

I couldn't feel more blessed for the things that are happening in my life right now. I don't know what I did to get so ridiculously lucky. My life is no where near perfect but I have so many people and things that I am grateful for. A family that I couldn't love more, Friends who do so much for me when I hardly deserve it, a job that is the perfect fit for me, past experiences that good or bad have taught me so many things and made me into the person I am becoming, and more than anything else, the gospel. The most amazing religion/way of life, to be my rock during the good times and the bad times. A God and Savior who love me more than I can comprehend and bless me with more things than I deserve. I am so grateful for each and every person in my life. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with this blog as I start this new chapter of my life.

Catching up is harder than it looks!

Okay so I am home already but I have decided for my sake that I am going to catch my self up so I can make sure I don't forget anything about my trip! So I last left off on Arezzo which means that I have about half of my trip to write about.... OOOOOPS! I was doing pretty well till my computer died!
Here's a summary of what I've gotta catch up on:
Oct 19th - Oct 25th: Mid-Terms, Perugia, Florence, Discoteca
Oct 26th - Nov 1st: Catholic Mass, Bank Museum, Monte Oliveto, Buonconvento, Asciano
Nov 2nd - Nov 8th: Siena's Cemetary Visit, Julia's B-day, Florence
Nov 9th - Nov 15th: Ceramic's studio visit, IRELAND, Backstreet Boys Concert, AMAZING!
Nov 16th - Nov 22nd: Our "Fakesgiving" dinner, last Florence trip :( Last week in Siena
Nov 23rd- Dec 1st: Last week, Venice, Ravenna, Rome, Everyone leaves, 3 days in Rome alone before my flight home. LONG FLIGHT! HOME!

Unfortunate Events!

So My computer and I have a love hate relationship (it seems to hate me more than love me unfortunately) .... The charger melted itself so my computer is currently.... DEAD! Tears* Which means no updated pictures until I can figure out an alternative or ressurect it.....

Well This weekend we went to the Discoteca on Friday and Arezzo on Saturday.....

The Discoteca was quite the experience..... We went with a group of about 8 girls- I dont reccommend any less for obvious reasons. But we had a ton of fun. You have to be careful about how you respond to the guys! I have never been so forward in my life. I felt bad for being rude to some but if you arent they will bother you. (Being 5 foot 10 and blunt is also helpful because they know they cant get away with much if they want to leave with all of their body parts) We danced the night away. I was told by someone that he loves me and that I am his wifey..... (Do you know my name Sir? hmmm, I didnt think so! Please leave me alone. I want a divorce! haha) We did meet some nice guys and a russian guy named Marco that danced in our group and did a great job of keeping the creepers away! It was a ton of fun overall! Oh and if a guy grabs your hand either pull it away or he will spin you out of your group and try to dance with you.... I learned over all that Italian men really dont mind rejection.... (or they are really unintelligent and dont understand it when it smacks them in the face.... both possible)
AREZZO
We went to the Duomo and the home, turned muesum, of a famous Rennisance artist, We went to the church and also to the Museum. The Duomo had just had a wedding that morning so it had flowers all over and was very beautiful. The ceilings looked similar to the Sistine Chapel. My favorite thing of all in any museum and church is usually the ceilings. The designs are so amazing and intricate. They are unlike anything else! The home of the artist looked like a church with how the walls and ceiling were painted. I have been thinking that I should repaint our house just like these buildings here. I wonder if Mom and Dad will mind! Just Kidding! While they are beautiful and I really enjoy them I think it would be slightly tacky! One of my favorite things in Arezzo was the Piazza because it was the Piazza that Life is Beautiful was filmed in. So, naturally, as i walked into the Piazza I shouted BUONGIORNO PRINCIPESSA! It was a beautiful Piazza and I really enjoyed it. The other bonus about our trip was that it convinently fell on the weekend of the International Food Festival! YUM! They had everything from Salciche (sausage) to Goulosh, to Beer (Ireland of course) Food from all over! My favorite was the dried fruit... haha okay no the goulosh was DIVINE but I only had a sample. The dried pineapple was heaven..... I cant get enough!

I found a great pair of pig headphones (pictures to come soon hopefully) You cant understand the magnitude of their greatness until you see them!

COMING THIS WEEK-

Thursday- climbing the Torre (tower) that overlooks all of Siena in il Campo
Friday- Perugia for Europes best Chocolate Festival and potentially a Discotecca
Saturday- Florece for some leather shopping. Its about time to decide which one I want! Its too cold to wait any longer! Its been FREEZING HERE!

Ciao Tutti!

I left my <3 heart <3 in Cinque Terre on the road of Amore!

This weekend a few friends and I decided to take a trip to Cinque Terre. The group consisted of Julia, Marie, Ally, Elizabeth, Natalia, and I. Thanks to Julia’s friend we found an apartment with beachside view, room for 6, and located above a bar that loved to play Lenny Kravits…. Oh yes it was a great thing!

We took a 3 ish hour train from Siena to Riomaggiore Friday afternoon. The 5 cities in order are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and finally the biggest and most popular is Monterosso al Mare.
We got in Friday afternoon and once we got all settled and a little cleaned up we went to explore where we were staying, it was tiny so it didn’t take long but we took some pictures of the beach and decided to see what good ole’ Rick Steves the “travel genius” had to say about some good eating. We decided to take his advice and go to Vernazza for some shopping and dinner. We chose “Ristorante Al Castello” which had a gorgeous bay view patio and amazing food. The million stairs to the top was worth all of it! The view and the food were incomparable!
The area is known for their pesto and their Focaccia bread and it made complete sense, both were AMAZING. After dinner we decided to go to Stalin Gelateria…. Yes, like Joseph Stalin. Mainly, for humorous reasons but also because it came “Mr. Steves approved”. I don’t care what it was called but it was delicious, minus the below poor service from the American hating woman behind the counter. The pineapple, blood orange and strawberry gelato pulled through to make it all okay

The next morning we woke up to start the hike between the 5 cities. The first two cities weren’t too bad of a hike it was more of a pathway along the coast with amazing views. Via Dell Amore is the road that connected these two cities which allowed the people in the old days to meet people from the other cities and it would be filled with couples meeting half way. (so precious!) There are thousands of locks on the fences now symbolizing the love of the two who place it there. (I….. didn’t put one there if you were wondering…. I couldn’t con any Italian men into loving me… haha). The hike between Corniglia and Vernazza was pretty harsh, about an hour and a half of up and down the whole way. We stopped in Vernazza for a quick lunch because the timing was right and we might have died if we didn’t take a good break. We got some pesto pizza (good but interesting) and some more of Stalin’s gelato as a reward for doing well but also to con us into feeling like we could do the last part which was rumored to be the hardest and longest. Julia was on fire for the first part and I was pretending like I was too… almost all up stairs. After about 45 minutes, we perched on some stairs waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. While waiting 3 women in their mid 40’s who, to be nice, weren’t in the best shape, came down from the way we were headed started telling everyone how awful it was and that we should just turn back…. I was a little annoyed; I would rather not know what is coming and power through until the end. Well, we knew we weren’t about to turn back when we were relatively close to the 5th city where we were going to go to the beach in the last city, the whole reasons we wore our swim suits on the hike. Go rain on someone else’s parade ladies! We jumped up to go… (okay, more like got a little help from a friend to pry me off the rock I was so content sitting on but that’s irrelevant.) The hike was a lot more scary between Vernazza and Monterosso del Mare, there were small pathways and no railings and steep slopes down and steep steps but the view was so amazing when I got a chance to look up (too worried I would slip and fall off the cliff, which was possible). The best feeling was looking back at the cities to see how far we had been. The hike was a total of 7 miles which doesn’t sound too crazy until you are walking up winding stairs that my long legs have a hard time getting high enough let alone if I was a normal height…. We passed the time solving riddles (I got one! I was so proud!) It was also fun to play “spot the German” -an easy game because it’s obvious, they are dressed like they are climbing Kilimanjaro complete with backpacks, walking sticks and boots. It wasn’t an easy hike by any means but seriously? Unless that walking stick somehow allows me to magically hover while it does all the work then, I don’t understand it…. Around the last hour or so my knee decided to forget it was only 21 and though it was 60 years old. It was really giving me some issues and I was in a bit of pain but only when trying to walk stairs. When we finally made it to Monterosso Del Mare we could hardly believe it. We went straight to the beach which felt AMAZING! We spent the evening enjoying some shopping and we ate at a great Trattoria named Via Venti, where I got brave and tried crab pasta which I enjoyed. We met two Norwegian couples at the train station, who spent the day wine testing and they were so funny and kept us entertained on the ride back to Riommagiore. We ran into them the next morning and realized that unless they woke up with a bottle of the Vino, then they were naturally just hilarious! We had a good laugh and got a picture with them to document the event! We had breakfast at Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre (oh my heavens! I am not a pastry fan but THE BEST PASTRIES EVER!) Then we decided that due to the overcast weather instead of spending the rest of the time on the beach we would just catch the train home a little early.

What a trip! It just might be my number 1 so far! <3

Florence/ Volterra/ San Gimingiano/ Pisa

So, I'm not too good at keeping up clearly.... We have done so many things lately!
Florence.... We had a short trip to Florence (1 of 3 trips there) We climbed 414 stairs to the top of the bell tower and after the burning in my calves settled I got a chance to enjoy it. It was a phenomenal view over all of Florence! Going to the top was so worth it! We also went into the baptistery and the Duomo when we were there and they were all so beautiful! The shopping is CRAZY there! Leather everywhere.


Volterra: Unfortunatly there was no twilight sighting..... :( I was half hoping Edward would find me. But the trip wasn't a lost cause:
<---- We captured this precious moment! haha This is Mckelle and I. We are trying out for the new national geographics cover..... We went into the church and baptistry and an etruscan museum. They we're all great!




San Gimingiano: Definatley a favorite! The view from the top of the bell tower could take your breath away! We also went through the church and museum along with climbing the bell tower. One of the things San Gimingiano is known for their gelato. There's a gelateria there that has been awarded 4 years in a row as the best gelato/ice cream in the world! That's right, the WHOLE world and It won the title! It was phenominal! The fruit ones tasted exactly like frozen fruit! MMMMMM! So yummy!


Pisa: While Pisa is known all around the world for the leaning tower..... There are a total of 3 things to do in Pisa. The church, pretty cool, the baptistry, pretty cool, and climbing the tower, AWESOME!
BUT! we were finished with these 3 by 12 and had about 4 and a half hours before the train ride..... After hitting up an alamentari for an amazing panino! we quickly realized that there was only one thing to do besides shopping....
Take ridiculous pictures of yourself with the tower.... so thats what we did!


I did, however, find an adorable bag that was much needed! A great black purse!
Note to potential Italy bound travlers: Plan no more than 4 hours in Pisa for yourself....


Ciao!