July 5

Today a group of us attempted to go to the beach...

Three hours later.

So, instead we did this...

Saw The President of China!

Visit the Colliseum.

July 4

Rome day 3. Today is a big day. Antonella (our tour guide) is taking us to the Vatican City.

But first, Happy 4^th of July! I Heart the USA!

We started at the Vatican Museum continued on the the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. The museum had what felt like miles of tapestry woven in real silver and gold thread. The Sistine Chapel was incredible. I don't know how Michaelangelo could paint around the clock on his back for 3o years. I felt almost humbled sitting there taking it all in. Unfortunately it was quite loud and I thought it a bit sad that everyone was taking pictures with their flashes as workers would constantly say, "PLEASE, no pictures".

In this picture and in real life the figures look 3D but when you look up close its just paint! Pretty amazing.

After the Sistine Chapel we headed to St. Peter's basilica, the largest Catholic church in the world!

It took over 100 years to build.

After the tour a bunch of us decided to climb to the top of the dome. We paid around 7 euros to take the elevator part of the way up and hiked another 300 or so steps to the top of St. Peter's dome.
On our way up we arrived first at the base of the dome that overlooks the cathedral. The dome walls are all made up of tiny mosaic pieces. It's hard to fathime all of the work that was put in to create something so beautiful! A few more stairs and we made it to the top. The most beautiful view of Rome.

We did finally make it back down to the bottom. Did a quick sketch of a fountain outside of St. Peter's and made our way to the Panthon

I'm falling for Rome!

July 3

Day 2. Definitely more rested than yesterday. Slept like a baby.  We took the tube to the Borghese gallery. It’s a really nice walk from where we got off the subway to the actual gallery itself.  The Borghese gallery is a villa with beautiful artwork and sculptures housed inside. As soon as we got inside we checked our bags, cameras included. So unfortunately I don’t have any pictures inside. A lot of Bernini’s work is featured here. My two favorite pieces from the Borghese are Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne and Houdon’s sculpture of Christ. There are also quite a few of Caravaggio’s paintings that I recognized from my art history class that I took a few semesters ago. I’m guessing the class will come in handy after all. Definitely a good feeling when I am able to recognize a piece of art; pick out interesting things In the painting and know a little bit about the artists background. There was an exhibit set up in a small garden house off of the gardens. This was a small collection of very modern black and white prints. The combination of these two different styles and time periods was unique and refreshing!

(St. Clemente)

 (special doors)

We took a walking tour of Rome with our sweet Antoinette (our peppy tour guide). Love her. She gets right to the point and gives you just the right amount of information.  First stop, St. Clemente church. Like the city In California (thought of you Jill).  Second stop, St. Mary’s church. Dedicated to none other than the Virgin Mary.  This is the only church where you would see Mary depicted at the same size as Christ.  There is a set of holy doors that are only opened for the Jubilee every 25 years. The famous Michelangelo’s sculpture of Moses is here and Bernini is buried in this church. The last church is apparently the church of fire in the movie, Angel’s and Demons.

 Last stop, Trevi Fountain. Wow, what a sight! We got there when it was swarming with people. It’s an impressive fountain. Maybe the most unique I’ve seen. It actually inspired my own little fountain… what do you think?! News just in… I guess there is a legend that if you throw a coin over your right shoulder you’ll come back to Rome. If you throw in two coins you’ll meet a nice Italian and if you throw in three, he’ll ask you to marry him.

 We had dinner at this great little restaurant nearby. Day 2. Check.

July 2

First, a little birthday shout-out is in order. Happy Birthday Jeff! I’m so glad we got to celebrate you before I left. You are amazing and you make my heart go pitter-patter! Thanks for getting me to Park City, Midway, and the airport! MYC! xoxo

After 30 + hours we arrived in Rome and made our way to the hotel, to our beds, barely to the shower, and off to the Coliseum. A few random thoughts… Italian public restrooms smell different (and not in a good way), cars are extremely small and I fear for their lives (crazy drivers) and mine, and if you love sandwiches, well you are in the right place! See, I’ve already been educated and within only hours of being here.  Educational is what this trip is!

Off to the Coliseum! As soon as we jumped off the metro and walked up and out of the station… BAM… there it was! Right in front of our eyes. This is where everything started to set in.  I’m in Europe.  We got some pictures just before the storm.  A literal storm. The kind with big clouds, lots of liquid, and hail the size of small pebbles! The rain came down and an hour later the sun came up. We all laughed as we got drenched and started to get to know each other as we huddled up next to one another for cover. An umbrella salesman came by and of course I was like, “yes! How much?” and it broke within seconds of owning it. Really a blessing in disguise because the nice Italian saw my plight and gave me another umbrella. A rainbow one! Woo woo.

We regrouped and hiked up a small hill to get to the Museum Capitallini. We were able to take a self-guided tour as the sun started to fall. There are breathtaking views of Rome from the windows of this museum of sculptures. What a great first day. Couldn’t have been better!

Ate dinner at none other than the Hard Rock café. Our server had quite the personality and definitely kept us entertained. There are a lot of neat people on this trip… can’t wait to get to know everyone and soak in as much as I can in the next five weeks!

Rome bound

Right now I'm sitting in the Denver airport waiting for a flight to Detroit. From Detroit, I'll get on a plane to Rome. Makes me think of the old movie Roman Holiday. 

Baby Dane

(pictures taken from Jill's blog)

Some of you will remember a post of mine awhile back. A little rap performed by this creative couple announcing a little surprise. Well, 9 months have flown by and Jill and Jon now have this sweet little guy. I love surprises! Good job guys, he is darling!

ConGraTulAtiOns to you, Facer Familia!

une irst.

to be confused with june first. thank you all for the birthday calls, texts, messages, cards, and general birthday lovin. i really felt loved! and special! So here's to another year! 

xoxo

DR

JP took me to the Dominican Republic in April. We had such a blast. I'll post more pictures soon. I am going to miss this guy in a couple of weeks when I leave for Europe!

untitled.

Janie! I love your bangs. So. Cute. Just in case you were wondering, I got this photo off of Brittany's blog. So sad I missed you guys last weekend. But so glad you got to see each other.

after last season...

I vowed to be done with the bachelor. ABC created a lot of drama with the Jason, Melissa, Molly triangle. Now I know this is going to sound harsh but lets be honest...because NO relationships work coming out of this show (with the exception of Ryan and Trista) they have to stir things up so that people will stay tuned. 

BUT I did just watch the premiere of the bachelorette. shocking. maybe even a little appalling. but true.

Thoughts... 

Lots of weirdos and a lot of guys who may be good looking but that's about all they've got. I thought some of the guys acted like girls and kid you not thought they were God's gift to women and to all mankind. Puke. The latter observation is a whole other post for another day but I can't help but think this about a lot of guys that are "too good looking" or whatever you want to call it. You know the ones that look alien-like. Yeah, maybe they photograph well but it's a safe bet to say they lack personality and/or something. Blessing or curse... you decide?!

I did like a few though. 

These are my favorites for now. 

 

Ed is my FAVORITE so far. He seems down to earth and genuine. I liked that he didn't really know much about the show. I really do think his family put him up to it and that he's ready and wants to focus on a relationship at this point in his life. Jillian and Ed seemed to have a real conversation. He didn't put on a show. Normal would be the word to describe Mr.Ed! At least I hope so...

Kiptyn. Weird name. Cute smile. He seems really comfortable with who he is. I don't think he's going to try and be somebody he's not to score points with Jillian. 

Michael. Although I'm not too crazy about your look, I love that you and Jillian were breakdancing. BUT how are you going to support a family or a girl for that matter breakdancing??? 

Jesse. He could go either way in my opinion. Meaning be a great guy or not. I LOVED the aspiring canadian bit. Definitely stood out.

Brad. I think I will like you but you didn't get much camera time. Funny?? I think you could be. Can't wait to find out. 

Reid. I definitely could see you two as a couple looks wise. Don't you think they would look good side by side? But I'm not sure what you're like since all I really saw was you accepting a rose. Hopefully you'll be a good surprise.

Ok, so seriously if librarians were to wear this... I think I would be one!

I ESPECIALLY love the middle number!

Do you love free stuff?

OK! So this is how this works…The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me for you. My choice made especially for you. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make! (Of course, I will try to make something that I think you would like.)
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done sometime this year.
4. You have no clue what it will be… it may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (This could be fun :)
6. I will send it anywhere! It doesn’t matter where you live!

The catch? The catch is that you must repost this on your own blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog. The first five people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!!

(copied from Janie's blog)