Do you think she knew.....

...that she was going to be hugged, kissed, mauled, held, smothered, etc., like she is? These pictures make me question whether she likes it!

Venice: The City On Water

Venice is honestly one of those places that you see pictures of and hear stories about, but until you go there you don't truly understand the uniqueness of it. The journey to Venice started with making the long drive from Paris, then we had to take a train to a station near the Venice islands, and then we took a water bus to a stop near our hotel. Where else in the world do you take a water bus?!?! Once we got off the water bus we had to trek through the winding sidewalks with our luggage to try and find our hotel. Well like you know Venice has rivers winding all through it, so how do you get over a river. . . . a bridge. So we lugged our luggage up and down probably 10 bridges. That was a work out, but once we found our hotel it was to our great surprise that our hotel was amazing. They put us in our own little wing of the hotel where we had a sitting room joining our three rooms, out bathrooms were amazing, and our beds were so nice. We spent the next to days winding through the city and looking at all the different shops. There is everything that you can imagine from ties with inappropriate pictures to the highest end stores you could imagine, and beautiful Venetian glass. One thing that I didn't expect about Venice was that there are people trying to get you to take a Gondola ride on every bridge and corner of the city. Very annoying and takes away from their attraction

This is the great Rialto Bridge. It was built across the grand canal to be large enough for an armed water army to be able to fit under.



This is San Marco Square. In a city that is crammed and built on 117 different islands this is a huge open square.



Some random pictures around Venice.





And last but not least here we are enjoying our first Gilato. So Delicious!!!

Bonjour!!

Well we survived the French. After talking to Dad about them I didn't know if it would really happen, but luckily we were able to escape without being sworn at. The guy at Starbucks was not very nice to us when we asked for steam milk, but that was the worse we had. It is a gorgeous fall here and all the trees are a beautiful orange and yellow. I am glad that I am getting to enjoy fall somewhere if it can't be up Little Cottonwood.


This is a new Mini Cooper that Chan saw at the Paris auto show. It is a Mini SUV. Once we pay off the one Mini maybe we will sell the Jeep and get me one of these. So Cute.






We are half way to Venice now and will get there tomorrow. We drove through the South of France and passed under Mont Blanc through a tunnel that was 15km long. The countryside was beautiful and we saw so many old churches and huge houses that looked like palaces. Hope all is well. Love you.
Avoir Bran and Chan

For the beauty of the Earth...

Little Cottonwood Canyon.

life in the punkin patch

"oh my gosh, how am i s'posed to decide which punkin to pick? i like that one lots, its really big and really orange, but i dont know, this one looks nice too, its rounder and would be more fun to lay on, but then again, no...

hey dad. DAD! i found which punkin i want! i want this one right here! daddy this is the punkin i want!

hey, thanks for the punkin dad, can you give me a ride home now?

thanks dad, love you." -kadence

spiritual thought of the day

"The gospel is a thing of joy. It provides us with a reason for gladness. Of course there are times of sorrow. Of course there are hours of concern and anxiety. We all worry. But the Lord has told us to lift our hearts and rejoice."

-Gordon B. Hinckley

take 29384

just wondering how they ever took pictures with babies before digital cameras???

wait!! mission accomplished...

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Although I am an advocate of voting and I do want you all to vote, this is in regards to something different. You bloggers will know where these came from, but I think they are stinkin' cool. Vote for your favorite and maybe I will come up with a cool way to give them to you! (and if you have more really great words that should have been included, let me know!!)

The Birthday Boy!!

Thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes and gifts. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great dinner at Porcupine. Thanks Lindsey and Taylor for coming. Chandler put his tool kit together last night and can't wait for a project to use it. He is 23 now but he made it very clear that he is still in his early 20's.

revisiting the hooter-hiders

dad - "so uh, does your mom sew all your clothes?"

little girl - "yes."