Firenze Day 2

After our early night the last night, Colby and I had a hard time sleeping in. Since we went to sleep around 7 or 8, Colby woke up around 3 and I woke up around 4. So we hung out in our rooms for awhile. Around 5:30-6:00am, we decided to knock on Mom and Dad's door, because Colby swore that Dad, at least, would be up. He wasn't. So we went out on walk/jog by ourselves. It was a quite a contrast to the crowded Florence streets we had encountered the day before. We got to enjoy sights like the Ponte Vecchio, Pitti Palace, Plaza della Republica, and Piazza Della Signoria without having to dodge people everywhere. It was also nice to see the city start to wake up with trash collectors and street cleaners. We made it back to the hotel around 7 and got ready for the day and had breakfast with Mom and Dad around 8:30am.

Our first stop in the morning was the Uffizi. The Uffizi is home to many famous works of art by Giotto, Botticelli, Leonardo daVinci, Raphael, Titian among other famous Renaissance artists. We walked through the museum using Rick Steve's audio guide who led us through the highlights. It was quite a collection. However, after our early morning, I was a little tired. I took a quick nap on Colby's lap while Mom and Dad walked through the museum in a little more detail. It was a perfect power nap. After the Uffizi, we went to the Bargello, which used to be a prison. It is now home to many famous sculptures.

After the museums, we had a lunch at a great little place called Trattoria Pallottino. We all had great pasta, especially Dad, who ordered fresh pasta with a pomodoro sauce, and I had some really great Gnocchi. We had some gelato at a place next door, Il Gelato.

Next we headed inside of the Duomo and the Baptistry. The Duomo was just as incredible inside as it was outside. For 1600 years the Duomo has been the center of the religious life in Florence. I have been reading The Passion of Artemisia, about Artemisia Gentileschi, the first female painter to be a member of the Academy. She crosses the Ponte Vecchio, frequently visits the Pitti Palace, and receives inspiration from the Mary Magdalen by Donatello in the Baptistry. I have loved seeing the sights while reading about them and their actual place in history.

We took a quick rest at the hotel before we headed to the Pitti Palace. The outside appeared fortress-like, but inside we were blown away by the incredible opulence of the Medici family. The resided at Palazzo Vecchio before moving into the much grander Palazzo Pitti. Mom and I compared it to Versailles in France. It was room after room full of fabulous decoration and art covering nearly every inch of the walls. It was clear how much the Medici family truly valued art. We also wanted to visit the Boboli Gardens, which weren't supposed to close until 730, however, we didn't realize that the last entrance was at 630, right when the palazzo rooms closed, so we missed it by 5 minutes. We were really disappointed

 

We had dinner in a piazza near the Santo Spiritu church. We were enjoying our dinner at a place called Borgo Antico, when a crowd chanting and cheering came walking up. Today was St John the Baptist Day so the town celebrates by playing a game - a team sport played by men, described to as a mixture between football and soccer. It has been played since medieval times. Apparently the team from the Santo Spiritu area won and they had returned to the steps of the local church to celebrate. We enjoyed watching their celebrations and capturing some of it.

We knew there would be fireworks later as well because of the holiday. However, these had been slightly delayed because of the Italy/England Eurocup soccer game. So we headed over to the gelato place we enjoyed earlier and played Phase 10 while we waited. We headed and caught some of the soccer game as well before watching the fireworks. We started watching near a bridge, but we moved to the piazza in front of Santa Croce church, where the medieval game had been played, and were able to enjoy the fireworks right next to the church on the bleachers. The Italians did a first class job on the fireworks . . it would rival most fireworks displays in the U.S.. Afterwards, we heard celebrations from the Italy/England game as Italy won the game 4-2 in overtime.

Lauren

 

 

Firenze: Day 1

We left! We finally left! I have been waiting to go to Italy since I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown when I was in high school. The descriptions of all the churches and religious history fascinated me and enticed me to come to explore the sites from the book, among other things. It also helped my desire to visit even more because I just took a history class last semester. We took off on Friday afternoon after seeing patients for half of the day for the airport. I actually can say, I didn't mind the flight. Usually, I have to struggle with the lack of leg room and it is a terrible experiece. However, this time i was on the front row of economy and I got as much leg room as I wanted. It made the 8 hour flight manageable and I didn't want to kill myself the whole time. We landed in Amsterdam and then caught a 2 hour flight to Florence (or as the Italians call it Firenze) which didn't have leg room. We all survived and landed in Florence. It was a very small airport with only 3 baggage claims. We grabbed our bags and took off down the street in a cab headed for the Hotel Morandi. It is a quaint, converted convent that definitly had some character. It was a great place of refuge especially because it wan't near all the touristy sites, which gave us peace, solitude and the ability to sleep at night. After dropping our bags off in the hotel room at 1 pm, we assesed what activities we could squeeze in before we fell asleep due to a severe lack of sleep. We chose a visit to the Academia musem (where the famous statue of David is housed) and walked in. I was in awe of the majesty of the sculptures in the room. It starts with "The Prisoners", which were early works of Michelangelo. They are deemed as such because these men are stuck in the stone, unable to be fully uncovered. These sculptures line the corridor on both sides and the end of the corridor is where David is standing.

We were all eager to see the statue of David. Ron had taken a sculpting class in college and had done a report on the statue. He recollected his experience in the class and we were able to discuss his experience in working with clay and marble. Kristy had just read "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone. This was a biographical novel, close to 800 pages in length and gave her a more intimate view of the artist Michaelangelo. Lauren was eager to see it because it was famous. The picture shown here was captured by her camera before she learned tht photography was prohibited. We visited the market to look for fresh produce, and also stopped in at Santa Maria Novella. While there we took the crucifixes of Brunelleschi and Giotto, Massaccio's "Trinity" and Ghirlandaio's frescoes. We could not find a place to eat dinner . .. so we settled for Gelatto. We retired to our rooms at Hotel Morandi Alla Crocetta about 7pm...exhausted and in need of sleep! Our hotel used to be a Dominican convent.

 

Snow in late May?

The weather here in Utah is really starting to get downright awesome. It’s sunny and not too hot which is making me antsy to get out as much as possible. I have been waiting to get a fishing license because we had been planning to go to Idaho over memorial day weekend and I didn’t want to buy 2 since I am not a resident of either of those states. I picked up my grandpa, who flew into town to be there for the summer, and Talyn on Wednesday evening. We drove there and we greeted by small flurries that night.

We then woke up the next morning and we greeted by heavy clouds and some rain. Later in the day there was a break in clouds, and we got to shoot around.

Then Daniel and Andrew showed up and we continued our enjoyment but the snow and wind picked up even more.

These are the highlights of the times we were actually outside enduring the cold. After awhile I couldn’t take it, I had to go to the park and do a hike.

It was awesome and the weather even cleared up just enough to go on the hike and get back in the car. It started to snow right when we got in the parking lot. It was a cool feeling.

We then went to Boondocks to celebrate Larry’s birthday and Father’s day a little early.

Halfway Point of the Semester

Surprisingly, the semester is going by very fast and it feels very close to the end. We had our first tests and I was worried because of the accelerated curriculum that I wasn’t going to do as well. I was dead wrong. I got high A’s on both of the tests and felt very over-prepared looking back, which bodes well for finals. We also had our engagement pictures taken on Saturday. I don’t have them, because they are being edited by our photographer, Kiara, but once I do I will post some of them. I couldn’t stay serious for long in these pictures, so there are a ton of funny pictures. We then went shopping for Talyn to get some outdoor gear (she didn’t have any). We both felt like we robbed Park City with the amount of good stuff that we got due to the huge sales they were having. She even got an Arc’teryx down jacket, which both my dad and I are super jealous of.

Basically, this trip got us super excited to hike (I mean walk), so we drove with both her parents to Battle Creek Falls near their house. It was awesome (better than I expected) and the temperature was perfect.

Now we have a three day week and then we head Island Park, Idaho with my grandpa Larry to enjoy the plethora of activities to there. It is supposed to be pretty cold (in the 30’s at night, with rain/snow) so it will be even more of an adventure.

Adventures of a lifetime

I have had a busy couple of weeks and now I am in school again and don’t feel like catching up a whole bunch but I will submit pictures and tell the stories through them.

My dad, uncle, a couple of buddies and I did the subway hike in Zion’s National park.

It was an A for Awesome! The water was a lot higher than the last time I did it, and a lot colder.

My dad was shaking so much he needed a “walrus” hug to warm him back up again.

I absolutely had a blast and want to do it again.

I also did a pretty important thing that same weekend…

I went on a hot air balloon…

And got engaged! It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that Talyn said yes. We will be getting married on August 10 in the Mount Timpanogos temple in Pleasant Grove, UT.

Then we left the women…

and went golfing. Here is me with my hole-in-one!

Then last weekend I went to Las Vegas to visit family, have family meet Talyn, and go to my uncle’s memorial service. Of course I don’t have any pictures from this trip, but we did have a great time. We really appreciated my Grandpa Ron for letting us stay with him and spend so much time with him.

FInals are over!

I finished finals and man, does it feel good. I worked really hard this semester and I was really happy with how it ended. I got all A’s for the first time in my life, and it left me wanting more. I learned a lot and I appreciate all of the help that I got this semester from Katie Willis (chemistry study buddy) and especially Talyn Camp. She supported me all semester long and encouraged me to study when I could’ve blown off my school work to relax. I am excited for this weekend because my parents are meeting me in St George to hike the subway in Zion National Park. It will be great to have 6 days free from school before I start up again in spring.

Finals week, it’s long

So I am in the home stretch and don’t have a ton of time but I can at least keep myself in the competition, right? More like I just don’t want to eat at Texas Roadhouse, even though Talyn and I didn’t agree on that being the consequence, whatever. I have never studied so much in my life and let me tell you, it is FUN! You have no idea how great it feels to wake up and then study, for the whole day. Well, I am sure some of you do but let me have my moment, ok? Since this post is definitely content, this video isn’t so enjoy!

This is what I love about the internet, any idiot can be famous for a day.