Venice

View of Piazza San Marco from the top of the San Giorgio Maggiore church

We stopped at the island of Murano while we were in Venice. Its claim to fame is the glass that they produce. They sell Murano Glass at every store in Venice, marking up the price for tourists because its authentic "Murano Glass". Our guide book told us to walk around the island and stop in at the glass shops and get the free glass blowing tours they show to the tourists. When we first got off the vaporetto (the boat bus) there was an English speaking smooth talker pointing the way to a free glass blowing tour. I told Heather to forget that guy, there would be plenty of other shows and we shoudn't fall for the first one we see. After walking around the island for half an hour with no luck, we crawled back to that guy asking him directions to the show. Nice one Jacoby, real smart! We were amazed at the way they blow glass (when we eventually found a shop giving a tour). It looks like taffy that they pull and form into these fantastic shapes, yet they have to cut this taffy glass with scissors and it clangs when it falls on the floor.

Jacoby in front of the glass heating kiln

Heather and her precious Murano Glass

We took a tour through Doge's Palace near St. Marks Square. A Doge was the mayor of the city of Venice. And back in the day Venice was a power in the world and the Doge likewise. The palace was beautiful and ornate and fun to walk around. But in the lower levels of the palace was the prison. There is a bridge the prisoners walk across before they are locked up in prison forever. The call it the bridge of sighs, as the prisoner sighs with their last chance to look out at the beauty and glory of Venice.

Heather in jail. Sigh!

Venice had a small town feeling: there aren't too many people, it doesn't take too long to walk across the whole city, and even when you get lost, you are never too far away from the grand canal and it isn't too hard to find your way back. I really enjoyed getting lost with Heather, eating pizza and ham sandwiches (they called it toast), and being in love. We never had the chance to take a gondola because it rained both nights we were there (not because I was too cheap to pay for one).

Europe Slideshow

Still alive

Here is just a brief glimpse of our trip since we are blogging from an internet cafe in Roma, Italia. This is us in Venice on the Rialto Bridge overlooking the Grand Canal. Venice was amazing, quaint, and charming. You can get lost going over bridges and through alleys but always find your way back to the grand canal.
This is us in the Colosseum giving our vote if the gladiator should live or die. Jacoby is a little bit more harsh in his judgement. Thumbs up he lives, thumbs down he dies. Sorry. Rome is huge, loud, and full of life; a big contrast to Venezia. We are loving the antiquity of it all.

We are having a great time eating pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner 5 days in a row. Italian food is good, but are there any Mexican places around here too?

Pizza Makers

Could they be any cuter????

Our story....

First meeting: Jacoby was in my ward at BYU in the Fall of 2000. My very first memory of him was sometime that September. He came over around 7am (which was early in my opinion since my roommates and I were night owls) needing to borrow our toaster to toast his bagel. I knew he was in our ward but didn't really know him at all. He came in and made small talk while the bagel was toasting and I was obligated to stay there in the kitchen since I didn't feel comfortable just leaving him in our house while I went back to bed. After what seemed like forever his bagel was finally done and he went to retrieve it, only to find out that it had burnt. He wasn't daunted though as he said, "hang on I'll go get another one" and ran back to his apartment for bagel toasting round two. I am sure he got some serious eye rolls from me at that point! So more small talk and then he was finally out the door and I was back in my bed heading off to sleep. True love or what?

Becoming Friends: We spent Fall semester in the same ward but didn't really get to know each other until the next semester. We went on a group date with his apartment and my house and from then we were all friends. I really got to know Jacoby when I was looking for a parent to do the Access program with (a big brother/big sister volunteer program at BYU). My current partner was way to busy to handle the weekly visits we were suppose to be going on and in complaining to my roommate Jessica about what to do she asked Jacoby to be my partner for me. I didn't know him super well at the time so I probably won't have asked him myself (and for that Jessica gets lots of helping us fall in love credit points!). It was great time to get to know him and spend time with him but I just never saw him as anything other than a nice friend of mine. (Now I have to insert a funny thought from Jacoby's memories at this point. One of our activities we did once was to play football with the kids at a park. This was probably like February of 2001. So we were playing and he had the ball so I knew he was bigger and stronger so to get it from him I tackled him. And it worked and I got the ball. End of story on my side. Now on Jacoby's side he TOTALLY thought I liked him since I threw my arms around him tackling him. Boys are so silly sometimes:)) Anyways, back to my story.

More than friends: So at the end of March we went to Arches National Park for the day and had a great time climbing and exploring with a group of our friends. At the end of the day we went to eat at this Italian restaurant before heading home. For some reason I had bought Jacoby's breakfast since he didn't have cash or something and so he was going to buy my dinner so we had planned to sit next to each other. Perfectly harmless. UNTIL someone else sat by him and it bothered me. They went to the bathroom or something and I switched spots under the pretense that we were sharing the bill. And the rest they say is history. It's like I was suddenly seeing him for the first time and realizing what a find I had made. And from then on I wanted to spend all my time with him. And I did:) He would come over every day at some point just to talk or hang out. And when he finally held my hand for the first time it was like I had already held it a million times before, the most natural thing in the world. I finally understood what falling in love with your best friend meant. :)

The Flu, a Blackeye & a 6 year Wedding Anniversary

So this past weekend was all set up to be romance fest 2008 with Valentines Day on Thursday and our 6 year Anniversary on Saturday. We had babysitters lined up (three different times in fact!) and tons of family and couple activities planned. Jacoby even had Friday and Monday off work, so four day weekend here we come. Sounds great huh? Enter, Coby throwing up Wednesday night at midnight. So Valentines day was spent cleaning up throw-up and trying to keep Rett away from the throw-up bowl which he found rather amusing to spit into. Well that is until he starting throwing up on Saturday! Luckily neither of us caught it and both the boys are finally health again. Oh and about that styling blackeye bit, Coby tossed a book off his bed to Rett's bed as they were laying down at nap time. Hit him smack in the face. It's a little embarassing taking him places with it. I feel like I should make him a t-shirt that says no my parents don't abuse me!

30 Baby!

So February 1st was my 30th birthday. The BIG one. My life is all that I thought it would be by this age and more! (Well except for owning a house:). My birthday was a ton of fun this year. Anyone who knows me knows that I am really into birthdays. It's the one day of the year only about you. When you were a kid or even in college that wasn't as important since you could have a lot of "all about you" days in the year (even though I have always loved birthdays!). Enter parenthood and that number goes down to 1. Just 1. And even that is pushing it. I asked Coby to tell me something he likes about mommy on her birthday and he refused to say anything other than he wants to go home from the walk we are on. I like mommy cause she takes me home from the walk. Feelin' the love already.

Anyways, so to start the day Jacoby made me a big breakfast (which ironically was the exact same thing I asked for last year for my birthday) and then I go to get my hair done. That was my first mistake. Yes, getting your hair done all alone without kids for a few hours sounds great, but 5 hours later, yes 5 is not that great. I didn't get home until 3pm! So maybe turning 30 doesn't make me any better at making good decisions. Schucks. Later that night Jacoby took me out to dinner. The next night he threw me a birthday party which was awesome. I really wanted to dance since that is still one of our favorite things to do. My brother Rob had given us a black light oh like 4 years ago that we finally set up in our garage for a dance party. It was a hit! The kids especially loved it and it made all the adults more willing to dance since it was dark. We tried to take some video of it but it was just too dark. Then as the last few people were leaving we realized that we could make our own strobe light by flicking the lights on and off. Genius. Strobe light and black light, what more could you want???? If you were thinking I might be more muture now that I am 30, you might want to check out my all new music video starring me:)