July 24th Day of Fun

For the 24th of July my parents planned a whole day of outdoor fun. We started by driving up to the beautiful Monte Cristo to our good friend's cabin for four-wheeling and a picnic. We learned some important lessons, like if 6 people go out on the four-wheelers on the same route at the same time, somehow Heidi will be the only one who comes back covered in dirt.
Or if Ben is nice enough to take Sammy (7 year old) out of the four-wheelers going the specified speed Sammy wants, he will probably end up doing exactly that on the next three trips out. It was good practice for Ben.
Or if you are a little hesitant about four-wheeling, your best bet is to go with big, strong, softy Reed (aka Dad or Brother Smith). (Jenna is ten and is the world's sweetest little girl)
We also learned the best way to jack up a car quickly is to put my dad on cranking duty. Also we learned that you must put the emergency break on while changing a tire or the car might just roll off the jack.

Phase II on this fun day was swimming at my parents house and a BBQ, which was fabulous, but I didn't take any pictures. It was basically an awesome, fun-filled, educational day.

The Best

July 26, 1992 was one of the best days of my life. That was the day I finally got the little sister I'd hoped and prayed for. When my dad called from the hospital and told me the baby was a girl I was completely speechless- definitely the best news I had ever received in my short, 4 year old life. When she was a baby I loved helping my mom dress her and wanted to hold her all the time...

...which she wasn't always that happy about.

Eventually she warmed up to me.

This cute little baby turned into a beautiful, charming, talented,
witty, amazing little sister.
She grew to be my best friend.

Just some of the reasons I love her:
She makes me laugh every day
She makes the world's best chocolate chip cookies
She listens to me when I need to vent
She keeps trying to teach me how to do my make-up so I'll look pretty like her
She's persistent, this girl does not give up
She (and my mom) basically planned my whole wedding and made the whole thing absolutely beautiful
She's very creative and artistic
She's an amazing example to me

I love you Heidi Georgia! I'm so glad you came into my life!
Happy 18th Birthday!

Love,
Court

Greece

After a week of touring in Italy we were starting to get a little worn out, Greece was like a vacation from our vacation! The day we were supposed to fly to Athens all of Athens basically went on strike. We were lucky that we even got to fly in, most of the flights that day were canceled. We just had to wait a couple extra hours in the airport (where Ben had the best gelato of his life, so it ended up being a pretty positive thing) and then we were off to Athens! Once we landed we found out that all buses, trains and the metro system were closed for the strike, leaving us only the option of spending more money and taking a taxi. Us and the other 1000 people who got to fly into Athens that day. We waited in a taxi line for over an hour, but luckily Ben had his sister's ipod touch, so we played scrabble while we waited. When we finally got a taxi we had a really cool driver who told us a lot about Athens on our drive to our hotel. Basically, the whole day was a perfect example of my mom's favorite saying, "things have a way of working out." (I apply this pretty much every day of my life).

Since just getting to Athens took all day (the flight itself was only 2 hours), we went to bed and started touring the next day. We headed off to see the Acropolis. It was amazing.

Amphitheater

View from the top

Temple of Athena Nike

The Parthenon. This moment fulfilled the dream that started Jr. year of high school when Mr. Oram taught us about Greek art and architecture. I was so glad we made it here. It was so impressive in real life.

The Erechtheum

After a fun day in Athens we headed off to Santorini. This island was so beautiful, we could have spent the whole week there. Our first day there we went out exploring and stopped to sit and enjoy a beautiful view of the beach and ocean. These three little kids were playing around with a ball. Ben said "hi" to them and before we knew it he was part of their game. And apparently, he's hilarious. The kids were giggling the entire time.

As you can see, Santorini was beautiful! We rented a four wheeler to explore the island. Whenever we got hot we just found a beach somewhere to stop and swim. Swimming in the Mediterranean Sea was a completely different experience from any ocean I've swam in before. Most of the beaches were extremely gentle, with hardly any waves at all (the picture above was the roughest beach we saw). The sea floor was pebbles, so there wasn't sand mixed in and the water was so beautiful and clear! We would swim out to the point where our feet couldn't touch the bottom anymore, and we could still see the bottom of the ocean! It was so beautiful and refreshing!

After two nights in Santorini we took a ferry to Mykonos, our last stop. This island was more touristy than Santorini and reminded me a little of Cancun. It was beautiful though, amazing views everywhere we went and the beach there was even prettier than the beaches in Santorini. We had a beautiful, relaxing day in Mykonos before we headed home!


Besides the beautiful scenery and beaches and historical significance of Greece, we LOVED the food! One of our favorite things was gyros. I think we found the best gyros our very first day in Athens. I was so happy I took a picture:

And Greek salad was our other favorite thing. We had it every day, somedays twice a day. I just can't even explain how amazing it was!

It's a BOY!

We went to the doctor yesterday for what was supposed to be our 14 week appointment (we were in Europe when I hit 14 weeks) and now I'm 15 weeks. I was kind of excited that the appointment was getting pushed back a week because generally 15 weeks is when they can tell you boy/girl on an ultrasound. If my doctor didn't offer to do an ultrasound I had a plan to act really concerned about everything under the sun so he would do an ultrasound to check on things. However, the first thing he said when he greeted us was, "Let's go do an ultrasound. Do we want to know what the baby is?" OF COURSE!
One second after he put the wand on my belly he said, "Are you sure you want to know? It's a boy!" Ben and I were so surprised! We had been thinking it was a girl most of the time, but what a fun surprise! By the end of the ultrasound our doctor said he's 98% sure it's a boy (98% is good enough for me, I've already started shopping for little boy things!).
It was so fun to see our little baby! He kept looking at him for probably 10 minutes, counting fingers and toes, measuring his little head and femur (he's measuring right on schedule to the day, 15 weeks 3 days) and seeing his little heart beat. I have been pretty sick this whole pregnancy, starting the weekend before I even knew I was pregnant, and it still hasn't let up. I keep telling Ben that it's hard for me to feel like everything is alright with the baby when I feel so crummy all the time. It put my nerves at ease to see he's growing and healthy!
Also, my little sister has suggested that maybe this is a "hysterical pregnancy"-glee anyone? I told her that the ultrasound makes it pretty darn sure that there really is a baby in there.
So now the question is, what to name this little guy?!?!?! Ben and I have a list of about 15 names we are both kind of okay with, nothing we really love or can agree on really loving. I would love to hear what baby boy names you like! Any and all suggestions are welcome-maybe you'll get the glory of knowing you suggested the name we choose for this little guy!

And off to Italy!

We made it to Italy, which was an adventure all by itself, landed at 8 am Rome time, midnight Utah time and went to get the rental car. We were both so tired and I was sick, so we just wanted to get the car and get out of the airport and on our way. We got our cute little car all packed up (pictured below), got in, and then Ben realized something. It was a STICK! He drove a stick one time, ten years ago, for about a half hour. We just had to laugh at the predicament, it hadn't occured to us that our only rental car options would be cars we didn't actually know how to drive. Luckily, he figured it out pretty quickly and we were on our way!
After spending our first night in Spoleto we headed up to Florence. The first thing we saw was the beautiful Florence Cathedral. The next day we went to see the David. That basically sums up Florence for us.
Oh, except that it was our anniversary while we were there! We found a delicious little restuarant and had a romantic anniversary dinner. This is me very excited that 1. we made it to Italy and 2. we made it through two wonderful years of marriage!
Below is the amazing tomato salad we ordered. There may be a lot of pictures of food in the updates to come about our trip. Ben basically ate his way through Europe.

And a shot of Ben eating gelato. I think he ate his weight in gelato. After he finished this bowl he immediately got up and bought another bowl. Whatever makes him happy.

After Florence we headed to Cinque Terre. This was one of my favorite places we stayed, right on the coast of Italy. We hiked in between these five little villages and every view was beautiful and breathtaking!

These flowers must be natural to the area, they were growing all over the mountainside.

After two days in Cinque Terre we were off to Rome. The first thing we did was turn in the rental car, and high-fived each other that we turned it in with us and the car unharmed. Then we went out exploring. Here are the highlights of our days in Rome:
Inside the Colosseum, this was Ben's favorite thing. I'll have to admit, it's pretty impressive.
Outside the Colosseum. I saw this picture and thought, "Woah! I look pregnant!" Anyone else think the same thing?
This picture doesn't really do the Roman Forum justice. It is such a cool place, to walk among all these ruins that were the center of an amazing and powerful empire!

St. Peters Basilica

And the beautiful Trevi Fountains. We also went to the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, saw tons of little chuches that house gems like Bernini's sculptures and Caravaggio's paintings, went to the Borghese Gallery and ate more delicious Italian food and gelato. Rome was HOT and HUMID, which was overwhelming at times, but we still had fun. And it helped us appreciate Greece that much more.

Post of Greece: Coming Soon!

Two Years

I can't believe it's been two years! July 2, 2008 was the best day of my life. I am so happy I got to spend July 2, 2010 with the love of my life having an incredible adventure.

Love you babe!