Europe in all it's splendor.

     Ok, so maybe this post is a few months late, but I'm getting it up and that's all that really matters.  All I can say is that Europe never disappoints.  Every time I go it is full of wonder, beauty and oh my word the best food!  I will admit that Andrew and I definitely gained a couple pounds after only two weeks of being over there.  Jenny and Eric were the greatest of hosts, planning everything out for our trip through Germany, Italy and Switzerland.  Eric was nice enough to have us drive, instead of flying, so we could see my exchange family in Darmstadt, Germany.  Andrew has always wanted to go to Italy (and secretly wanted to go there on his mission, but we all had wishes like this) so the Hatch family planned the trip out to see as much of Italy as Eric had time off from work, namely 1 week).  We visited Pisa, Lucca, Florence and Cinque Terre that were filled with new sites, smells and food.  I had been to Rome with my mom back in 2009 and was thinking that the rest of Italy would be the same, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that these cities were very unique and different in each there own ways. I loved seeing family and being able to go beautiful places with them.
I can't believe what we were able to see and visit in just two straight weeks.

1-land in Brussels
2-travel to Darmstadt to visit the Pilz's
3-visit Neuschwanstein schluss in Bavaria
4-spend the night in Garmisch, Germany
5-travel to Pisa, Italy
6-visit Leaning Tower of Pisa
7- travel to the city of Lucca where we rode bikes around
8- visit city of Florence
9-visit Cinque Terre
10-travel to Basel, Switzerland on our way home
11- visit Brussels, Belgium
12-visit Ghent
13-OH my, oh my we had fun!!

 Here we are with my German family the Pilz's (well some of them anyway).

We had a great time riding bikes on the wall surrounding the city of Lucca, we wished we could do it longer.  Reed was always fascinated with the drains everywhere we went.  He would immediately lay down and take a close and in depth look at each one.

 Reed and Isaac had a fun dance break to the tunes of some street performers.

 There is always time to stop for gelato, and according to Rick Steves, Florence, Italy as the best gelato in the whole country.  We loved it and had it at least once, sometimes twice a day.

 Poor Reed ended up falling asleep quite often in his backpack carrier.

 Here we are just getting to Cinque Terre

 Our awesome boat ride to the different towns in Cinque Terre.

 Reed is always open to playing at the beach, he's not so much a fan of playing in the water just yet.

 I can never say enough about how good the food is in Europe.  The pizza in Italy really was so good.

 Brussels was so beautiful and the downtown area lived up to all it's splendor and timeless buildings.

 I was able to introduce Jenny and Benjamin to my favorite dessert dish in Germany on our trip to Aachen, spaghetti eis.  It is so so so good and I am craving it right now as I am remembering how good it tasted.

 This old church in Aachen is typical to the north west parts of Germany.  All of the old buildings are covered in black from the industrial age.  It takes them years to restore and clean them up and it looked like they were just starting to do that here.

We enjoyed spending time with the Hatch family in their beautiful chateau, I can't believe they get to call this home.

We owe a huge thanks to the Hatch family for planning such a wonderful vacation full of beautiful places, delicious food and great company to travel along with.

Wir warten darauf, WAITING!

     Andrew was able to take the MCAT a few weeks ago and finally I feel like we have him back in our lives.  I guess I should really get use to that schedule because that's how much he will be around when he is in school.  But for now I will relish in the time we have together.  I feel like a lot of the last few years has been this pattern of busy and then a huge slow down or a waiting period.  We have projects, schedules and things that take priority for a time, but then for a moment they end and you get this long awaited second of reprieve.  You just want to bask in it and wish that it could linger so much longer.
     We are at this time excitedly waiting his score as well as preparing his application  for medical school.  It is exciting to think about us staying here and doing school, but also not knowing if we will end up somewhere else.  We are full of hope and faith that he can get into UNR, but realize that somethings are left in the Lord's hands and we need to have understanding whatever the outcome.  We really love Reno, especially our house and the ward.  We have so many projects to keep us busy that sometimes it's a little overwhelming to think of them all.  Below is a picture of a large bucket that is actually holding up our microwave.  Why you ask? well I decided to tear out the soffits above the kitchen cabinets, but in the process found out that things had been drilled and hammered into those soffits....so, the microwave and cabinet above the microwave were then not attached to anything. It was like this for about two weeks.

    Now for good measure I'll just put up what you really want to see, pictures of Reed.

This is our neighbors yard and he always wants to sneak over there and play with her wind chimes.

Fruit dip is always better when you can share it with Rio.

We got to see our first bear in Incline Village, NV.  

The 4th of July was great, but a little loud and really late for this little guy

He didn't make it to the end.

Great visits from family, miss you guys!

One Year has come and gone

       So, it's official as of last week our little Reed is 1.  He is such a joy to have around and is constantly on the go. I try to imagine how my life without him would be filled, and it goes something like this....bike rides in the mountains, running along the river, hiking through the woods, skiing down the slopes or just taking a minute to contemplate life and what I'm doing...But instead it's filled with little boy giggles, big two-teeth smiles, blissful bath-times, soundless naps, morning wake-ups with Daddy, ball throwing with Rio at the park and last but not least jogging time in the Chariot stroller.  And you see, I wouldn't have it any other way.

      My life without my family was just that, WITHOUT!  The time I had before I got married is very valuable to me and I look back on it now with fondness and partiality.  It's the same way I look back on my mission, it was really hard at times and I didn't really like it sometimes, but  it was necessary to do in order for me to become ME. I didn't know it at the time, but the Lord did and he made sure it happened. I know I feel like I don't fit in with other families that much, I mean come on the women my age stopped having kids years ago and are dealing with Junior High issues, and the girls (I say girls NOT women)  who have kids near Reed's age are so young I feel as if I'm the aunt that goes around giving advice in our conversations that no one is ever going to listen to 'cause she's out of touch with how things 'really' are today.  I'm stuck in the middle, so I think back to my days 'WITHOUT' and turn my feelings of confusion and uneasiness into gratitude and appreciation for my life now and all that I have.
     Life WITH Reed and Andrew are so much better than they were WITHOUT, so I'll take the smiles and giggles over the bike rides in the mountains and the morning wake ups with Dad instead of the morning skiing in the fresh powder.   This past year was definitely a trade off, the value of which can never be known until you experience it for yourself, but was indeed a trade off of great significance in my life as well as in Andrew's.