April into May

We have been out of town and then we were busy piecing our lives back together after we got back. It has been a while since I have posted. I am going to type up the news that I submitted for Spencer's family newsletter. It sums up what has been happening since my last post. After we can transfer pictures from our laptop to this computer I will submit some pictures that go along with the vacation portion of our trip.

"April is a bit of a blur in my mind. Spencer had two work trips. One at the beginning of the month to Reno and then a week later in Bend, Oregon. He also went on a camp out to the Lava Beds in Northern California with the scouts. April seemed to have come and gone in a flash because of those trips, and then because of the anticipation and planning of a trip we were taking at the end of the month. We did experience some normalness during the month though. Little Spencer's soccer season started in April. He had his first game the second week of April."

"Now for the trip. The kids and I met Spencer up in Bend, Oregon on a Wednesday. We stayed with him at the resort for one night then headed for Twin Falls the next day. We spent the evening at Karey and Travis's house and stayed the night. It was fun to see them and see how much their kids have grown. We were glad we could stop, even if it was just for a night. Thanks for your hospitality, White family. The next day, Friday, we drove to Bountiful and got there around noon. We spent the next couple of days visiting with family and getting things ready for Spencer and my next trip."

"We left Sunday morning with Mark and Suzy and flew all day and night. We arrived in Italy Monday morning. We flew into Milan, picked up our rental car and drove up to the Italian side of the Matter Horn. We took a tram up a cliff to a neat Alpine ski village and walked around for a while. From there we drove by Lake Geneva and toured Chateau Chillon, a 13th century castle in Switzerland (I think it was built in the 13th century.) Afterward, we drove to Bern, Switzerland and walked around that charming little town. By this time it was dark, so we missed the beauty of the Swiss countryside as we drove to Interlaken. We stayed at a hostel in Interlaken for the night. The next morning, we explored the beautiful city. There were amazing waterfalls around every corner. Everything was so green, and a fine mist hung in the air giving the setting a magical feel." As we were driving we noticed an F-15 land in the middle of this steeply cliffed valley, not far from where we were. We pulled over and intersected with the runway. We got out of the car and watch 3 F-15s land and take off only 10 yards away from us. It was neat and that is coming from a girl. After this we made our way out of the valley. "We got a little lost in the Swiss Alps climbing a mountain road" only "to discover that the pass was closed. We eventually found our way back to the freeway and headed out of Switzerland."

"We drove past the lakes region in Northern Italy and down to the Italian Riviera. We stayed in one of the charming towns of the Cinque Terre region, called Riomaggiore. It is right on the coast with the town built steeply on the climbing cliffs and hills. The next day we drove to Pisa and went to the leaning tower. We made an hour and a half stop in Florence to cross the Ponte Vecchio and experience the main piazza outside of the museum that houses the David." There is a replica of the famous statue in the piazza outside of the museum. Even the replica is spectacular."

"We drove to Sienna where we explored and found the piazza where there are still horse races around its center. It was a beautiful city. We saw much of the old part of town, when we got turned around and lost. it was actually fun though."

"We then drove down to Rome. Before getting to our hostel on the outskirts of town, by the coast, we stopped and ate at a restaurant that we had eaten at before and loved. It was near 1:00 am when we arrived at our hostel that night. The next day we spent touring Rome. We saw the Colosseum" (where we spotted and had our picture taken with a Back Street Boy) "the Roman Forum, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. Unfortunately, on this day, it just happened to be an Italian holiday, so many things were closed for viewing of the interior, like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Pantheon. "

"The next day we hit the Colosseum and toured the inside. It is absolutely incredible. It was a favorite for the group...at least at this point. We toured the Roman Forum, and then drove to the Vatican. Lines were absurd so we skipped going into St. Peter's Cathedral. We got in the even more absurdly long line for the Vatican museums, but soon discovered that it was going to close before we would be able to reach anywhere near the front of the line, so we had to skip out on that. From there we drove down to the Amalfi Coast. It is so spectacular. The winding roads grew tiring, but the scenes were amazing. We drove to Salerno to stay in our hostel for the night."

"The next day we made a major alteration to our trip. Instead of continuing down the boot and onto Sicily to stay with Spencer's friends, we drove back up to Rome, with plans of leaving two days early. A misunderstanding with the friends left us with unresolved travel plans. We found a bed and breakfast to stay at for the last two nights. After much run around, we finally found it and headed back into Rome. We went back to the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and then decided to go back to the restaurant that we had eaten at previously. When we returned to our car after dinner, our trip took a huge, sour, turn. We found our car windows broken and all of our stuff stolen. They took our bags, and therefore, we had no clothing to wear for the rest of the trip. Cameras were stolen, therefore the footage of the trip, gone. My purse was stolen which contained our passports, credit cards, my drivers license, and other valuable. Priceless items were taken as well; things that can never be replaced. We were all stunned. We drove to the police station and filled out police reports. This one event turned our entire trip into something we regretted."

"We spent the next day cancelling credit cards, taking our rental car back, and finding routes to the airport from the Embassy." The U.S. Embassy didn't open until Monday morning and our flight back home was Monday at 1:15 p.m. We didn't know how long it was going to take them to issue us new passports, so we were praying constantly that the timing would work out and we could catch that flight. Monday morning came and things couldn't have worked out more perfectly. We were very blessed. We flew all day long and arrived back to Bountiful at 12:30 a.m. We had been awake for 30 hours by the time we went to bed. We are so sick about our loss, but recognize that things could have been much worse. "

"We love our United States of America. It sure was comforting to arrive back on U.S. soil."

Thanks to some dear friends, once we arrived back home from Oregon, I was able to get the remaining loose ends tied up all in one day.

Will we ever return to Italy again? I'm not sure. Maybe one day we will go and just go back to Spencer's mission down south. I am sure it will be a very long time before we can even consider it though.

Our cameras were stolen, but luckily Suzy had her camera on her during the break in so at least we have the pictures that they took from the trip. I will post some of those pictures soon.