foil dinners

last friday I was craving foil dinners. It was perfect cause my in laws have a fire pit in their yard + I had nothing to do while Tanner was at work...... so I whipped up whatever veggies + meats were in the fridge, cooked on coils for 15 mins!  It was a pretty delish dinner

Alaha

While I was in Texas and Tanner in Alaska little Anderson use to always ask, "eh Tanna?" And I would always say, "He's in Alaska". "Eh Alaha?" "why?" He is always asking why!? It is so cute but you can never really answer that question! He keeps asking "why?" to everything haha. I miss that little boy and wish he could be in "Alaha" with us ( and of course Aubrey & Addison too) 

Last week was really warm up in the AK, I was actually complaining how hot it was... I think the highest it got was 78 lol. But then Sunday it completely changed. It has been cloudy and rainy. Last we took advantage of the sunshine and went hiking. Thursday we hiked the Butte in Palmer. I thought I was going to die... Apparently we went up the "wrong" way. It was actually the harder side to climb but I'm glad we did it! And Saturday we went to Thunderbird Falls in Eagle River. It was incredibly beautiful but infested with mosquitoes... 

Since I have sooo much time I made a to do list while in Alaska

1. family cabin at least 4 times

2. hug Sarah Palin

3. see a bear

4. cook in the dutch oven at least 4 times

5. go fishing

6. hiking at least 4 times

7. kiss a reindeer

8. pick blueberries

9. make 4 books

10. ride the 4 wheeler up to the cabin :/- not looking forward to that one.... Tanner said I have to

I will probably have more things to add but that's it for now!

Roma 3

I am taking forever to finish up my 2 weeks in Italy posts. I think I have at least one more post- Milano. This post is one of our last days in Rome where we spent at the Vatican Museum. I feel foolish to say this but I never really, really appreciated Raphael's work growing up but seeing it in real life, I begin to grow a love for him. His work is amazing as I am sure many of you already knew. We last visited the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museum. I had no idea we were not allowed to take photos in there, specifically of the ceiling... that was the only area in all of the museum we couldn't. But the first thing I did when I walked into the room was snap a photo. Then I walked into a sign that stated the obvious.... "NO PHOTO" Lucky me! I felt guilty but listened, now that I knew. The Sistine Chapel is suppose to be a holy, sacred place but it saddened me to see it was the complete opposite. People talking and guards yelling like crazy to be quiet?? It was a great experience to see all the things I've been learning from textbooks and classes for the past 5 yrs. We really loved our time in Rome!

African Safari!!

The day I was flying out of Texas to Alaska I made a trip to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. My whole life I've seen signs on the road to San Antonio but for some reason I never really thought much of it. I really wanted to do something fun with my mom and nieces and nephew before I left Texas so we decided to go here. It was a blast! Riding around feeding the animals! The kids were so ecstatic! It was pretty awesome that we were able to get up close to the animals! Though after feeding the zebras, one of them chomped their teeth and freaked me out that I no longer wanted to feed them lol. The ostriches would stick their heads in the windows and that totally made me scream...

Roma 2

 Rome was busy busy at all times! I wondered when it was siesta time for these people. Some days Tanner and I would ride the bus + walk a couple blocks (about 45 mins in all) home and take a power nap and then back into tourist mode.  The photo right above is Tanner drinking from a water fountain. Something we really missed was water fountains. It is definitely something we take for granted in the U.S. In the U.S. they are literally every where and in Italy you are lucky if you find one! 
We visited St. Peter's Square on a Sunday in hopes to see and hear the Pope's Sunday blessing. We obviously were at a bad angle... the photo of the window, 6 images up, is the Pope's window. 

I really liked EUR. It is completely different from old Rome. EUR was intended to become the city center, but still is a very peaceful, clean part of Rome. Locals from old Rome do not really like EUR.

E

We visited the Trevi Fountain during the day and night. So beautiful but we had did not have romantic experience, way too many people! We made sure to toss a coin, promising a return to Roma!