Part One: Iceland and Milan

Ciao!

We just came home from a whirlwind trip to Italy. David was home from his mission for 3 weeks, and in that time Kara finished her finals at the high school.

I'll start a summary of our trip, hopefully without giving TOO much detail...the idea is not to put people to sleep -- snore -- but to remember the highlights! Ha.

Iceland Road Sign

End of the Rainbow art at the
Iceland airport

The good thing about a blog is that you can also just click on the pictures, and look at photos! No offense will be taken if you only look at the pictures! :) :) :)

(**SIDE NOTE: if you click on the pictures, they are BIGGER.)

Geothermal activity in Iceland

The evening of June 24, we flew away to Milan, via Iceland. It's about 5 hours from Boston to Iceland, then another 4 or something to Milan.

ICELAND. We had something like a 6- or 7-hour layover in Iceland, so we rented a car and drove around. They have lots of natural parks with waterfalls and geothermal activity.

By the waterfall. Kind of chilly but not too bad.

FUN ICELAND FACTS:
1. over half of their energy comes from geothermal activity.
2. the island country is roughly the size of Ohio.
3. beer was illegal here until 1989.

It was overcast and rained some while we were there. We walked the boardwalk trails and saw waterfalls and geysers.

Geysers

FLOWERS. There were also these great fields of tens of thousands of purple flowers -- wow! We drove by them all morning, and I dropped hints to Frank that it was so hard to photograph them in a moving car...after all our driving, and we were getting closer to the airport, Frank took pity and pulled over for me to get some flower shots. :) Winner!

Here are Iceland pics.

MILAN. We got to Milan in the dark, at 10:30 at night, then we waited for all the paperwork, etc., to rent our van. At 11:30 p.m. we didn't see much on the way to the Hotel Ascot.

I know it's just a van. But we spent SO much time in it! :)

CHURCH. In the morning we made an attempt to find the church building...we knew it was close and what street it was on, but kept driving by it back and forth...turns out it was in the BACK of a building, and the sign was kind of out of the way (?!?!), so we made it to the last half of Sacrament Meeting. We tried.

Big cathedral downtown Milan

In the afternoon, it was fun to go downtown and see the Italian architecture around, and we visited a castle.

The castle was next to a beautiful park and gardens, where we found lunch.

coconut display

FERAL CATS. This was the beginning of seeing cats around everywhere...they don't belong to anyone, they are just...around.  There was a cute kitten at the Bed & Breakfast when we stayed along the Amalfi Coast. That will come in a later post.

We spent lots of time waiting for the green "Walk" guy to show up at the intersections...

And throughout the cities in Italy, they have fountains where you can get a drink or fill up your water bottle. We waited for this cute little boy to finish, then filled our bottles.

Have a great weekend! Kari

Meeting David at the Airport

Hello!

We got to go to the airport on Friday. Amazingly, David has completed his mission to Italy! He came in mid-day, but of course had to take his baggage through customs and immigration, etc., so he walked out of the doors about 3 p.m.

Welcome Home Banner!

friends from high school Nick (L) and Nikhil

Dunkin tradition

We wanted someone besides our immediate family, to take some video and still shots for us upon his arrival. We asked amongst his high school friends home from college, if anyone had a couple of hours Friday afternoon to come to the airport with us! Nick and Nikhil stepped up and came to the airport with us to meet him :) :) :) So glad the stars aligned and they could come.

Such an overwhelming time for him, and for us! People ask him "how was your mission?" ...How in the world can you pack 2 whole years of experiences and growth into a few sentences...

We went right from the airport to the home of one of our church leaders in the "stake," which is the group of congregations in the Boston area. He had some very insightful things to say about missions and returning missionaries. He said how each mission is so different and individual for each missionary. He reminded us that the Lord knows each of us individually.  David's mission helped him grow in ways that the Lord knows will help him now and in the future. Like filling a "bucket" of experiences and knowledge for yourself, that you can retrieve and remember later. That can help YOU get through future challenges, and help others, too. Maybe experiences he had will give him the wisdom to help someone else down the line, when they come to a challenge or obstacle.

I applied that to those of us who did NOT serve a 2-year mission, too. I think God knows what each of us needs and just what and who we need to get through adversity. Or how we can help somebody ELSE through those things. We each have a different "bucket" of life experiences to draw from when we need it.

This church leader then "released" David from his service in the Italy Milan Mission. It wasn't a blessing or a prayer or anything. He said David would not be serving in that mission anymore. BUT, he was not being released from the TYPE of work that he did: serving people and being a representative of Christ. Those are life-long things.

It was a very emotional day, and for David he ended up being awake for about 24 hours straight.

Here are some pics of the weekend. I also put some on facebook so there is some overlap.

Happy weekend! Love, Kari

Kara's Prom 2016

Braedon & Kara

Hi!
I was just going through pictures, and I realized that I hadn't posted any of the pictures of Kara from Prom 10 days ago!

**ALSO: if you click on the photos, you can see them bigger.**

Kara got to go to Prom 2 weekends ago, as a sophomore--that was a pretty big deal :)

In Wayland, we have a "Junior Prom." That means everyone has to go to prom with a Junior...so Kara got asked by her friend Braedon. She knew him from reffing soccer games, and also they have a "free" period at the same time so they hang out in the library occasionally.

Anyway, there were a series of family events that caused Braedon to NOT be at school for the couple of weeks before prom. He had the tickets. But he had not asked anyone yet.

He ended up decorating his car, writing all over it "P-R-O-M-?" and driving it into the field by the tennis courts, while Kara was at tennis practice. It was cute!

Kara & Dad

The not-so-cute part was that he asked her THREE DAYS BEFORE THE DANCE.  So we looked for a dress, Online and at the mall, but really even if you order the "overnight" shipping, they still have to receive the order, go find it, package it and send it. Sure, it's "overnight" once it's SHIPPED. But they may not SHIP it for a couple of days. Ugh. And we looked for shoes. And made hair and nails appointments, but not CLOSE, because all the close ones to our house were booked up. We had 72 hours.

Prom "Orange Carpet"

But we got lucky in a couple of things! Amazingly, it worked. (Yes...I think I lost a whole decade off my life in those 3 days.)

Kara with tennis friends

Prom Trolley!

Kara got some friends to do her makeup. They took pre-prom pictures at someone's house, then the trolley took them to the High School for the "Orange Carpet!" Kind of like a "red carpet," but our colors here in Wayland are orange and black. So the carpet was orange and the couples walked down it for more pictures, and to socialize more with friends.

The trolley took them to dinner and the Prom dance in Boston. I think it was at the Hyatt this year.

So there you have it!  I'm including pics of Kara and some of her friends.

Happy week!
Kari

March Birthday #1

Hello--

Just thinking that it has been quite a long time since I've given the family update!

It's March, and that is a big birthday month at our house. Frank's birthday was last week the 3rd, and Kara's and my birthdays will be later in the month. Frank asked for butterscotch pie--pies seem to be more popular than cake in our family.
Here are some birthday pictures we took.

oops the yellow one fell down

Kara's class is about to decide on a place for prom for next year...they have it narrowed down to 2.

Frank is in Houston this week, and we're getting a lot of rain :) Better than snow, I'll say that for sure!

And my most recent read is "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton. A mystery into the past: definitely kept me turning pages!


Kari

Sunshine, Snow and Little Goats

Hola, famillia!

Spending the afternoon in the library, since our Internet is still out.

SNOWY DAYS. I was in Arizona so I missed the actual snowstorm here in Wayland, but Frank and Kara got some really heavy, wet snow, that stuck to all the branches of all the trees.  Really pretty, of course, but heavy snow means branches break off and fall on wires. Ugh.

They were without electricity for a few hours, and then for whatever reason, that fouled up the Internet service. Ugh! But, the library has Internet. The service people are coming by tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get it back soon.

Arizona was lovely! So fun to spend some time with Grandma, and to see Mom before she left on vacation. Kim also came to Tucson for a couple of days there at the beginning.  Then at the end, I went to Kris & Jessica's to see their place.

Internet photo

Avery is in heaven with all those animals!  They currently have 19 chickens, 2 little Nigerian goats, and 2 sheep.  I really like their house. They have lots of projects to keep them super-busy, but it's a good space and a great house.

FRESHMAN LIFE. Meanwhile, life rolls along with Teresa in Provo...she has gone to the men's volleyball games, and basketball games. The men's volleyball team is awesome this year! I don't know about basketball. She has applied for housing for this fall, with a friend she met this year who lives in her building, so we'll cross fingers that that all works out for them.  She applied to Liberty Square, and Kris told me that's where he lived for 2 years when he was at BYU! Funny. (FYI It's been renovated, since then...)

The library is closing, so I'll sign off.  Have a great week!
Kari