Just Me And The Boys

I Don't Want To Forget!

2011-08-29T14:35:00.001-07:00

Austin is now 18 months. I don't know about the rest of you with kids, but I'm pretty sure this stage has got to be one of the most fun parts of being a parent. Pretty much since he started walking, it has been non-stop entertainment. And I really don't want to forget all the fun things he's said & done in the last 6 months, so here are some of our favorite recent Austin-isms.

- He calls Alan "Dee-dah." Especially when Alan does something particularly entertaining to Austin. "Oh, Dee-dah" he'll say. It's so precious.

- He loves throwing things in the trash. If he sees anything that looks even remotely like garbage, he'll pick it up and with a big smile on his face say "Trash!" and go throw it away. Sometimes very helpful, others not so much. Oh, and he has to throw his diaper away after we change him. No exceptions. So I've become an expert at wrapping that thing up so tight that only sanitary parts are exposed.

- He runs with the quickest, shortest, most inefficient steps I've ever seen. But he loves to run!

- He loves when friends come over to our house and he loves playing with other kids. He also HATES it when anyone leaves. (Parents & friends included.) He watches them from the window as they leave and just cries and says "bye" through his sobs. Luckily, he's easily consoled and gets back to playing really quickly. It's really sweet.

- He loves all books, but right now he especially loves his Farmyard Tales and Ted & Friends books that have a little yellow duck on each page. Every time we read books, he says "Duck!" and brings me one of those books. And he couldn't care less about the words or stories in the book. He just wants to turn pages and find that duck. And yes, he has been known to find that dang duck before I do. He's gotten pretty good.

- Some other favorite games right now are coloring, playing with blocks, and rolling cars & trains down our ramp, which we make by unscrewing 2 legs off our cheap coffee table.

- Every night after we brush our teeth, he knows it's time for prayers. He folds his arms & calls for which ever parent isn't holding him, to make sure we're all there. And, most of the time, he sits still on one of our laps and quietly watches the other one pray. And as soon as we say "Amen" he's off our lap and runs to get his bedtime story.

- And the best part of every day is checking in on our sleeping boy right before Alan and I go to bed. He's in a different position almost every night, but he ALWAYS has his doggy nearby. Usually tucked under his arm or hidden underneath him. No matter how long or stressful the day has been, that moment brings everything back into perspective & brings me so much peace.

- Finally, here are some of Austin's favorite words to say. There are too many to list, but these are some of the most common & entertaining: Hi! Bye, back, Dee-dah, hot, hat, cheese!, choo-choo, ABC, appletree, blue, yellow, blocks, water, window, all done, shoes, socks, bee-ball (Which covers baseball, football, basketball, yellow ball, blue pokey ball, and just plain old ball.) He has also just started putting 2 words together, like he'll say "Daddy back?" or "Mommy shoes." Such a smart boy.

And no post about our boy would be complete without some pictures. Enjoy!

Oh Right...It's 2011

2011-08-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a big summer for our family. Here are a few things that have kept us busy the past couple of months.

Alan graduated from PA school! Congratulations, smartie-pants!We said goodbye to our wonderful Iowa friends who we miss SO much.

We moved to California!

And to celebrate Alan's month off before his new job began, and our new status as Californians, we hit the road on vacation!

We took 2 trips to San Francisco to see cousins.We went camping at Sequoia National Park.
We visited friends in Santa Barbara, where Austin went to his first beach.
Alan went backpacking in Yosemite with his brothers.
And eventually, real life started again. Alan is working as a Family Practice PA, and I get to stay a full-time Mommy. We are hot and happy here in Bakersfield, where we miss our Iowa friends terribly, but it's sunny every day. Not a bad gig.

Peas are Funny

2010-11-29T19:35:00.000-08:00

Halloween

2010-10-31T18:15:00.000-07:00

This year for Halloween, we decided to dress up as Ron Burgundy, Veronica Corningstone, and their little gentleman, Baxter. So I made a 4-hour exception to my "Mustache=Divorce" policy and let Alan shave the beard he's been growing for weeks. And Austin was a pretty cute little Baxter. I think the results speak for themselves.

News Team...Assemble!!!

Who wouldn't want to take him to foggy London-town??

Can you believe I let this man hold my precious baby?

You stay classy, San Diego...

Good News, Bad News

2010-10-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

Well, the good news is that Alan and I won't be missing or craving Cafe Rio pork salads for a while. The bad news is that the reason we won't be missing them is because we both got sooooo sick Tuesday night after I made them. I don't know what part of the salad it was, but it had both of us puking our guts out all night long and pretty much all day Wednesday. It was miserable. Thankfully, Austin was just fine and happy as ever. And one of our good friends was able to come and take Austin for a few hours in the afternoon so that Alan and I could rest. And we're feeling much better today. But I'll tell you what, being THAT sick with an 8 month old and no spouse (or mommy) to take care of you...sucks. It's amazing how grateful I am today for little things like the fact that I can stand up without throwing up. Wow.

So, if you don't feel like passing out or vomiting every time you stand up today, be thankful!

And don't mention pork salads to me or Alan for a few months...

Trying to be Domestic

2010-10-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

I try. I really do.

A part of me wants to be that super mom who cooks magnificent meals for her family without so much as glancing at a recipe. Oh, and loves every minute of it. So I try. I LOVE food, so it should be reasonable for me to like to cook food...right?

Wrong. I just don't enjoy cooking. There, I said it.

Alan and I have really been missing Cafe Rio pork salads lately. So I found a recipe online that claimed to be EASY and taste just like the restaurant version. Well, the pork and dressing did indeed taste incredible - just like the real thing. But WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE who think that was easy? They must have 3 blenders, 8 hands and 0 children. It took me ALL freakin' day to make all 20 parts to these salads. And they did taste incredible, don't get me wrong. But I think next time we'll go down to Chipotle for an average substitute. Or wait till Christmas when we can pay 8 bucks for a salad they throw together in 20 seconds.

Ah, Cafe Rio, how we miss you.

And, since it feels weird publishing a post with no pictures, here's a peek into our cafe-rio-less, but really awesome lives in Iowa.

Picking apples at Wilson's Orchard = Perfect Fall activity.

We are best buds. We hang out pretty much all day. Every day.

This is Herky, Iowa's mascot. He is EVERYWHERE in Iowa City. And yes, he is always standing in that exact pose.

I've been waiting for months to dress Austin in this vest. I wish it came in my size. Well, Alan's size.

New Sounds

2010-08-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

So we haven't been the best bloggers in the world lately. But since not everyone is on facebook, where our son is growing up, we thought we'd post our most recent video on here. This is Austin at 5 months doing his best wookie impersonation.

Thank Heaven for Mother-in-laws

2010-06-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this moment to thank Alan's mother for her foresight in purchasing a perfect baby jumper for us back in 1984. Yes, 25 years ago Clucky bought "Jumping Jacks" for all of her children to use with their future children. Now, a normal person would have thought she was crazy for buying a baby jumper for her then 3 year old son Alan. But that is why I'm grateful to have a not-so-normal mother-in-law. =-) My son absolutely LOVES that jumper, and I know for a fact, they do NOT sell jumpers like this any more. It has literally saved my sanity. You see, I have a very high-maintenance baby. If he's not sound asleep, he MUST be played with, sung to, and generally entertained. He is not good at playing by himself. Which means, I would only get 30-40 minute chunks throughout the day to get anything done. (He's not a great napper either.)

Well, this jumper will keep him occupied for up to an hour at a time! He jumps and laughs and squeals non-stop. So I can finally eat, work on Symantec projects, follow up on email, clean up my house, cook. It's amazing! I am a whole new woman thanks to this jumper.

So thank you, Clucky, for being awesome and knowing 25 years ago what we would not learn till much later. We owe you one!

Pictures and (maybe) video of the jumping to come...

Our growing boy.

2010-03-30T10:29:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe it has already been 2 months since Austin was born. He has changed so much over the past 2 months, and so have our lives. The past 8 weeks have been some of the hardest and happiest of my life. The first 3-4 were mostly hard. I'm still mad at all the mothers I know for now telling me how hard it was going to be. Or maybe they did, I just didn't listen. But now that I've gotten better at this and he's sleeping for longer chunks at a time, life is pretty dang good. Overall, Austin is a very good baby. He smiles a lot, sleeps pretty well for an 8 week old, and is growing like crazy!! Here are some pictures from the past 2 months:

2 weeks. Adorable and exhausting. He's only sleeping for about 1-2 hours at a time.

3 weeks. Starting to be more alert and interested during awake times.

1 month. First day at Church. He's pretty excited.

6 weeks. He attended his first Jazz game and LOVED it. Jazz played the Timberwolves on St. Patrick's Day.

2 months. Already so grown up. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! (First time he smiled for the camera!)

Austin Tyler Bankhead is Here!

2010-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

I'm officially the worst blogger ever, but I finally have something important to blog about! Our son, Austin Tyler Bankhead, was born on Feb. 1st. He weighed 7 lbs 2 oz and was 20 inches long. He's completely healthy and absolutely perfect. We are enjoying every minute of this. Here is the story of how he came into the world. This is pretty detailed, so sorry if it's TMI. :) For those of you who requested details, here they are.

Austin was supposed to come on February 5th. My maternity leave started on Feb. 1st so I was all excited about having a week off work. I was going to get a pedicure, get my hair done, read some books. Well Austin had other plans. On Monday morning around 6:15 a.m. my water broke on may way to go to the bathroom. It was NOT like the movies, so I wasn't even 100% sure it was my water breaking. We called the hospital and they told us to come in in a couple of hours if I still thought it was my water that had broken. Well, I wasn't having any contractions, so we ate breakfast, I took a shower, it was a very relaxing morning.

We got to the hospital and were admitted around 8:30 a.m. They put me on a mild dose of Pitocin to get my contractions going. The contractions started up around 9:30 a.m. and started out pretty mild. After a few hours they were getting pretty intense. I was only dilated to a 4 at that point, but the anesthesiologist was on the floor giving couple of other girls epidurals, so I decided I may as well get one then instead of wait. The epidural was really scary, but not that painful. The anesthesiologist was REALLY cool and talked me through the whole thing. She was actually about 8 months pregnant herself! So I just held onto Alan and counted while she did her thing. The moment the medicine went in, I was in heaven. Not only did the contraction pain go away, but my hips didn't hurt, NOTHING hurt! I felt better than I'd felt in MONTHS! So I pretty much just laid there and laughed for a while.

For the next few hours, Alan and I watched Arrested Development and played cards. Right in the middle of a game of War, the Dr. came in to check on my progress. When she checked me a couple of hours earlier, I was only a 5, so I wasn't optimistic that I had progressed much. So we were both shocked when she said, "it's time to have a baby!" So they got all their stuff ready and I started pushing around 5:00 p.m. It was just Alan on one leg, the nurse on the other leg, and the Dr. catching. Just like I wanted it, very private. It was very strange, because I couldn't really feel whether I was pushing correctly. It didn't hurt AT ALL thanks to the epidural. But it was still exhausting. During the pushing, his heartrate started dropping a little bit because his umbilical cord was really short so when I was trying to push him out, he was pulling the placenta out with him and not getting far enough. So they used the little vacuum thing for just a couple of pushes and he came out, no problem. He was born at 5:35 p.m.

When they laid him on my chest immediately, I couldn't believe he was real. He wasn't that yucky like I was expecting. His skin already felt soft and his cry was so sweet. I sat there and touched his head and hands and just cried for a few minutes before they took him away to be cleaned up.

We are home from the hospital now and things are going pretty well. Austin is a wonderful sleeper and he gets cuter every day. He has perfect skin and adorable baby features. I think he looks like Alan. He's absolutely beautiful. He's a very calm baby, but he's not a great eater just yet. Breastfeeding has been really challenging for us both. Neither of us knows what we're doing, but we're slowly getting the hang of it. I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not going to starve my baby. He has good feedings about half the time and the other half he gets frustrated and fusses a lot and won't latch on. That has made for some long, sleepless nights, but we're getting better.

It has been a pretty crazy, eventful, wonderful week. We are loving being parents and can't believe how much we love this little person who came to live with us. Here are some pictures of our little Bean.

It's a Boy!!!

2009-09-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

We are happy to announce that we are having a little boy on February 5th. We got our first ultrasound today and I can already tell he's going to be cute. It was such an amazing experience to see him in there. Everything is going well for us. Busy with school & work, as usual. We're so excited to have our own little boy!!

Coralville (where there's no coral) and Florida (where there's lots!)

2009-05-18T13:54:00.001-07:00

We made it! We are now officially residents of Coralville, Iowa. After driving the Mormon pioneer trek in reverse, we arrived at our new home on Friday, May 1st and got all of our stuff unloaded in just a couple of hours, thanks to the help of Alan's dad. We had a week to settle in and unpack and then it was off to St. Augustine, Florida for a much needed relaxing week on the beach.

It was a perfect dream vacation. We pretty much did nothing but sit & relax on the beach, eat lots of delicious food, and watch NBA playoffs. A whole week of NO WORRIES! Alan starts PA school (and I start being a single wife) on Wednesday so we're enjoying as much time together as we can before then. We really miss Utah and are slowly adjusting to the huge change of moving to a new place where we know no one. I'm sure Iowa will start to feel like home with time. Here are some pictures from our fabulous vacation in Florida.

This is pretty much what we did all week. We went through about 5 bottles of sun screen and completely lost track of the time and date. That is, in my opinion, a perfect vacation.

All you can eat crab legs on the beach. Yum!!

We took a walk/hike in the Anastasia Island National Reserve. The trail went along the marsh and into the jungle! We saw TONS of wildlife including 2 turtles, 2 snakes (I think Alan was more scared than I was), lots of cool lizards & birds, and about a million crabs. So cool.
Looks like the Jungle Room at the zoo, right? Nope, it's for real.

We love St. Augustine Beach!

Graduation

2009-04-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

After 5 long years at BYU, Alan is now the proud recipient of a Bachelor's degree! I'm so proud of Alan for all of his hard work! Now he gets to spend his 3 week break before Grad School packing up our house and moving to Iowa.

CONGRATULATIONS, ALAN!!

A Week in the Life...

2009-03-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

My dream world is one where I can go skiing one day, and then come down from the mountains and it's warm enough to go swimming. Well, it turns out I pretty much live in just that place. On Saturday, we spent a beautiful day skiing at Brighton with Byron and his boys. Then, a few days later, we drove a few short hours to Las Vegas where we hiked in shorts on red rocks and got sunburned by the pool. What a life!

Madrid

2009-03-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

I got to go to Madrid this month for work. I had a little bit of time to explore downtown Madrid. It's a beautiful city with lots of interesting history. I wish I'd had more time there. Here are some pictures of my favorite parts, including a few from the evening event/party that Symantec hosted for Dell. (That's why I was there.)

Puerta del Sol

Plaza Mayor

The Palace - It's still in use!

I got to go to church at the Spanish ward which meets right next to the Madrid Temple. Some nice senior missionaries from the U.S. invited me to their apartment for lunch afterwards. It's so nice to feel like you have family in the Church no matter where you go.

Me and the boys, the European boys I work with on a daily basis, but rarely get to see. They're crazy - and love their beer. Love them.

The main event of the evening was a concert by "Bjorn Again" - an Abba cover band that totally rocked. And we got back stage passes! This is me and the U.S. Symantec Team with Bjorn Again.

Huey Lewis & Me!

2009-02-17T09:09:00.001-08:00

I have the coolest job. This past week, my company hosted a big party/concert/event for Dell in Austin, TX and since I helped coordinate, I got to meet the entertainment! Huey Lewis & the News put on a great show. The event went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time. All the hours of hard work & stress paid off!

The Dell Marketing Girls! Korbie, Mickey, Kara & Daynna with HUEY!

Some of the Dell team: Ed, Korbie, John, Todd, Garrett, me, Mickey, Daynna, and of course HUEY!

A whole bunch of happy Dell employees, rocking out with Huey Lewis.

Snowshoeing!

2009-01-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

We just had to take advantage of the beautiful weather this weekend, so we went snowshoeing with our friends, Nikki and Brendan. Thanks Nikki for taking pictures! (I'm so bad at that.) Fresh, untouched feet of powder, beautiful scenery, and fun friends made this hike one of our favorites.

At the waterfall on the Timpanogos Trail - near Aspen Grove.

Iowa City, here we come!!

2009-01-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's official, we will be moving to Iowa for Alan to attend the PA program at the University of Iowa in May. Classes start on May 20th so that doesn't give us much time after graduation to move, but we're very excited for the change. The University is located in Iowa City, a small college town about 3 1/2 hours from Chicago. (And 7 1/2 hours from Wichita!) We're both pretty sad to be leaving the Utah mountains and a little scared of Iowa's Chicago-like winters, but we'll manage. Thankfully, I get to keep my same job with Symantec and work from home - hooray! In case any of you want to visit us, here's a taste of what you can expect when you come. (I'd visit in the summer...)

Summers in Iowa

Winters in Iowa City...Yikes.

Tag 4:4:4:4

2008-12-16T12:21:00.000-08:00

My first Tag! Okay, this is kinda fun. This picture would have been lost forever.

1. Open your photos folder
2. Go to your 4th folder and pick the 4th photo
3. Upload it
4. Tag 4 others

At the Steve Miller Band concert this summer at Usana.

TAGGED: Karen H., Janelle F., Emily A., Lindsey M.

Congrats, Alan!!

2008-12-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

I have to brag for a minute, because Alan is way too humble to say anything. We found out last night that Alan got accepted to the #1 Top P.A. (Physician's Assistan) program in the country - University of Iowa!!!! We're still not 100% sure we'll be going there, because we're still waiting to hear from one other school. But congratulations to Alan for getting in to #1!! (He's so brilliant.) Yay Alan!

Halloween and More Travels

2008-12-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since October! Well, for those of you who didn't get to see us in person on Halloween, here's a picture of us in costume. In case you can't tell, we were Little Red Riding hood and the Wolf dressed as Granny. We won best couple costume at our ward party!
We also got to go to Washington D.C. together in early November. I was there for work and Alan went for Grad School interviews. We got to spend a day touring the city. I absolutely love that place!

Alan also had an interview in Winchester, VA. about an hour outside of D.C. which reminded me of Charlottesville where my family lived when I was little. I think I'm totally an East Coast girl at heart. I can't wait to move there...someday. =-)

What a month!

2008-10-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a month it has been since my last post. I'll see if I can catch up from the past few weeks. Well, the entire Rawson family was once again all together when everyone met in Utah for General Conference. It was really nice to all be together and we had a very happy weekend.
The following week, I had to go to The Netherlands for work. ManageFusion / Vision, our annual customer conference in Europe, was in The Hague this year. So I flew into Amsterdam, arriving Monday morning, and spent the entire week in Europe. It was mostly work, but I had a day to tour Amsterdam and my hotel was right on the coast of the North Sea so I got to spend some time walking on the beach. It was a great experience, although I wish Alan could have been there with me.

The day I got back, I went to a surprise Baby shower for my good friend, Sinikka and then Alan and I went to the BYU vs. New Mexico football game. Alan's Dad's friend got us down on the field for pre-game which was a blast!

Then, after being home for only one day, I got back on a plane to go to Orlando for another ManageFusion conference for a week. It was, again, mostly work but I got to stay in a beautiful hotel. This pic is the view from my window. And the customer party on Monday night was at Sea World. It was my first time at Sea World and we got to see the Shamu show and ride a sweet roller coaster! By the end of the week, I was just happy to be home and spend time relaxing with Alan and sleep in my own bed.

Life is good! We are keeping busy with work and school and loving life together.

New Bike!

2008-09-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten a new bike since I was very little, so that might explain my 7-year-old-like excitement over my recent purchase. I want to ride it every day! We have been able to try some fun trails near our house and I'm slowly catching up to Alan and getting into biking shape. This picture is on the Big Springs Trail. We went for a ride on Saturday to check out the beautiful fall colors. Love Utah!

Zion National Park

2008-09-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Further evidence that we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We spent Labor Day weekend camping and hiking in Zion National Park with Kyle & Krista (Kara's siblings) and Jake & Linsdey Hiller. We had a fantastic time hiking the river in The Narrows and cheating death on the precarious cliffs of Angel's Landing. And, of course, the highlight of any camping trip is sitting around the fire enjoying great conversation with friends and family.

The Narrows. Hiking in the water was a really fun experience, even if we all got blisters. =-)

Zion Canyon - from the top of Angel's Landing.

The whole group at the top of Angel's Landing. Lindsey (in the blue) hiked the whole thing 5 months pregnant! Go Lindsey!!

NFLDS

2008-09-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

In celebration of the start of another Fantasy Football season, Alan made a cake to accompany the Live Fantasy Draft for his league - "NFLDS." I helped a little, but he was very proud of his handiwork. Yay Alan!

Work in progress. This is harder than it looks, it takes lots of concentration.

Finished product.

Well done, Alan!

Our First Cake!

2008-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Alan and I just started a weekly cake decorating class, offered by Wilton - the industry leader in cake decorating. Oh yeah, it's official. This is fulfilling a long-time dream of Alan's and helping me learn the skills that I hope will eventually contribute to our livelihood. This week, after only 2 classes, we completed our first cake! It's actually a lot harder than it looks. We gave it to our friends, Becky and Tom, who just had a baby boy last week, and it actually tasted pretty good! In case you can't tell, it's a teddy bear.

I can't figure out how to rotate this, so you'll have to just turn your head. =-)

On Top of the World!

2008-08-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we decided to abandon previous oaths to 'never do it again' and hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos. We hiked the Aspen Grove trail, a different trail than we used 3 years ago, and reached the 11,749 foot summit in about 5 hours, just in time for the sunrise! We went with our good friends, Steve and Crystal, and had a grand time laughing, snacking and enjoying unbeatable scenery. I can't get over what a beautiful place Utah is and how lucky we are to have places like this so close to home! And thanks to our regular Y mountain hikes and being in better general health than 3 years ago, this year's hike wasn't nearly as excruciating. We will definitely do this again. Enjoy the pictures!

Kara, Crystal & Steve - ready for the hike! (We set out at about 2:30 a.m.)

Those are mountain goats... and yes, Steve is 15 feet away from them!

Aw...

Sunrise at the summit.

From the top of the 'glacier' we slid down. So fun!

Unbelievable scenery.

The Aspen Grove Timpanogos Trail.

Supporting the Music Industry

2008-08-05T12:02:00.001-07:00

This has been a week of fabulous Live music for the Bankheads. It's not very often that we get to see 3 concerts in 6 days! All at Usana Amphitheater, we got to see Steve Miller Band on Wednesday (lots of dancing hippies), Martina McBride on Friday (Kara's favorite - she got in free for passing out beer bands), and James Taylor on Monday (We had great seats with Byron and Heather and ran into old friends from Kansas - the Coopers and the Schulties!). All three put on a great show and we had an absolute BLAST! Will definitely go see Martina and JT again if they return.

James Taylor! That's actually him! (He was soooooo good!)

Kara and Korbie (a friend from work) passing out Beer Bands at Martina McBride.

Lawn seats with Jake & Sinikka Lee at Steve Miller Band.

Happy Birthday, Camry!

2008-07-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

Congratulations! The 'Gaza Strip' (Alan's trusty '94 Camry) turned 200,000 this month. That's really old in car years! A series of unfortunate events led to the lack of a video here, but the pictures are pretty cool, too! Here's to another 100,000 miles!

Kyle's home!

2008-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Kara's brother, Kyle, returned home from a 2 year mission in Paraguay on Friday, so we had a nice Rawson reunion in Wichita, KS. It was the first time our whole family had been together since our wedding! We had a great weekend helping Kyle adjust to life as an American again which, it turns out, is quite different from living in Paraguay. We were also in time to celebrate Dad's 49th birthday with a crown. We love the Rawsons!

Europe 2008

2008-06-27T15:00:00.003-07:00

Welcome to the official beginning of your new favorite blog! We're starting out in European style! Unfortunately, our 2 week trip to Europe in may was probably the most exciting thing that will happen to the Bankheads for a while, so it might be all downhill from here. Enjoy!

Neither of us had ever been to Europe before. Pre-grad school, pre-kids, family in Germany, we knew there would never be a better time to go. So we went! After an excruciatingly long flight which was made oh so much better by some nice sleeping pills, courtesy of Dr. Bankhead, we arrived in Heidelberg Germany where Emily, Brandon and Claire live. They were WONDERFUL hosts and showed us around the area like true locals. Emily is even picking up quite a bit of German! Heidelberg is a fairy tale town, with a cathedral in the middle of a red-roof village, a castle on a hill, and a river running through it all. It's truly magical. The Browns also showed us around several surrounding villages. We happenned to visit Germany during the annual asparagus (spargel) harvest, which in Germany means a FEST! So during our short time in Germany we got to enjoy the delicious, if not strange looking (it's fat and white) fresh-harvested asparagus at Swetzingen's Spargelfest! What an experience!

After a few magial days in Germany, we hopped a short flight to Venice, Italy. Now, being in venice is like being in a time warp to the 1800's. The city is completely quiet since there are no cars, only boats on the canals. We stayed in a beautiful 3-bedroom Bed & Breakfast run by a nice lady named Claudette. Aside from a few mosquito's, the room was absolutely perfect. Since Venice is so small, you can pretty much see the whole thing in a couple of days. We were there for 2 and loved every minute of it. My favorite was checking out the ceiling of St. Mark's Basilica which is completely covered with 24k gold mosaics so the whole thing just sparkles! It's amazing. It was also an incredible experience sitting in a square that's featured in so many text books and movies. No gondola ride for us, due to the outrageous $150 charge, we were perfectly happy riding the public water bus along the Grand Canal at night. I know I've used this word before, but Venice was also magical.

From Venice, we took the Trenitalia to Florence. Training to Florence was an incredible experience in itself. All the vineyards, villages and windmills: very European. In Florence we completely fell in love with Renaissance Sculpture, more specifically with Michelangelo. Sitting in front of the massive, perfect scuplture of Michelangelo's David was a truly powerful and humbling experience. It doesn't matter how many pictures or replica's you've seen, the real thing is SO MUCH BETTER. We also enjoyed touring the Uffizi Gallery and seeing some incredible original paitings. Who knew the two of us could end up so cultured? We loved it. Oh, and outside the Uffizi Gallery there is a big raised porch that's just open to the public with tons of famous original sculptures - just out in the open! Gotta love Florence! And maybe the best part of Florence was the ridiculously huge and beautiful Duomo Church. It's decorated in our wedding colors (pink, green and yellow) and is more a shrine to art and science than to religion. It's beautiful, to say the least. Here's a picture!

After Florence, it was off to Rome - the big city. I was the most excited about visiting Rome and the city did not disappoint. We were in Rome for 4 days and ran ourselves ragged seeing just about everything we wanted to see. Here are some highlights from our time in the Eternal City: Touring the Pantheon - which is 2500 years old and in nearly perfect condition! Stumbling across Castel St. Angelo's - key historical site in Angels & Demons. Getting lost on the ancient cobblestone streets of Rome. Eating gelato EVERY DAY! Eating delicious pasta at Trevi Fountain 2 days in a row, not buying roses from the street vendors - no matter how much they asked. Falling in love with Canova and Bernini at the Borghese Gallery - definitely the best museum in all of Rome. Washing clothes in the bathroom of our B&B. Siesta. Touring the ancient Christian Catacombs on the Ancient Appian way - over 500,000 Christions were buried there between 100 and 500 AD. Meeting some new friends from Indiana and driving around Rome and eating dinner with them. Eating the best pizza ever! (Alan's had an entire whole hard-boiled egg on it.) Standing in awe in the Colosseum, which earns it's name even 2500 years after it was built. Exploring the ancient ruins of the Roman Forum and getting horribly sunburned in the process. Meeting some incredible artists and entertainers at Piazza Navona. Being completely disappointed with the Spanish steps - we didn't get what all the fuss was about. Being completely blown away by St. Peter's and The Vatican. Getting crick's in our necks from staring so long at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Studying Raphael's School of Athens - it's huge! Eating lots of fresh cheese. Climbing the dome of St. Peters. Attending Mass in St. Peters - choir and all! Visiting the Colosseum at night - a completely different experience than during the day. Mastering the Roman Metro system. Having the time of my life with my very best friend. Experiencing history and culture like never before. Growing up, learning about ourselves and eachother and our world. It was truly an unforgettable experience.