lost and found

just the other day i found my new york city photos that i had *temporarily* misplaced.  to say the least, i was ecstatic!  i blogged about the trip in this post, but i didn't have my pics done.  so, although extremely late, here are a few photos from my fun girls trip with my sister kelsi and her college roommate abby. 

you can write on confetti that is released on new year's eve in times square.

beautiful central park

frozen hot chocolate at serendipity.....get it....it's awesome.

store desplay in soho

dinner in little italy...fab-u-lous!

yummy cannoli

my friend francie from college...totally ran into her walking around the upper west side!

francie's apartment and super cool wallcovering!  i love it...and totally gushed about it in this post.

what happens when you have a camera, time to play, and a beautiful fall day....

we are completely out of focus on this pic....but i love it!

i do have to admit that it was quite fun going through the photos so many months later.  it totally makes me want to go back.....i really do love nyc.

florida, here we come!

that's right!  we are headed to florida the end of may and boy am i ready.  my youngest cousin, clay, joined the army in february.  he is graduating from boot camp at fort benning in georgia, so the family is headed down to see him.  but, on the way we are all making a *quick* pit stop in destin, florida.  i mean, it's on the way, right?  i'm super excited.  if you haven't been to destin, you must go.  it's absolutely beautiful.  white sand beaches and blue water.  i will just plop myself down and relax for a few days.

kj the mermaid...no she's not black...that is what happens when she gets sun.  makes me sick i tell ya!

scott the octopus

any suggestions for this year's sand art????

capri

welcome to beautiful capri...

where it is warm and sunshiny{unlike oklahoma right now!}

this was our greek tour guide...he was quite a hoot!

we went to capri to see the "blue grotto".  from rome we took a bus to naples and from there a ferry to the island of capri.  once we got to capri we took a boat to the area where the blue grotto is.

then we had to climb into little row boats {4 people + 1 local rower} that would take us into the blue grotto cave. 

my favorite photo of chris....through the legs of our rower!

waiting to go into the blue grotto....can you see the little hole in the center of the pic?  the rower is leaning back to pull the boat into the cave.  yea...only a small percentage of the time can you even get into the blue grotto b/c the tide is too high.  i was super nervous b/c i had my brand new camera with me!  i had a hard time deciding...take it in or leave it on the larger boat?  i took it.  i was holding onto it like it was gold and saying, out loud, "please let my camera be okay, please let my camera be okay". 

here is the view inside the blue grotto.....the way the sunlight hits inside the cave makes it glow bright blue.  it is beautiful!  and all turned out well...no camera casulties, thankfully!

the marina at capri

headed up to anacapri

the view from anacapri loooking down on capr.  beautiful island!  from up here we could see mount vesuvius, which is where pompeii is.

and here is what happens when you have been on a bus too long...and you are bored....and have a great 16mm wide angle lens to play with...FUN TIMES!!!

rome

**this was suppose to post this morning...better late than never!***

so, some of you may remember that mymicahel and i took a european vacation this past july.  you probably also remember that it has taken me F O R E V E R to actually post pictures.  i took over 3,000 photos!  i have posted some photos of both london and paris {here also}, so now for a few of rome.  

rome was my favorite out of the three cities.  while they were all fabulous, there was just something about rome.  i think i could live there for a while. 

okay, so by the time we finally arrived in rome we had been on an awful italian overnight train that broke down, had no air conditioning, and ran out of food.  we were starving!  as soon as we got to the hotel, paid for air conditioning, and showered we were ready for some italian grub.  now, for those of you that know me, know i am not a wine drinker.  unfortunately i just haven't aquired the taste...yet.  BUT you would be proud b/c i actually liked the wine we had at dinner that night.  it *might* have been because i was so freaking hungry that anything and everything tasted good, you never know!

ahhh...the trevi fountain....

hundreds of people just casually standing around the fountain while enjoying the evening.  love it!

gelatto....worth the trip to italy

the spanish steps

that's all for now...blogger picture uploader is NOT working well. 

must be the thunder sleet storm that's going on outside right now.....say warm!

it's booked & confirmed!

this weekend we booked our vacation for this year!  a month ago in this post i mentioned how we were deciding between either an all italy trip or a 3-cities european trip.  well.....we decided on the 3 cities. 

so that means we will be headed to:

london

paris

&

rome

i have wanted to go over to europe for so long, it's kind of hard to believe i will be there in less than 2 months!  since mymichael is getting his masters degree, we have to go before his fall semester starts.  obviously july is about the busiest time we could possibly go, but that's okay!  we are going with another couple and we will have a blast.  i think we will actually be over there during the world cup...you know how those europeans like their soccer! 

so far we only have one "excursion" booked.  we are going to visit stonehenge and the windsor castle.

it still doesn't seem quite real yet.  i'm sure the long flight {although, not nearly as long as going to australia} over there will give us plenty of time for it to sink in. 

so, i am off to stock up on compact flash cards for my camera b/c you know i will be taking thousands of pictures!  i probably need some more batteries as well....

if you have been to any of these fabulous cities, comment and tell me where we should go.

happy vacationing!