Florence!!!

What a beautiful city! Tragedy struck us when we entered it though, I left our camera on the train from Rome! SO sad!! So our first day in Florence was pretty low key cause we were bummed and tired. But don't get me wrong, we still had a fabulous day! So the crazy thing about these cities in Italy is that you can be walking down tight cobble streets, and then BAM! huge Cathedral right in front of you! The Florence cathedral was gorgeous! White with green trim and so so much detail!The picture above I edited with my cool app on my phone!

This is the same church just a view of the bell tower.

No the first place we went was the Accademia Gallery which has "The David"Do you see that line? It was insane! It wrapped all around the building! Jon was smart enough to get us a call time to go in so we didn't have to wait forever! Inside the museum we listened to Rick Steve's. He has a lot of travel books and audio tours, so we became real familiar with him on this trip. The highlight of the museum was this guy....

"The David" Now you aren't supposed to take pictures of him, but sneaky little Mark was able to get one, hehe (evil laughter) Now the hall leading to him is lined with Michelangelo's 4 prisoners, and at the end we see David. Now this picture is from a little far away but don't let that make you think this statue is normal sized! It was made to be an outdoors statue (picture below shows where hw stood before moving to the accademia) so he is 16 ft. tall! Huge! Michelangelo took 3 years to complete The David. His stance is one that is not afraid to take on Goliath. It is a very impressive statue. But he is the only thing really worth looking at in the Accademia, that's just my opinion though:)

So here is where David stood for hundreds of years before being moved inside, this place is called, "Piazza della Signoria".

The rest of the pictures in Florence were taken by Mark, he went on a whole city tour! By himself no less! I wanted to take a little nap and the parents wanted to go check out different gelato places. I loved my free time in Florence, after a lovely nap I went to a little outdoor cafe and read my nook and ate the yummiest penne pesto pasta for about 2 hours. Pure bliss!

Another statue

This is a really old bridge, and there are shops on it! And they are actually working shops!

2nd day in Florence

We went on a 12 hour tuscany bus tour! It was SO fun! Our first stop was in Sienna. Now Siena is crazy, let me tell you why. They are just a little city, but they are SO proud! They have a huge rivalry with Florence, because.. they used to be the richest and most prominent city in Tuscany, then Florence started getting more and more power and ruled Sienna for a while, until Siena finally won a battle to keep it. They are a city of bankers, they have the largest bank there, the picture below is the of the bank and the statue is of the man who founded Sienna. Another awesome thing about Siena is The Palio, a horse race that happens twice yearly. Each building complex in the city is a different district with a different animal representing it. For instance the goose, caterpillar, and so on. When you are born into a district, that stays yours forever, even if you move to a different district. This is a HUGE deal, can you say major rivalries? I dare say it is even bigger than the BYU/Utah rivalry. If you district wins the Palio you have bragging rights for half the year and your buildings are crazy decorated so that everyone walking by them knows you won the Palio!

This is the city building, here in the square is where the Palio is held.

They place sand on the bricks so the horses shoes are safe and the course is wound through the square, look it up on youtube, it's insane!

This beautiful church is the Sienna Duomo! And it is GORGEOUS! It was started in the Gothic era and was finished in the Romantic era so it has both architecture on it.

The marbling is SO cool! Look at how it is striped, black marble, white marble, amazing!

Here is a marble floor design inside, remember how I told you that their district animals are important, I wasn't kidding! Here they are on the floor in the church!

Again, look at that Marble columns!! So amazing! Awe inspiring! I would love to have church in here, let's make it an LDS church and we are in!!

This arch was started by Michelangelo. The statue on the right closest to the ground was completely done by him, it's a statue of St. Peter, after that he was called by a guy named the pope to go and paint a little thing called the Sistine Chapel... So his students finished it for him.

This is St. Mary's room, it is the Prayer room. There were a lot of people in there with there rosaries prayin to Mary, the Statue is SO beautiful and was done by Donatello. Another known artist whose work is in this Duomo is Bemini.

Next our bus tour took us to an organic farm to have lunch, now what we were going to be eating was 95% from this farm! And it was delicious!! So fresh and yummy! We had Bruschetta, Meat sauce with parpadelle and Salad. Then a Biscotti for dessert, and of course tons of wine.. (j/k)

This is the farm, it was beautiful! Now I wasn't so much in love with Rome, but oh, TUSCANY! AMAZING!! So gorgeous! And the Sunflowers were in bloom just for us! Fields and Fields of Sunflowers! I am so sad I didn't get any good pictures of them :(

Their Vineyards, and my hot husband

Now the city in the picture below is dubbed as little manhattan by the town folks, cause it has a very similar outline, as you can see! Now this place was our most, most favorite place in Italy! It's called... drum roll please... San Gimignano! It has won most well preserved city cause it has its original city walls and most a lot of its towers.

We realized as we were leaving just why it was our favorite place... other than the beauty and the wonder, it was all pedestrian! No real streets, no cars! Amazing!

The buildings are beautiful and so... European.. Ha!

It also has the world champion gelato place! I don't have a picture of it, what's up with that?! It was SOO delicious, I had a chocolate peach combo. And let me tell you, it was like eating the best peach with decadent chocolate, yummo!!

Now the towers in the picture below used to be used for safety from fighting. They lived in them at the very top so if a battle was coming they could see it and stay far above it. There used to be 70 or so towers in the city, now there are only around 14.

Below Mark and I are sitting on one of these original ancient walls, with beautiful Tuscany behind us, awwhhhh.

Towers in the back ground, we are on top a smaller tower and in a garden of sorts. In this garden was an artist who did water colors and we bought a beautiful painting of the sunflower fields with the rolling tuscan hills! My most favorite buy of the trip!!

Havin fun in the streets!

Now you think we would be So tired by now! All this riding around, and all this walking, but, we weren't! It was so fun that we couldn't be tired! Our next and last stop was a little known town called, Pisa... ok it's more than a little well known. The picture below is the city wall, behind it is the Pisa Duomo and the infamous, Leaning Tower of Pisa!

My buff husband holding up the tower, He's SO STRONG!!

The four of us in front. Family shot!

And the buffness herself, holding up the leaning tower of Pisa. (Please double click on the picture and notice my face, it will be well worth it for you;)

Pretty shot of the tower behind the Duomo. Now let me tell you a little bit about the tower, it was built and then left for 3 years while the builders went to battle. When they came back the tower was leaning! So to try to fix the problem the architect had them start building one side longer, which one gave it a banana effect. But good thing, if it were a normal building, it wouldn't be fanous! The soil is no good in Pisa, little known fact is that a lot of buildings are leaning there!

Our ride home was one of Mark's and my favorite memories. We sat in the front so we had the view out the front windows. We played slug bug with any sedan we saw, since they are SO rare in Europe, we had to punch each others arms and call out what make the car was. It was painful, but so, so much fun!!!

ROME!!

About time for an update I think, and no better way to start than by posting about our trip to Europe we just took!!! I will post in sections, woo woo!

ROME!

So after a 24hr flying process we landed in Rome, Italy on Monday July 4th, 10:00am. I can never sleep on planes so I had no sleep, but all the others, Mark, Carol and Jon had some sleep and we were all rearing to go! Our day started right away. It was so fun to go through the customs line and have my passport stamped for the very first time! So we got with our shuttle driver and he took us to our apartment that we rented to the 2 days whilst we were in Rome. First thoughts on Rome, WOW! can't believe I am here! There are only two lanes of traffic? Mark points out that I will find no SUV's nor trucks, and hardly any sedans. A ton of graffiti and a bunch of traffic. But I am in ROME! So we get to our apartment, settle in, I take a 2 hour nap and the boys go get their bearings on the city and the bus system. I wake up to Mark bringing me home some DELICIOUS pizza, getting me excited for all the Italian eating we'll be having! So we head out and grab our bus and metro to take us to the Colosseum! We barely make it in time! Whew it's crazy figuring out how to get around in a large city.
First thoughts on the colosseum, WOW! can't believe I'm here, (ha, you'll get this reaction a lot the first days) 2nd, this ancient building is right in the midst of a bustling city, I can't imagine living there and driving right by the these ancient ruins every day!
Carol and Jon getting their picture taken in front, so.... sad news... I am lame and left our camera on the train from Rome to Florence. SHOOT! So all these pictures are from Jon and Anne and Tanner. Thank you guys for letting us use these pics!

The Colosseum was built over 2,000 yrs ago and used for the entertainment of the emperor and the Romans. Most of you have seen "Gladiator" so you know what kind of entertainment they enjoyed... eek!!
The colosseum has gone through a lot of structural damage, the seats and stairs, the floor, the side of the building, most have been destroyed, but there obviously is a lot still there! SO cool!!
This is an arch that another emperor built... ha! Not too sure on this one:P
This is the Forum where the Romans lived! It was very cool to pretend to be a Roman and walk around, all Roman like...
My nose, after a long day of walking, and very, very little sleep.
This is the Roman capital building as it stands today. It is SO beautiful! All white and shiny! So, another thought on Rome, There are more Scooters than cars by far!! If I live there I am for sure buying a scooter!
Mark and I's most favorite thing was the Pantheon! It was amazing! It is the oldest standing church in the world. Imagine walking down a tight street with cobble stone, and nowadays buildings and then all of a sudden walking into a marketplace and BAM!! This huge ancient church right in the middle! WOWZA!

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And this is the Fountain of Four Rivers you may recognize this from "Angels and Demons" It is a very beautiful fountain.
And here is the Trevi Fountain we loved this place, it was so much larger than I thought it would be, like fills a whole market area! And we saw it at night (obviously shown in the picture) The lights and the water, and the statues! Ahhh!! So beautiful!

After a very long day of walking and seeing amazing things we were grateful to get back to the metro and on our way home, but guess what!? The metro had stopped running for the night! AH! So we walked forever to the bus station, found a bus that stopped close to our apartment, got on it and wait a minute... was not dropped off close to our apartment. So we walked, and walked, and prayed we were going in the right direction, and sure enough after 45 minutes we made it home! I have never sleep so well!!

The next day we had scheduled a tour through the Vatican. So we got up and ready, saw that there were pretty fierce clouds in the sky, thought, hmmm maybe we are should take umbrellas, and guess what, the apartment had umbrellas! So we take the umbrellas hoping that we don't need to use them, and sure enough, it POURS!!! We were soaked, even though we had umbrellas, the rain seemed like it was coming up from the ground too! which it was, cause it was SO hard! The roads were covered with inches in minutes! We had a funny little run in with a rat. We were standing in a little coverlet and this rat ran in and was jumping and running around our little cove, where there was very little space! ahh! But so funny! And then we ran to the Vatican, hoping to catch our tour guide before she left us. And we made it just in time!

This is the swiss guard, they are actually Swiss and they are in charge of taking care of the Pope.

These are the Vatican's gardens, the Pope walks through here everyday.
They are mighty beautiful!This is St. Peters Square. It's crazy to be some where that is so publicized like this. It was way cool being here.
And this is the front of St. Peters Basilica. It is a beautiful building. And has amazing things inside.
This is the dome that Michelangelo created. It is gorgeous!

And this is the alter
And this is the Pieta. Michelangelo created this, it is so beautiful. It is of Mary holding Jesus after he was let off the cross.
Rome was amazing! We ate a lot of gelato, pizza, and pasta. All in all I am not super impressed with the cuisine, I think us Americans have really improved on the food. But it still was delicious. Thank you Rome!

The Tuttles Home!

Kelly requested forever ago that I post our house! And I finally did it! Haha! So here you are Kelly, and all of yous whose interested! Mark and I are fortunate enough to have Marks Grandparents who bought houses for their grandchildren. We got to pick which on we liked and move in and rent from them! About 6 months into renting we decided to buy. So now we own the home. Pretty crazy! But it is wonderful!!



This front room was empty for a good part of the first year we lived here! Then my mother-in-law was so great to get me jump started to fill it! I am no good with interior design, so we decided what style I liked, I decided whimsical and light. And then we found the furniture and put the room together! It was SO fun! I LOVE this room!!



This is the front entrance. The sitting room is to the right, and a bathroom and garage are to the left.




This is our family room. Marks styling is more this room. The high contrast and sharp design. We bought the couch, TV stand, and TV when we first got married, and the design evolved through the year. We love this room and enjoy spending time in it!





This is the recreational room! I have my treadmill in here and our snowboards, someday this will be the babies room, but for now, it's this!




This is Mark's office!



This is our extra bathroom.



This is our bedroom, it doesn't have much in it yet. Hopefully soon it will be more designed! But it's comfy and large, so we love it!




This is our dinning room, My mom provided me with table decor for all 12 months, and more! SO fun! I love switching them out every month! This one here is Halloween.




And this is our kitchen!


So there you have it! This is our house. We sure do love living here!!

Baja Mexico Cruise!!

So every year our Dentist Les takes us on two trips! One with our spouses, we usually stay close but have a blast, EX: in february we went to midway and stayed in a cabin and ate like kings a queens, and played on snowmobiles. So the next trip this year was a girls trip, and guess what we did?! We went on a cruise!!! 1st cruise I have ever been on! It was a blast, I was a bit sea sick most of the time, but that couldn't hold me back from having a good time! I love the people I work with, strange thing is we all get along, VERY well! So trips are like hanging out with your best friends! SO much fun! Les is the best boss ever, I told a patient the other day, he asked if we liked what we did as dental assistants. my response?, "Being a dental assistant is great, but having the boss we do, makes every day SO much better. He isn't stingy, and close minded. We have responsibilities and are expected to be great, And we are. And did I mention he's hilarious? Everyone of us when we're together just laughs and laughs Our patients have a very different experience when they come to us! Any way, back to the cruise! It was a 3 day cruise, we left from Long Beach, CA and ported in Ensenada Mexico.


Sittin waiting for our flight!



On the shuttle to the "blow hole" in Ensenada



Walkin through the flea market. There were so many men yelling for us to go to their shop, and how did they address us you ask? like this, "Hey barbie, come here, I got what you need" "Hey Britney Spears" "hey supermodel!" (say the previous with a thick mexican accent)very crazy, you just had to look straight ahead and pretend to not notice. HA!



This is the view of ensenada from our ship

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Makin our way onto the cruise ship. We got there SO early, but it turned out perfect! I guess you have to wait in super long lines to get to the cruise. But, early check in is a breeze! We checked right in, got right on, ate lunch. We were even allowed into our rooms earlier than normal! It was awesome!!



Before our flight, Lindsey and I of course, making silly face



Lindsey, Nicole and I. We've landed in Long Beach! Yay!! What a little air port. Mark and I went on our honey moon there so I had experienced this air port once before, but wow, it is tiny!



Cruises are so great because you can have all the food you want, and it is delicious!! mmmm, this is our dinner party. Our waiters were fabulous and hilarious! loved it!







This was our boat, "the paradise" it was so great!



I can't make this picture any smaller, darn it! But this was my favorite memory from the cruise!! We went into the piano bar one night, and they are so much fun! Everyone singing along with the piano man. So great! So it was getting late, maybe like 1am, and the piano man turned around to us and said, one of you three has to get on the piano and sing. I was SO IN!! So I sang Elton Johns, "I hope you don't mind" It was SO fun! Loved it!!


Such a fun vaca with my ladies and Les. THANKS Les! Best boss ever!!