Hannah visits Italy

Sunday April 28, 2013

Friday morning Sterling picked up Hannah Roundy from the airport in Venice.
Sterling went to work from 2-6pm. Because he came home so early we all went to Porcia for gelatto.
First we walked by the park and the old church.As soon as we walked into the pretty church an orchestra began playing a beautiful symphony. It was amazing!
It was a college student group practicing for a performance they were about to do free of charge that night.

We went and each had a scoop at our favorite gelatteria. Then went back to the church for the performance. However, it was late. Hannah, who hadn't sleep much on the airplane, and the boys needed to go to bed. After hearing the 1st symphony we left for home.

Saturday morning we packed up the car and hit the road. Road trip to Austria!
Hannah is missing three weeks of her senior year at the end of the school year. So her German teacher said she has to go somewhere in which the residence speak German. So we planned the trip to Austria.

Our first stop on the way was Bolzano, Italy. Sterling wanted to go see the iceman (the cave man) who was found in the early 90's in the Bolzano mountains. From for like 5000 years. A huge discovery for archeologists.

They eventually put him in the museum along with all the artifacts found with or on him. A whole caveman museum. It was fun. They had a bunch of hands of things for the kids. But we were in a hurry to get to our apartment in Austria. So we didn't linger too long.

We drove to our apartment near Innsbrook Austria. Our apartment was high in a mountain of gorgeous pre-Summer Austria countryside.
A beautiful little apartment with 2 bedrooms and a pull out couch for Hannah. A kitchen and a back yard.

There was a park and ridding toys the boys played on for a while. We got settled in. We ate dinner at the apartment's restaraunt. Yummy dinner and a little dessert.

We got comfortable in the apartment. The lights in the bedrooms didn't work. Stelring tried to fix that and we ended up with no power at all. I had just closed the boys window getting ready for their bedtime. Luke and Ty were in the dark bedroom and Luke decided to lock the door using the key. Ty started screaming because he was scared and then Luke dropped the key! Trying to find it and unlock the door in the dark with a screaming little brother was difficult and freaked him out. He was unsuccessful at getting the door unlocked. I had to yell for them to hear me, trying to get Luke to find the key and open the door. When that didn't work I sent Sterling outside to the window and yelled for Luke to go to his window. Eventually Luke was able to let Ster in through the window and get the boys out. What a nightmare. Luckily it didn't last more than 20 minutes.

Then someone came and fixed the power for us. We put the boys to bed. We watched the latest episode of The Office.

Then in the middle of the night Luke and Ty woke up crying. They didn't have enough light so they were scared. And... Luke was sick. Luke had thrown up. I cleaned him up while Sterling comforted Ty to get him back to sleep. I gave Luke medicine, with the help of Sterling because Luke will NOT take medicine willingly. Ty takes medicine so easy! But Luke has always fought it "tooth and nails!"

We got the room cleaned up from puke and put Luke back to bed. Luke was so sick but able to go back to sleep. I thought to myself "Well, we got Puke all over their bedding. Atleast there's no poop."

First thing in the morning Ty pooped in his diaper and then took it off. Yes, getting poop all over.
Sterling was the one who got up and had to deal with that.

We made breakfast. Sterling made eggs with sausage in it. I made toast (using a real toaster!) with Nutella on top.

We got ready for church. But before church we went to a castle near the church. We only had time to see the grounds and take some pictures.
It was beautiful and a beautiful day too. There were live peacocks loose on the grounds. It was amazing.

We went to the LDS church just for the sacrament meeting. They speak German but with a strange dialect. We tried to sing the hymns in German with the ward...extremely quiet.

It was a small branch with no nursery aged children. A tiny primary. But there were a few English speakers there. The young missionary is from Spanish Fork but doesn't know any of my family or friends there.
A few natives in the branch spoke a bit of English.
And there was a family from California living there. They have lived there two years. The man is an opera singer working there. They have three kids. Their oldest is 5 and his name is Luke. lol
Then they have two little girls.

After church we put the kids in the nursery and changed into play/travel clothes. We visited with the sister from California, Molly Lyndsey, and her children in the nursery.
Molly said she expected to live there a year and she has found they still have not planned a date to move back to America. She misses it and family so much!

We told her that if she and her family make the trip (4hours) down to Aviano before July we'll give them a place to stay and take them on the military base to experience some American things (the theater, fast food, bowling and shopping).

When we left the church we drove about 20 minutes to an unusual house...an upside down house. It's not a famous or well known attraction even to those in that ward we visited. But we thought it would be way fun.

The whole house is upside down and full of furniture stuck to the floor (which is the ceiling) and walls. The house was even slanted, making it harder to walk and more like a fun house!
We all had a blast!

We took pictures of all of us in the house in poses and places that when you flip the picture it seems we are on the ceiling.

After that we headed home. We stopped for lunch, gas and dinner. We don't usually travel on Sundays or go out to eat but this one time we made an exception.
Sterling is taking leave from work for our cruise and some travel while Hannah is here. But some of the traveling we want to do has to be done over the weekends. This one trip was the big weekend trip. The others will be day trips.

These are our last months in Italy. They will be memorable!
Love, Tiffany

Blessed with Happiness

Last weekend we went as a family to a 3D movie.  I tried to find a babysitter for Tiberias because I was not sure he'd want to sit through an entire movie at the theater. However, I could not find a sitter. A lot of the families I knew were taking their kids to the movie or had other plans. So Tiberias ended up coming to the movie with us.

The movie was The Croods.  We had a great time! The movie was much more colorful and silly than I had expected. So it was fun for all four of us individually.
Ty kept trying to grab things that appeared to be flying off the screen. And Luke took his glasses off for a while because he was scared the dinosaur would get him. It was a neat experience for them.

Ty and Luke got tired of wearing the glasses and did eventually stop wearing them. But I remember being a single adult and not being able to stand the glasses through a whole 3D one time I went to one. The glasses are not comfortable.

After the movie we walked over to the foodcourt and bought the little boys Burger King which they ate on the drive home. What a fun family night!!

Sterling works 2-10pm more often than any other schedule. So if we do Family Home Evening it has to be done in the morning. Sometimes I prepare a family home evening and sometimes I don't. But we always do family fun stuff.

Hannah Roundy comes to visit us in just a few days. We have a lot of fun travel plans while she is here. Sightseeing, eating Italian food and dessert, swimming, and a cruise! It's very exciting and will be so fun.

Our life is full of fun and joy even when we don't travel or sight see. Just doing simple things like bowling as a family or going to a movie, even going on a walk on a Sunday afternoon. These things fill us with joy. I know that no matter where our next Military base is located we will be happy. We are so blessed!

We plan to get pregnant this year so we'll have a new baby next year. I was really hoping that my sisters will get pregnant this year as well. Maybe Alissa, Eliza and Nicole. It turns out Eliza is trying. I don't know if Alissa is trying but Mom says Alissa does want more kids. She may not be trying yet because her first is still a baby.
And Nicole is now pregnant!! She's having food cravings for the first time (didn't with both the boys) so hopefully that means she's having a girl this time. I'm also hoping to have a girl this next time.

Aaron and Nicole are moving to an island. St George, Grenada. Aaron got accepted to a medical program at a college there. I guess they applied there because they love islands. They love the beach and decided if they got in they'd love living on vacation. I am only sad about this because I am moving back to America and they are moving away.
Aaron moves in August. Nicole is going to stay back with the kids. She is going to have the baby November/December. So She is staying back to have the baby near her parents.
My plan for the year is similar to hers. Sterling leaves me and the boys in August for military training. From August to December Nicole and I will be with only our kids staying with or near family. And I am hoping to be pregnant as well.

Right now my life is amazing. I am busy all the time though. I keep busy just with my family and church callings. Faith in God girls I am doing twice this month...teaching them to sew. My primary teaching position requires me to prepare a lesson during the week, be a teacher/friend to the kids, and attend the baptisms (I have the 7-8 year olds).
I am in charge of the ward bulletin board ..mostly I print updates on upcoming events and rotate those on the board. I am ward historian. So if we have a big ward event or do something in the community I attend, takes some pictures, and document it in a computer file that I turn in yearly.

Along with all that business I do photography and cake decorating. I do maybe a portrait shoot every two months and about two cakes a month.

Sterling and I are both happy people and our children are happy. I hope they grow up with happy and positive attitudes.