Italy!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted my trip pics. Its been non-stop since I've been home. I can't believe Christmas is just next week!!

Colosseum:

Pantheon (the coldest and wettest day we were there):

Climbing to the top of St. Peters at the Vatican:

Mid week enjoying some American Cuisine at Hard Rock:

Venice:

Trevi Fountain: (Traidition to throw a coin in to ensure your return to Rome)

Last night in Rome:



We took 547 pictures! So this are just as sampling. It was an amazing trip but wore me out by the end!

Home Sweet Home...

We are home!! I will have to sift throught the 547 pics we took to see what to post and give an overview of our trip. For now I am a little bumbed to go back to work and the real world today but enjoyed sleeping in my own bed, Dr. Pepper and can't till Rory will be here when I get home from work today. After first glance at pics I think this is one of my favorites:

Marriage Retreat....

Last weekend we enjoyed retreating and focusing on our relationship. This year has been a hard one with Ryan's increased work demands and time away. We've tried to make the most of the time we get to have together like this weekend retreat and other fun get aways like Chicago and our upcomming Rome trip (one week away!).

Movies!

I just love a good movie or documentary, Sometimes you just don't feel like there are any good movies out there, but right now my holiday movie list is stacking up fast, I am considering these some must coming up on the big screen sometime over the Holidays:

1) Australia - This is with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. Looks epic and wonderful. http://www.australiamovie.com/

2) Marley and Me- Owen Wilson and Jennifer Anisten. One of my favorite books, the preview looks fantastic. All dog lovers everywhere you need to see this but if its like the book was for me you will be laughing and crying throughout, If you ever loved a dog this movie is for you!
http://marleyandmemovie.com/

3) Four Christmases - Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn looks hilarious!! Reminds me a bit of Ryan.
http://www.fourchristmasesmovie.com/

I think I could watch movie previews for hours. I get so excited to see the movies! lets just hope they live up to the previews.

Home Sweet Home!

Well I don't have any pictures to post but we had a good weekend. We visited Broken Arrow, Tulsa and Bartlesville. We got to visit with Ryan's grandma and my mema. We hadn't been home over the whole summer, even though we will be back in the area in just a few weeks for Thanksgiving we decided to take advantage of a weekend Ryan wasn't working to do an over night visit. I think its funny how places become home, whenever I am headed to Broken Arrow I feel like I am "going home" whenever I head back to Edmond I also feel like I am "going home". Then you have places like Bartlesville and Claremore that also have feeling of familarity and warm memories. Its was just what I wanted and needed.

Then we had the Mitchells over for dinner tonight to finalize trip plans for our side trip to Venice on our Rome Trip. Its starting to feel real! I am so excited to be going and so excited to share it with dear friends!

Halloween Happenings

Friday night we went to a Halloween party hosted by friends. The girls played cards while the boys played Wii. There was lots of laughing, I lost so bad at the card game (Nertz) it became very comical by the end, also lots of yummy yummy festive food was enjoyed.



This is post Halloween fun, I wanted to get this for Rory for a while and a friend let me know they were half off at Target on their after Halloween sale!

What could be a better costume than a dog being a hot dog!

Saturday we enjoyed a low key day of cleaning the house thoroughly and doing laundry which felt good to get so much done around the house. Today I'm starting the official count down to Rome, 27 days and counting!

Comming Home...

Well we had quite the adventure on the way home from Chicago. It started with a series of unfortunate events and ended with a series of great ones. We felt confident in using the subway system to get back to the airport as we had used it over the past few days and it wouldn't cost us anything because we still had our pases. It takes about 45 minutes to get back to the airport, or so we thought. Well the main subway that goes out the airport, they all the sudden announced as we are getting close that due to construction we would have to get off, reboard buses then get off and reboard another train to get to the airport. Needless to say this added quite a bit of unexpected time to the trip. That pit of my stomach feeling starts and I practiced some self talk, we gave our self extra time surely we won't miss our flight. Well we got off and had to RUN to the check in place. I check in at the self check in but they had no place to check bags and Ryan had one to check. They informed us he would have to go upstairs to check in. So we separate he says go to the gate and see if you can hold the plan for me.
From there I go to the gate (the gate that was the very last one on that very long terminal) just in time that they are boarding the plane. I explain the situation the attendant tells me its likely he won't make the flight. I ask about possibilities of both of us flying standby for the next flight, he says that plane is over sold and would be unlikely we could get one. Ryan is having his own adventure down stairs. (I am reframing it as an adventure since its over at the time torture would be more accurate). He gets in the line to check baggage and when he gets to the front they say "Did you check in at the self check in already? You'll have to do that first". So he goes over to that line, that computer tells him "Your to late to check in". He explains the situation and that person says they aren't an agent so they can't help you need to go stand in that line and points in vague direction of where there are about 5 long lines of people. He gets back in line over there once he clarifies where exactly, they confirm he will not make this flight and put him on standby for the later one. From there he "randomly" gets selected by the airline at security for the full security search and pat down, etc. He tells me via cell phone to go ahead and get on the plane and go home. I am fighting back tears (I don't know why these situations get so emotional but they do). So I am boarding with I am sure my head cast down and making lots of swallows to keep from crying. As I am entering the plan the attendant from the desk that our gates comes and gets me. He says if I want to give up my seat and fly stand by the next flight he can offer me free round trip ticket to anywhere in the US. I call Ryan, we decide this is for sure the way to go. The Lady I gave my seat to was very grateful, she was flying standby and really wanted on that flight. Finally I meet up with Ryan we are trying to be on standby for the next flight that just left an hour later. They have a board at this gate that tells you how many seats are left and they have the list of standby people. Somehow I was number one on the list and Ryan was number 6. They had 3 seats left of people who hadn't checked in. The attendant told Ryan it didn't look good for him getting on this flight. Then they had a couple who had checked in but didn't board when it was time. They called me up and asked me to bring my husband too. We waited as they waited till the last possible minute to see if the other couple would show. They never did so they let us board the flight and we even got to sit together. We were home in OKC by noon and I have a free round trip flight to anywhere in the 48 states of my choosing!