Holy Crap! I haven't updated in 9 months

I can't believe I have not updated my blog in 9 months. Clearly, life is busy. I planned on updating in November after our trip to Italy, but I never made it on here. I have thought about updating many times but never seem to make the time to sit down.

Italy was AMAZING!!! I definitely want to go back sometime in my lifetime. I have a day by day account written down somewhere in my bedroom that I will need to find but for right now I will go off memory. We got to Rome early in the morning. We finally figured out how to get to the van area for our hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we were able to drop our bags off and go into the city. Driving in Rome (well really anywhere in Italy) is Insanity! People drive like maniacs. I am so glad we had people driving us around. I think if one of us were driving we would have died without ever getting to see the wonderful city. We spent time walking around Rome and looking at places. We took a ton of pictures. My parents then headed back to the hotel while my brother and his girlfriend and my husband and I stayed to walk around the city some more. We ended up wandering down streets with cute little shops. It was just gorgeous. We had such a great time. We finally headed back to the hotel to hang out with my parents. The next morning we got up and got all of our stuff ready to leave to hotel. We took a shuttle bus to the port to get on our cruise. We arrived early so we had plenty of time to explore the little port town. Every little place we went to was so cool. We shopped around at a little open air market. When we finally got back to the terminal we had to wait for about 30 minutes before we boarded the boat. Once we boarded, there was a cocktail waiting for us :) while we filled out all the necessary paperwork. The cruise was a small ship with less than 14o people. It was awesome! Our rooms were nice and spacious and we were right next door to my brother and his girlfriend and my parents were right across the hall. Our steward was awesome and knew our name before the end of the first day. On the first evening we had the safety practice where we had to get our life vests and get to our spots. At that point, they gave out seasick pills in case you wanted them. I picked a pack up and decided to take them so I didn't take a chance. That was a mistake! Apparently someone later told my dad that you should only take one of the two pills because the pills can actually make you sick. Well they definitely didn't make me feel very good. Later that night the captain hosted an hors d'oeuvres hour which was not too bad. I was starting not to feel great, but I tried to enjoy it the best I could. We then headed to dinner where I had this amazing prime rib. Too bad I wasn't able to finish it because I started feeling very sick. I walked around on the deck a few times to see if that would help, but in the end I just went to bed. That was the one and only night I didn't feel good. We had some crazy weather through the trip, but all in all it was awesome. I would definitely take another Wind Star cruise again. The food was amazing, the staff was amazing, and our rooms were amazing. FYI Our server at lunch and dinner (same guy) knew who we were and what we liked to drink and would have it ready for us when we came in to sit down. Now that is service!!! Once I find my day by day account I will post more about the different ports. Our last day we got to tour the island of Ischia where my grandfather's family was from. It was so awesome to feel like you were connected to a place. Once we got back to the port we had a driver who took us around Rome to see all the tourist places. We got lots of pictures and had an amazing time. We were able to see the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, The Colosseum, The Roman Forums, etc. The next day we had a tour of the countryside of Umbria where we got to see beautiful country, Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi (a beautiful church), and many different cute shops. On our last day, we toured the Vatican and walked around Rome to explore some more. I left out a ton of places we went to on the cruise, but I will update again soon. All in all it was a trip of a lifetime and I hope to go back some day. It was amazing to get to spend so much quality time with my family. We really missed having my sister and her husband with us and I hope someday they will travel back with my husband and I.

Christmas was fun. We spent Christmas eve and morning with my dad and my brother. We went to dinner at some family friends' house that evening. A few days later we headed out to California for a week. We got to spend New Years with my extended family and Rod's mommy. We had a great time :)

Once we got back from Cali, life has been BUSY. We just seem to go go go. Last week we went to MO to visit my sister and brother-in-law. We had a fabulous time hanging out and going to see lots of different places. We went shopping several times which I'm sure my husband just loved :)~ Although it was a long drive there and back, we had a wonderful time and we can't wait to go back. Now it's back to work for a few weeks then off to the Dominican Republic for a wedding! We seem to be world travelers this year and I love it. We'll see if I can ever get my husband to go overseas again after this year! Well back to work I go hopefully I'll start updating this thing a lot more often :)