Bella Italia

On Christmas this year, my wonderful husband gave me the gift that makes all other women jealous, and the men in their lives angry that the "gift bar" would be set so high:  tickets to see Andrea Bocelli in concert in July at his Teatro del Silenzio in Tuscany, Italy.   It was, shall we say, the trip of a lifetime!  (And the numbers of such trips that I've had means that I've lived more than a few cats' nine lives!).

We hadn't been to Italy until 2007, and since then, we've been to Rome, Sicily, Venice, Positano, and now Umbria, Tuscany and Puglia.  I have to say, it's about my favorite place in the world to spend time:  The colors and light are magnificent, the people so very friendly, the history is outrageous, the food and wine, well.....they're legendary.

So, even after a few stiff edits, here's a long photo log of Umbria (Assisi, and the annual Jazz Festival in Perugia - we missed Sting by a day, because we were at the Andrea Bocelli concert), Tuscany (Florence, Lajatico, Palaia, and Cortona made famous by Under The Tuscan Sun), and Puglia (Bari, Polignano and the UNESCO Heritage site of Trulli).  So start up the Italian music, grab a pizza and enjoy!

 

 

Family Milestones

Life's best joys, sorrows, happiness and frustrations are best shared (and sometimes felt) in families.  The histories we create, and then remember and celebrate together are the fabric that makes us who we are as individuals and as communities.

My Daddy just went to be with Jesus two weeks ago today.  A week before he passed, I had my last visit with him at the Boise State Veterans Home in Idaho, where he had lived his last 5 1/2 years due to his advancing Alzheimer's Disease.  I usually would see him twice a year, en route either home, or to some faraway destination that my life usually has me on.  That I was with him on his last "good day" on earth was a gift from God to me.  The morning after I returned home from my 5 1/2 week trip abroad, I received the phone call that he had passed into the next life, and that night I was back on the plane to Boise to help my step-mom with his final arrangements.

The last several family photos shoots that I've done were ones celebrating important anniversary milestones:  two couples honoring their fifty years together, and another family enjoying both the mom and dad's forty years of marriage and the engagement of one of their daughters.

As I was taking the pictures, in my mind, I peeled back the clock to their wedding days when they first began their lives together, their own parents giving love and advice to young couples who thought they knew all that life had in store for them.  With a collective of 140 years between these three couples, I'm sure not a one of them could have anticipated the day, and what their lives would have been in the in-between times, when they would raise their glasses again to love, to life, and to their families so many years later.

Please take all the time you can to love and spend time with your family.  Time is so precious, and moves so fast.

The Weinbender Family

The Stingley Family

The Freedman/Munns Families

Brad and Ali on their engagement

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Southwest Colorado

When I travel (and I estimate that in 2011 I spent the equivalent of 2 1/2 weeks of my life sitting on board an airliner!), I almost always choose the window seat.  I love the views, and my eyes never seem to get too full to watch.  I think that is the biggest reason I don't sleep well in cars and planes: I just don't want to miss anything.  If there's a favorite route that I like to fly, it's the one out of Denver to the west coast:  over the Rocky Mountains, the mystical aura of New Mexico with its red earth, sometimes right over the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. It's amazing!  This trip had an added plus:  I got to fly over the Rockies 3 times, by flying from Denver to Durango and back, and then from Denver to Los Angeles.  And better than flying over the Rockies is actually being on the ground to experience their full majesty!

Loved the "Old West" towns of Telluride and Durango (even went to a seemingly out of place French Cafe which is actually owned by a Frenchman!).  But the thrill was the 4 Wheel Drive over the Ophir Pass  to Silverton with vistas filled with aspens, pines and outrageous jagged mountain peaks.

Ahhh....Antigua

In all my imagining of what a Caribbean island would look like, Antigua was its reality.  My home is in beautiful Hawaii, so I was curious what I'd feel about my first time on the beach in this other tropical paradise.  So much familiar, but also so very different.  For sure, a more laid-back and relaxed lifestyle.  We were the only ones under the thatched umbrellas during our very brief stay at the Halcyon Cove Resort on Dickenson Bay.  No sounds but the lapping of the waves and the birds flying overhead.  Blissful, extravagant rest....