Catching up

Woops! It’s been a while! We’ve been busy as usual, so I’ll attempt to update this quickly!

April- I flew to Little Rock and visited Meghan, I hadn’t been out there in 9 years! It was a quick weekend trip but we had a blast! We finally got matching tattoos! Joe and I took the kids to Disneyland for Spring Break! We stayed at a hotel down the road from the parks. We started out at Disneyland on Easter, it wasn’t awfully crowded and we used the app to maximize our rides! The kids loved the Star Wars area, and the new Rise of the Resistance ride was our favorite! We checked out California Adventure, I managed to traumatize Luke on the Guardians of the Galaxy free fall. We had great weather and it was so fun! The kids rode so many rides! It was a really fun trip. Emily came and visited the last weekend of April, we did lots of antiquing!

May- Mom came to visit! She renewed her passport, so we all went to Vancouver for a few days. Mom and I did a lot of shopping and did a few little projects around the house.

June- Second annual Ramstein reunion, this year we did Seattle! Emily and Rachael stayed here with us, Chelsea drove up and spent most days with us. We did lots of fun touristy stuff, had lots of good food! Reconnecting with them has been so special! The kids finished the school year, both did so well!

July- We headed to TN on the 7th for our big summer trip. The Corley side went to Gatlinburg, we rented a big fun cabin! It was 3 floors and was perfect for the 12 of us! We spent a day hanging out around Gatlinburg and a day at Dollywood. We had fun out and about, but we also had a great time being at the cabin! The four of us borrowed Molly’s truck and stopped in Maryville on the way back to see Nana. We made a stop in Tollgate to see Rick and Cindy and drop off the kids, and then Joe and I were off on our European adventure! We flew to Newark and met up with Joto and a few other groomsmen. There was bad weather and then a plane issue and we were delayed 5 hours. We were all starting to get nervous, if our flight got cancelled the next flight was a day away and we would barely make the wedding! Luckily at literally the last possible minute we were cleared for take off. Joe, myself, and Joto were very comfy up in first class! We tried to sleep most of the way to Porto.

We got to the hotel after a cool ride through town. The hotel was set away from town along a beautiful river. We got settled in our room and cleaned up, and it was time to go to the rehearsal dinner! We rode with a few people to the restaurant. We were in a big private room overlooking the ocean, it was a very cool set up! We were with the bridal party and Cat and Jared’s families. There was a lot of wine and so much food! We were exhausted, but it was a fun night! We didn’t get back to the hotel until midnight!

On the day of the wedding, we overslept and almost missed breakfast! We had to run down and eat quickly before the food was gone, but it was a great spread of food! The groomsmen didn’t have to be together until 2, so we quickly showered and Joe and I got a Uber into Porto to explore. We wandered around and had lunch. The town was beautiful and the weather was so perfect! I would love to go back someday when we have more time! We had to get back to the hotel so Joe could get ready with the guys. I put on my dress and found Blake’s gf Celaine to hang out with. She ended up doing my hair and make up, she made me look amazing! The wedding over an hour late to start, but I was having fun with Celaine. The ceremony was beautiful, it was done in both English and Portuguese. After the ceremony we hung out for cocktail hour before going in to the reception. We were sitting at the head table with the rest of bridal party, which felt very cool! There were so many courses of food, and so much wine! Joe and I were still behind on sleep, but we were trying to keep up with everyone else. They served espresso at 10:30, I was shocked when Joe drank it! We made it to midnight and went back to our room. The party went on until 4 am! I don’t know how they managed it! The whole wedding was so gorgeous, I’m so glad we were able to be there!

We dragged ourselves out of bed Sunday morning in time to get breakfast before heading to the airport. I was sad to leave Portugal but so excited for Rome! We had a layover in Madrid and were in Rome by 5 pm. We had a driver waiting for us, which was a nice way to get to the hotel. We checked in to our room and were able to get dinner at the hotels restaurant. It was our first meal in Rome, and I had a delicious truffle pasta. After dinner we decided to walk a bit, and we literally stumbled onto the Trevi fountain. It was so close to our hotel! It was about 9 pm and insanely crowded, but still so amazing to see in person!

On Monday we had breakfast at our hotel before our Colliseum tour. I had booked the tour in advance through the hotel’s concierge, and was very surprised to find out Joe and I had our own tour guide! She was super cute and was the perfect guide. There was a legitimate heat wave going on, it was 100 degrees out! Our guide did a great job of keeping us in the shade as much as possible. After our tour we went to find lunch, we had sandwiches in a tiny shop. We were dripping in sweat by the time we found lunch, so afterwards we had gelato. We found a taxi and got back to our hotel to shower and relax. We took another taxi out to a pizza place on the outskirts of the city for dinner.

We were supposed to do a tour of the Vatican on Tuesday (my birthday) but it was over 100 degrees out. I was afraid we’d have a heat stroke at the Vatican, because there had been a lot of videos online posted recently about how they were cramming tours in and people were miserable. Our tour guide had told us about one of her fav museums, the Musei Capitolini, so we decided to check that out instead. It was a huge building and it wasn’t crowded at all, so that was nice. On the walk back we did some shopping and grabbed McDonalds for lunch. After showering (again) we decided we needed an indoor, air conditioned activity. We went to a movie theatre and saw the new Mission Impossible. The theater was in a cool square, the popcorn was great, seats were comfy, and it was nice and cold! We walked to dinner at a place that I’d made reservations for months in advance. I was so excited to try the place, and we were kind of unimpressed by it! The restaurant was tiny and the food was good, but nothing special. We did get to walk right past the Pantheon though.

We decided to go on an adventure on Wednesday, after finding out that Florence was only 90 min away by train. We managed to get our train tickets and get on the correct train without any problems. The train went 198 km an hour, it was such a fun ride! It was very cool to see the countryside and little towns along the way. We walked from the train station to the cathedral of Santa Maria. It was so massive, it was hard to believe! We got panini’s for lunch and walked around. We found more gelato before going to the Uffizi Gallery. It was another huge museum, with so many famous pieces! Joe was excited to see the Medussa, and I loved the Birth of Venus. We were worn out after the museum so we caught a taxi back to the train station. The ride home was relaxing. We showered (again) and walked to a restaurant to grab dinner. Afterwards, we went back to the Trevi fountain so I could push my way in to make a wish.

We had a straight flight from Rome to Atlanta, it was 12 hours. We had some good food, napped a little, read some, and watched a lot of tv. We got through our layover in Atlanta and were back in Nashville by Thursday evening! Cindy picked us up with the kids and drove us to the farm. Joe had another day in TN with us before heading back to WA. The kids and I stayed another week. We just hung out, swam at Jeri’s, went to the trampoline park. It was very relaxing! The jet lag wasn’t as bad as it was coming back from our other Europe trip, which was nice.

August- Meghan came to visit a few days after we got home to WA. We went on a ferry ride, hung out in Seattle, and went to Mt. Rainier. It was great having her visit! For Virginia’s 10th birthday, she didn’t have any wishes for a big party. The two of us went to high tea and had a nice time. On her birthday, her best friend came with us and we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner before coming home for ice cream cake and presents. The next weekend, V and I went to the Ed Sheeran concert in Seattle. She was so excited for her first concert! I think she was a little nervous about how loud it was at first, but we had earplugs for her so it wasn’t too bad.

September- The kids went back to school. We had a great summer, but it was nice to get back to our school routine! I’m helping out in the library again, which is fun. Rick had a heart attack right after his birthday, which was shocking. He had to have a stent put in, but it seems like he’ll be able to go back to normal pretty soon. Callie came to visit at the end of the month. We did touristy things, lots of shopping, and just hung out at home. I’m so glad she was able to come!

I think I hit all the important things!