Rome Part 2

We really enjoyed eating breakfast in Rome.  We ate at a sweet cafe near our hotel.  They were also so surprised we didn't drink coffee, and so would give us steamy, frothy milk.  :)

Stop #1 The Pantheon

This was my favorite ancient structure in Rome.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  We did another audio tour here, and I loved learning about the building.  We got there really early in the morning, and so we enjoyed having it to ourselves.  

Rome's streets are very busy! :)

Random church courtyard

Stop #2 walk to Trevi Fountain

Rome is truly beautiful.  We enjoyed a fun piazza, and some more beautiful churches.  The fountain was as pretty as I had ever imagined.  Crowded though!

Stop #3 Spanish Steps

These were pretty cool-- we were pretty tired by the time we got there.  (All the hills!) Rome is filled with street vendors trying to get you to buy their stuff.  In all the romantic places, there are rose sellers.  Mr. H and I were sitting on the steps, and a man came up and offered to take our picture and said I could hold all his flowers.  Naively, I said "Great!" and we took this picture.  However, he made us pay up!  Ha...we didn't get tricked into buying anymore roses!  (we also bought a camera charger here...thanks to Mr. H for making that happen!)

two naive tourists right there!

Stop #4 Appian Way

This was my highlight of Rome!  We took a bus out to this small town.  We accidentally missed our stop, and so we had to walk on a very busy, narrow street to get back to the town.  I thought I was going to die!  Anyway, we rented bikes and made our way to... 

Stop #5 San Callisto Catacombs

These were AWESOME!  So eerie, but packed with so many neat messages.  Our tour guide was great.  I loved all the Christian symbolism.  

We continued on the Appian way (which is one of the earliest and longest roads ever).  It was amazing.  The countryside was gorgeous. It was drizzling, and oh so romantic.  Some parts of the road had the original stones and it was so fun to ride together.  I would totally recommend this if you have time!  There were neat ruins on the sides of the road, and we almost made it to the aqueducts!

Olive trees, sheep and their shepherd = Italian perfection

look closely to see the aqueducts!

Stop #7 Rome at Night

Rome is stunning at night.  My goodness, I feel like it becomes magical.  We walked to the river, and through the shopping district and ate dinner while a man played an accordion and serenaded us.  It was delightful.  We made our way to the Trevi fountain, and it was so great.  We got our first gelato of the trip and it was great.  

Rome, Italy Part 1

Mr. H and I were able to go on a trip of a lifetime to Europe this month.  

It was AMAZING.

We left C with his grandparents, and as far as we know it went pretty well.  We are so lucky to have great parents who were willing to watch him.

We flew into Rome.  (P.S. we were so pleasantly surprised at the overnight flight.  They fed us tons of food, and we loved all the free movies!)

We arrived at 9 a.m. and jumped off the plane and got started.  Jet lag was not going to get us down! :)

Something I totally recommend in Rome was buying the Roma Pass.  It gave us free access to all public transportation and two free sights.  It was well worth the money.  

We had a lot of fun trying to speak and pick up Italian phrases.  My favorite happened to be 'per favore' and 'gratzia'.  However, people always said 'hola' to me.  Ha---I got so used to it I started responding back. :)

After we checked into our surprisingly nice hotel, buying a camera battery, we made it to our first stop:

STOP #1 the Colosseum

We got off the metro, and the first thing we saw was...scaffolding!  Quite the bummer, but oh well.  We were able to skip the long lines thanks to our Roma Pass and entered.  We used Rick Steve's audio tours on our ipods.  They were awesome!!! I loved knowing what I was looking at, but when I got bored could turn him off.  :)  

 Anyway, we loved the Colosseum.  It was such an amazing building.  

Stop #2: the Roman Forum

This was ruins heaven.  I'm not the biggest 'ruin' fan, but it was really neat to see all of the old temples and structures.  They still are quite magnificent.  

Notice the menora?  This arch commoreates the children of Israel being taken from Israel, and shows the ark of the covenant.  I loved seeing what I had studied in Art history! 

Stop #3: Palatine Hill

This overlooks the forum, and was gorgeous!  I loved all the gardens, fountains and fun little niches.  We also find Circus Maximus, one of the ancient fields where they did chariot racing. 

Check out the awesome bird in flight!

My family loves taking pictures with fountains, and I couldn't resist here!

Stop #4: Capitoline Hill

This was AWESOME.  I could not get over how huge and gorgeous this place was.  It was structures like this one that made me realize how amazing the Roman Empire must have been.  There are a lot of churches surrounding this area, and they all were filled with gorgeous art.

Stop #5: Capitoline Museum

This was a huge museum, filled to the brim with statues and ancient art.  It was okay---some rooms were awesome, and others so-so.  We did get to see a chariot, which made Mr. H happy.

We ended the night with dinner at a cute local restaurant.  It was great, and we got back to our hotel and crashed.  A great first day in Rome!

Finding an Apartment Guide

Mr. H and I flew to Boston for about 3 days to find an apartment.

C came along, as well as my sweet mom to be his babysitter.  C did AWESOME on the flights!!! We couldn't have been happier.  Gold fish and fruit snacks worked wonders. 

Boston was a little overwhelming, and we were on our feet running the entire time. 

But we were able to secure an apartment and we are excited.  So glad to be able to check it off the list.  I thought I would compile a guide for any apartment hunters out there.  These are some things that helped us out, and some of the things we avoided. 

TIP #1

Get very familiar with the area.  We knew we wanted to be fairly close to the school, and so we started Google mapping how far each different neighborhood was.  Google maps became our very best friend.

We tried to network as much as we could to figure out good areas to live.  We called LDS bishops, friends of friends, and fellow BU students.  From talking to so many people, we were able to narrow down a couple of areas to begin our search.

TIP #2

Get to know different apartment finding websites.  We mostly used Trulia.com and  Craigslist.com.  We liked this websites as they gave us a good idea of what we could get for our money.  After perusing those for a month or two, we felt we could comfortably set a budget we wanted to stick to.  It was tricky for us, coming from Salt Lake, because pricing is so different.  But through these websites we were able to get a good idea of what we could get for our money. 

TIP #3

Make a list of Must Haves.  This helped us filter many of the properties.  Some of the things on our list were flexible, so they went to the 'want' list.

TIP #4

Schedule as many viewings as possible.  I think we must have seen around 20 apartments.  Although it was hectic, we were able to get a feel of the different areas.  In our experience, most of the listings we found were associated with realtors, and sometimes each realtor would show us a couple of different listings.  

TIP #5

Ride the public transportation!  We rode every single green line the T had to offer in Boston.  This gave us a much clearer idea of what commutes would be like, as well as where we wanted to live.  

TIP #6

While you are out and about, jot down phone numbers off the apartment buildings you are interested in.  We called on so many, and not all worked out, but some led us to helpful realtors who showed us great listings in their area.  It would also be helpful if you already know the area you want to live and to contact a real estate office in that area directly.  

TIP #7

Do your homework.  Because we have a little boy, our apartment needed to be de-leaded. Which is next to impossible in Boston.  We made sure to let our realtors know this, so we could filter out the apartments.  We also knew that being students, we might have to have a co-signer to get approved.  We filled out all the paperwork beforehand and had it ready to go.  This allowed our application to go through very quickly.  

TIP #8

Be flexible.  We ended up choosing an area we had not planned on.  We had been pretty set on living in Brighton/Allston, as it was close to BU, but after seeing a couple of listings in that area, we quickly realized we did not want to live there.  We fell in love with Newton, and quickly decided that is where we should focus our search.

TIP #9

Listen to your heart! Sounds cheesy, but we really tried to stay close to the spirit. In some apartments, we just felt really down, bad, and stressed. In other apartments, we felt so good and so much better.  

TIP #10

Take time to have little breaks and enjoy yourself.  Apartment hunting is very stressful, and it is easy to fall apart quickly.  Thank to my mom, we were able to meet up every evening and hang out together and enjoy some of what Boston has to offer.  

Carousel in Boston Commons

My mom and I had twinner rain coats.  We were openly laughed at, but it was fun.  :)  We enjoyed going around Boston at night together.  

GOOD LUCK!

and he GRADUATED!

Mr. H graduated this past weekend!!!

It was great.

We got engaged his very first college semester, so I feel like we've been on this road together for awhile.  

Mr. H is pretty amazing.  He did his entire program in just 3 1/2 years, and he got an almost perfect g.p.a.  He got to wear all the fancy stuff with his robes that told people he was very smart. :)

I think like anyone's college journey, Mr. H has grown so much.  He started college wanting to attend Medical school, and now we are in a totally different direction.  He's worked for some amazing people, and he's taken some awesome classes.  He's done such a good job at balancing school/work/and being a husband and father.  I am so proud of him!!!

We were able to celebrate at the Cheesecake factory with our families, and then graduation last night.  It was fun to all be together and celebrate Mr. H!

Quick photoshoot w/C 

It was a great night and we are so proud.

Today was awesome! Mr. H finally got to be home and free on a Saturday, and he put his amazing vacuum skills to work.  It was so fun to have him home and relaxed!

Hooray for being graduated!!!!