Fall Photo shoot

The weather for the last few weeks has been pretty dreary around here on the weekends. It was stormy again this morning, and when we got up to go to church, there was snow and ice on our car. Crazy. We're looking forward to winter and all that it brings, but still, the cold weather and our busy schedules have left us dreaming of warmer climes and slower times. In that longing, we came across one of our videos from Greece the other day. If only there was some way to slip over there for a weekend . . .


But, since we're here in Provo, Janae decided to take advantage of the changing seasons and took Ainslie out for a little private photo shoot. Sure we're biased, but we thought these pictures were pretty great . . .
We've all enjoyed having Josh's brother Michael staying with us for the last week while the rest of the family ran off to some island paradise, but Ainslie has been especially fond of having someone extra to play with the last few days. We're not sure what we're going to do when the family gets back and Ainslie is left with just Mom and Dad again . . .

Catching up . . .

Wow, a few days without a post, and we fall so far behind . . .

Unfortunately, we had to leave Athens on Tuesday. Fortunately, we were coming to Paris. Unfortunately, it rained almost the entire time we were there. Fortunately, Paris is home to the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, and more delicious pastries than we could possibly try in just two short days. And yesterday we pulled in to Rome bright and early. But, before we get into what we’ve been up to here, we have a little unfinished business . . .

We spent part of our last day in Athens running around trying to see as many ancient ruins as we could in a day.
We also managed to spend a little bit of time wandering through the shops in the Plaka.
And the rest of the time we explored the narrow little streets at the foot of the Acropolis looking for some good sunset pictures.
Ainslie liked watching the sunset.
On the way back to the hotel, Josh was fascinated by a little street puppet show.
It was hard to say goodbye to Athens, but Paris was fun too. Like we already said, it rained almost the whole time we were there, but we took full advantage of the amazing art museums to escape the rain.

Paris really is a beautiful city, but the best thing about it is the food. We loved the crepes and tarts.

Our second favorite thing about Paris was watching the toy sailboats in the park.

And now it's Italy with pizza, pasta, and lots of old ruins to climb around on. We're having a great time here, and Monday it's off to Venice for a day before we head back to Leipzig on Wednesday. Time goes by so fast . . .

Athens!

We hadn’t originally planned on coming to Athens, but Josh waited to get our tickets. Turns out, that was the best procrastinating he’s ever done. When we realized it was going to cost a little more to go to Italy when we had planned, we started looking at some other destinations and ended up with two days in Athens. It’s wonderful here. We’ve spent a lot of time going around seeing the sights here, but we’ve spent just as much time talking about everything we’re going to do the next time we come to Greece. We are definitely coming back.
With our first day here we headed out to see what we could, and we ended up at the Acropolis right when a few big clouds blew overhead. We were warned about how hot Athens can be in the summer, but it felt great outside with the clouds. The Acropolis is amazing. They’re doing a lot of restoration/preservation work up on top, but the Parthenon is still worth all of the praise it gets.

And there’s much more to see on top as well.
We had some beautiful views of the city.
The sun came back out as we came down off the top, so we headed back to the hotel for a little break with air conditioning. Janae had two goals in Athens: to see the acropolis and to go swimming in the Mediterranean. So, in the evening we headed out for the beach. There is a new tram that runs along the coast for miles stopping at lots of different beach spots. After a bit of a ride we picked a random stop and found a wonderful little bay for swimming. Janae jumped right in. Josh was a little hesitant, preferring to enjoy the rocky beach, but when he saw how much fun it was he jumped in too.
Ainslie didn’t get to go swimming, but she still thought the beach was pretty fun.

Just walking around Athens is fun. Olive trees just grow on the street corners!
And, the Greeks love Ainslie! The people in Germany thought she was pretty great, and we got lots of pointing and smiling when she’d doze off with her mouth hanging open. But, the Greeks really love this little girl. They point from the other side of the street. Men, women, and children all want to pinch her cheeks, kiss her hand, or whatever, and they usually do. They’ll reach right across the metro car to rub her little arm. Yesterday we saw a fight break out in a little market, and a young man running toward the fight stopped when he saw us with Ainslie, smiled and cooed at her for just a second, and then continued running (we laughed once we got to the other side of the street, clear of the fight). It’s amazing. On the metro, men and women stand up and offer Josh their seat when he has her in the pack. We always try to explain that we are only going a few stops and she likes it better when he's standing, but they always insist. We’re not sure if it’s all babies or just her, but they seem to know she’s something special.

We're here!

Well, we made it to Athens. We have lots to post from the last week in Leipzig, but we've been so busy that we just haven't had time. Last night, our plane was delayed three hours in Berlin, so we didn't get in until just before midnight. But, we still managed to get into town from the airport, find our hotel, and get a good night's sleep before some free breakfast (complete with Greek olives - for Janae, Josh doesn't eat vegetables for breakfast). What more could you ask for? Now, it's off to see what we can find here in Athens . . .

("What do you mean the plane's been delayed three hours?")