North, south, east and west - after travel home is best

We have returned from our 3 1/2 week trip to France, Greece and Italy. We travelled with our Caldwell friends - Bob and Susan Taylor. We began our trip in Paris and spent 1 week seeing the sights of France as we travelled across the country on our way to Italy. Thank heavens for a GPS - that really helped us to find where we wanted to go!
Our second week was spent on a cruise of the Greek Islands with stops in Split, Croatia, Corfu, Greece, Santorini, Greece, Mykonos, Greece and Crete. We sailed in and out of Venice.
The last part of our trip was spent exploring Tuscany. We home based in Cortona and visited 20 cities, many of which were ancient hilltop towns with lots of fascinating history. We loved the food and all of the beautiful scenery but when the time came, we were ready to return home after all of our adventures. Europe is wonderful and travel is exciting but of course - home is best.

Here are some photo highlights of our trip.


Notre Dame


The Eiffel Tower


The Eiffel Tower is so pretty when it is lit at night


The Louvre art museum - Paris


Visiting the World War II sites on the beaches of Normandy


Cemetery near Omaha Beach - Normandy


Normandy - near Omaha Beach


Mont St. Michel Abbey


The climb to the top was worth the view


The beautiful Chateau de Chenonceau in France's chateau country


The gardens of the Chateau


Breakfast at our Bed and Breakfast near Montelimar, France


Bob and Susan exploring the medieval mountain top city of Les Baux, France


Our last stop in France - Grasse - the perfume capital of Provence


Enjoying one of many delicious dinners in the ship's dining room


The beautiful island of Santorini

Santorini


Cruise stop at Mykonos island - Greece


An interesting old windmill on Mykonos


Shopping for oriental rungs in Mykonos


Our last cruise stop - the isle of Crete


A pretty church in Crete


Enjoying beautiful Venice


Bob & Susan


Our first gelato (of many)- Yummy, Yummy


Enjoying a view of the beautiful Tuscan countryside


Bob & Susan with the backdrop of Assisi and the valley below the city


Viewing an ancient monolith in Cittia della Pieve


The view of the valley below the hill top town of Pienza


In front of the Trattoria in Orvieto


Enjoying one of the many delicious pasta dinners in Orvieto




Bob & Susan enjoying a gelato in Civitella in val di chiana


We attended church in Siena and visited the hill town after church.


Enjoying our last Tuscan hill town - San Gimingnano

Siberian Battalion Missionary Reunion

Friday evening we gathered with some of our returned missionaries (a group of about 100) for a reunion. It is fun to be with them again and to get caught up on their lives. When you share a common experience of serving in the same mission field - there is truly a bond!


We think our missionaries were some of the best in the church!! We met new husbands, wives, fiancees, dates and even some of our returned missionaries' children! This is some of the payoff for serving a mission!

Eternal friendships are made on a mission!

We love to see our senior missionaries as well!!

The clean up went quickly with so much good help!

A visit from Joan

Joan came for a quick visit to attend BYU Alumni Association Meetings. This gave us an opportunity to spend some time together (something we always love to do!) We enjoyed dinner on campus (as a part of her Alumni Meetings) and then a nice walk around BYU reminiscing about our days at the "Y".

Can-A-Thon

September brought lots of produce and even a peach can-a-thon. In a matter of just a few hours we bottled 90 quarts of peaches proving the old adage "Many hands make light work". It was a busy time, but also fun to be together and accomplish something productive! Hal even got into the act and is great help with such projects! He should have been in the picture with us!!!

Trip to Culver City, CA and Phoenix

We left Sunday after church to drive as far as Las Vegas where we spent the night. We left Monday morning to drive to Culver City to spend a couple of days with Adam, Jessica and Gigi.


Gigi crawls now and pulls herself up to "cruise" around things. She is such a cute little stinker!


Jessica and Gigi



Tuesday we packed a picnic and drove to "Griffith Park" for lunch and some great views of Los Angeles and the area.



We had a wonderful view of the "Hollywood" sign! It was a beautiful clear day!






Enjoying the view!



The LA skyline



The LA Temple - Tuesday Evening



Tuesday evening we met Adam after work at the newly remodeled LA Temple Visitor's Center for a tour and then we went to dinner together!





The Visitor's Center is beautiful!



Enjoying a delicious dinner at "Houston's"


It was hard to say our goodbyes to Gigi - she is growing up so fast!!



We left the LA area on Wednesday and drove to Phoenix where we stayed with Hailey and Conrad. Conrad has just started law school there and Hailey is working as an aide for one of the school districts there and also finishing her undergraduate degree online. They are doing well and are both very busy STUDYING!!! It was good to spend time with them!


We went to dinner with Hailey, Conrad and James who was in Phoenix working (he works there 3 or 4 days each week while his practice in Salem is getting started.)



Renewing our friendship after 34 years! We met our friends from Dental School years - Howard and Jodi Hansen. We had a great visit with them and enjoyed a delicious Mexican Dinner together.


The food was yummy!


Our friends from Dental School Years - Howard and Jodi Hansen

Saturday morning we left early for the long drive back to Salem! It was a tiring but great trip to see our family and friends!