An Anniversay, a Birthday, and a Getaway.

Taylor and I have now been married for 2 years! Crazy. Our anniversary was September 10 and this is the only picture I took on our date that night. We went to one of our favorite places, Market Street Grill, to celebrate. I had been waiting for this day for over 3 months so I could tell him some exciting news... I had been planning a trip to Seattle and he had no idea!

Taylor's birthday is on the 16th, so I planned the trip to celebrate both things. He was so excited when I told him the news at dinner! He just kept saying, "are you serious?" "you promise?" It was adorable. Seattle is somewhere we have both talked about going to, and we have some friends that live up there as well. Taylor's mission president, President Pugh and his wife are now serving as temple presidents in Bellevue, and one of Taylor's best friends from high school, Ronnie, and his girlfriend Claire live in Seattle too.

On Thursday night we took a late flight to Seattle. Taylor and I LOVE to travel! He used to always tease me and say, "You would go ANYWHERE!" And the truth is, I really would. I would go anywhere I had the opportunity to go to because I LOVE everything about travel! The planning, packing, airports, flying. etc. It's just so fun for me. I get emails from Kayak and Travelocity every day telling me about deals, promotions, etc and I get all of these ideas of where I want to start planning for next. Luckily for me, Taylor is turning more into a travel bug too. We have lists of places we want to visit. We are going to see the world together :)

Seattle is such a beautiful place! It is so green and surrounded by water, so everywhere you look there is an amazing view! And it didn't even rain once when we were there.

We went on a duck tour the first day which is a BUS that turns into a BOAT. Ya I know, I never knew such a thing existed either. It was pretty awesome.

(Sleepless in Seattle house. Cute right?)

President Pugh and Sister Pugh took us out to an amazing dinner that night, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture with them. :( Bummer. They did however give us their beautiful BMW to drive while we were staying up there. They are so good to us!! We love them.

The next day we spent the morning at Pike Place, The Aquarium, and we got to spend time with Ronnie and Claire and have them show us a few of their favorite spots. We rode the ferris wheel on the pier and it was one of my most favorite things we did.

Sunday was my handsome man's 24th birthday so I had another exciting surprise in store... a high adventure whale watching tour!!! For those of you who know me, you know I have a strange fear of whales, especially killer whales. And guess what? That's the kind of whale that lives up there! But I knew this was something Taylor had always wanted to do so I thought.. why not? And if we are going to do it, we are going to do it big. That's where the high adventure part comes in. The boat you take out to whale watch is a tiny little coastguard rubber speedboat. They also give you a coastguard outfit to wear that keeps you warm and is your flotation device. It was so cool! We felt like astronauts getting ready to go to space. The tour was amazing and both of our favorite things we did on this trip. We saw around 70 whales! 70!!! It was incredible. We just sat in one spot for an hour and a half as all the whales just swam by, jumping out of the water, flipping their tails, and having fun. It was so cute and I really wasn't scared at all. The tour left from the San Juan islands which is the cutest little island/town I've ever seen!! If you ever have the chance to go.. you better.

(It was so hard to get a good pic of the whales)

When we got back to Seattle. Taylor wanted his birthday dinner at the Crab Pot. He researched it and it was the only place he really wanted to eat while we were there. He was in heaven.

Our last day we decided to go to the top of the Space needle which was so fun! Such a beautiful view. 

P.s. we got the Pugh's some flowers from Pike Place for being so kind and showing us around, letting us borrow the car etc. And I just had to get a picture so you could see how amazing the bouquets are. 

We had the best time!!! It's always hard going back to real life. Hope you had a great anniversary/birthday surprise boo! Until our next trip.....:)

Italy

Taylor and I FINALLY got to go to Italy together! We have been talking about this since we were dating. And since we dated since we were 14, this has pretty much been a long time coming. It was amazing. We had such a beautiful time. 

We first flew in to ROME and went straight to the restaurant to meet everyone. We were so spoiled and got to eat at Gusto every day we were in Rome. The food never stopped coming. Even if we were so full and we really thought we were going to burst, something else would be brought out and somehow I would manage to eat it.  We stayed at my Zia Ida's house while we were in Rome. 

After a few days, Taylor and I took a train up to VENICE. The first day poured on us all day long, and we walked around the soaking wet flooded streets in Venice looking like drowned rats. It wasn't the best way for Taylor to see Venice for the first time, but we did try to make the best of it and braved the storm. The second day was luckily much better and we even found a good deal on a Gondola ride! It was magical.

 After Venice, we took the train to FLORENCE and met my Dad there. The Professor had a study abroad group with him, so we met up there and got a personalized tour of Florence from the Art Historian himself. It was great for Taylor's first time, because even though I have been myself many times, my Dad knows everything there is to know about Italy. People, places, names, dates, shortcuts, etc. He really is the smartest man I know. 

After two days in Florence, we went back to Rome and met up with the family. My family is Abruzzese. We are from PESCARA on the East Coast of Italy, and my Nonna still lives there. Even though she was staying in Rome with us while we were there, I thought it would be fun to show Taylor my roots and where we come from. Nonna was so sweet and let us stay in her condo for the weekend all alone. She lives literally across the street from the beach so we spent our weekend there at the Beach, walking the boardwalk, and eating traditional Abrzzese food. (Arosticini, my absolute fave) It was dreamy. 

After Pescara, we headed back to Rome and got to celebrate Zio Ginanni's birthday with a surprise party, even though the surprise actually got ruined. whoops! Still fun though! Piero, Ines, Sara, Calo, Mia and LuLu also came to meet up with us in Rome for the night before we headed down to the Amalfi Coast.  Nonna had no idea that Sara would be coming with her new baby LuLu, and Nonna was so surprised and excited. We all went down to the coast to celebrate Nonna's 80th birthday. Part of the reason Taylor and I decided to go to Italy in May was because we wanted to be there for Nonna's 80th! 

The next day, everyone headed down to Sorrento. Our hotel was absolutely gorgeous. I have never ever stayed anywhere like that. We were literally on a cliff overlooking the sea, and we had a huge balcony in our room to enjoy it. It really was a dream. We had the best time exploring the Amalfi coast, visiting cities like AMALFI, POSITANO, SORRENTO, and getting a private boat tour of CAPRI. I have been to Capri several times before, but this private tour really made it much more incredible. We ate like kings and queens the whole time, the BEST seafood I have ever had every day we were there. After celebrating Nonna's birthday with  my mom, all of my aunts and uncles, and a few cousins, we headed back to Rome for our last day before heading back home. We went straight to the restaurant and had a goodbye dinner. You better believe I got my mozzarella di buffalo and prosciutto crudo and ate it all. 

It was a sad goodbye. I always cry when I leave Italy, I get this pit in my stomach and my heart breaks a little bit. This may seem dramatic to you, but it's because I never know for sure when I will be back. My Italian family is so amazing. We just have fun and laugh the entire time together. It makes me sad that at most, I see them only once a year. But at the same time, it makes me appreciate my heritage. I am PROUD to be Italian and so grateful that my parents chose to raise us just as immersed in the Italian culture as we are in the American. 

It was so great to be able to show Taylor this part of my life. It's half of who I am, and in a sense I was able to show him around my childhood and show him where so many of my favorite memories were made. He got so close to my family and it was so fun to see them interact despite the language barrier. He said he is going to learn Italian before we go back again, so we will see if he sticks to it.

He also told me that it makes him feel closer to me, hearing the language flow through me and seeing this side of me that not many get to see. Me in one of my elements. Several times he looked over at me and said, "I see where you get it!" This bonding experience in our marriage alone made the trip that much better.

Sorry this is so long, and sorry for the picture overload. I want to remember this forever.