Europe Trip - Vienna

With Theresa Martinz - a former mission companion. We stayed with her and her husband Perry in Vienna.

Benjamin had two hard nights - one in Rome and one in Vienna. He cried and cried for hours. Nothing would make him happy. Luckily Sister Martinz is a midwife so helped us with ideas to soothe his stomach. Lamoni eventually found a position that helped him - a v-shape over Lamoni's arm. We think the pressure on his stomach helped it. So this is how Lamoni and Benjamin slept for a few hours!

Weighing him!

Our "little" snowman

In front of the Shoenn Brunn Palace

In the gardens at Schoenn Brunn

There were horse-drawn buggies giving rides in the city

The library. Benjamin ate his dinner in its foyer! 

This is the plaza where Hitler marched in with his armies. There is a famous picture of him next to this statue. 

Right after taking this picture we got threatened by the bus driver to get kicked off for taking a picture (there weren't any signs not to) by a bus driver who must have hated his job A LOT.

The Winter Palace

He loved facing out so he could sight-see too.

Walking around downtown

Europe Trip - Rome

I'm finally having the time to put the pictures up from our trip because Benjamin is actually asleep! It is 6:14 p.m. It's the first time he's slept the ENTIRE day (10 minutes during one of my lessons earlier doesn't count). I'm pretty sure 4 month old babies are supposed to sleep more than that!! Anyway, here is Rome. Lorenzo and Sara drove us there and spent the rest of the afternoon with us sight-seeing. Then we spent a few more days. It was still touristy for January but at least it wasn't sweltering hot like in the summertime!

The Vatican

The Colloseum. I think this was one of Lamoni's favorite sites in Rome.

The Roman Forum

A museum that was absolutely gorgeous

 Benjamin eating and getting his diaper changed on the steps of a cathedral. Rome wasn't very baby friendly! I don't think I ever saw a changing table.

I'm sure there are more Rome pictures I want to post, but I'll leave it at these so I can finally get this up!

Europe Trip - Teramo

Our first stop in Italy was to visit our long-lost Mattoni cousins that my mom discovered through family history work 5 years ago. We try to have somebody go visit them every year. This was our year. :-) We wish we had more time with them, but we were able to pack a lot in the few days we did have! Lorenzo picked us up in Rome (a four hour round-trip drive over the mountains) and brought us to his home in Teramo - on the Adriatic coast. They had everything set up for us and spoiled us rotten. Literally. They always treat us like we're royalty and say my mom's name with reverence about 100 times a day. ;-) "Kahra" 

Here is Grandma Rosina (Lorenzo's mother) talking to Benjamin, whom she called the "Little Prince." Sara and Francesco are Lorenzo and Flavia's two children.

In the basement of their beautiful home they have an extra big kitchen which has a brick oven in it! They taught us how to use it to make pizza and bread. Lamoni was a pro!

The finished product:

Sara and Francesco playing with Benjamin, who just ate up the attention.

The view of the Italian countryside from their street. We were there for New Year's Eve and the whole valley was filled with fireworks going off! Their house is set a bit higher than this picture so it was a gorgeous view.

In Teramo - the city where Lorenzo and Flavia are from. Their house is in the countryside nearby.

The original arch that was part of the wall surrounding Teramo.

Teramo

They had all of Sara and Francesco's old baby things out for The Little Prince.

While there we visited some other family nearby (not related to the Mattonis as far as we know). We stayed with Pasqualino Falchini and his family the first year after we found family but we didn't know the Mattonis yet. They don't speak ANY English, which is why we stay with the Mattonis now, but we always go to visit them! When I was in Rome with UNM Pasqualino and Rosalia came to see one of our concerts. The lady holding Benjamin in this picture is their niece.

Boy time