Western Mediterranean Cruise - Amalfi Coast

Our first port was the city of Naples. We had visited nearby Pompeii on a previous cruise, so this time we ventured further out. A driver in a hired van took us on an AMAZING trip up through the mountains and then around the peninsula along the coast. We made stops along the way in Ravello, Amalfi, Positano, and then Sorrento. It was a day of steep cliffs, stunning views, colorful towns, lemon EVERYTHING, and crazy traffic. The roads are all very narrow, and the drivers very aggressive. We almost had a head-on collision with a tour bus - YIKES!

We stopped for a picture with Mount Vesuvius in the background on our drive up into the mountains.

Ravello is situated high up on the cliffs, and we were lucky to be some of the first tourists of the day. It was really quiet when we arrived and most of the shops and common areas were completely empty. We walked around the town square and stepped into a few fancy hotels to take a glance at the beautiful views from their balconies.

There are citrus fruits growing everywhere in this region. I sampled a kumquat from a bush that was still a little sour :)

I picture I took of my parents from one of the hotel balconies

There were little orchards and vineyards tucked away all over the city

A drive from the cliffs back down to sea level brought us to the picturesque city of Amalfi. It's a popular tourist destination, and it's not hard to see why. Luckily we arrived before the crowds were too crazy. We walked out on the beach for some views, and then headed into the city to visit the 11th century Duomo. There was a huge school group there eating on the steps, but we made it inside before them and were able to enjoy some peace and quite. After the cathedral we walked up the main street through the town and popped in and out of several little shops.

Look at all the beautiful striped marble!

This fountain in the city is covered with hundreds of little figurines and was fun to look at

Lemons were everywhere!! There were entire stores devoted to lemons selling candies, soap, candles, kitchen utensils, plates, ornaments and more. It smelled so good!

This one was almost as big as my face!

Our our way to Positano, we made a stop at a grotto. We took an elevator down from the cliffs and then boarded a little wooden rowboat operated by a captain who was either drunk, crazy, or both. He kept shouting out things like "Look at my invention! It's a miracle, United States!" The tour wasn't that memorable, but there were some cool cave formations, a sunken nativity scene, and a group from filming for an upcoming Disney Channel movie that had something to do with pirates.

The blue light is all natural and coming from a tunnel where the grotto connects to the sea

It was a long day of driving and some us started to get a little tired

Beautiful views!

In Positano we made it our mission to seek out some gelato. I had seen several gelaterias throughout the day and was ready to have a treat of my own. We got a little cup of chocolate/vanilla and then took it down by the seashore to eat. It was so good!

What a great first day in Italy!!

Western Mediterranean Cruise - At Sea

Our first day was at sea and I was glad to have a laid back day to recover from our jet lag. It always takes me awhile stop feeling like a zombie, but the ship had lots of fun activities and endless great food to help with that :) It was also nice to have a day to get a feel for the Epic and map out what activities we wanted to do during our week aboard.

Some of the highlights were an Escape Room type event (that our team won!), a comedy/magician routine, a bowling alley, and a climbing wall. Sadly they didn't have a mini golf course, but most days were too exhausted from our port stops to need more entertainment. Several nights we even skipped the shows to play games and then go to bed to rest up for the next adventure.

There were two "formal" nights that we dressed up for. Sadly this picture brings back some sad memories... Right behind the white background is an escalator. One night an older women was dining alone near our table. She ordered her dessert to go and then on her way back to the cabin, fell on the escalator. I was using the restroom and heard the crash and when I came out she was laying on the stairs going up and the dessert was scattered everywhere. Two crew members quickly attended to her, but I didn't see the rest so I hope she was ok. 

My favorite meal of the week was the prime rib dinner. I was really glad they offered twice during the cruise! And you'll notice there are 9 plates here for 6 people. The boys always ordered two, sometimes three, entrees because there were so many good options.

Ready to climb!

The "medium" route was surprisingly difficult, but I was proud of myself for making it over the past-vertical ledge!

Bowling on a boat is a little harder than normal, but still fun. Neither of us broke 100. 

A gallery of the towel creations from the week. Not the most creative we had seen, but the little eyes were a nice touch!

Western Mediterranean Cruise

I'm finally getting back to the blog after a looong absences. Most nights I have every intention of finally starting the catch up process, but something else beckons and I step away. Now I have been asked to teach on Sunday and suddenly writing a blog post is more appealing then preparing a lesson... I guess I just needed the proper motivation :)

I do like things to be in order, however, so even though it's September, we're going to jump back four months to the first week of May, where the day after Dave's graduation, we left our two kiddos with grandma and flew off to Barcelona for a 7-day, Mediterranean cruise!

A few weeks before the trip Davey was still nursing 4-5 times a day with no signs of weaning anytime soon. I basically had to cut him off one feeding at a time over a two week period and he was not a happy boy. He was also still not sleeping through the night when we left and I felt pretty bad passing that off to grandma...

We arrived in Barcelona early in the morning and took a taxi downtown to the hotel where my parents, Derek, and Faye were staying. I'm always a little nervous navigating foreign cities with no phone service, so it was a welcome site when we finally met up. We left our luggage at the hotel and then went out to try and see a few sites in the Gothic quarter before we had to board the ship.

The 14th Century Barcelona Cathedral

Since we were visiting on a Sunday there were services taking place. It was neat to hear the music and sermons, but it also meant the whole front section was roped off so we couldn't get close and only had views from the back near the entrance. 

I can't remember what this was... it may be the back of the cathedral. We were a bit jet lagged and saw a lot of old buildings while walking around that morning. 

After playing tourist for the morning, we went back to the hotel to fetch our luggage. The cruise ships dock on a large quay accessible by a huge bridge. When my family was last here 11 years ago we walked to the ship from our hotel, suitcases in tow. Those 5 km will forever live in our memories as "The Death March." This time we were really excited that my dad decided to go by taxi instead and we enjoyed a nice quick ride out to the port. 

Our family "Welcome Aboard" photo

We were sailing on the Norwegian Epic, a newer ship and one of the largest in Norwegian's fleet. The capacity was 4,000 guests and close to 2,000 crew - quite the monster! She wasn't the prettiest of vessels (think floating brick), but for all those people things never felt overly crowded and we had a great time. 

Our itinerary included 5 port stops (more posts to follow) and one day at sea. 

Graduation Day

Dave graduated from the University of Utah with a PhD in business on Friday, May 5th. His PhD was a 5 year program, that immediately followed a 2-year MBA so it's been a long road for our family and now we are done!! My Grandma Lambert was in town and came to watch, and Dave's mom came up from Texas, and his brother and his family came down from Idaho. We are so thankful for the many people that were there to support us on graduation day, and over the last several years.

Waiting for things to start - thank you Grandma for going early and getting us these great seats!

Video: The official hooding ceremony. I took a longer video, but accidentally deleted it from my phone, so I'm really glad I had this short clip saved on Facebook. 

Stats on the graduating class this year - Dave falls into the lower right group, although we are not sure who the third PhD was. All the candidates but one from Dave's year dropped out, or weren't ready to graduate yet.

Celebrating Dr. Dave!

  

Soph with cousin Liam, and a worn out Davey

April Roundup

Playing catch up here.... April is already a distant memory and if it weren't for these photos, I wouldn't be able to recall much of anything. With the holidays, trips, graduation and a move on the horizon, things are moving quickly and I'm just doing my best to keep up!

One memory that does stand out was Sophie grabbing a bottle of Febreeze at the Walmart checkout and asking if we could buy it because it would keep our room fresh for 45 days :) Commercials are like a direct line to her brain - it's both amazing and scary sometimes to see what she has absorbed.

APRIL 2017 PHOTOS

I missed the sign ups for swimming lessons at the rec center by our house, so we put her in lessons in American Fork. It was her first time in the pool since December, but she did well. Davey also started standing on his own a lot more this month.

We saw both sun and snow this month. On one of our nice weather day we did some clean up in the back yard and Davey was a big fan of the power tools. 

Sophie unloaded the dishwasher one morning for me as a surprise

Two more church naps in the books - we are really starting to get good at this

Every year my elementary school runs a one mile race at BYU. I designed the shirts for our team this year so I really wanted to go and cheer on the kids. After I picked Soph and Davey up a the babysitter we went to the mall to play and eat, and then over to the track. Noah Webster got first place!!

Grandmari came to visit at the end of the month for my brother's graduation from BYU. She stayed at our house for a couple nights and went to the farm at Thanksgiving Point with a bunch of Lambert relatives while she was in town. 

We also took Sophie up skiing one last time. Sadly the magic carpet was closed, but she did great just cruising on the side of the resort. She got to eat this huge sucker that has been sitting in our candy bucket for weeks as a reward.