Venice and Athens

Welcome to Venezia! After almost a full 24 hours of being in airplanes and airports, we started our Mediterranean adventure in this crazy city! It really looks just like its shown in the movies. We were there for an about a day before we had to get on the cruise ship. We were able to visit St. Mark's square where there were a lot of pigeons, the Dojo's palace, a famous clock tower, go on a Gondola ride. We also had an 'authentic' Venetian dinner on a beautiful plaza in Venice. The cuisine left much to be desired though... so if you're ever in Venice- DO NOT eat eggplant gnocchi with a mint tomato sauce... don't do it!

While in St. Mark's square, everyone decided to play with the millions of pigeons- everyone except me that is. I have a total phobia of pigeons. I just really really really hate them, probably because they are flying rats, but whatever. While everyone let the dirty pigeons crawl all over them....

... I stood back a good 15 feet so all pigeons knew that I was off limits :)

On a gondola ride! This was the night of our 4th anniversary and we spent it on a gondola ride in Venice being sang to by an authentic Italian gondolier. How cool is that?

In jail in the Dojo's palace!

Our gondolier

At the top of the famous clock tower... This was almost the best part of the day because the air was about 20 degrees cooler up here and the wind felt SO amazing :) The views were pretty awesome too!

More Gondola

View of Venice from the ship as we left port

Enjoying the fresh air and the views of Venice and the ocean- just before we worked out then gorged ourselves on delicious food all day :)


We spent two days on the ship and then we had a stop scheduled in Athens....

... but this is what the port looked like when our ship pulled in. Yup, those taxi cabs are blockading the port because they are protesting their wages.
We had an awesome excursion booked to go see all of the major sites of Athens but all tours got cancelled and no one was even allowed off of the ship. Our tour of Athens was done using the telephoto lens on Brent's camera to get a view of the Acropolis. It was such a bummer! So, instead of learning about the ancient Greeks, we played hearts all day and lounged by the pool. It could have been worse :)

Jordan's face pretty much sums it up

Miscarriage: Part Three

I’ve been going through one of those ‘waves’ of sadness recently. I’ve heard a couple of people who have been through this describe it as that- periods of happiness, sadness and neutrality that kind of ebb and flow and get all mixed together at times.

It's about the time when we would have been finding out the gender of the baby and I would have a cute baby bump- maybe I would be about to the point of needing maternity clothes. I try my hardest not to think about these things, but it just so happens that a lot of people I know are pregnant and due right around the same time I was. I see them updating their blogs/facebook pages with these types of posts and I can’t help but go into the ‘what if’s’ sometimes.

I hate it when I let myself do it though because it inevitably ends with me feeling sad and lonely.

It’s not that I’m mad or angry at the people who are so delightfully happy- I suppose I’m feeling some jealousy- just wishing that I could be having those celebrations with them.

For some reason this weekend was particularly difficult. I found myself moody and was frequently plagued by flashbacks to the days after we found out. I remembered looking at the paint blemish on the wall waiting to hear the news. I remembered crying in the operating room before the D and C. I also remembered sitting in the examining room waiting to hear the expected heartbeat. It was so heartbreaking- why would my brain make me relive all of those moments????

Today was a sunny and beautiful 60 degree day in Colorado. It definitely lifted my spirits. Steve and I got outside and took a walk around Lake Mac and talked about going on a dream vacation this summer. We laughed and joked and had such a fun time. We discussed how in the future, we will be a family that takes Sunday afternoon bike rides. It was such a great afternoon.

He had to leave for California on business this week. I dropped him off at the airport a couple of hours ago and am wishing right now that I didn’t have to say goodbye to him for so long! Luckily, I have a busy week ahead of me hopefully it just flies by until the next thing I know it’s 12:40 am on Friday and I’m picking him up at the airport (That’s right- he couldn’t get a flight home until after midnight on Friday, bummer!).