First Easter Sunday in the UK

It was a gray day, but a beautiful day to remember the Resurrection. I spoke in church today, about Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation. I won't post the whole thing, but the last few paragraphs are my testimony of Jesus Christ on April 8 2012.

All of us here had faith in the premortal world that Jesus Christ would perform the atonement. We made a choice to follow Jesus Christ before we were born on this earth.  We rejoiced in the heavens when Jesus was born to Mary. The atonement was performed by him, sobering, awesome and complete. Because of that we can make mistakes, and still be resurrected after we die. That is a gift that Jesus gave us, and what we remember each Easter. 

Let us continue with the faith we had in that premortal world, now that we are here on earth with the veil over our eyes. We each have been given the Light of Christ while we are here on the earth, and if we listen with our heart, we can remember those feelings of faith in Jesus Christ.

  The sweet feelings of spiritual remembering are how that I know that a doctrine or principle of the gospel is true. I have had that feeling at church, at the temple, and while I have studied the scriptures. It is a feeling I recognize, a feeling that says: This is true, you are home. It is a feeling that I remembered each time one of our children was born, and a feeling that comes from a true testimony of someone else, written or spoken.  I have felt it once as I stood near a painting of The Savior’s birth. I testify that Jesus Christ did complete the atonement, and I will love him forever for it. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The kids and Curtis did some serious launches into the love sac after church. The kids loved it.

Our Easter feast was really good if I do say so myself. Ham with a sweet glaze, strawberry salad with sugared pecans, cheesy potatoes, and homemade bread which was still rising as we ate dinner. typical. But it deserved a picture because it was a meal that I worked on all afternoon, and thoroughly enjoyed eating:)  Janie had some later because she played Helen Keller tonight as usual and got sent to her room.

I got a chance to steal a few minutes outside with Sadie. She played with a little stick in the rock patio for literally 20 minutes while I took a bunch of pictures. She loves being outside, she climbs up the stairs and walks around on the grass, tears apart plants and east moss. I am so in love with this girl it is not even funny. Her curls are so cute.

 My sweethearts at dinner. Sorry Sadie you were stuck in the corner in your high chair.

Happy Easter! 

Sicily part 2

Toarmina was Thursday. It is a village built into the side of a mountain. The ruins of the grecco-Roman theatre were so much fun to climb and play, a perfect place for having fun and getting energy out. We started at the top...

Beautiful weather for expiring Taormina!

The Bay below Taormina

View of the theatre from the top

It's a double rainbow... no a triple rainbow!! It was just a rainbow but who can forget that youtube video?

The Theatre from inside, where the gladiators would have fought

Ethan, Janie and Eli climbing around

Seats J 1-12 ha ha. But Curtis and I commented how well the theatre was designed, with rows, exits in the back,  etc. 

Sunshower... that is Ethan in the red sweatshirt

Sun slowly going down, and Eli

Friday we took a ferry out to one of the Aeolian islands- Lipari. The one and only highlight of the day was an awesome jewellery store, but other than that, dirty and seedy. Curtis scared off pickpockets all day long with fierce eye contact.

Saturday- last day and sunny! Got all packed up and drove down the lane by our villa to try and find the ocean. We parked the car when we couldn't drive any further, and walked through a small farm toward where we thought the sea was. Over a berm and a beautiful, clean beach with gorgeous blue green waves as far as we could see. And it was less than a mile from our villa.

Started out innocently playing in the waves..

Then pants rolled up...

And you know what happened next!

Janie ended up taking off everything and we all got a good laugh

Had to get moving into Palermo, so back through the farm

and the lanes

and the citrus orchard

Playing in a village on the way to the airport

We stopped to get some pottery, and as we finished up lunch, realised that we left the dvd's back at the villa. So back 30 minutes to get them , and then forward again 30 minutes. We were really hoping that our Ford galaxy would get us to the airport quickly. What we didn't count on was a 20 minute detour to find petrol. Yi yi yi . We pulled up and I checked luggage while Curtis turned in the car. We made it onto our plane, and home Saturday night, so glad just to be home!!! Hot water, heating that works, and Sadie's bed were among the most missed. But a good trip anyway.

Sicily part 1

Palermo, Sicily is about a 3 hour flight from Gatwick. Very nice airport and super family friendly.We got in at about 6 pm on Saturday night and took the shuttle bus to get our rental car. I don't think I'll go into the details of the going through security and getting to the gate with our crew, it is total chaos which involves much deep breathing on my part. "Are they ALL YOURS??" I heard that about 500 times.


Curtis and I noticed immediately that there is no clean air act in Sicily, lots of cigarette smoke. And also most public toilets do not have toilet seats. The sinks are really large, very unlike jolly ole England.


The villa that we rented was in Brolo, about 2 hours away from the airport. We pulled up in the pouring rain, and were greeted by Rinalto, a very nice Italian gentlemen, who had started a fire for us in the fireplace. There was also brioche, boxed milk, and baskets of beautiful lemons and oranges and mandarins in the kitchen. We got everybody inside and Curtis and Eli ventured out into the rain to find pizza for us. They came home with 4 mystery pizzas! 2 of them were good, and the other two not really.


Sunday morning we got ready for church, and drove to where the closest Church was. We were driving around, looking and looking, asking people if they knew where a Mormon church was (crazy Americans). We did have service on our phones, so we looked up how to say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Italian (la chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli ultimo giorni). In the meantime, Curtis found an Italian guy who said that he knew where the church was and we could follow him there. It was literally down the street from where we were- in an apartment building!  After that we drove down to the beach and played on a beach with huge blocks of cement that were breaking the waves. Santo Stefano de Camastro. They had so many shops with beautiful, hand painted pottery. 

The church building in Santo Stefano de Camastro

Big Breakers by the sea

 Monday we went to Cefalu. Ancient, rustic. Narrow streets. Beautiful cathedral. We got home after dark, Monday night, in the middle of a hail storm. The power was out at the villa, which meant to water, no heat (and it had been cold). Fortunately the owner was able to find us a hotel in Brolo for the night. No crib for Sadie. That was a good night.

Cathedral in Cefalu

Inside 

Streets in Cefalu

Cefalu in the background

Tuesday we spent in Brolo, walking around, and made reservations at BonTempo il restaurante. They  didn't actually open until 8 pm, but let us come at 7:30.  Curtis and I were both hoping that we could be in and out of there before anyone else showed up for dinner! BUT... we didn't realise that it was Valentine's Day! Oh. Crap. That was awkward. But the best pizza I have ever had in my life. The funny thing was, that around 8:30, when we were almost done eating, people slowly started filtering their way in, but not couples as you would expect in Valentines Day- big families! The Italian family stereotype was true that night!

Becky and Ethan at Nino Bontempo's restaurant

Wednesday Curtis went to Reggio de Calabrio for work and the kids and I stayed home and watched movies and fed the stray cat.

Villa Baldaserra

The lemon trees smelled so good after the rain

Mandarins in the garden

Dinner Wednesday was Sicilian Sausage and pasta. Delish.

Sadie in the sink- where the water was actually warm enough for a bath!