We left Paris pretty late at night and arrived in Rome around midnight.  We decided to cab to the hotel from the airport instead of taking the train and Luke got his first taste of riding in a car in Italy.  Eek!  Our cab driver was definitely the perfect example of Italian diving! We arrived at our hotel (which was the worst of all we stayed in, by the way) and went straight to sleep.  We woke up the next day and decided to find some espresso and just walk around to wherever the day took us.  We found a cute little café and I ordered espressos and croissants for us in Italian (woop woop!) The cashier then thought that I didn’t speak Italian and asked the barista what we ordered and I promptly told him [in Italian] that I speak Italian and that we had two espressos and two croissants.  Bam! Take that Mr. cashier man! 

But anyway…we walked around with a little map and found the memorial of the unknown soldier (crazy big by the way) and found a hop-on-hop-off bus to join to get the lay of the land and see everything at once.  It was really helpful in helping us prioritize what we wanted to go back to actually see.  We decided to spend most of our time at Palatine Hill and the Coliseum.  We did guided tours of both and it was so so so awesome to see.  It dates back to at least 50 B.C. what?!  When you are there, you are walking on the same land, the same paths, looking at the same buildings as some of the coolest people in history.  Roman mythology even says the cave where Romulus and Remus were found was in Palatine.  I’m sorry, but that’s insanely awesome…!!

For lunch we stopped and Luke had his first pizza in Italy.  Here is a picture J

The next day we woke up pretty late and decided to walk to the Vatican.   On the way, we found more pizza for Luke to eat- don't worry!! (he was completely sold by the one the day before) 

We happened to be at the Vatican on a Sunday and were able to hear some of mass.  Of course, we couldn’t understand any of it but it was still really meaningful to be there for, even for us Protestants!  Saint Peter’s Basilica was absolutely awe-inspiring. Really no other words are needed for it.  

The rest of the time we walked around piazzas, ate more pasta, drank more espresso and wine, and just took in all the amazingness that is Rome. 

The last night, we went to a wonderful dinner off the Piazza Navona.  We walked around the piazza before dinner and bought a piece of art to take home with us from the cutest little Italian man.  We walked, we talked, and we just took in life.  It was so special and writing this post now (it’s 10pm), while my husband is sitting behind me still working, I so want to be back there! 

PS, the picture below isn't Piazza Novana- it's a smaller one that I don't remember the name of close to it.

The next day we woke up and got on the train to Perugia.  My most favorite place in the whole wide world.  Post on that coming soon!

Honeymoon Post No. 1: Paris

We got back from our honeymoon a couple weeks ago and it has taken me forever to go through the 774(!!!!) pictures Luke took while we were there.  Granted, as I am posting this and looking back through all of them, I am so happy he took so many.  But it’s still my excuse for taking so long to blog about it though… ;)

I’ve decided to split the honeymoon post up by cities visited so it’s a bit more manageable.  We started in Paris so that’s where we’ll start now.  We then went to Rome, Perugia, and Dubrovnik so stay tuned for those posts shortly :)

To be honest, we liked Paris the least of everywhere we went but we did still have a blast.  Our Parisian hotel was definitely our favorite.  It was called The Hidden Hotel.  If you are planning a trip to Paris, I highly recommend it.  The staff were overly friendly and helpful, everything was pristinely clean and taken care of, and just the general ambiance was very calm and inviting.  I digress…we arrived in Paris just in time for a late breakfast so we checked into our hotel and found a breakfast café close by.  Luke ordered some smoked salmon thing and I got a galette.  I thought a galette was a tart until I read the description in English and it said it was a “savory crepe” so I tried it and it was eh.  By savory crepe it meant it was a wheat-flour tasting crepe.  Not the best.  But anyway, we then walked around the city for a bit and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe which was our favorite (which we were both surprised by) attraction in Paris.  I know, “what about the Eiffel Tower??” -that was definitely cool, but it was built up in our minds and we already knew it would be cool.  We weren’t expecting the Arc de Triomphe to be HUGE and feel like it was at the center of the city but it was, and that was super cool to be surprised by.  Here are some pictures:

We walked over to the Eiffel Tower a little later that day. It was definitely meaningful and aw-inspiring seeing such a famous monument.  It was interesting because you can see it from miles and miles away so when we first saw it from maybe 2 miles away, we thought it was much smaller than it actually was once we were standing under it.  Once we were there we got our Parisian on and laid in the grass in front of it for a while.  A) it was romantic and B) we were insanely tired of walking at this point, so it was a win-win J  Here are some pictures:

Dinner the first night was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life: The Hide.  We started with the most amazing, buttery, perfectly cooked escargot tucked inside of a warm popover-like roll with a garlic and white wine sauce around it.  Is your mouth watering, because mine is writing this. We then had a salad with scallops on it and some kind of lamb dish that I don’t remember but here is a picture of both:  They were seriously insanely amazing.  Omgosh. 

The next day we walked around some more and went to Montmartre, the art district, to pick out some art to bring home. Montmartre is a hill that overlooks all of Paris and is also home to the Sacre Coeur. The views from the top were breathtaking. It was probably my favorite out of everywhere we went in Paris because it felt more real for some reason, which is a stupid description, but that’s all I’ve got.  We found some awesome pieces of art to bring home and then just wandered around the rest of the day.  We also tried our first French macaroons at some point that day.  They were amazing too.  

This is the view and also me eating a croissant.  We literally ate the whole time....

That night for dinner we had our only “weird French” meal.  See pictures below.  Our pallets are not refined enough to even understand what we ate, so it was basically lost on us but it was still very good.  I feel like it should have smacked us in the face with amazingness though and it didn't. 

On our last day we did the hop-on-hop-off bus and I wished we had done it at the beginning so it could have helped us get our bearings straight. With the bus we were able to see all the big attractions including the Louvre, Notre Dame, Place de la Concorde, and the Champs-Elysees. 

We also stopped in a real creperie to get a crepe and I definitely wish we had done that the first day too, so that I could have had 27 more of them…it was amazing and definitely much better than any crepe I’ve ever had before. 

In summary, when you go to Paris, Stay at the Hidden Hotel, eat at The Hide, do the bus tour the first day, eat a crepe from a real creperie the first day, and check out the Arc de Triomph.  :) and also drink lots of coffee....

The Longest Post Ever

It’s been almost 2 months since my last post and I feel I owe an explanation and an update. We have had more than a lot going on in our lives. 

Back in May, I went to the ER with excruciating hip pain and about a month later they found a tumor in my hip.  There were many doctor appointments, MRIs, X-Rays and prayers in between that time until finally they took it out on June 18^th.  The surgery went great, they got the entire thing out and it was benign.  I have graduated from physical therapy and am back to 99% normal.  I even went on a run last week! 

Around the time we found out about the tumor in my hip, we found out the company where Luke works was being sold and he needed to start looking for work.  He worked his butt off connecting and meeting with people and accepted a wonderful position on Friday.  We are so relieved it is over!

I'm writing about everything now because it is all ok now.  God has thrown more our way than I think most new couples go through the first 3 years of their marriage, much less the first 6 months! We have sold a house, moved to another part of the country, left a terrible job (me), started a new job (me), lost a job (Luke), GOT A JOB (Luke),  gone to the ER, had surgery, omgosh…I’m tired just writing about it all.  We have tried to pray and be faithful and know that all of this is happening at one time for a reason (any ideas on that? We still haven’t figured it out) and you know what? Everything is fine!  Everything has worked out. Our marriage is stronger than ever and we know how lucky we are. 

We were able to go the beach with my family last week (Luke went for the whole week) and I hosted 35 creative entrepreneurs at my house to chat about business and network and encourage one another.  Oh yea, did I tell you I’m starting a wedding planning company?! I am, and I couldn’t be more excited.  More on that later (follow along on instagram @havilandevents) J In the meantime, here’s a picture from the beach: 

September 1^st we are leaving for Europe for our Honeymoon!!! We are going to Paris, Rome, Perugia, and Dubrovnik.  Hopefully we will walk enough to counteract all the amazing food we’re going to eat!  Eek! I’m so excited!! And how about the timing?! I can walk and Luke has a job.  God can definitely plan well J  Anything we HAVE to do while we’re there?  We’ve been so busy that I haven’t even made an itinerary for the trip.  What?! Who am I?! Suggestions are much appreciated. 

So anyway, I think that is “all”. Here are some pictures of things we’ve been up to.  Anybody want to see the picture of the tumor?? Kidding, that’s disgusting. 

The Coles came to visit us in Chicago!