venice.

i'm sorry that i'm not such a great blogger about my trip to italy. i've just been talking about it so much and have told all the funny stories to my family so many times that blogging about it seems so redundant. my apologies, my blog fans. after we visited rome, florence and venice, we flew down to palermo which was one of the cities the boys served in and then we took a day trip to monareal which is this teeny tiny town outside palermo where they also served. after monareal, however, i kind of stopped taking pictures and let whit take over. hopefully i will be getting a couple cds with her photos fedexed to me very soon! she has some amazing pictures, not going to lie. pics of us hiking the sicilian jungle in walmart shoes, pics of us dancing on a boat with hoochie italian girls, pics of us swimming in the mediterranean at 3am, pics of us dancing the night away at italian clubs, pics of us eating quatro formaggio pizzas and pics of us so happy to be young and alive and traveling the world. the whole trip we kept mentioning how lucky we all are to be where we were and seeing what we were seeing. spoiled kids we are, no questions asked. but appreciative, and so that makes it okay.

monareal. the view was unbelievable! 

story time: cameron taught this man on his mission a few years ago. at the time, this man had no home, no family and was in desperate circumstances. cam and the other missionaries built this man a house and helped him get on his feet and now he is married and expecting his first child in a couple months. it was such a tender moment to see these two reunite and exchange kisses on the face. and such an endearing, genuine gesture that i've learned to love. nothing says love more than a kiss, and i love that italian culture embraces that. anyway, this man has a small fruit stand on the city targeted for cruise ship tourists and he gave us the most amazing fresh squeezed orange raspberry slushie drink. i don't know what was in it, but i loved it and i loved watching cam and him speak italian together and i had no idea what they were saying but i could feel the appreciation this man had for cam and how he changed his life. amazing people, those missionaries. 

the boys in the teeny tiny town. 

cam lovingly acquired the nick-name "no hands cam" because he refuses to hold onto the bars on the bus...he says he doesn't need them because he can balance himself. however, on the way back from venice to our hotel, we were on a particularly bumpy bus and sweet cam stumbled and practically sat on top of a poor little italian man. so funny. 

whit and court in venice.

venice! i loved this city. so small and quaint and charming to the moon and back. i took so many photos of just the streets and the buildings. they all look fake or look like they are straight out of a scene of a movie. so beautiful.

well hello there. my eye candy. and can you blame me?

the girls in front of st marks church. unfortunately, there was another modesty requirement for this church and we did not want to buy gypsy scarves again so we walked the city and got gelato while the boys took the tour. they said we didn't miss much. and we probably didn't, because not a lot of churches are too noteworthy after seeing the vatican.

pigeons. everywhere. and the people play with them like they are cute little furry puppies! i just want to shake these people and inform them of how dirty these fat birds are! it's disgusting. they are like rats and they are all over the st. marks square. some too lazy and fat to fly even, so they just trot along. it's out of control. someone needs to call pest control.

little miss whit. 

cam and court took our bags to the hotel for us so whit and garrett and i got to walk around the city for an extra few hours by ourselves. it was so peaceful and relaxing and we ate the best sandwich ever. garrett found this teeny hole in the wall shop on the corner of some random local street and we had simply mozzarella and prosciutto sandwiches on fresh bread and it was so so so unbelievably good. don't know what they put in that sandwich, but i just did not want it to end. 

look at that!

garrett and whitney.

i took this one right after we got off the train and were walking to the bus stop. i was in awe of the city. i knew there was going to be water, but i never expected that much water! it is truly a one of a kind city and a must see place. i loved it. loved the people i was with. and had the trip of a lifetime.