An interruption to the trip!!!

Well, there are still some pictures to come from our crazy adventure but I had to interrupt for a brief moment and announce that Mandy and I are both officially AUNTIES!!! A big huge congrats to Courtney and Brandi Larsen who welcomed Umbria Ann Larsen into the world this morning at 12:50am-ish weighing 7 & 1/2 lbs. She is absolutely gorgeous and I'll try to post some pictures soon!!! We are giving the new mom a few days to be home with the baby and dad before we bombard but we can't wait to finally meet her and love her with all we have in us! Funny fact.... we still don't even know if the grandparents know that they have a beautiful, amazing, perfect granddaughter!!! They are on a cruise and won't be home until Saturday evening! Both the mom and baby are doing amazing but yet are a bit exhausted.... More to come shortly!

Hanging with Jansen!!!

This is one of my favorite photos of us in Denmark! I don't know why but I just love it to pieces. This is in downtown Copenhagen.

This is us being very afraid of the Guards. They are guarding the queen's palace/castle and I'm not sure why but we were a bit afraid. Well, actually I do know why we were afraid. Everyone told us that if you get in their way they will shoot you! I don't know about you but that is kinda scary... Well, Christopher thought it was funny and he kept telling us to get closer and closer and closer to the guards. He told us that if they didn't like how close we were they would start yelling at us. Lucky for us we didn't have to hear them yell but we were definitely scared!

Well, this is Christopher... yep he takes horrid pictures. I guess that's what you get though when you try to look bad in your pictures! He was really sweet to take us out and entertain us while we visited... We had served together on the mission and it was good to see him!

This is some actual Danish food. It kinda reminded me of a Greek gyro but different meat. It was really good though and fun to have actual Danish food!

The next few pictures are of us at one of the castles in Denmark! Wow, it was gorgeous. Christopher picked us up and we drove along the coast up to the castle. It was such a beautiful drive and cool to see such an ancient castle. In the picture below you can barely see Sweden across the ocean from us!

The above picture is Mandy and I doing our jumping picture! Christopher was a great photographer... The picture below is his attempt to do a jumping picture... Not such a great jumper but really he has to be bad at something!

Denmark Temple

While we were in Denmark we were able to attend the temple! We were really lucky that it worked out for us to do baptisms... It really is different than here in Utah, apparently if you want to do baptisms you are supposed to find the priesthood to be able to baptize and witness because they don't have enough workers available. We got really lucky and were able to do baptisms with a family that was visiting from the states. The baptistery was absolutely gorgeous and had some amazing paintings!!! I was also able to do a session with Theresa and wow the inside of the temple was absolutely gorgeous!!! I loved being able to be inside the temple. It was incredible... :)

Denmark -- Copenhagen

Denmark was loads of fun!!! We had such a great time walking around seeing the sights. I thought this sign on the building was really funny... It says, "Probably the best beer in town" I guess in Denmark there is a law that says you can't advertise with any statement that can't actually be proven... So, instead of saying the best beer in town they advertised with PROBABLY the best beer in town!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of us in Denmark!!!

Apparently 7-11 is a huge thing in Copenhagen!!! They were seriously on every corner.. I have no idea how they all stay in business :)... We loved being able to go and get slushies, although they weren't quite like the ones in the states! It was kinda expensive though... Denmark was a very expensive town!

I know it is hard to imagine but yes we are eating ice cream here!

This is up on top of the round tower! It was so cool to climb up above the city and be able to look out over everything! Copenhagen was probably the smallest big city we saw but it was still really cool! We were tired when we got to the top though because we had pushed Theresa up to the top in her wheel chair... It got steeper and steeper the higher up we got! It was crazy!

In Danish this means kissing booth! We just thought it was cute and funny! Don't worry we didn't kiss each other, we just made fun kissing faces!

Here we are eating with the sisters! We met up with them for lunch!

This is in the church where there is the Chrysalis! We were told that it is the original but later found out the the actual original is in a museum... None the less it was made by the original artist and was gorgeous!!! Really cool to see it!

Rome, Italy

As you can most likely see I had a really hard time choosing which pictures to post from our adventures in Rome!!! We had sooo much fun. As I look back through all of our photos I remember all the laughs and fun times we had together. I am so happy that Mandy and I got to spend 2 months in Europe together. I really wish she was coming back with me in November but I'm happy for her that she has found the man of her dreams and will be getting married!

The above and below photo are from an evening we were in Rome. We were supposed to be going out with a group of people and were just waiting around. Mandy was getting really bored and found ways to entertain herself! We have loads of random shots from the evening and these were a couple of my favorites!

Isn't the scenery amazing!!! I mean America has some pretty cool states and all I have to say but it is sooo different in Europe! There is sooo much history and attention to detail all around you! You are amazed every time you turn the corner!!!

The above picture is us outside the Vatican!!! Wow... It sure was a sight to see...

This here is some really famous fountain that at the moment I don't remember the name for it! It was definitely incredible though.... I can't even begin to fathom how they created all of this stuff!?!?! It really blows my mind!

This is us standing outside the Colosseum in Rome... And yes these men stand out there all dressed up trying to get you to pay for pictures with them. Well we didn't want to pay but the guy told us it was free for Mandy... Looks like she got a kiss on the cheek out of the deal! Don't worry right after this picture was taken I got a kiss on the lips from the man taking the photo! It was so disgusting! It made our list of quotes!!! This is what I said after being kissed! ..."“I was kissed by a sick nasty man in a costume at the Colosseum in Rome!!!”

This is us inside the Colosseum! Once again it was incredible!!!

Venice, Italy

Wow!!! Let's just say that Venice was truly INCREDIBLE!!! We were definitely sad to have to leave such an amazing place.... Also just an FYI - the pictures just don't seem to do justice but we did our best. I tried to pick a few favorites as we have over 300 pictures just in Venice. i figured you most likely don't want to see all 300 nor do I want to upload all 300!



































Some highlights of Venice included the fact that you had to walk everywhere! We loved watching the waterroadways! It was crazy seeing how they deliver things and how the men pull the carts like they are horses or something!

Pretty much it was just amazing being in the city and there were so many incredible things to see! It really at times felt like a dream! As you can see I'm sure the masks were a huge deal in Venice and they were everywhere. Mandy heavily debated getting one but was afraid it wouldn't hack the journey back home...