Monterosso, Cinque Terre, Italy

We loved Monterosso, our first day here we had the best pizza of my life, seriously we went back at least two more times, then explored the town a bit and had an ocean view with our pasta. The town blew me away with its adorable paths and beyond gorgeous buildings.

The next couple days we used monterosso as our home base to visit the towns of cinque terre. We started our full day hop on hop off boat tour here, which I will have a full post on, and spent two lovely days at the beach! Travis would probably only count it as one, since i refused to go in the water the first day! For me any day I am sitting on a beach towel with the sand in my toes, listening to the waves is a good beach day in my books.

There are 5 towns that are a part of Cinque Terre. We opted to stay in Monterosso Al Mare for the length of our stay. What got me was our beautiful Airbnb, a 2 min walk to the beach, and that its a bigger town than the others so more options for food.

Each town in Cinque Terre has its own unique style and they are all so easy to get to from each other (minus Corneglia- which we sadly didn't go to). I don't think you could go wrong staying in any of them, as long as you also venture out! We spent about 4 days in Monterosso and it was not enough!

Europe Video

I had so much fun making this video and reliving our adventures! Enjoy!

Madrid, Spain 2016

Delicious Paella

Plaza Mayor

Outside Palacio Real or Royal Palace of Madrid

The cutest flats across the street from the palace

Rain rain everyday!

Soaking in the sun at Retiro Park

Fresh food at faborit- my salad was covered in that soup pretty much. The girl just kept squirting more!!

Napolitanas! YUM! We tried custard and chocolate

Zara was just too pretty in madrid! We couldn't help ourselves

Travis with our new suitcase to transport all our souvenirs- most picked up in madrid

Im starting off from the tail end of our trip because I don't have all of the pictures back from London. Madrid was the last leg of our Europe excursion and it was super fun to end with.

We only had sunny skies for half a day of the 2.5 days we were there and because of this we took it as a sign to slow down. We went to bed early, slept in, limited our activities and ate lots of good food. I definitely need to make chicken paella because that stuff was amazing!

Madrid is super walkable and an easy city to get around in general. Our Airbnb was within a 20 minute walk from everything we wanted to see, so besides going to and from the airport, we walked everywhere!

Our two favorite things in madrid were taking a guided tour of the palace of Madrid and taking a row boat on the Retiro Park pond.

The palace was absolutely incredible. It has over 2000 rooms making it very comparable to versailles as far as palaces go. We only saw about 25 of the rooms, but they were incredible. Our guide kept telling us, remember this it is the best thing in the palace. We realized that everything is the best in the palace if you get specific enough. haha

The next day we headed to Retiro park for about 3 hours of sunshine. we took out a rowboat, which I thought was ridiculously fun, walked through the park and just enjoyed the peacefulness.

As the rains started coming in we decided to get a super fresh lunch and finsih up the trip with a little shopping spree. We might have gone a little crazy at Zara. We decided to buy another suitcase to bring all of our stuff back home in...whoops! We also obviously made a stop for napolitanas at La Mallorquina in Puerto Del Sol.

We definitely need to come back and spend more time in Spain!

London Flat

 All photo creed goes to my friend Chelsee Sheffield who stayed with us in London

London was our first stop on our European tour and boy was it lovely! We got our London flat from airbnb. Chelsee and I were hoping to find something central, bright and big enough for two couples to share! When we came across this listing we couldn't say no.

This apartment delivered, although it was a lot smaller than the pictures made it seem! We made it work and really enjoyed our time here! The owner is an interior designer and you can tell, every detail and fixture is divine!

Airbnb is the way to go when traveling in Europe. We had nothing but good experiences this trip.  We wanted kitchens in every place we visited so we could cook if we wanted to and whole apartments are a lot cheaper than hotels and make you feel more at home. You just need to make sure the place you are going has good ratings and lots of positive comments from other people who have stayed there. 

We spent many a late nights up talking, cooked two dinners in our lovely little kitchen, played many games of candy poker and created memories we will never forget! 

We love you London! 

Adulting so hard

This week has been a rough one. End of the Quarter at work, deadlines (and associated stress), and a deathly ill (Flu) husband who couldn't go to work for three days.

But things are looking up! Travis is feeling way better, he made me dinner last night and we finally got our own phone plan! We have been siphoning off our parents for the last two years because its so expensive to go on your own!

But we decided it was time to take the plunge. T-mobile had a really good deal, so yesterday we went in and signed up! This was the last thing I was still on my parents for and it feels so good to be off (Travis isn't quite there yet, he is still on his parents health insurance)!

I am so excited for this weekend! We are going to tune into LDS General Conference, enjoy the beautiful weather, and build some garden boxes! Time to recharge from a crazy crazy week.