Madrid, Spain (may 16th)

So this morning may 16th we woke up at an early 7:30am to catch a bus over to where we would be meeting up to go on a panoramic bus tour and a tour of the royal palace. We got to the royal palace at 9am and started out tour. We don't have any pictures from the inside because we were not allowed to take pictures inside. It was amazing though. They had tapestries from the 16th century and tons of painting, rugs, etc from that time period. The palace was amazing... I mean these rooms that we got to see where so elaborated decorated it was nuts! There was so much history in the palace; bryan even remembered that he studied it in one of his architecture classes. After the tour we went on to the gift shop and got us some pictures of the insides and a spoon from the royal palace. We have decided to make a shadow box, so spoons work wonderfully. Anyhow then it was off to the bus tour of the city which was nice, except for the fact that I got sick about halfway through. I guess the bonbon that bry and I shared in the morning did not sit well with me, because once that tour was on its way back, bry asked the guide to drop us off at this museum that was near our hotel so that I could hurry back to the room... I don't know what sometimes I get sick from stuff... I wish I didn't have such a sensitive stomach. That was so sweet of bry to ask, since I was in no shape to walk a mile back to the hotel from the drop-off point. Anyhow here are some pictures from the bus tour and the palace. The palace was built from 1738 to 1764, and has around 230 rooms, 20 of which we got to see today. There were five royal rulers that lived in the palace from 1764 to 1931. The current ruler Juan Carlos prefers to live in the Palacio de Zarzuela outside the city. They still do however do all their formal meeting and event at the royal palace.


The wall around the royal palace that faces over the royal forest, which serves as the royal hunting grounds.











Bry and the front facade. Directly off the doors in the middle is the grand staircase with each step being its own whole slab of marble. Its amazing!


Me in front of the royal cathedral. This is where the recent prince and princess of spain got married a few short years ago.











Bry and I overlooking the royal forest.

The royal forest and outskirts of Madrid.










Another view of the front facade.


A close up shot of the cathedral.





Another view of the front facade


This is a cathedral in the city that is decidicated to the Pope. You can see his statue left center.












Another view of the cathedral decidicated to the Pope.










The royal gardens that are outfront of the palace.
















more royal gardens


The royal cathedral again on our way out.



















A typical street in Madrid. This was our view on the tour bus!












The Madrid City Hall square. There is a square almost everytime streets cross.

















a government building












this is a view of the city stretched out in the background.









another view of the city














this is the train station. Much more modern that the older parts of Madrid. We will be taking a train from here on sunday.









View down the street that our hotel is on.



















Some different street shots.































this is the main plaza in Madrid. Its under construction right now so it wasn't all that nice.











The Real Madrid football(soccer) stadium.

















This is what is left of the city walls that encompassed Madrid. It was one of the main enterances to the city.








This believe it or not is a post office. crazy!













This is one of the main drags in Madrid. The trees are so beutiful this time of year.











This is the Madrid Library. They do things big here for government buildings.

Our Suite at the Palace Hotel, Madris

So here are some pictures of our room since it was so nice.

Madrid, Spain (may 14th and 15th)

We started off in the Salt Lake airport May 14th, and we were off to Atlanta. Bry and I stayed up as late as possible the night before so that we would be able to sleep on the flights. Dev,Kev, and BK came over that night, since we hadn't seen them all in a week (which is a long time for us because we are always over at their house)... but anyhow we got to Atlanta, and got some food and waited for our flight. We activated our international phone, which is my same number and we boarded the plane! We got to our seats and there were people in... So we just said well where are you seated, because we will just take your seats. We got to where their seats where, and surprise surprise there was a baby in the seats behind them. Well I decided that an eight and half hour flight directly in front of a baby was not going to be fun, so I kindly told the people who were in our seats that we would like them. So we settled into our seats and played with the individual TV screens! We watched some scrubs, and we each watched our own choice of movies and settled in for the long night of flying. I slept most of way but Bry didn't get as lucky. So we arrived in the Madrid airport and got our bags and found our driver. I love that Bryan speaks Spanish because he has been such a help. His Spanish is perfect!

We got to our hotel which was amazing! We actually found out that when the other countries Royal families come to Madrid, they stay in our hotel which is the Palace Hotel! It’s amazing! We walked around a bit and then settled into our room and slept for about 6 hours. We ventured out to dinner around 10pm which is customary here and ate some wonderful pastas, and the waitress told Bryan that he had a beautiful accent! I wish so bad that I could speak spanish!

The next day (May 15th) we met up with my babysitter from my childhood. Her name is Pamela and she has lived here in Spain for two years now. She showed Bry and I around town. It's so nice because our hotel is pretty central to all the tourist sights in Madrid! We got to eat a typical spanish lunch which was "Huevos Rotos". It was so good....filling but good! We walked past so many museums and through all the alleys around the city. Today was "San Isidro" which is a holiday for a Catholic Saint. So there were tons of people in the streets and even a bunch of people being human statues in the streets. It was fun! We got a bit hungry a little later and got some hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate here is like pudding and the churros aren't the mexican churros because they don't have sugar or cinnamon on them. They are actually used for dipping in coffees or in our case wonderful hot chocolate! We even got to walk around outside the royal palace! Tours were closed today, so we are planning on going tomorrow! We came back to our hotel during the typical "siesta" which is kind of an afternoon nap for the spanish. We then walked around and found ourselves an Italian restaurant for dinner and had some of the best Italian food we have ever eaten! It was amazing!

Huevos Rotos

Bry at the cafe that we had our hot chocolate

us in front of the fountain at the Royal Palace

the royal palace

us in the square that they shot the movie vantage point!

us in front of our hotel after dinner

our hotel on the left

The start of our European Honeymoon

So my parents decided to send Bryan and I to Europe for our honeymoon! We are traveling to:

Madrid, Spain

Valencia, Spain

Bracelona, Spain

Paris, France

Rome, Italy

Venice, Italy

Florence, Italy

Texas, Sac and Tanya's Wedding!

Bry and I planned a trip to Texas to visit my grandparents(san antonio) and his grandparents(austin). My grandparents weren't able to make it to the wedding. So we toke a video from our wedding up to them so that they could see what it all entailed. We spent 3 days with them and toke in all thier stories from Japan, Germany, various other places in Europe and of course various states in the US. They have truely lived a full life. It was bittersweet leaving them since this was thier first time meeting Bryan. We go a chance to visit the Alamo, which I had no idea what it was and Bryan quickly informed me. Sometimes I am a little bit blonde, what can I say. Anyhow we spent a couple hours reading history boards and walking around the historic place. We then traveled to Austin to spend the evening before we left with Bryans grandparents who are still going strong! We went out to dinner with them and had a ton of laughs. We left the next morning to go to Sacramento to visit my parents and celebrate Tanya's wedding( friend from grade school).



Tanya (basically Dana's little sister) got married on May 10th at Wilson's Vineyard in sacramento. It was nice to see her so happy. Bry and I got a chance to visit with her brothers who I am both close to! Bryan, Jack and Grant all joked about my previous boyfriends and how much they loved Bryan in comparison. It was a lovely evening!



Bry and I spent some much needed time with my parents. We celebrated mothers day, and got things organized for europe! We got our itineraries and made sure we had all the outlets that we needed to make all of our electrnics work! Dad took us to Frys and we got a new camera for Europe! We were way excited!

me taking a picture with my new camera

so then I took one of bry... he was napping but i took it anyways!

Camping, finally done with school!

So Bry and I were officially done with school as of April 30th! Classes ended well for both of us and we were so ready to get our summer started. Jess (Dana's best friend from when they were kids) came over to Utah to visit. We decided that it was time we got out of cold Salt Lake, so we decided to go camping with a bunch of friends down in Zion National Park. We left the next day from Salt Lake, mind you that it was snowing and traveled down to Zion! We spent the next two days camping, hiking, and enjoying the great outdoors! The weather was perfect, just a bit chilly at night, but who doesn't like a nice campfire! Here are some pictures from our travels!:

Once we set up camp, we decided to go for a walk and came upon some deer, the guys decided it would be fun to run into the forest after them... wow that was a funny sight!

Kev and Bry showing off thier muscles

Me, Bk, Ash, Jess and Kev on the hike up to the subway, yes we are standing in water! It was so cold but we had too cross somewhere!

bry and I on the way up there! It was so amazing!

me at the base of the subway

bry and I on the way back... I was soooo tired and my knees were killing me.. It was a 12 mile hike, which was likt 24 with all the crossing over the river that we did, but the last mile of so was straight up... I died!

All in all tho, the weekend was a blast! We are going to go to bryce soon, and do more camping and hiking, we both enjoy the outdoors!