every time i think i'm ready to blog, i sit here, staring at the screen, and nothing comes to mind...

so how about another update from my summer, then?

after italy, mare and i took the train through gorgeous switzerland, up a gondola to the swiss alps.
we stayed at an interesting hostel that was plopped right in the side of a mountain and our bunk beds (or shall i say, giant frame with plywood slopped across it and individual mattresses lined up next to each other-yikes!--mary had the end, lucky her! and i don't think anyone ended up sleeping on the other side of me) had a view of the swiss alps, complete with 4 waterfalls. and this was the view from laying down in bed---completely beautiful...

we were in such a teeny town that we had to hike 40 minutes up the mountain to the nearest town to get food-breakfast? lunch? some sort of morning meal. purchases were made in the form of more nutella, peanut butter, bread, bananas, white chocolate and a random avacado. ha! it just looked good. did i mention that mary and i went vegetarian on this trip? not on purpose, but just sort of naturally. wierd, huh?

seeing the swiss alps for the first time literally brought tears to my eyes. it was absolutely amazing--my eyes/brain could not process the hugeness of the view all at once! i had to keep moving my eyes, looking at different sections at a time, in order for my brain to process it all: gigantic alps EVERYWHERE, numerous waterfalls, glaciers close by, and green and white everywhere with clear blue sky--absolute heaven. plus peaceful and quiet...

mare and i picnicked for what seemed like hours--nutella overdose-yeah! quote from my journal: "it was a perfect, perfect morning of slowness and just taking it all in". then in the afternoon we took a beautiful hike to the base of one of the glaciers. it required walking through the woods and different farmers' properties and grazing pastures. goats and sheep bleated and cows clanged their bells as they grazed on sloping fields. on our way, we sat on a bridge, under which flowed a river of glacier silt water (an odd, but pretty, gray color). we laughed and chatted and then found our way back to the hostel for a shower, homemade pizza, and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps!

the next day we took a crazy hike to the schilthorn (some peak, also in some james bond movie). too much to write about in that experience. let's just say it stretched our faith and we had a fan club by the time we reached the gondola station at the top of the peak. we rode down the overpriced gondola (wait, have i mentioned that switzerland is extremely expensive in general? way more expensive than any other place we visited in europe), gathered our backpacks from our hostel, and hopped on a train to interlaken. a clean, dorm-like hostel awaited us, along with the coolest blue-green opaque colored lake view. we spent the next three days relaxing by the lake, laying in the sun, shopping in town, playing cards, laughing, talking, reading magazines, doing pilates, taking walks along the lake, eating chocolate, journaling, and eating great free breakfasts that were included in the price of our stay (of which we pilfered pieces of bread to make into sandwiches later on). ahh, relaxing recovery....

then we were on to ireland, which deserves a post of it's own!

in real life here, though, i had a fantastic week-long visit with my family (kevin and emily-i missed you guys--see you at christmas, though). caleb is such a chubster and hannah is a chatterbox--so fun to see them again and to chat with all the adult members of the fam! can't wait to go back for christmas + see the edwards clan and heidi and ken.

matt and i also took a super fun weekend trip to napa for a wine-tasting weekend in november. we had such an amazing time that we almost impulsively took an extra day off, but thankfully, matt brought us both back down to earth and said that wouldn't be a good idea. i was disappointed until partway home i remembered what i had to do at work the next day--could not be missed!!! ha! but that's how much fun we had! napa was beautiful, like fall in the midwest. perfect sweater weather and fall leaf colors everywhere (grapevines were mostly a beautiful yellow on the still-green fields). i would go back any day.

so how do i end this post?
goodbye.