Ryan' s first one man show!!

Wednesday Ryan and I drove up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the much anticipated show. He's been working all year and plus some for this show and we were excited to see it pay off.
It was a 5 hour drive and when we got there we picked Ryan's mom and Grandma up from the airport, the poor things had to fly for a whole 30 minutes! We checked into the little Bed and Breakfast we were staying at and it was so cute and the beds were awesome!
That evening we went over to the gallery for the show and Ryan had a good time doing "meet and greet" with collectors and I loved seeing red stickers on paintings. That means more shopping at target! He got a lot of good feed back from his show. You can see it better at www.astoriafineart.com and of course they are all for sale ;)









After the show, the gallery owner's, who we have become good friends with, took us out to dinner. The food was so good! We ate at the Rendezvous Bistro and I had wild Alaskan salmon that was to die for and Ryan had roasted duck. And you don't even know the excitement I felt when they ordered the dessert! We got back to our room and I was on a major sugar low and crashed. Thursday, we did some sight seeing and then drove back home to get the kids.

the brown's camp Payson Lakes

Thursday morning we went up to Payson lakes to camp with Ryan's family and stayed until Saturday night. by Saturday morning I was so ready for a shower but looking back could have gone a couple more days only because of how much fun the kids had. We all had fun but the kids especially love being in the mountains and playing all day and night with their cousins. I loved when we first got up there and I opened the door and could smell that mountain smell, fresh air and the scent of pine trees. mmmmm love it! We got rained on Thursday evening and we were the ghetto ones in a tent, probably the last time we will be sleeping in a tent while camping ;) But then again I also love summer rain storms in the mountains. Friday we went down to payson lakes and went fishing. Actually Jeremy and Kelly fished and the kids held the line once the fish was brought in. But they enjoyed throwing stuff and digging more anyways. After lunch we went 4 wheeling. All the kids loved it. My kids preferred going with dad rather than Mom because dad went faster. Sorry I carried you for 9 months and nursed you after that, i care more about your life! j/k. The kids ran around and played after that and once the fire was lit, they couldn't get enough of throwing things in the fire. "mom is this branch dead? can I throw it in the fire?" "no, if you have to pick it and it's green, it's not dead!" Saturday morning was more fishing and then after lunch we all went to Payson Lake to swim. Freezing cold!! But the kids didn't seem to mind. I got in to swim with them a little and also to rinse off the filth a little bit. We had the last supper that night and headed home. I love camping and I got my fix for the year. Ryan has a great family and it was so much fun to be able to spend this kind of time with them. I don't know how I'm going to be able to get these kids back to Italy!

the big boys loved throwin gasoline in the fire and the little boys love watching it

payson lake and the view ryan was painting

brody's fish. and cloe's, and abbey's and gavin's and sage's. they all got a photo op. with the same fish, but that's how we roll.

fish guts are always so interesting


of course Ryan painted. Gotta make sure this whole trip is a business write off. and it was a pretty awesome painting for only 2 hours



does he look like he's having fun?




uncle Kelly was the popular one to ride with because he would take them up the steep hill

Abbey and Sage loved this game together

Abbey likes sage :)

Brody and Gavin playing, and they thought it was a very intense game

it's my birthday and i'll post if i want to

today was a good day to turn 27. yes, i have 3 kids and I'm only 27. i actually hope to have 2 more in the next 3 years but I'll make you question my sanity later.
i met my best friend Lisa and her kids and mom, Betty at temple square. luckily they were in town the same time as us because I'm still not sure if we will make it down to CA during our trip. we walked around and the kids walked ever so reverently through temple square. Lisa and i are just amazing moms with such spiritual children, snapped some photos, which are on Lisa's camera, and chit chatted. then we came home and just did odds and ends around the house and for dinner Ryan and i went to pf Chang's, cue the heavenly music. it was wonderful and it would not have been complete with out the great wall of chocolate cake! yes, i think tomorrow demands a 5 mile run! one thing i love about my birthday is i can tell Ryan "please, it's my birthday."
tomorrow, camping.

today it hit me.

Since we have arrived in Utah I haven't been so stoked on being here. I know jet lag and an 8 hour time difference has a lot to do with it but another factor is where we are. At Ryan's parents it just doesn't feel like we're back home and it is a very big and busy city. And I have to say it, as Americans, we sure do settle for crappy food. I made tacos the other night and bought lean ground beef, I haven't had to drain fat from my meat since before we moved to Italy and a red onion is NOT suppose to the size of a softball, you lose a ton of flavor. Why do we accept our government putting hormones and antibiotics into our food? And why do we eat genetically altered produce? It loses so much flavor! A bit of a tangent? yes. Time to get back on point. Today Ryan and I drove most of his painting up to Jackson Hole for his one man show, which by the way is going to be awesome! And going up we drove through Evanston and back down we took the 89 through Logan. Jackson Hole is gorgeous, if you've never been, go! And as we were driving back home through Idaho and we were passing alfalfa fields and cow pastors, the smell, and the dramatic clouds over the mountains made me so happy to be back here! I grew up in southern California and now would hate to live in a big city again. I love small towns that have farmlands. The whole drive was so beautiful with different scenery.


Don't get me wrong, I would take a beach house any day!!!!

one of my favorite things about

Utah in the summer is the rain storms! They smell so good and the clouds are amazing.


I hope this image looks good. It looks good on the camera but the computer I'm on has a crappy screen and I can't quite tell what adjustments the photo needs.

The Brodsters Birthday

Brody's official Birthday is July 22nd and we were on airplanes so no celebration there. But as we were flying over the Atlantic i told him it was his birthday and he was excited. When we finally got to Utah on Monday, Ryan's mom threw a little b-day party for him with pizza and COSTCO cake, yum! Cousins came over and he opened a couple presents and had a good little time.

Brody with Grams

Then on Wed. we went to the zoo for his birthday. Ryan's friend works there and got us in free! The kids had a good time and Brody was excited that the animals were real. They had a really cool white crocodile and the rest was animals in cages that are too small. I'm not a huge fan of the zoo but I know the kids love it.


this little jack rabbit was one of the most exciting exhibits for these girls






Brody is now 4 and such a good lookin kid. He cracks me up and is such a tease to his sisters and also very tender hearted. His my big boy and I love him to death.

HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY BRODY!!!

we made it and it better be worth it!

It's story time so get comfy, this is a long one.
So after 3 days of "oh, you'll fly tomorrow", I couldn't handle the stress anymore so we called Ryan's mom and had her book us on her buddy passes. I got sick of cleaning the house last minute because we never knew when the unexpected call would come. My stomach was in knots and I dry heaved quite a few times. Saturday I took the kids to the pool by our house so our lives could seem normal. All we did was stay at home to be prepared to leave at any minute. We swam for 4 hours and it was exactly what we needed. Ryan's mom called us after checking the flights and said Venice at 1:40 on Sunday would be best. After cleaning up from the pool I went into the city to buy train tickets. I got there and the self service wouldn't let me buy my tickets, so then I proceeded to the ticket booth to ask a human. I wanted the train that left Florence at 6:30 am, let me rephrase that, I didn't want, I needed because it is a 3 hour train ride and I had no other choice. Well he told me I couldn't buy them because the trains were going on strike that evening at 9 pm until 8 am on Sunday. Do you recall the trip to Cinque Terra with my aunt when the trains went on strike? In my mind "effin Italians and their damn strikes!" So I call Ryan to tell him and we were racking our brains and stressing about what the heck we are going to do. He just told me to come home to hurry and gather everything together and once again hurry and clean up the house just in case we left that night and got a hotel in Venice. In the meantime he called some friends to see if they could give us a ride, but let's be honest, would you drive 3 hours both ways to take someone to the airport? Our awesome friend Eliana saved our life! She is from church and is so good to our family. Her friends, friend, works at a car rental place and got us a sweet freakin fiat station wagon for 70 euros and we could drop it off at the Venice airport! So Ryan told me, that I had to go get the car, and I was going to drive us. Problem, I couldn't find my driver's licence because when do I ever need it in Italy? Then I told Ryan he needed to go and he couldn't find his either! This ended up being a blessing because we did find them but would have come to the states without them had we not rented the car. So on Sunday we got up and hit the road. The drive was great and got us there faster than the train. I wanted to keep the car.
No excitement at the airport but they did hook us up with good seats. Ryan had a row of 3 seats in the bulk head and I also had the same about 8 rows back. THE KIDS WERE PERFECT!!!! It was such a blessing, keep in mind this was a 10 hour flight and they were great the ENTIRE time! We flew into Atlanta and the whole airport/customs was annoying but again the kids were fine. The connecting flight to Salt Lake was too full ( we were flying stand-by) so Ryan' mom recommended we go to Albuquerque. That flight left at 9:50 so the kids slept the entire flight. We got to New Mexico at 11:30pm and were planning on catching the 6:10 am flight to salt lake. Therefore, we spent the night in the airport. We grabbed 3 blankets off the airplane and the kids lounged comfortably on the seats in the terminal. Another blessing to being in NM, the chairs weren't your standard airport seats that are pretty much single chairs, they were benches with arm rests in between, so the kids could lie down under the armrest and be comfy.
They slept a good 4 hours. Ryan and I on the other hand couldn't quite slip under the arm rests and the kind of sleep we got was when you lie in an awkward position and finally fall asleep and then your back starts killing you so you wake up and try to find a somewhat comfy position. So we pretty much talked and laughed at stupid stuff because we were so delirious.
Well, the 6 am flight was full. Do I have to tell you what I was thinking? We checked out the restaurants at the airport and had some breakfast. This was wonderful because my favorite dining food is breakfast and Italians don't do breakfast. Then we just hung out, I tried to catch up on all my Hollywood gossip in the magazine store and then to my surprise I spotted my friend Theressa from UT who had just moved to NM! That was a nice surprise and made the wait much more pleasant. And she had a newborn so Cloe and Abbey were busy, and at this point Brody was asleep. Ryan and I are now on 36 hours without sleep.


Our next flight to try was at 10:28 but was delayed until 11:30. I was the only one to make the fight and had no choice but to go. As I walked down the ramp I started crying mostly because I was exhausted but also because after all we've been through I was leaving Ryan and the kids behind. The flight was short and I got to UT at 1:10 and waited around for the next NM flight that left at 12:10. 1:45 rolled around and there's my cute little family walking off the ramp! Again, we were blessed, because there were only three seats left on that flight from Albuquerque to Salt Lake. Well with Ryan and the kids, that made 4 people, and you can't send any kid alone unless they're 8 years old. So randomly meeting my friend at the New Mexico airport saved us, because the nice Delta guy who was trying to help Ryan get on said Cloe could go if she sat by my friend. Then at the last minute he felt pitty on Ryan and gave him the last two seats on the plane, listing Abbey as a 23 month old (which means she could be a lap child and sit on Ryan's lap) and Brody could have the last seat on the plane. Awesome! We got into Salt Lake within minutes of each other after over 40 hours of travel time. SO this story has 2 morals, first, don't plan train trips with Courtney in Italy and second, when it rains it pours but the Lord always hands you an umbrella ;)

in the mean time

so as we sit around and wait for "the call" I am totally thrown off schedule. I feel like all I do is wait. But we did get "the call" and we should be leaving friday. AND we should only have one layover!! That would be awesome. Also because it means a bigger plane. Since I have the extra time now, I think I might just head into the city tomorrow and check out the sales. No, I have not had time to do it yet and it's killing me. I know a lot of it will be picked over. I'm sure Ryan will appreciate that.
A thought I had today, "get me outta this hell hole". The reason, It is so blessed hot that a breeze does not even help. While I was walking to the bus stop and then waiting at the bus stop then stepping into the sauna (bus) and then doing it all over to come home, my thought after that one was "i can't wait to drive my suburban with the a/c and walk a max of 25 yards in the heat!" No offense to you summer travelers but you are coming at THE WORST time of year. It's miserable heat!


Don't you hate it when you remember something when it is too late? Background: at the grocery store we have a card that gives us the sale price, like all stores these days, and it also gives you points for buying certain products. With these points you can pick items out of a catalogue. I have been eyeing the cannon powershot and have been asking Ryan if I could use our points on it. It's 3000 points plus 69 euro. We have over 4000 points. My reason is that all we have is his big old fancy camera for painting and there is nothing more annoying that photographing the kids at the park and bringing this along. So I was stoked when I found it in the catalogue. Tuesday I went to the store and asked if I could have the camera that day (you'd be impressed with how my italian has improved), he said no, it takes 3 days. So I didn't get it because I was planning on flying out today. But when i found out we were leaving friday, the smart thing would have been to go to the store and order it for our trip and have it in time. Nope, I remembered at 9:25, 5 minutes before the store closed. Yes, the grocery store closes at 9:30! could you imagine! uuuugh, I'm kicking myself!

what's up.

Ryan rides his bike everyday to and from school about 10 miles each way and at night he complains about his calves cramping. A lot of people ride bikes here and it seems very convenient and scary to ride with these crazy drivers. Yesterday as we were finalizing everything to go to Utah I had some errands to run. I find it frustrating to walk places because it takes to long when I know I could be moving faster, so I decided to ride the bike. A little history, I am scared to ride a bike, I did a triathlon last year and added about 45 minutes onto my final time because of the bike ride, I was scared to go fast. Anyways, one of these errands was to take our queen size down comforter to the laundry mat. So my first attempt on a bike in Italy was with an over sized bag hanging from the handle bars and getting caught in between my leg and wheel every time i peddled forward with my left leg. Oh and the mount and dismount of the bike I'm sure was quite entertaining, Ryan is 6'3 and I'm 5'8 and the seat is set for him. So there were a lot of tippie toes. While the comforter washed, i did other errands and on my way home with the comforter I couldn't quite get balanced while mounting the saddle and from the weight of this huge comforter, I fell in the bushes. One of those moments when you are laughing at your self and thinking "did anyone see that? seriously, that was pathetic did anyone see how funny that was?" Last night in the middle of the night I was awoken by an immense pain in my left calve, Ryan was right. What vitamin am I lacking?
As I mentioned earlier we have super cheap tickets, $350 round trip international!! So you get what you pay for. We were suppose to leave this morning and haven't, we are waiting to hear what's next. Luckily we have some people staying in our place while we are gone which helps with rent so I had to go above and beyond with my house cleaning before we left.
So I'm sitting here with a sore bum and really sore calf muscle. A spotless house, bags all packed and kids that are stir crazy.

our eager young painter

this problem dates back to when Cloe was around Abbey's age. When Ryan is painting at home, and something comes up, he leaves painting, paints and brushes in plain sight and completely reachable. Haven't figured that out yet. So like I said, when Cloe was young, Ryan was working on a portrait and Cloe got in the room and painted all over the face, yikes! But the painting was fixed. Now little miss Abbey has the same desires to paint. This isn't the first occasion, just the first photographed one. We had the missionaries over for dinner, yes again, and I went in our room to answer the phone, and I found this little girl, adding some color to Dad's commissioned portrait. Something ironic, the portrait that Cloe got a hold of is this guys sister. Anyways after talking to her, Ryan made her pose with her master piece and this is the only face she would give him. Whadya expect?