Mom & Dad Update:
Hello family! We have had an exciting month. The month started by finishing all of the details for our cruise to the Mediterranean. Planning to be gone for a total of 15 days seemed surreal. This is the longest trip Dad & I had ever taken, and on top of that we were going as first time "cruisers"! We had no idea how to prepare but when all the packing was done, our 2 checked bags only weighed in at 44 lbs, and 47 lbs, WOW, we did it, what a relief. Our flight over was LONG. The international security in Chicago going to Rome was long and very slow. Air Italia was very unorganized, but dad enjoyed the pat downs! Dad only secretly flipped off Italian security once. He was a little upset at their disorganization to say the least. As soon as we arrived in Italy, we hit the road anxious to see the sights in Rome. We got checked into the Bed and Breakfast/apartment around 11 AM. Our shuttle never arrived as pre- arranged from the airport so we ended up taking a taxi shuttle. The B&B was called St. Andrea because we were across the from St. Andrea Cathedral. Every morning at 7 the bells would ring, it was so cool. Our B&B was between the Trivoli Fountain and the Spanish Steps two very popular sites in Italy. Walking is normal in Italy, and everything is close but the cobble stone road are a little hard on the feet. We toured the Vatican, saw Trivoli fountains, Spanish steps, Colosseum, the Parthenon, and we even took a double decker bus tour!! I can't even name everywhere we went.
On Friday morning we took a taxi to the train station, I couldn't believe all our luggage fit in the small taxi. We then caught the 10:20 AM train to Civitavecchia the port where the cruise ship "Mariner of the Seas" was waiting. WOW, what a ship, almost 1200 feet long 15 decks high, and could hold over 4200 people including the crew of over 1100. No electric bow motor or down riggers though.
*Here is a quick rundown of our trip, I will only mention a few places we saw and did.
Saturday, we got into Naples, Italy, we walked around Pompeii, took a bus and went around Amalfi, and saw some beautiful sights of the Southern coast of Italy.
Our next two days were sea days. There is a lot to do on the ship. Mini golf, basketball, volleyball, rock climbing, swimming, exercising, relaxing in the spa, shopping, movies, games, EATING, all you can eat Ben & Jerry's ice cream, (that made Mark & Don happy) & etc.
The next stop was Ashdod, Israel, we had Abie, a Jewish guide take us into Jerusalem. Festival of the Tabernacles was going on so it was really congested and chaotic. We went to the Western Wall and grandpa Mark wrote down a prayer and placed it in the wall with all the Jewish men. Everywhere we went was special. It was amazing to think that this was where Jesus walked, taught and was crucified. At times the spirit was strong as it testified to us of our Savior. I was very impressed with the Olive Trees, seeing them gave me an unforgettable visual of what they are like, and how the branches are grafted in. Wednesday we went to Haifa, Israel. Here we went to the Templar Cemetery; this is where two Mormon Missionaries are buried. The Church was able to establish occupation in Israel before it was given back to the Jewish people. This helped establish residency so they were able to build the BYU Center. Sea of Galilee was beautiful, did you know it really is not a sea, it is a lake. When you come up over the hill and see the view it reminded Dad and I of overlooking Bear Lake. We could feel the spirit strongly here also, we could picture Jesus teaching and feeding the multitudes as they sat and listened to him. Jordan River was interesting, some people were dressed in white and baptizing themselves in the water?? Is was also very beautiful but very commercialized, with a restaurant, a place to pay money so you could get baptized and big souvenir shop. We enjoy an authentic meal of vegetable pita sandwiches, with great sauces and the tradition falafel, (an appetizer made out of chick peas, seasoned and deep fried). The last two days were very fast paced and tiring, but it was enjoyable.
Thursday was another sea day; we need this day to rest.
Friday we took off running again. Rhodes, Greece, with a visit along the east coast. We visited Rhodes, Old Town and the new town. Grandpa Mark rode a donkey up the mountain to visit the Old town. I walked up all 292 steps where Mark met me then we reached the Knights of St. John, and we passed through the restored Palace of the Grand Masters. The Temple of Apollo was HUGE and we got to experience the acoustics at a Greek amphitheater, and the Greek Stadium where Gladiator's fought. It was cool. Saturday we went to Ephesus, Turkey. We walked along marble streets lined with wonderful ancient public buildings built 2nd century AD. The Grand Theater's are two of the most impressive buildings, to hold 24,000 spectators built by the Romans. One of these theaters was where Paul preached. The Terrace Houses were impressive; there were 6 different wealthy roman houses. St John's Basilica, is believed to be where St. John had spent his last years and was buried??? When they showed us his burial site, they mentioned they have never unearthed bones?? I wonder why?
Sunday we were in Athens, Greece. A memorable experience was going to Church in the Athens Branch. It was so neat. The Mission President was there and told us we all needed to go back home and put in our papers to serve missions. He needed couple missionaries! We did a city tour, with Parliament and the Changing of the Guards, the Temple of Zeus and many Greek Trilogy stuff. Caden, I thought of you and the Percy Jackson books we read. We also saw the Old Olympic stadium where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896.
Monday we went into Chania, Crete, Greece. We walked around the plaza, did a little shopping, and saw some more Roman ruins. This is where we bought all our daughters necklaces. I got me a pair of leather gloves and a silver necklace. When we got ready to leave we exited out through the shopping plaza and we could hear loud music. As we got closer, we could see that it was a demonstration. The people were not happy with the government corruption. We got through the large crowd and met at the bus stop, but there were no buses, they could not get through the traffic and people surrounding the area. A man was directing us to cross several streets and get to a safer area where the buses were parked. We got on the bus and drove through the back roads towards the ship. It was an adventure to say the least. Tuesday was a day at sea. It was nice to relax and of course pack up and get ready to leave the next day.
We loved cruising and we would do it again. We had a great time visiting the Mediterranean and being with Don & Kathy. They were great traveling companions. I would someday love to visit Israel again and spend more time there. Another trip maybe??
Our return home was uneventful. Fortunately, for Dad, we flew with Delta the whole way, security was quicker and not as unorganized!
Upon arriving home we had to jump right back into normal life, this was hard because we both had jet lag. Jessie kept the house and yard up while we were gone and she did a great job.
Our first Sunday home I was released from the primary presidency and Dad was released from teaching the gospel doctrine class in the ward. We both received new callings, Dad is called to be the Ward Mission Leader and I am called as a ward missionary. I get to be Dad's mission companion!! This will be a challenging calling for us, but I know that it will help us grow and prepare us to be full time missionaries in the years to come. We'll need your prayers.
We love you all and look forward to all of the good things that you do. Our prayers are with each of you and with our wonderful grandchildren. We are proud of you all. Keep making good choices. Thanks for being so wonderful!!
Love, Dad & Mom
PS: Sorry this is so long, I even condensed it!! Next time I won't have as much to say.
Kyle and Andrea update:
The month of October was a great month for us. We celebrated our 1 year anniversary on October 14th and had a blast doing so. We also accomplished something that we never thought would be possible...We went on a cruise that didn't break down!! Don't all pass out with astonishment. To start off our big 1 year accomplishment we decided to go down to California early and enjoy Disneyland and Universal Studios. We loved every minute of acting like kids (without kids) in the happiest place on earth. We then caught the ship out of Long Beach and enjoyed our cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. We definitely had an eclectic combination of friends and family on the cruise which made it very enjoyable. We should seriously consider a Gold family cruise in the future.
As for life at home, work for Andrea is going great. She is still supporting the audit staff at Tanner and also performing their HR functions. Very sarcastically, she is looking forward to the Holiday season where she gets to plan all the Tanner events! I'm still loving my work at L-3 and look forward to my 4 day work weeks. Hopefully our beloved Federal Government budget cuts don't wipe us off the grid. But on a bright note, we were released from our callings in the nursery. You can tell when you have been in the nursery too long when kids falling off tables, getting stuck in the accordion doors, and horribly stinky diapers make you laugh...and subsequently gets you released. We still are awaiting our next callings.
Kim & Tyler Update:
The month of October seems to have been filled with football soccer and more football for us. Caden just finished his 2nd tackle football season and Britton just finished his first flag football season after telling us this spring he was officially retired from soccer. He even finished off his last game with a touchdown running pretty much the whole length of the field. Ashlyn was a super star in soccer and is looking forward to playing again-she isn't retired . Both the boys and Ashlyn's last games were canceled due to our first snow of the season. It melted just in time for halloween and then 2 days later it snowed again. The kids were disappointed in neither snow giving them an official "snow day". We had to remind them that we live in Colorado now and not St. Louis.
This year for Halloween, Ashlyn was a cat, Britton was a ninja and Gavin was buzzlighyear-3rd boy to wear that costume! We got our money worth out of that! Caden was hard to find a costume this year. First he is so tall that the kids costumes were too short and the adult costumes too big and then we were contending with what was considered "cool". It wasn't fun looking in the costume shop for him.
This is the time of year when things start to pick up for work in the hospital for Tyler. Everyone is trying to get those last minute surgeries in before the end of the year. I just finish YW volleyball today. Me and my friend Angie were the coaches. Our team ended up playing our second team of YW in the consolation championship! Yes, we were in the loser bracket but had some fun. We were just proud that someone from our ward was going to bring home the championship title for the losers! We celebrated with Taco Bell.
We just moved Gavin to a toddler bed and he thinks he is some big stuff now. He will go pee in the potty when he wants to and can even do it on command, but likes to hide and go in a private room to do his other business. We keep telling him that we will take him to Disney World if he goes in the toilet. We'll see. He doesn't like change and when I tried to put underwear on him the other day he didn't like it.
We are going to be coming out to Utah the first week in January, so mark your calendars. We are going to do lots of skiing:)
Jessie Update:
I first have to say how excited I am to put these together each month! It was so fun reading all your updates. Even though I talk to you all, I still don't get the small details that these letters give!
Things with me have been great! I honestly don't know where the time has gone but I have been at my job for about 8 months and I'm loving it! My work family is truly amazing and I have never worked in such an environment! It's great that I can walk into my bosses office and tell him I need a friend, not a boss and I can talk to him about personal things that are bothering me or get dating advice (he was single until he was 28 so he has a good idea of what I'm going through in that department). I've been super busy with work! This past week I worked until about 2:00 3 nights in a row! My boss goes on HSN and I get the stressful job of creating his tables and on-air samples. He hates going on there, but he does a really good job. So if you ever have free time, check it out and you can see things I've made on TV. It's also been very busy because our Marketing Manager left so I've been helping with the marketing. I'm using the time as a trial period to see if I'd like to apply. I wouldn't necessarily work for Andrew though so that is kind of sad. So not only am I doing my regular job, but I have taken on another position that is pretty time consuming! Mom and dad have been very patient with my tired mood though! Some nights I get home at 7:30 and then jump from my car to another to do visits with the Relief Society.
The other day I was in a conference call with some peeps in Wisconsin when my boss came up to me after asking if I wanted to go to a movie. Me being confused asked him who else was coming. He mentioned only his friends. So 3 of us went to the Centerville Megaplex and enjoyed an empty theater while watching the "3 Musketeers," (seemed appropriate since there were only 3 of us). It was their GRAND opening so we had endless amounts of food (pretzels, wraps, chicken, nachos, chocolate fountain, angel food cake, churros, bananas, strawberries, and popcorn) and they even skipped the previews for us. It was pretty cool!
The calling is never ending, but it has blessed my life in more ways than I can even imagine. It is by far the hardest and most time consuming calling I've ever had, but the most rewarding. It's amazing to feel the love for the sisters in the ward automatically. I have made 150 girlfriends in 6 months! That is pretty cool! :) I've started to make a lunch on Sunday's because I'm there all day and I get hungry. People think it's funny, but I'm a Gold and when I don't eat, you all know what happens!
Well I think I could keep writing, but I don't want to bore you! October flew past! I didn't even get to carve pumpkins! Hopefully I can enjoy November a little bit more. Love you all and thanks for being such great examples to me!
-Jessie
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