Albania 2012!

I love my country, with all the craziness that comes with it. Recently, I have felt so blessed to have had the chance to visit Albania so often during our stay here in Europe.
Has been wonderful to see my parents, extended family, friends...to walk the streets that I have walked for so long, to be able to be at my grandma's house in 10 minutes, to eat in great restaurants, to buy delicious fresh veggies and fruits just around the corner, to hang out with my friends and just talk and laugh, to sit and play domino with babi and mami (mami kicking our butts because she always skips our turn), to play tag with my dad and see how he can actually run, to eat mami's delicious food...I absolutely love my people. I don't know if I have ever written before in our blog, but they are amazing. Loving and caring, always willing to give, even though sometimes or many times don't even have the means, expecting nothing in return. I love the generosity that comes from their hearts. I can talk non stop about albanians, especially about my family and loved ones, but this time I will share some pictures that we took during our stay.
My dear nena (grandma) Have I mentioned that I love her to death? This woman is amazing. Nena is 89 years old and so full of energy, even though these last two years she has been suffering with the restless legs syndrome. Even though she cannot sleep during the night, she still has a smile in her face, curses her legs and laughs. Oh, how I miss her. It always breaks my heart when I leave her.

 Teze Vera (Aunt Vera) She loves to take care of her self. She has to exercise after each meal, is hilarious and not typical albanian at all. Her daughter gave birth to a beautiful girl just a couple of months ago. She loves being grandma.

 We enjoyed some beautiful weather while we were there. One day, we decided to go and walk by the beach. From left to the right: Flutura (my uncle's wife), Silvi (my cousin), Vera, Soni, nona (my other grandma) and my wonderful mami.

 My mom and I. What can I say about my mom? I love her so very much. She is literally the most selfless person that I have ever met in my life. She is the perfect example of love and devotion for her family. She never thinks of herself. She is so faithful in the gospel and has never wavered in her testimony. She lives to serve all of us. Every morning she would wake up early, prepare our breakfast, serve it on our plates and would just stand up to see if we needed anything else. She is so wonderful. She just goes and goes and doesn't stop. In Albania we live in the fifth floor, I cannot even count how many times she goes up and down those stairs to get things done. I love her! She cracks me up how she gets after my dad. It's hilarious to see them. They love each other so well.

 Wonderful sisters in my home branch. Motra Kocillari and motra Agalliu. We got together one day and had a great time. They are amazing women.

 It is our tradition now. We have to go to Tirana and go up Mount Dajti. The weather was great and we enjoyed some good food and amazing view.

 My cousin Arbri.

 Playing domino with my uncles. Actually the one next to me (daja biku) was trying to help me so I could win against Mike and his brother (daja Gezimi). We did actually win. After he left, I had no chance!

 I love my friends in Albania. We went out with Bela and her fun boyfriend, Enea. Had some great lunch with a view of the beach, then Enea took us to his place where we played UNO and other card games.

 Have I mentioned it before then when we go to Albania family and everybody else want to treat us? This time, my amazing aunt (halla Dushi) took us out to dinner. She is wonderful. She lives to give and give some more. She never married so she decided to live with her mom (my cute grandma). She takes so good care of her and of all of us.

 Sonja and Marko. They were so great to come and visit us from Tirana. Sonja is a medical doctor and she is so dedicated to her profession and her husband. Marko has learned albanian and is teaching Seminary. He is loving it. We had so much fun visiting together.
Mike and Marko competing who had the biggest belly!

 We had one of our first dates in this restaurant by the beach over 4 years ago.

 Dinner with friends. Edi, Olsi just got engaged to Blerta, Enea and Bela.
After we finished dinner around 10.30 pm we decided to get some ice cream, go to my place and play greedy. It was so much fun!

 Mike's birthday was coming up but it was time for us to leave Albania. We bought this delicious cold cake filled with chocolate eclairs and mami prepared her special dinner.

 I am telling you. They understand each other. Nena is speaking albanian, Mike is listening like he knows what she is saying. It's hilarious!

Time to leave family again. Sad but grateful at the same time for the opportunity we had to visit.

Soni keeps getting older!

So, time to celebrate my birthday again!!!! I love love birthdays! I love the celebration and the meaning of it, having family and friends that love you...and the presents that you get:)!
My friend, Jessica, had asked 2 months prior to my birthday to not plan anything on the 25th and 26th of April because she had plans for us. Knowing how great she is I knew that something really special was going to happen, even though this time I had no clue! They made sure not to tell Mike this year:)!
We  get on the car and still had no idea where we were going. Let me tell you again how great she is. She had prepared lunches, snacks, drinks and everything else we needed during the trip. We get to our destination and it's...Koln...beautiful Cologne!!!
Jessica had reserved a great place for us and as we were having a conversation, she asked me if I had any idea where we were going and I said no...
This is what she tells me: Soni, I've been giving you clues during our trip but you didn't get it. For those who know me, I am pretty quick at getting the clues so I started to think as she went downstairs to get something from the car.
I couldn't think of anything she had told me during our conversations...but, we had listened to a CD of great songs....drum roll!!!!!!
She gets back to the room:
Me: NO WAY!!!!! Have you by chance bought tickets to see Michael Bublee's concert???
Jessica: (has a tricky smile in her face) How did you figured it out???

Indeed, she had bought us tickets to go and see Michael Bublee's concert in Koln, Germany.
The concert was amazing, he had a great voice. We were a bit shocked by his vocabulary but we figured out that he is probably stuck in the teenage years so we said: please don't talk, just sing!
That concert was such a treat! I have always wanted to see one of his concerts. Mike and I, at least for the first and a half year of our marriage, listened to his songs every day. We played M.B songs in our reception and we still do play his songs now.
Thank you Jess! Thank you so much for making my birthday so special, for finding the time (even though you are such a super busy person) to be together. Thank you for being such a wonderful friend.

Easter in Paris!

We have been living in Germany for almost three years now, can you believe that? It has gone by so fast that it scares us. We love living here.
Anyways, after three years, we finally made up our minds to go to Paris. We were wondering if we should take the ICE train which takes you there in three hours and not worry about driving or....guess...take the camper! Guess what we picked! We woke up last Friday, had been already packed, jumped in our camper and started another adventure. Driving there was great, besides the tolls you pay, especially when you can't really go the autobahn speed with our dear camper. We finally made it there after 7 hours of driving, 1 hour and a half which we spent in traffic to get though Paris.
Mike had found this amazing camp site in Versailles where we were going to stay for the weekend.
Around 7 pm we went down to the train station (5 minutes walk from our camp site) and took the train/metro to the Eiffel Tower and this is is just the starting line that we saw when we got there...

 Going around we noticed another line that was so much more shorter where we had to buy combined tickets. We would walk to the second floor then take the lift to the top. That was some good exercise. These are some of the views from the second floor.

I have no idea how long it takes you in the summer to get to the top of the tower, but it was so crowded that it took us literally 2 hours to get the lift up, take pictures, and then get back to the line that takes the lift down. Crazy but absolutely worth it. The view was breathtaking. Just see for your self.

 The next morning, as we were walking down to the train station, we saw this little market and had to stop. Oh the cheeses and the breads and the fruits....yum yum!

 Not having much time, we really could not wait in line to enter any of the museums which stinks, but oh well, we might go back. This is Musee D'Orsay.

 The famous Louvre!

 Can you see the line on the left side? And that's only where it starts.

 I so wanted to play with that:)

 The royal gardens where we stopped and had lunch.

Some musicians playing classic music.

 Notre Dame.

 Isn't that building crazy looking?

 This guy was one of our highlights. Saturday night, after we had walked for literally 8 hours or more, we were tired and cold, and decided to get home (to the camper I mean) earlier. As we were walking down the metro station we heard music and people cheering.
There was this guy playing the guitar and singing and people were just stopping to enjoy and sing along with him. That's exactly what we did and loved it. This guy basically gave us a free concert, he had an amazing voice, great entertainer, sang in french, spanish and english. We really wanted to buy his CD but they were all sold out.You see here two ladies dancing "La bamba" one of them is french and the other lady was from Mexico. What a great night! (His website address is: www.nikerson.com)
The next morning we attended the Versailles ward and this is how our adventure actually ended. Mike and I were pretty sick in this trip and decided to get home earlier, but Paris, we are coming back!

Love,

Mike and Soni

Wildhauz, Switzerland!

We started the month of March by visiting our dear friends in Switzerland, the Mullers. They decided to take us to their cabin in Wildhauz where Mike could go skiing. Can you believe that this is our third year in Europe and this is Mike's first time skiing in the Alps? The weather was so perfect.
He absolutely loved it. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and we could not ask for a better company.

 My handsome, happy husband!

 Margrit's famous, delicious Sunday bread.

Cruise like a Norwegian! (Part II)

This is Arrecife, Lanzarote. Mike's sister, Melanie, had served an LDS mission 20 years ago in this beautiful port town. 

We arrived there Sunday morning, had already planned to go to church and were so excited to meet with the family that Melanie had talked so much about. 

I love how people give you directions here, it reminds me of home. So we ask this guy if he can tell us where to find this address and this is his answer: Oh, you just go straight and you won't miss it!

Not only we had to go straight, but we had to make some very important turns to find the church building. 

 Success!!!!

 This is la familia Espozito. Dad Espozito, Spencer and Dacil. We had such a great time visiting with these sweet and very kind people. They took us to their home, and gave us the most wonderful and unforgettable experience. We have always found it amazing how we connect so easily with the members of the church. Dacil was only 12 years old when Melanie was in their branch. She would go with Sister Wood and teach people from home to home. Spencer and her had just gotten married in December of 2011.

 This is when our amazing tour starts. This place was called the cooking pot.

 Kirsten, on the left side, is from Germany. She has been living in Spain for 10 years now. As most german people she speaks perfect english.We met her at the church and she was so kind to translate for us. She was also an extraordinary tour guide. I wish I would have recorded her or taken notes, she was just fantastic.

 This is the balcony. Isn't that just amazing?

 Here we are again.

 I think this was called El Golfo (I will explain a little bit later why I cannot remember the names of our stops)

 Can you tell how windy it was? We would stop, go out, take a quick picture, look at the view and run to the car. It was cold!

 This beautiful town was only 10 minutes from Arrecife.

 And back to our cruise ship. We said goodbye to our new friends with the hope that we will meet them again one day.
This is our favorite Medusa Lounge. Every night, they had a band called "Guys and Dolls" and they would play beautiful music like, ballroom, swing, foxtrot and lots more.
Mike and I loved going there and seeing these cute adorable old couples that danced like professional dancers. It was just so beautiful to see. We attempted several time to dance, but I still need to learn how to follow and NOT LEAD!!!!:)

 Our dinners at Grand Pacific.

 Malaga was another fun place to visit, hang around and finally enjoy the sunny day. We visited these two fortresses, went to their local market, had lunch downtown and saw Picasso birth place.

 Feb.8 and our last night in this amazing cruise ship. The cruise stuff had put together this great show demonstrating their talents. It was very entertaining. This is our cruise director, Gary, who spoke 6 languages very fluently. We were just amazed. This guy was doing everything; singing, playing the piano, talking to people, directing shows, dancing...etc

 They were our dance instructors. In this show, they were spitting water to each other. Very silly but funny.

 The singers...

 ...and the whole stuff singing "You are a Norwegian now"

 We ended that evening with a chocolate buffet...literally everything was chocolate. Loved it!
Welcome to Barcelona. Feb.9 and our fourth anniversary. Mike and I had decided to spend those 6 hours walking around Barcelona before we headed to the Airport. No one would think that it was 0 degree Celsius. Pretty cold. Barcelona is beautiful. We had been there 2 summers ago but didn't spend enogh time exploring the city.This is La Ramblas square and very famous for what happens there, even though we had no idea. We had no intent to share what happened that day in Barcelona here in our blog, but decided to, just to express gratitude and count our blessings on how we made it back home that evening.
To make a long story short, we will just say that as we were having a quick lunch at this very small fast food place, as soon as I put my purse around the arm chair, my purse was stolen from me. Didn't see anything, or the person who stole it. We were shocked and panicked. I had everything in that purse; our passports, credit cards, money, Mike's work phone, my IPod, notes that I had taken as we visited Arrecife, drivers licenses, military Id, house keys, and I don't even remember what else. Had no idea what to do. Mike hugged me and said a quick prayer. Our miracle started then. We did not find the person or the purse, but we had divine direction and help as the right people were put in our way to help us write a police report, make it to the US embassy literally 2 minutes before they closed their doors, give us new passports in 45 minutes, money to take pictures as we had no euros anymore. We made it at the airport at 4.30 pm just as we had planned before this happened. As we go there, they tell us that our reservations had been cancelled because Spainair had gone bankrupt while we were gone. Can you believe the luck of that day?! The lady there was kind enough to make us new reservations (non fee applied) and we were on our way to Germany, where our friend Gage was waiting to pick us up from the airport. As we look back to this experience, of course we felt so violated and upset, but the comforting feelings of the Spirit are so much stronger that it makes us focus on the blessings that we received that day rather than dwell in anger. We are grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us and cares for His children.

 Gaudi's crazy architecture....

 and another one.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!
Love,
Mike and Soni