We Ran Away

Hey! We ran away for Thanksgiving! We found a screamin' deal on flights to Zurich, and it escalated from there. We had two weeks to plan this European adventure, so it's been a little cray. 

Flew from SLC to Amsterdam the day before Thanksgiving. Caught a flight from Amsterdam to Zurich. Stayed in Zurich over night, then caught a train from Zurich to Venice. Stayed in Venice for 36 hours, then caught a flight from Venice to Marseille and hopped on a 5 day cruise. Currently on said cruise. Yesterday we were in Palma de Mallorca. Day before that we were in Barcelona. Tomorrow we will be in Palermo, Sicily. Friday it dumps us in Rome, where we'll stay for 5 days before heading home. 

It's been fun and completely exhausting. The jet-lag is real, and traveling non-stop for basically 4 days did not help. Since being on the cruise for 3 days now, we've been able to regulate better and relax a bit. It's nice not having to stress about transportation every few hours. We took so many trains and planes to too many places. 

The cruise is Italian, and it's not been the best. Don't get me wrong, we're not suffering or anything, but it is a different experience than a good old Carnival cruise. The food is pretty lousy, and the customer service is greatly lacking. The Italian patrons on this boat are straight up rude. I guess the purpose of this trip is to learn what not to do for next time. :) 

Backwards in order, again, but here we go: 

Yesterday we had a fabulous day in Palma, Spain. We were all so pleasantly surprised at how much we loved this place. It was warm, it was charming as all get out, and such a fun city to walk around for hours. We saw the Catedral de Mallorca, which was crazy. We wandered the streets, ate gelato, ate ice cream, found a cool t-shirt shop, basked in the 70 degrees. It was sad to leave. Also, we've made a goal to eat at McDonald's at every place we've been because we're classy and cultured like that. Aani says it's research for her to take back to her job at the Lehi McDonald's. Let's go with that. 

Palma de Mallorca:

The Costa Smerelda: large and in charge. Maybe let's get someone nicer to run this thing. 

Barcelona:

We took a tour of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I have so many feelings about this place. I'm not sure what words to use to describe it. Impressive? Confusing? I wouldn't call it beautiful in the traditional sense, because it's obviously very different from anything we're used to with European architecture. I did like visiting it and learning about it. I did appreciate the stained glass and the symbolism of all the things. I went into a little chapel and said a prayer and I liked that. 

Really just trying to soak up all the local flavors, you know. Barcelona felt very familiar and we really liked that. :) 

Courtesy Addie to Five Guys Barcelona. 

Venice: 

Oh Venice, you were a crazy fever dream. We arrived after about 36 hours of travel and we were like zombies the entire time. We did a tour of St. Mark's Basilica and Doge's Palace. We speed-walked through the "streets"/alleyways to get to our tour on time. We wandered and wandered and wandered for the entirety of the day, eating pizza, gelato, and realizing we didn't care if we did a gondola ride or not. Venice felt like a tourist trap and I don't know that I'd be too eager to go again. Sorry, Venice. It's mighty cute, though. 

They made me a gluten free pizza that was pretty spectacular, I will give that to Venice. 

The Doge. The man with the hat. 

Zurich:

We originally didn't plan on spending any time in Zurich, but then our flight to Venice was delayed 2 days, hence the train instead. We were there for about 18 hours, and in our jet-lagged stupors, we enjoyed it. Quite a nice city, incredibly charming, and the people we met were very nice. We enjoyed their Christmas market, which just upped the charm level even more. 

Our McDonald's visit was really fantastic for me especially, because they have gluten free cheeseburgers with all the fixins. I don't know if you know this about me, but McDonald's cheeseburgers are the thing I cried about missing when I found out gluten was my problem. I love them. I don't care if everyone knows it, I think they're magnificent. 

Even the porta-potties were nice. 💖 Zurich forever.

Getting ready to take off from Salt Lake. Look at us, so rested. Hahahahaha. 

We did a Thanksgiving dinner before we left and made sure to have all the favorites. 

Our month has consisted of planning this trip and taking this trip. Nils had been working at a feverish pace to finish up sponsored videos, and get videos ready for release during this trip. We keep saying we want things to calm down, and then we pull a spontaneous 2 week European adventure, so we really are asking for it. 

We've also had 2 deaths in our ward this month. Bless my counselors and secretary, who are handing the 2nd funeral sans me. They are the best. We're pretty sure we're going to lose a 3rd person very soon. It's all very sad. We have a good amount of elderly people in our ward, and it's really really sad to see them go. We love them and are so thankful for the wisdom they bring to us. 

Thanks for reading, hope you have a great month ahead! 

The Things That Happened in October 2023

Hey there. It's Halloween night, and hopefully the trick or treaters are done knocking. 

It's been a busy month...again. 

Nils went to Dallas for a day-ish to meet with this guy, who's a plumber/YouTuber/podcaster and join him in his content. He does well for himself, in different ways than we operate, so it's always good to learn form others. 

Ava with her newest second cousin, li'l Hayes. What cuties! 

Nils, Doug and Dave have been working on a wall printing business for what feels like forever. Has it been a year? I don't know. But, the WallPen printer arrived from Germany last week and it's the real deal. They've been doing lots of testing, and had 3 guys come from WallPen this week to train them. Hopes are high that this turns into some great opportunities! 

Nils attended VidSummit in Dallas at the beginning of the month. I stayed home since it was back to back with Funnel Hacking Live. I was sad to miss VidSummit. There are always so many people to talk to and learn from there. Next year I'll go! 

Ava finished another tennis season. It's too bad we have such limited windows for tennis because of the weather. She likes it a lot. 

Just Addie being a model. What's new? 

Some friends in the neighborhood invited us to a fabulous Salem Witch Hunt dinner and game night. They really go all out. There was a gallows and a witness stand, and they basically transform their home for this. I need to up my game and get myself a pilgrim costume.

Aani got an answer to Sadies. She's going with a boy she actually likes.

Ava had her first of many band concerts for the year. We're always impressed with how good these middle school kids sound. Thankful for the good music teachers we have at our schools! 

Cute friends

We closed on the rental house. We bought a washer and dryer and a fridge. Exciting times.

After we signed all the closing papers, we got nachos. They were pretty good, but a little disappointing for me since they forgot to put refried beans and jalapeños on them. I really have a thing for refried beans and jalapeños and nachos. Anyway... after we closed on that house, we were kinda like, "why did that feel like buying tires?" We know we're playing the long game here. Also- we have renters moving in on Friday of this week, so that's pretty weird and exciting. We're spending much of this week getting blinds installed, soft-close hardware installed, etc. etc. 

Home Depot opened a few weeks ago, and Nils has only been there 78 times. 

We went to St. George at the beginning of the month so that Nils could run the St. George half marathon with Scott Soward, our neighbor and friend from our old house. We got a house with the Sowards for the weekend and had lots of fun. 

We were able to catch the St. George temple open house, and that was pretty cool.

Nils and Scott did great on the half! We picked Nils up from the St. George airport about 12 hours before the race started- he had been at VidSummit all week and we met him in St. George. What a crazy guy. 

We committed to the ClickFunnels program a couple of weeks ago, which basically means we paid money to learn the software and implement it into our business. It's just a whole thing and has the potential to help us diversify our income a lot. It just seems like quite a learning curve at the moment and I feel a li'l overwhelmed by it. So, I'll say it here: In a year, my goal is to have ClickFunnels be very familiar and working well for us, and to look back and wonder why we didn't do it sooner. Amen. 

I'm pretty sure all of our kids are super sick of me talking about ClickFunnels! But it is exciting! :) 

Hoose and Funnels

Welp, my photos all uploaded in reverse order, so here we go backwards! 

We (Nils and I) just got home tonight from Orlando, where we attended Funnel Hacking Live. We've had friends in the YouTube world telling us for awhile now to learn about click funnels and attend this event, so we did. It was 4 very full days and nights. Tons of speakers and information given, lots of motivational stuff, networking late into the night and learning from others. We're a little overwhelmed with how to get started, but are excited to try! 

The best surprise ever- we were upgraded to Comfort Plus for no apparent reason on our flight home today. How glorious was all this leg room?! Extra snacks and drinks, and we got to smell the 1st class people's food... but that leg room. Yeah, baby. 

This hotel/conference center was just massive. We've never been to something like this before. It was nuts. 

Our good friend Cathy, who told us to go, was a speaker and she did awesome! 

We accidentally went to Disney World last night for dinner. We needed a change of pace from the hotel offerings, so looked up places to eat near us. Low and behold, it took us to Downtown Disney in Orlando. We were there for about an hour- enough time to get some grub, some ice cream and a Sprinkles cupcake. 

Back at the ranch: Ava falling asleep watching something- her hand didn't move when the phone was removed. 

Nils drove down to Vegas for a day with a friend for a solar convention- a sponsor had a product there and it worked out. 

Another sponsored video. We hate sponsors, but sometimes it's worth it.

Guess what's coming to town?? Guess who's the most excited person ever?? (It's Nils)

Guess what's almost done?? The hoose!! Guess who's a little scared?? (It's us)

Aani went to homecoming earlier in the month. They went to an escape room/obstacle course a couple of days before the dance for their day date. Aani fell and broke her foot, which was a whole adventure. She gets to wear the boot for another 3 weeks or so. Quite a memory. 

Anders is looking for work, still. It's been pretty discouraging. The software world is rough at the moment. Addie is finishing up her schooling in the next couple of months and then we'll see what types of jobs are available to her. Meanwhile she's working at the indoor pool. She doesn't like the indoor pool at all. LOVES the outdoor pool that's open for 2 1/2 months a year, though. Aani is working at McDonald's and Yonutz so she can earn the dollars for all the things. Ava doesn't have a job yet because she's 13, but she's been doing tennis this month, and is in jazz band this year, which is early in the morning. Some days are pretty long for her. 

The adventures continue! If you have room in your prayers, Anders could use them for help in finding work. Fankth!