THE WEENIG NEW YEAR PARTY

After Sean and I prepared a nice sit down dinner for Mackynzie and her friends, then drove them to the stake dance, we were ready to ring in the New Year with our good friends.  It was a pajama party, along with the traditional white elephant gift exchange.  We had a great time.  It was fun to spend the evening with some fabulous friends.  

Shayla, Curt, Rob, Rachel, Allison and Karyn

The PJ party was in honor of Allison - who is going through all kinds of tests to find out what the heck is wrong with her.  She has been feeling terrible lately.  The doctors mentioned the big C word "cancer" on Christmas Eve Day.  That was no fun to hear that kind of news over the holidays.  But when would that kind of news be good to hear?  Since that time the doctors have ended up deciding that cancer is probably not the cause of her sickness after all.  Imagine the stress of believing you have cancer for a couple of weeks.  Then imagine the giant relief in the moment the doctors change their minds.  It has been frustrating for her because she still doesn't know what is going on with her body.  Our prayers and thoughts are with Allison.  She is a great example and what a gal to still host a party on New Years Eve!  Nothing holds Allison down long.  What a great time we all had together.

The traditional gift exchange.

Just some of the spoils of the evening.....

Six Day Greece Trip

The Agora in Athens

The Island of Santorini

At the Acropolis in Athens

Athens, Greece

I was able to travel with Sean to Athens, Greece.  We were gone from October 18th to October 24th.  Sean was going on business and at the last minute he invited me to go with him.  I asked my good friend, Jillene Rios, if she was willing to watch the girls. Luckily, the plans just all fell into place and I found myself in Greece a week in a half later.

Sean and I had two full days to travel together.  The other days I was on my own.  My first day with Sean we walked from about 8:30 in the morning until 9:30 at night.  We saw all of the sites we could that day in Athens.  Sean only had that one day and he wanted to see it all.  
Some of our tour consisted of:

1.  The Parliament to see the changing of the guards.

2. The Panathinakikon Stadium

3. The Temple of Olympian Zeus

4. Hadrian's Arch

5. The Theatre of Dionysos

6. The Acropolis

7. Filopappos Hill (during the daytime and for the sunset)

8. Ancient Agora

9.  Tower of Winds

10. The Roman Market

11.  Of course the list continued...

Later in the week, I went back and saw the parts of our touring that I felt was rushed and that I wanted to spend more time at.  I went back to the Acropolis and just loved sitting up there and looking over the city of Athens.  It was wild to imagine the way it was over 2000 years earlier.   I also was able to see the Acropolis museum, the Benaki Museum and my favorite the National Archaeological Museum while in Athens.

The second day with Sean we flew to the island of Santorini.  We woke up at 3:30 am to get to the airport for a 6:20 am flight.  We were flying to the island for the day.  The island of Santorini was spectacular.  It was what I always imaged Greece to look like, with the white cement houses built on the side of the hill.  It was fun to walk along the mountain ridge and see the views.  It was such a blessing to be able to go with Sean and experience the beauty of this place. This was definitely a highlight of the trip.  It was so peaceful on the island.  By the end of that day at dinner Sean and I were so tired.  We both fell asleep at the dinner table for a few minutes.  I am sure the waiter got a kick out of us.  We must have looked like the most boring couple ever - sleeping in such a beautiful place!

I did also really enjoy the time I spent exploring Athens on my own.  I was nervous at first, but I did it and I was proud of myself.  There is something wonderful about accomplishing something you have never done before.  For me, it was a new concept to travel alone in a foreign country.  I had tried to get Lisa Holt to travel with me when I learned I was going, but it was not meant to be.  I was meant to travel alone for those three days!  I really did some soul searching.  It was a wonderful time.

Santorini, Greece

Sean and I spent hours staring and walking this site in Santorini.  Every path you took on the hillside led you down to such a unique view.  Every view point was breathtaking.  We both loved it!

We only wished the girls could have come with us.  They would have enjoyed it.  

On the day we were here in Santorini.  We met a couple who asked us to take their picture.  We started a nice conversation with them.  They were an older couple who had traveled all over the world for different training conventions.  They were really nice and mentioned a few must sees to us. The next day in Athens, Sean and I were having dinner and the same couple we met in Santorini sat down right next to us.  We all got a kick out of it. What a small world!  We decided to have dinner together and really enjoyed getting to know them.