I Can Show You the World...

Other title option was: "Nine Planes and Four Countries Later

Jackie and I just got back from our (second) Honeymoon. We had a blast and feel really lucky to have had such a great experience. Between London, Portugal, the Azores, and France we have around 600 pictures so we going to try and get a good travelogue up in the next few days. I thought I would start with an overall introduction here and then put a few more pictures and stories in subsequent posts.

We flew out of Salt Lake airport at 1:00 on the August 19th (Happy Birthday Mom) and landed in Dallas a few hours later. We sat around the airport and then flew to London from there. We had 8 hours until our next flight so we decided to make the most of it.
We walked around a park, ate some lunch, checked out Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and then Westminster Abbey. We didn't sleep much on the red eye from Dallas so we felt pretty exhausted walking around all over London.

We made it back to the airport and got on a plane to Lisbon. Thanks to my Dad, he got us a room at the Marriott there and we made it there around 11:00 pm on August 20th. It felt nice to take a shower and then sleep on a bed. Unfortunately, we didn't sleep much because we had another flight to catch at 6:30 am. I don't know what I was thinking on that one, should have booked the afternoon flight in Heinz sight. We got about 4 hours of sleep until we had to leave. We got to the airport and boarded to plane only to sit there for about 3 hours, switch planes and sit for about another hour until we finally left around 11:00 am. After a two hour flight, we had finally made it to the Azores. We left our house in Provo at 10:00 am on the 19th and finally got to our destination at noon on the 21st. We got to our hotel and took one of those awesome 5 hour afternoon naps. We then spent the next 5 days wandering around the Island.

Partly cloudy with mostly sun everyday. Highs of 78 and lows around 60. Just beautiful

After the Azores we flew back to Lisbon to go spend some time in the city of Coimbra, where Jackie served almost half of her mission. Coimbra is home of one of the oldest Universities in the world, permanently residing in Coimbra since the mid 1500's.


We then drove back to Lisbon and hung out around there for a night. The statue "Cristo Rei" is in the background as well as the imitation Golden Gate Bridge.



From Lisbon we flew to Madrid, 3 hour layover, and then on to Paris. We had 20 hours to kill so we got a hotel room and spent almost all of our time running the streets, trying to take in everything that we could. It was awesome.

Videos from the Steiner Stampede

Christine and Kelly prove they still have it




This is a video of the championship round of the big pants race. I didn't realize how violent I was being with Thomas until I saw this video. Sorry Thomas

Reunion Weekend 2: Steiner Stampede

Jackie and I took this past weekend off to head down to Vernon, Arizona and spend time at a family reunion for her mother's side. We had a blast to say the least. The drive was long (even longer for her family that came from Portland!) but it was definitely worth it. Thanks to Grandma Steiner for organizing it, thanks to Doug and Patty Steiner for letting us crash at their cabin, and thanks to Patty, Jonnie, and all of those that put a lot of work and effort into all of the meals. Some family members were not able to make it, including April Steiner Bennett. Something about Beijing and pole vaulting. Be sure to check for her this Saturday on NBC. You can see her bio here

Highway 6 was closed so we had to take a beautiful roundabout way to get to Price.

We had crazy thunderstorms the entire ride down there

The little baby toad that her brothers caught

They don't mess around in Arizona

Jackie has this way of getting whatever she wants from Reg

Bad spot. It seemed I was the only one not to catch one.

Becca joined me under my poncho during lunch to help stay dry

Jeri came strutting out only to realize that she had hooked a branch about 100 feet back

(tackle) Ultimate frisbee was the big hit at Doug Steiner's Arena

Late night "Zilch" tournament. Jackie let me win the first round, I then slaughtered DJ in the second round and then got schooled by Grandpa in the third round. I was two wins away from the ultimate Zilch glory. Congratulations to Reg on the victory.

Jackie likes her new mummy sleeping bag

Nice cut babe, have you been practicing?

"Where's Reg?"...."Down at the pond talking to his girl!"

Yee hah! Look at that family

Jonathan pulled the funny face picture early

I don't think we took a family picture without taking a "funny face" picture. Good one Grandpa

3-legged race. Even with matching shirts we still lost

I need to practice to my funny face picture taking...as well as my on beat hand clapping

We swung by this place on our way home. Pictures don't do it justice

Reunion Weekend 1

We spent this past weekend up in Logan, UT to attend the Emmett family reunion from last Thursday until Saturday. While we were there, my Grandma Smith and her siblings had a reunion lunch on Saturday at the park with all of their families so we were able to attend that as well. It was fun to take Jackie up to Logan again and have her meet more of the family on both sides. This weekend the roles will be reversed as we head down to Arizona for Reunion Weekend 2 as well be having a reunion with Jackie's Mom's family. We're excited to get these bonus trips in before we head to Portugal in two weeks for Honeymoon Part 2!

Friday August 1

The beautiful Bear Lake. View from the Utah half.

Jackie holding my brother's baby, Lily Ann. I got to see Jackie's Mothering skills up close all weekend

"I was at the beach...holdin' onto beautiful babe" -Malibu of American Gladiators. (Check out video here)

Saturday August 2

6 weeks and going strong

The Irvine Emmetts with Grandma and Grandpa Emmett

The soccer was great in the backyard, especially once Clark removed the volleyball net and poles

Check out the Emmett babes + Jack. He didn't want to miss out on the action. Reminds me a lot of this picture. It helped having him the picture because everyone's smile is a lot bigger in this picture than it is in the two other pictures I took.