Come Fly With Me

Life has finally given me something amazing: TRAVEL. So it's safe to say I love Europe! And Frank Sinatra is soul food to me so I thought we'd dedicate the title to him. Thank you, dearest Frank for keeping me focused on editing for hours the past couple days.

These last two weeks have been incredible, filled with so much laughter, and fun experience with my sisters and family. You've probably seen a thousand pictures already but oh well here they are again.

I got to spend so much time with my nieces this trip and it felt SO good to be around them. I love these sweet babies so much, and I love being able to bond with them more. Kens and I got super close and even got to hang out all day together and play family in Arizona; which by the way is just as good as I've always imagined. I got to take her grocery shopping (aka judging the local Kroger store) and feed and change her and take a nap with her. It was so special.

Something else incredible was getting to go to so many new temples. We saw two in Europe: the London, England Temple where my oldest sister got sealed, and the Frankfurt, Germany Temple which has been under construction for two years. Then when we were in Arizona, I got to go through a Temple for the first time in Tuscon. It was such a beautiful experience, going through a silent tour and just feeling the spirit. The best part though was when Kens saw a painting of Mary riding a donkey and she made her animal noise. We were trying to shush her but laughing all at the same time. We also got to see the Gilbert Temple with Kens.

London was incredible, the ropes course we did in Germany was SO fun and so challenging (I literally cried I was so scared I was going to fall even though I totally had a harness on, oops) but VENICE was the best! We finally got to split up from the huge family group and go with just me and hubby and Jen and hubby #squadgoals. Everything was gorgeous. It was really hot and if any of you know me, you know I hate walking and meandering to different shops. But that's exactly what we did. And you know, I didn't hate it this time because I was constantly rewarded with pretty buildings to photograph and gelato. Guys, they aren't kidding about Italian gelato. I'm a chocoholic, and I love my Oreo's so I kept getting those flavors but then begging Zach to let me eat as much of his lemon gelato as I could. Because I could eat lemons all day, but that's less acceptable than lemon gelato. SO. GOOD.

We had a couple days after we got back from Europe to be somewhere else, and we really wanted to avoid home and work, so going to be with Jen and hubby and Kens seemed like the perfect option. So we went to Arizona. Also known as my favorite place in the whole world. I really want to move there. Zach really doesn't want to. SO my whole goal was to show him what our life could be like, the fun things we could do and the people we'd be surrounded by, and how good the church feels there. We drove by super cute houses that even we could afford, went to Top Golf and gave him pointers on how to improve his game, because we Steinhilbers are golfers after all so he needs to join us properly ;) we got to play volleyball for three hours with a great group of people from church, and play family with Kens all day. Saturday, we got to go to a baptism of  a family friend's son who just turned 8 and that was such a cool experience to show Zach.

Religion is super hard for me, because as you probably know, I think God has something against me. But showing it to Zach has made me turn my opinion around. When Krissy was getting sealed in London, Zach and I couldn't go in obviously, so we took my nieces to the visitor's center and watched some "I'm a Mormon" videos and one of Oliver Cowdrey. After we left, we took all the pamphlets we could find and studied those over the course of our vacation. Starting with the basics.
I love goals and everything, but the idea of getting the missionaries on him and "setting a date" for baptism is crazy to me. Conversion took me years even though I was already baptized at 8. And look how good that's been to me. Sometime faith fails you and I don't want Zach to rush into something for me, or even for him if it's just a spur of the moment belief. But I love the pace we're going at; honestly he's more into it than me, but answering his questions is getting into it. I was SO embarrassed that I forgot the last words to James 1:5, and didn't know the hymn number of I Need Thee Every Hour. These were things I was so proud of knowing since I excelled in seminary all four years and can play every song in the hymn book. So I know I have to get back into it.

SIDE NOTE: I got to photograph Kristine and Chris' wedding and the pictures are really beautiful and so is my cute website so I hope you'll go check it out here! It only take like two minutes to look at them. 

SECOND SIDE NOTE: I don't think I ever announced here but I bought my own domain, started a business Instagram and got my first official, real, organic follower turned client to book not one but 2 shoots with me! GUYS! MY DREAMS MIGHT ACTUALLY COME TRUE! 

Recognizable if you're as big of a Sherlock fan as I am

The dream squad

Zach and I at the London Temple

Venice being pretty

Venice being full of churches

Zach and I looking cute at Krissy's wedding reception