Non parlo Italiano

Well, I made it! I'm in Rome. And I must say, it is looking as beautiful as ever.
The journey here was long. I left Alaska the morning of Sunday the 26th, which meant waking up at 4 and saying goodbye to my parents on my birthday. I was a lot sadder saying my goodbyes this year than last year. Probably because last year I still had my girl friends and, like, half my family. And America. And texting. And the peace of mind that everywhere I go there will be fully functional bathrooms. But it was also exciting to know that I was embarking on and adventure greater than I've ever experienced!
At the end of my first day here, I think it's safe to say I've already gained 50 pounds. For lunch we went to this delicious pizzeria near our hotel, where I pointed at and received this bad boy:

Notice that the water is sparkling. I totally forgot to watch out for that. But I drank it anyway, because, no joke, it is 10 THOUSAND degrees here. And we walked over all creation. But anyway, while I was eating my pizza, I felt something touching my foot. When I looked down, I saw it was a pigeon! I took it as a good sign.

Maybe I should've straightened this a bit. But I'm tired.

This is kind of what happened to me.

I also saw three dachshunds, which I again took as a good sign.

A quick post on #birthday2012

Since I wasn't really in Alaska for much of my actual birthday, we celebrated a couple nights earlier. Well, we actually celebrated it like three times because I signed up for a bunch of birthday deals online for different restaurants, so of course we had to take advantage of some of those. But for my official family party, this is what we did:

I attempted to make my own cake, but it was sort of a fail. Okay, it was a huge fail. I didn't end up with enough frosting to do anything cute, and then for some reason it sort of erupted. But it tasted good? Overall, I was very pleased with my early birthday, thanks to all the cute decorations and stuff my mom did! Best 19th birthday ever.

Farr Family Fun

Last week, my mom's side of the family congregated in Alaska for a bit of a reunion. It was super fun having most of the family here! Even though I had to work during a lot of the days, I still got to hang out with everyone in the evenings. My grandpa gave me the assignment of being the official photographer for the week, and he gave me an A- for a grade! I was praying for a C, so I was excited about that.

We had a great time playing in the backyard, having Old Trusty competitions (the one-legged, kneeing fights), celebrating August birthdays, hiking, taking portraits (maybe not so much fun for some), and of course, running our traditional Race of the Midnight Sun.

One of the highlights was on Thursday evening. To start the night off, we had a piano duet by my aunt Jenny and my cousin Carson (they did great!). Then my cousin Kyle gave us an awesome report on his mission to Salt Lake - there was hardly a dry eye in the Farr family. Then it was time for my sister Grace to open her mission call.

WHAT?!?!? We were so excited for her! The video's a little small and fuzzy, but you can definitely hear how excited we were. I know Grace would've rocked anywhere she was sent, but the fact that she got called to Argentina (the same country my dad went on his mission to) was perfect. My dad talks about Argentina ALL THE TIME and is always asking if he can take us there on our next family trip. And since she's not leaving until January, we get to spend Christmas with her! We're all so excited and proud of her!

Now that our relatives are gone, it's been a little gloomy. It's always sad to see them go, after we've had so much fun. But I guess it's time for us all to get ready for school and fall and funventures!

New Design!

Like my new design?!? I'm super excited about it! This is starting to look like a real blog! Of course, I can't take much of the credit for my new improvements. In fact, I must give all of the credit to my dear friend Lauren Chun over at Click Clack Clunk - she designed my shiny new banner, which was my only motivation to finally choose a blog name. I JUST LOVE HER! How cute is that pigeon? She also designed me a button, which I would somehow post on here, but I haven't really learned that yet. But it's on her blog, so you'll just have to look at it over there. :) In case you couldn't tell, she's a little more tech savvy than I am. Just a little bit.
I chose the name The Panicky Pigeon because... Well, that's me. 90% of my time is spent in a state of panic and my family calls me Pigeon because of my continuing childhood love for perching on people (let's pretend I wasn't just sitting on my mom's lap an hour ago).
Hopefully with this new design will come a new resolve to keep my blog updated. I will be setting off for Italy in a little over a week, so that should supply plenty of topics for posts, right? Woo hoo!
Anyway, I hope my many followers enjoy the improvements! I cannot praise Lauren enough! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! Okay. Bye.