For New Year’s Eve (and the few days surrounding it) the kids’ mom wanted to spend time with them, so we took off for a few days on our own in France.  We visited a few cities along the French Riveria and it was awesome!  We recognize we won’t have much time together, just the two of us, for a very long time after the baby is born, so it was fun to be able to enjoy some time alone!

We actually started our New Year’s trip visiting Torino, which was where Tom served a large part of his mission as well.  It’s also where he attended church and worked during many of the years he lived in Italy, so it was fun to be able to see so many of the places that I’ve only heard about!

We started the day at church in the old ward Tom used to attend.  Everyone was so excited to see him and they were so kind!  Even though I didn’t understand much of the service, it was neat to still feel the Spirit and recognize that it isn’t bound by language. 🙂

We then went to downtown Torino, where we walked around, saw the Piazza Castello, ate some authentic Italian foccacia (SO YUMMY), visited the building where Tom used to work, saw the Mole Antonelliana (the tallest museum in the world), the Palazzo Reale (royal palace where it’s rumored one of the greatest spots of energy in the world is), visited a market where they had really yummy and cool chocolates, and walked around the rest of the city square.

One cool place we also saw in Torino was the Sacred Shroud of Turin.  The shroud is said to be the cloth that the Savior was buried in and ultimately resurrected in, and apparently no historical test on the shroud can disprove the theory.  It was housed in a cathedral, and whether or not it is the actual shroud of Jesus Christ, it was really neat to be able to pause and consider the possibility, as well as the sacrifice He made on our behalf through His crucifixion and resurrection.

After visiting Torino, we headed to the French Riveria!  The weather was absolutely beautiful (around 65 degrees) and we had such a great time spending New Year’s Eve on the beach!  We walked around, visited some cool old cathedrals, went to an authentic French pastry/chocolate shop, and spent time walking around the amazing cities surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

For New Year’s Eve, we went into downtown Nice and had a really delicious dinner, followed by watching fireworks on the beach.  It was a really wonderful night and a great way to cap off what has easily been the best year of our lives!

The first day of 2018 we spent walking around the French Riviera, visiting the beach, taking our first official “bumpie” pic (to prove to Baby B someday that he was with us!), having authentic French crepes, visiting a Russian orthodox cathedral, and taking lots and lots of pics along the way!

For our last day on the Riviera, we went over to Monaco.  It was a beautiful city where you could honestly just feel the money that was flowing all over the place!  We’ve never seen so many nice cars in one place!  It was really cool and we walked ALL over.  We saw the actual Monte Carlo casino, the docks where some of the world’s nicest yachts are kept, the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, the Saint Nicholas Cathedral, and the day ended with a seriously gorgeous sunset!

It was fun to start the new year in such a beautiful place and spend some quality time together.  We’re excited about what this new year will hold — including the birth of our baby boy — and we definitely kicked it off in style!