the Lord will keep you.

I lift my eyes up to the hills.

from where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord,

who made heaven and Earth.

He will not let your foot be moved,

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

will neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;

the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The lord will keep

your going out and coming in

from this time and forevermore.
Psalm 121

 Yesterday we went to Venice, and even though I have already been there, I fell in love all over again. The colors on the old, sagging buildings, the blue/green shade of the salty water, the cracked and aged ground underneath our feet, the creamy goodness of the gelato melting as we brought it to our eager mouths, and the splendid array of sweet fruit that assaulted our eyes at the market. All of this can not come close to describing how wonderful this place is.

Yes, it was packed with tourists. Yes, the stagnant water does give off a little of a smell. Yes, we got lost more than once. Yes, the nasty train ride to and from left something to be desired.

But what the heck, I am living the dream! Like, is this really my life? In Europe, with three of my best friends, eating wonderful food, talking about Jesus, and just loving on each other. Thank You so much God for keeping my life, because it would be a disaster if I tried. Thank You for being faithful, for helping me, and keeping me in the shade of Your hand.

Here are some snapshots of our strip in Venice. Enjoy!

On the bridge we crossed after leaving the train station.

Outisde the cathedral that we once again could not enter. We were too scantily clad.

She's such a model.

Sarah and Anna were getting so frustrated with Kate and me, because we kept stopping pretty much everywhere to take pictures of pretty much everything. We were like two little kids in a candy shop of beauty stuck with two parents with headaches. Haha, Sarah and Anna were much better after stopping in a bar to go potty.

When Sarah and Anna went in the bar, Kate and I had not idea where they were. So, instead of freaking out and trying to find them, worrying that we were two American girls stranded in an Italian city, we just took more pictures and kept exploring.

We loved the doors. They had so much character.

If you look closely, you can see Kate's Italian lover walking away in the background. He said he didn't want to be photographed. This picture was taken during the time Kate and I were alone and lost. See how worried she looks?

She found us! Anna and Sarah walked out of that yellow topped building, having just peed, and discovered Kate and I aimlessly walking around the square.

She's a babe.

This is where we found some steps to eat our lunch of pre-made peanut butter and jelly (Anna doesn't like it because she thinks the peanut butter is too strong), fresh produce, and of course lots of water. It was such a beautiful place to rest our poor weary feet and watch people row by in gondolas and water taxis.

Roommates, back in action.

 Why aren't American doors this cool?

Sarah enjoying the view, while we enjoyed the view of Sarah.

We will never change.

Success. We found a freeeeee and cleannnnn water fountain while walking along the scorching pier. 

I was pretty excited about it.

Do you think our tired legs and bodies would keep us from an awesome jumping picture? No, we didn't think so either.

I can't get over how blessed I truly am.

After Venice, we took a train home, just like the train there. Turns out, the train home decided to take its sweet time, and we missed our connecting train to Bergamo by 20 minutes. So, we had to wait for the next train, and we ended up gettinh home an hour and a half later than we expected. Of course we were famished after a long day of walking and exploring, an we decided to get pizza....again!

We went to this really awesome pizzeria that not many people know about. We were so tired that Kate and Sarah decided to go in straight up American outfits, rocking it USA style. They had cute big t-shirts and athletic shorts, and we got more stares than I could count.

Despite the stares, we had a wonderful wonderful wonderful evening, well, late evening. We got our massive pizzas around 11pm, and conquered them shortly after. Afterwards, we once again enjoyed yummy yummy gelato, then slept to our hearts' content.

We tried each other's pizzas, and Anna's was our favorite. Leave it to the Italian to know how to pick them.

Massiveeeeee.

This was the four cheese pizza. It was good, but oh my, was it filling! There was so much cheese!

Go ahead, ask us if we were mad about this.