Lake Garda

Saturday, June 14, we left this beautiful scenery and drove through hills and over valleys until we reached. . .

Lake Garda!! This was the view from our little apartment and about as much of the lake as we saw, beside driving near the water for a while. We arrived Saturday evening to find Hienz Springer a friend of my mom waiting outside for us. He gave us the key to our apartment and showed us around the place. We didn't actually see anyone who ran the place until it was time to check out on Monday morning. It was definitely the off season We just had time to do get some, have dinner with , and go to bed.

Sunday we awoke and went to church, this was the driveway to it which is found in a nice little residential area of Verona. It was quite interesting trying to find it, we thought we were lost and then all the sudden we found the right little road and the church.

Since the weather wasn't wet we were hoping to go for a swim in the afternoon, but by the time we returned it had started to rain and instead we just slept all afternoon, which felt very nice!!! Monday we said goodbye to our friends Hienze and Erica Springer and headed off to. . .

Switzerland!!!!!

Our Adventure begins. Tuscany!!!

It has been a while since I have posted anything as we have been visiting some of the places in Europe that we have wanted to go to before we move home. We decided that since we will be moving back to the states at the end of the year to take advantage of seeing some more of europe while it is still so close. So over the next few post I will share some of these adventures with you all!!!

Our adventure started by missing our flight for which I take credit. I was so stressed about other things with getting ready for the trip that day that I got stressed about catching the plane a little two late. So the first night of our adventure we spent at the airport hotel in order to catch the 6:30 flight to Pisa, Italy. I must say with the rest of our travels I was much more worried about catching the plane. I learned my lesson well.

To start off the pictures here is one of some beautiful Tuscany scenery. We were a little surprised at how hilly it was there.

Our first stop was the famous tower that doesn't stand straight. We all took turning trying to push it upright, but no worries it is still leaning. We found out later that the tower started leaning about ten years after construction started on it, and they finished it like 200 years later without fixing the foundation or moving the bell tower. I guess they thought it would be a great way to put Pisa on the map and get tourist to go there.

It has been a goal of mine for a very long time to see this tower so I can now check it off my list of things to do before I die.

We then drove into the country to the place that Brian had found for us to stay. It was very remote, even including a ten minute drive on a not so good dirt road. It was a little apartment in this great Tuscany house. This picture does only show our entrance

The next day we drove to Siena. It was a nice drive but a little crazy once we got there. Finding a place to park and then figuring out how to get to the main city, once there we choose the wrong way to walk on the road, but was kindly redirected by a nice tourist agent lady This big square seems to be the main thing to see.

While looking at the Square the rain started to come down. We ducked into an gelato (ice cream) shop to wait it out. Here is a cute picture my mom took of us there.

On our drive to Siena we had passed this structure up an the hill. Since we had some time on the way back we decided to stop at it and find out what this little fort contained.

The name of the place is Monteriggioni, and it is a fort that was built to protect Siena from people traveling along that road between Rome and someplace else. This is my favorite place that we visited in Tuscany. Inside we found a marvelous little old village. It was probably only a few acres big with many little shops. We went into a jewelry shop and saw the person working on a piece of jewelry, and saw another weaving on a big loom. Everywhere was just old and amazing. It was quite a find!!

This is me enjoying the view from the parking lot of the fort. The posing was my idea, just in case anyone is wondering and I think it turned out nice!!!!!

On our way home we had this amazing little village before our eyes. It was such an amazing looking little village, sadly we didn't have time that night to stop go into it.

The next day however as we were to drive away from Tuscany we did decide to stop and have a look around. It also was an amazing old city with many crystal shops and even some places, we heard, that you could watch them shape the crystal, though we didn't stop to see that. We did have a nice walk and get some lunch before driving on to our next stop . . .

Lake Garda!

Hopefully that post will be up soon!!!!!

Jamie is 7 Months!!!!

On Sunday Jamie turned 7 months old and what a little cutie he is becoming. I just thought I would take this chance to put on a few pictures on him and to show everyone what he can do these days!!!

So here is the little man himself!!!!!

I just got him a new coat that I thought was so very cute. I said he was a little cutie, but I might have meant a little monster. Oh how funny!!!!

He is a little English boy who just plays far to hard these days. He is so cute when he is asleep, but aren't they all!!!!!

He has got himself two little teeth recently.

Lets get a closer look at those teeth in there. I was very excited to find this picture with these teeth so well displayed!!!

When Jamie turned four months he figured out how to get off of his tummy, well on Monday he figured out how to get back on to his tummy. This little mover never ceases to surprise me. I suspect he will be really moving soon. Well here is a video of the second time I noticed me roll over.



Our little man is really growing up on us!!!!!

Going to Work with Daddy!!!

Last Friday the kids and I had the great opportunity to go to work with Brian. Well actually I took the kids in a little later then he went in so he did actually get to work a couple hours that day. We started with a tour of the office and meeting all of the nice people that Brian works with, which Lizzie was not very impressed with. We then went upstairs to where there are many of the conference rooms. Since the clients usually come to this floor for their meeting they have this great meeting desk which we decided to take some pictures in front of to prove where we actually were.

The kids seemed to enjoy playing in front of it for a while. Thankfully there were not to may clients around.

Lizzie also spent some time trying to help her Dad get some work done, but it doesn't look like it is being very successful.

I missed working and thought I would try to help him out, but I didn't do much good either. Lizzie however did take some good notes for him!!!

We couldn't go to his office with out seeing the most important room of all . . . The Game Room, just what every work place needs. Besides the pool table there are about three game systems (including a Wii) and a computer with some instruments and software to make a garage band. And here I thought people went to work to work.

Through out the day they had presentations and activities for the older children most of which we missed. This however is the room which they got greeted in and seemed to kind of be their base throughout the day.

The room had paper and crayons for which Lizzie was very happy as she quite likes to color these days. It also had snacks and juices for the kids.

After lunch they had a movie , in one of the upstairs conference rooms, which the kids and I went to watch for a little while while Brian went back to try and get some work done. Lizzie got bored with the movie and walked out of the room and saw Brian at his desk. She then went want walking around to get to him. She got confused when she was getting close and he disappeared. This is a picture of her above Brian's desk and when ever he would come out she would just giggle and laugh. It was so very, very cute.

By the end of the day Lizzie was really enjoying just wandering around the office entertaining all those around her.

Just another cute picture of Lizzie to end the blog!!!!

May Day in Hasting

As Brian got the first Monday in May off we decided to go to Hastings in hopes of seeing a May Day Celebration. We headed off on Saturday morning and on our way stopped at Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. They were having a bit of a May Day celebration here as well. We learned a little about Tudor times and Anne and King Henry VIII hosted the day. It was a fun visit as we walked around the grounds and had a picnic. I even had a duck take a bite of my sandwich.

On Sunday we went to yet another castle, Bodiam Castle, which a rich soldier built to impress his friends and any French that may think to attack!!! It has this great moat with some of the biggest fish we have even seen. Brian even thinks he saw the fish eating the ducks, instead of the other way around. Brian decided that he wants a house like this so he can go out the front door and catch dinner.

We then went to Battle to see the field where the battle of 1066 took place. The field is just a pasture for sheep so I didn't even take a picture of it. This is part of the Abbey ruins that was built by William the Conquerer to commemorate winning the battle.

This is the front side of the Abbey. The building in these pictures is when the monks lived, the actual church is basically gone.

What a cute happy boy!!!!

Lizzie is getting so very good at walking. She now will walk all over the house usually without holding hands. I had to add a video of her walking. Here she is walking across the bridge at Bodiam Castle (I'm not sure if I am spelling that). This is a few weeks ago and in an unusual place but she is still cute!!!!!



Monday we went into Hastings itself to see some May Day dancing, however I left the camera in the car. The first thing that we saw in the town was tons and tons of motorbikes. It was quite a nice seafront, which we walked along. We then went up to the castle to see the dancing but went into a Smugglers Adventure, which was really interesting. I really enjoyed learning about the Smugglers and seeing a cave which they used to hide things in. By the time we got out of the caves and went to go into the castle the line was so long we decided not to go in the castle and watch the dancing. It was fun to see all the people dressed up as green men or just in green and it was a fun day even though it was crazy with all of the crowds.

That was our fun weekend!!!!

Kids Eating!!!

I found some interesting pictures of the kids eating as well that I thought I would share!!!!

Lizzie quite enjoys using large eating utensil when eating. She often asks for our forks and spoons. Here she is trying to eat off of the salad fork. She has also tried eating off of our plastic serving spoons. It is fun to watch her try to get these large spoons into her mouth.

Jamie has started eating solids as well (more pictures of this later), though sometimes he seems to just want to chew on the spoon!!!

I have been looking for a way to get Lizzie to eat raw carrots. One day she was begging me for a whole carrot so I gave it to her and she really quite enjoyed it.

Another day I was cutting up some pineapple and Jamie was getting a little grumpy so I gave him part of the core to chew on. He chewed away very well and when it was finally time to take it away it was noticeably smaller then it started out being.

Lizzie would not eat the pineapple pieces that I was giving her but she also really enjoyed the core part. This has now become one of their favorite treats. It is great that pineapple will keep them so happy so that I can get other things done in the kitchen, sadly we are now out of pineapples for the time being.

Kids Playing!!!

Well as it has been a while since I have posted anything on here I figured that I should put something up as I have a few spare moments. Not much to exciting has been going on though so I figured that I would just put up some pictures of the kids playing together.

At the bottom there is a movie of what these two are doing while laying on the blanket together!!

Lizzie seems to quite love her brother and will often give him kisses still!!!!

A while back Lizzie decided that she wanted to hold Jamie. I'm happy that I got some cute pictures of this when it happened, because now she cries when we put him on her lap even if she seems to be asking to hold him.

Aren't they so very cute. Lizzie does still try to pick him up sometimes, she just doesn't ike to hold him anymore.

And finally here they are just sitting on the couch together!!!

Here is a video of what these kids really get up to when left to themselves. I usually try not to let Lizzie do some of the things that she does in this video, but for the record sticking her finger in his mouth is one of her favorite things to do no matter how much I try to discourage it. It makes him laugh so I guess it doesn't pother him to badly!!!