Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Sad :(

Well, it's been a while, I'm guessing ya'll already knew I moved, yup, no longer Life in Italy! Do I miss it??? Every day! And looking at previous posts it makes me miss it that much more. I know there is a lot to do around here, things to see, places to go, that sort of stuff but we haven't had the chance to get out and do anything because of the new house, new job, tiny car, etc. It just doesn't seem to let up on the go, go, go around here. The hubby's new job is GREAT. It of course comes with it's down sides too but that's any job. The kids LOVE thier new school. They get on the bus at 650 am and don't get home until around 4pm. Seems like a whole lot of time away from mom (which I'm still trying to get used to). I still have the boy home with me every day so at least it is something to keep me busy. I'm thinking about getting a job, then thinking against it, then maybe I should, but no not right now. Needless to say my brain is non stop thinking! Our new house??? Oh My Gosh I LOVE IT! It is the best house ever! I couldn't imagine us getting a better house. It's huge, beautiful, has almost everything we were looking for, lots and lots of stuff to do with it. I LOVE IT! I think this weekend we are going to paint the kids' rooms, that should be something fun to do! We'll see how it goes. So that's us for now, a whole lot of everything but doing a whole lot of nothing. Maybe we will get out soon, maybe. If not, we'll be here if you need us!

PS did I mention I miss Italy????

Sunday, August 7, 2011

13 days

Can you believe it???? 13 days until my Life In Italy! blog is not going to mean as much. I'm going to have to start another one just to keep myself occupied. Maybe my next one should be ramblings that happen in my head. The stories, thoughts, lists, worries, etc. of my brain. Hum, that could be scary. We'll have to see....

Anyways, we've got 13 days until we fly out. I'm so very excited but so very sad at the same time. I'm going to miss Italy A LOT! Not so much the Italian people (most of them are rude anyways), not so much the gossip train that's here on Villagio (so glad I moved to my own little corner over a year ago and got away from a situation that could have cost us everything), not so much the exchange rate of the Euro (however I will miss the COLA a whole lot), gee, what else is left LOL. I'm going to miss the traveling, the sights and sounds of Italy, the joys of waking up one morning and getting in the car and getting lost on a road that we haven't taken before, the wonderful food and ice cream, the friends I have made whom I will remain friends with after I leave. But to all those things, I will have memories, photos, blogs and much more to look back on and remember all the wonderful times I've had here in Italy. My family and I have got to experience so much more in the past three years that no one I know has got to do. We have had the best vacations here (cruise to Greece, Croatia, Rome, Pisa, Volterra, Florance, Verona, Venice, Edelweiss Germany and so many more places)!

13 days.....man, it's gonna fly by

:(

Friday, July 29, 2011

Jesolo Beach AGAIN!

Jesolo Beach AGAIN! Yes Please! We have found a new favorite hang out!!!! Next time we are thinking about renting one of these......a paddle boat WITH a slide! How fun would that be? Think the kids would be ok on one? I think it's time to find out for sure!!!!!

This time we brought bigger buckets and better shovels since the little plastic shovels we got at the PX broke when we tried digging with them last time. This time it was much easier!

We decided to buy floaties today too and they had an awesome store real close that we stopped at. These floaties were only 6 Euro each and we bought the pump for them for only 3 Euro! Not too bad in my opinion. And I thought they were the littler ones when we got them, nope, they were big enough for Brandon to play on them too!

The kids were a lot braver this time around, went out a lot deeper and got their heads under the water a couple times!

Yes, he fell off that thing several times :) Silly man he is!




This is what the beach looks like after 3 American kids take over! LOL

The funniest part of the whole day was when we were out in the water and Benjamin just started screaming and running full speed BACKWARDS saying he was touched by a thingy with legs and claw thingys. He was terrified!!!! And I was laughing hysterically!!!!! Does that make me a bad parent??? LOL You would have had to been there. The poor crab was dead so we know it didn't pinch him or nothing but the waves were carrying it in and out and when one wave brought it close enough towards Ben to touch him he flipped out! I love my little scaredy puss :)

Since we were going straight to Venice after our trip to the Beach today we decided to stop at the McDonalds to eat. Figured it would be a lot cheeper then eating at the Hard Rock in Venice again. It still cost us 35 Euro for the 5 of us though. That's over $50! Is it going to be like that in the states???? It's a good thing we don't go out to eat much!

I haven't had McDonalds since my Mom and Dad came to visit last year so I had to have the Chicken Nuggets and Fries and BBQ sauce! Oh so yummy!!!! Man how I've missed Mc-y D's!!!!

and this next picture is hillarious in my opinion. On top of this McDonalds there were flages of lots of different nations. We didn't see the American Flag but it could have been in the back more. But if you look close at the Canadian flag, the red and white one with the red oak leaf in the middle, yeah, that one that kinda sticks out. Well, look close, IT'S UPSIDE DOWN!!!!! hahahaha Wonder who did that one and if they are ever going to notice it's like that! LOL


Oh how I wish we would have gone to Jesolo Beach a long time ago! We would have been going here every weekend we wanted something to do instead of going to Verona! It cost the same amount basically but the kids have so much more fun at the Beach! Oh well, at least we've had a great time the past two times we've gone and we are even talking about going more even though we leave in two weeks!!!! Today I did however get sun burnt :( Sucky but hey, I'm a big girl, I'll survive it (and learn from my mistakes LOL)! I am sure going to miss Italy!

Our last trip to Venice :(

Have you ever wondered what kind of boats they have in Venice??? Well, to narrow it down it's easiest to say they have a boat for EVERYTHING! They have the Gondolas for entertainment......if you don't have a good ride at least you can have a good laugh with the Gondoleer :)

Then there's the moving boats, they put all your worldly possessions on a little boat and take it to your house or back depend on moving in or out. Could you imagine if that boat got in a wreck and you lost all of your stuff??? At least if it's in a truck you could probably salvage a bit of it, on a boat, it would all sink!!! Not sure I could move in or out of a house with a boat!

And of course the people in Venice get mail, packages, etc so there has to be a boat for that right? The DHL boat will deliver anything you mail through them. Again, what if it sinks???? But really cool to see :)

And construction??? Really? They can put one of those HUGE tractors on a boat? OK whatever you say. That things gotta weigh a TON and they just had it sitting on the boat and using it. Good or Bad idea????

Of course there's going to be someone doing the whole drinking while driving a boat thing so you've gotta have the police boats. They were wearing black berets which I thought was kinda cool! Our last trip to Venice our boat almost got ran into by one of the Ambulance boats. I guess there is a drive up to the hospital just for those cases. I haven't seen it though so I'm not sure if that's a true statement or not!

They've really got boats for everything. Their TV people, Internet and Phone people, Hotels have their own private boats that come get you and take you back to where you need to be to go home, Personal boats, Rec boats, Fast boats, Slow boats, any kind of boat you can think of I'm sure it's in the Grand Canal somewhere! I'm sure even Johnny Depp has a boat to get to his house he bought there (yup, saw it again today. He hasn't done nothing with it yet though. He must be busy making more movies because I can't see how you'd spend that kind of money on a house on the Grand Canal and just leave it sit there. Oh well, his house!)

These are pictures from the Water Taxi, just a few of course of the ones that were taken but it helps to show what Venice is like (although I've done at least one other post with Venice, probably more LOL)





San Marco square is HUGE! The pictures can't really explain it even. Just massive and beautiful and breath taking and *sigh* I'm gonna miss Italy!!!!





After getting into San Marco square we realized they were setting up a concert. I'm not sure how you would charge money to a concert like this considering you can't really block off the WHOLE square just for the concert. Oh and did I mention that STING was playing! They were rehearsing while we were there, kinda neat! Would have stayed for the concert but we didn't know how long the water taxi's made their rounds and didn't want to be stuck in Venice over night.

I love San Marco square for one main reason, the pigeons! They are super friendly and LOVE anyone who is willing to feed them! This time we took some left over hot dog buns and boy were the Pigeons ever so happy with us!!!! For some reason Brandon's shoulders were the perfect perch for them. He didn't even have any bread!


Bella had them all over her the entire time. She stayed still and they just loved her!

Trinity just freaked out when one landed on her head. Priceless!!!!!

After feeding the pigeons which is always the kids' favorite thing to do, we stopped for some ice cream and some people watching. We heard a lot of English being spoken today! Must be vacation season or something!!!

After walking a ways and eating our ice cream we found the Realto Bridge and headed up and down it.

A view out the side of the Realto Bridge!

I didn't realize how many stores there were in it. With the windows boarded up and the graffiti all over I figured it was just a closed bridge. Boy was I wrong!


It's hard to believe this is our last trip to Venice. It really is a beautiful city with lots to do and see. Even on the way home today Brandon said he was going to miss Italy. But all good things must come to an end right? Good-bye Venice, it's been real great walking your streets, meeting your people, enjoying your entertainment and feeding your pigeons. Not sure if there will be a next time for us or not but I don't think you are going anywhere. Until then, don't change much!!!!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Jesolo Beach

So before I even got out of bed this morning I was asking if we could go to the Beach and of course my hubby said YES! Here at home it was kinda chilly so I really wasn't sure how it would be only an hour and a half away but it was beautiful! Not to hot, not to cold, not a whole lot of sun, not too many clouds, it was just perfect! Being our first time here we had no idea where to park or anything so we parked a ways away (free parking) and walked in to the beach area, awe man, I didn't take a picture of that road, what was I thinking! LOL Anyways, here's some beach pictures.

Yes folks, those are our American Red White and Blue chairs sitting there :) Hey, we're two weeks out from leaving so it's ok to be considered tourists now right!!!

The beach goes on forever....

In both directions!

Even the kids were able to be in the water without us around them too much because it was nice and shallow. They had a blast! Benjamin was jumping over waves like they were nothing. I remember last year when we took him to the American beach down at Camp Darby he'd run from the waves, wouldn't even get in the water! He's growing up....

Bella of course had to find a billion sea shells!!!! And yes, we brought them all home (minus the ones on the sand castle)

Trinity just played with everything, the buckets, shovels, in the water, with the shells, she didn't really do just one thing.

This is the top of our sand castle. Not the best but hey, it's our first time building a REAL one :)

Jesolo Beach, would I recommend it to everyone? Absolutely!!!! Most amazing time EVER! We went on a Wednesday so there were still a lot of people (don't Italians ever work???) but I couldn't even imagine how busy it would be on the weekend. Oh and guess what, we didn't see any boobies today! I was amazed! Figured we'd see a couple at least! LOL

We are going to try and make it back there again since it basically only cost us 4.80 euro (one way) in tolls and we took our own picnic food (like always). Wish we would have gone there sooner, we would have spent a lot more time at the beach!!!!

Monday, July 25, 2011

A weekend of "not much"

Our weekend, we didn't do much. Can't believe how time is going by so fast and our time in Italy is coming to an end. First thing that happened, Bella lost another tooth :) She's getting so big!!!

Then we took all the paper off the old crayons (because we bought all new ones since we are moving) and broke them into little pieces and put them in our nifty crayon maker that my mom sent us! The kids LOVE this thing

Here's a few of our crayons we made

Then we decided that it was time for the girls to learn how to ride their bikes with NO training wheels! Once we got there Brandon was able to convince Benjamin that he should take his training wheels off too so that's what he did. He loves working with Daddy.

After about 45 minutes we were finally able to get both girls off on their own! Brandon doesn't remember it being so hard to teach him to ride a two wheel bike when he was little, I'm sure the girls will remember it the same way. It's never hard when you are on the easy end of things.



And there ya have it, two little girls who can ride two wheel bikes all by themselves! We still work with them on it of course. We have to get them really good before I'll let them just take off of their own. Hard to believe how fast they grow up, but it's great to see that we are doing such a good job raising them!!! I don't think I could survive without my little ones!