Fun-Filled Weekend

This last weekend, Steve was off on Friday, which also happened to be his 36th birthday. And then Sunday was Father’s Day. We had no set plans other than a family photo-shoot on friday afternoon, so we did a lot of nothing and a few fun things too. Friday morning the kids and I made a cheese eggs and bacon breakfast for Steve and dragged him out of bed at the crack of dawn 9 am. And off to the beach we went. It was perfect beach weather, sunny blue skies, with a light breeze to keep you at the perfect temperature. The water was warm enough to swim in and the sand conditions were perfect for the kids to be entertained for hours just digging random holes. We could have stayed all day. But not really, because we had to go home to shower and get done up for a photo-shoot. The kids were overdue for pictures and since there is nothing that Steve despises more than a photo-shoot, we jumped in too so we can call our family officially photographed for the year. He was good and pissy by the end of the pictures and even though everyone got the standard smile bribery of starburst, he didn’t cheer up until we got to the restaurant where we had dinner and he got a few glasses of wine. Their vino de la casa was really good and happened to be from the vineyard our pictures were taken in just an hour before. His spirits were cheered even more when we got home to a vanilla and strawberry gelato cake. It was delicious! The kids loved coloring cards for him and dragging him to the beach for his birthday and they both told him “Happy Birthday!” every chance they could all day long.

On saturday, we went out to buy a bike for me and a trailer for Emily. And then we took a long evening ride to test out the new equipment. The goal is for Brian to ride alongside us on his bike, but ever since he starting riding without training wheels in the fall, he’s a little wobbly and too intimidated for a long street or trail ride. So, on our first ride, both kids were in the trailer and Steve got quite the workout pulling 80 pounds of blonde cuteness behind his bike. The next day Brian begged to practice his riding more because he said it looked like way more fun to ride a bike than sit in the baby trailer. Steve worked with him for a few hours and in no time at all, he was riding the trail with us like a pro. So, Sunday/Father’s Day was more bike riding and also a picnic at the park for lunch. And again the kids had fun making a pancake breakfast and cards for him. He was lavished with love and kisses all weekend!

Our Summer Bucket List

When Brian got home from his last day of school, we printed out this bucket list printable, he colored it in and we made a list as a family of all the fun things we plan on doing this summer. I wanted to get the kids excited for everything we have planned, it is going to be a busy 10 weeks! We’ve already marked 6 activities off this weekend! I’m hoping for at least a 90% completion rate, so I’ll be updating at the end of summer with pictures to see how well we did! Here’s the list:

Third Floor Sleepover
Hiking
Bike Ride
Bouncy House Place
Pool
Beach
Library
Butterfly House
Movies
Park
Gelato
Bowling
Picnic
Lake Barcis
Sardinia
Lake Bled
Lipizzaner Horse Farm
Disneyland
Build a Light Saber
Play in the Rain
Balboa Island
Fun Zone
Eat a Balboa Bar
Palm Springs
Make Cookies
Make Cupcakes
See a Play
Dodger Game
American Girl Doll Place
Visit Dad at the Squadron
Wash the Car
Make Homemade Ice Cream
Playdough
Learn to Swim
Make Homemade Popsicles
Daddy & Brian Bike Ride
Brian & Mommy Date
Read RAZ Kids
Color Pictures
Fly a Kite
Watch Star Wars Movies
Watch Harry Potter Movies

Emily’s Asilo

Last week, Emily’s Italian Preschool (Asilo) had an open house/tour for next year’s new students. She is so excited to go off to school in September and I think even more so now that she’s seen the school. It looks just like an American preschool inside. All the same toys and activities and artwork, everything is just in Italian. I am slightly nervous about the fact that she speaks no Italian. She does know a few key words but will need to know much more than that to both learn in preschool, and understand what is expected of her there. I am planning on taking Italian myself in the fall once Emily is off to Asilo 5 mornings a week, I will have the free time for tutoring and studying. That way her and I can work on learning it together. As far as heading off to school goes, she will love it. She is very smart and super social and will love playing with other kids and doing fun activities. I just hope she doesn’t get so frustrated by the language barrier that she stops liking it.  

Brian’s Big Week

This last week was a big one for Brian. He finished up with his 2013 T-Ball season and will be in a bigger age group next year, no more t-ball, he’ll be hitting moving balls! He loved every second of t-ball this year, he was always excited for practice and games. Steve was able to be there for every game/practice and was an assistant coach. Brian is looking forward to Soccer in the fall. And on June 12th, he spent his last day of Kindergarten having field day, which I helped at, and it was a blast. The DoDDs Schools only recognize High School graduations, so he didn’t have a ceremony or anything. But when school let out, the kindergarteners walked over to the “big school” (the kinder building is separate) and they danced out the front door as 1st graders. He’s so proud to be a 1st grader! He also lost one of his top, front teeth and really looks like an adorable snaggle-toothed 6-year-old now!

Memorial Day Beach Trip

Memorial Day marked nearly 2 weeks of nonstop rain in our part of Italy and they were calling for more rain that day and the rest of the week. But the beach was supposed to be sunny and dry, so we hopped in our car and drove down with 2 of our favorite families to Lignano for some sandy fun. The W family and the R family each have 4 kids, and even with one missing, we had 9 kids and 6 adults. It was a little chilly but the kids didn’t seem to mind as they ran around in the sand for a few hours. Then we went for lunch at a nearby restaurant and for a table with 9 kids, it was so quiet. Everyone was so well behaved, but the W and R kids always are and maybe it’s rubbing off on our kids? I hope so!! We finished off with some Gelato and then headed home to a huge thunderstorm, which made us really appreciate a much needed day in the sun.

Panoramic iPhone Dump

Steve has this cool app on his iPhone that takes panoramic pictures. There is a slight learning curve to getting it right and he’s gotten pretty good at it. When I pull pictures off his phone and mine to blog about our trips, I always forget to pull the panoramics off too. So, we finally got around to downloading and editing, and here are some from our trips in April and May.

 

In Zermatt, Switzerland, at the Matternhorn

 

At Burg Cochem on the Mosel River in Germany

 

Spangdahlem AB in Germany

 

At the summit of the Zugspitze near Garmisch, Germany

 

At Hitler’s Eagles Nest in Berchtesgaden, Germany

 

Hiking the Alpe di Siusi in the Dolomites near Castelrotto, Italy

Grizzo Hill Hike

One day while Steve’s parents were here, he took them and Emily for a short hike to the little hill that overlooks our town, Grizzo, and Montereale next to it, and Malnisio on the other side of the hill. It was a beautiful day and they took some nice pictures from the top.

The Lignano Zoo

Brian’s class had a field trip in May while Steve’s parents were visiting and so we all went along to the Parco Zoo Punta Verde in Lignano, about an hour from our house and just minutes from the beach. It’s a nice little zoo and we of course saw lots of animals. The best animal show we saw was a mama wallaby and her baby. The baby was jumping into and out of her pouch and running circles around her. In and out and circles. In and out and circles. Every now and then he’d stop for some milk. She just sat there and watched him all patient and calm. I’d be like “Knock it off! Pick one! In or out!” Below is Brian with his teachers, Miss Kari and Mrs. McCormick. His pink and purple heart shirt is their class shirt, that they would wear for special events like parties and field trips. After we were done at the zoo, we drove a short ways to the beach to get some lunch and ice cream and sit out on the boardwalk.

Above: A bunch of lazy cats just lion around. And here’s the mama Wallaby and her spazy little baby. 

Ah, and here above we have the international sign for “only superfit hotties in tiny swimsuits may swim in this pond!” There were no swimming ponds for us regular body types. I almost filed a complaint, but didn’t because I don’t know the word for discrimination in Italian.

Steve walked Brian down to the water to feel how cold it was (not bad actually) and then Emily wanted a turn.

Venice

The day after we returned from our Dolomite and Austria trip, Brian had a t-ball game. As soon as that was over, we hopped on a train at the Sacile train station and ended up in Venice for lunch. We ate canal-side near the train station and then spent a few hours wandering around on foot and via vaporetti. We walked past all the major sights and wound our way through some of the less touristy places. We stopped at Harry’s Bar near St. Mark’s Square to visit our landlady’s son, Claudio, who manages the bar there. He gave us complimentary Bellini’s (they were invented at Harry’s Bar) and gave the kids a huge bag of candy. We did some more wandering and had some gelato and ate dinner at a quick little cafeteria before boarding a late train back home. I think we got back to the house at 11 pm, it was a long day! The entire next 3 weeks, it rained almost continuously, so we are glad we took advantage of our last sunny day for a while!

Berchtesgaden

After our first night in Salzburg, we spent a full day just over the German border in Berchtesgaden, a beautiful alpine town nestled at the base of some huge mountains and most well-known for its association with Hitler and his Nazi Party. Young Hitler fell in love with the area after he was released from prison in the 1920s, he enjoyed some R&R here, where he completed his memoir and the beginning of his crazy ranting, Mein Kampf. In the 1930s, Hitler and pals built a gated complex of 80 buildings, bunkers and tunnels here. Somewhere in this complex someone said “hey guys, let’s take over the world!” And all the crazy people agreed. Once the Americans, Brits, French, and Russians were finished beating the Nazis into submission, we took over the area and before handing the land back to the Germans in 1952, we completely destroyed the parts of the complex that survived bombing during the war. A few of the tunnels and bunkers remain. And the Kehlsteinhaus, better known as Hitler’s Eagles Nest. It’s located on the top of a 6,000 foot summit overlooking Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and the Konigssee. It was a gift to Hitler in 1939 for his 50th Birthday from the Nazi party. It was meant to be used as a place for him to bring Diplomats for tea or whatever fascists drink. Lemonade? Soy milk? The blood of virgins? And my favorite part of this whole thing is that Hitler was scared of heights, almost as much as he was scared of the Russians, so he only used the nest 14 times. Steve and I visited the Nest in 2003 but I don’t remember the view being so good. The day we were there this May was beautiful, it was clear, although cold and terribly windy, but we could see the entire city of Salzburg laid out in the distance. We dined in the main hall on some pretty delicious and reasonably priced German food. And then wandered around the building and hiked a short ways up to the summit for pictures.

 

After we rode the bus back down from the Nest, we went over to the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine for a tour. Touring the salt mine is awesome, Steve and I also did it in 2003 and knew from experience that the kids would have a blast (although luckily not literally) on the tour. Tourists are handed blue jumpsuits to put on and then the tour begins with a train ride 650 meters into the mine. Once inside, we slid down “miner’s slides” and took a boat ride across a water-filled cavern. And also of course learned how salt is actually mined, which is still going on in that mine today. A good time was had by all.  

Now, this picture above had us laughing for several days. Steve’s parents, Mike and Mary, got grouped together with some random guy for the slide down. Once they got sliding, Mike got stuck at the top, so Mary and the random guy got a nice little snapshot together!