Our Journey

Gorgeous day outside.  I am so thankful for spring.  I know I am suppose to be posting pictures and stories from the trip, but just had to post a few of the girls.

Josie’s feet..

How fun does that look…One of the best things about being a parent…is getting to experience the awesomeness (is that a word) of childhood again!

When one jumps…the other follows!

And sweet little Josie at 2 1/2 still sucking her fingers.  She loves them along with her pillow.  I have been reluctant to intervene, but I may have to soon   We tease her that there must be honey in them for her to be sucking on them so much. 

Ok so I suppose I should post more on the trip.  Our first full day in Florence we went on a city walking tour of Florence and then we went to the Chianti Region of Tuscany to a mideival (spelling?) castle and had a wine tasting and one of the most magnificent meals I have ever eaten!  The city tour of Florence was so cool because we were fresh and eager to absorb information, history, and culture.  We saw the first Church (of about 15 that we saw during the week) made entirely of pink, white, and green marble, a door which took 27 years to carve, the David statue carved by Michalengelo…the real one..not a replica, and my favorite statue..the rape of the sabine women by the Roman soldiers.  On this first day everything was amazing because it was the firsts…I have to be honest though, by the end of the week I got slightly sick of looking at statues and churches and calling that a vacation?  

This is the door to Paradise which took 27 years to carve.  The different scenes represent the stories of the old testament of the bible.  The other is the statue of David.  This is not the real one, but a replica which sits in the town square.  The real one is in a museum and you are not allowed to take pictures of it.  The actual details of the statue are amazing..you can see veins, and tendons, and outlines of muscles.

The Offizzi (sorry for any butchering of spellings I am doing)…the most famous museum in Florence…we just walked by   The interesting thing is the castle in the background.  That is what is so cool…the old and the new (relatively speaking of course).

So the picture below is of me with a hat I purchased with my "Italian filter" as Steve and I called it.  Here is what I mean.  Steve and I both noticed immediately that Italian women dress very fashion forward with lots of interesting additions and garments to their outfits.  Seeing for a day is all I needed to convince myself that I needed something with some "funk" for the rest of the vacation.  Suprisingly this one was picked out by Steve…I think he would like me in "grandma gear" most of the time if I let him dress me, but he must of had his "Italian filter" on as well. 

Steve, standing in the doorway of the castle over looking the Tuscan countryside…

More later……Off to bed..

Bye for now……

Hello!  Sorry for all the blog neglecting as I promised more pictures of Italy and have told people when they ask that I would be putting some up on the blog and share some of the trip highlights.  I think I will just go day by day.  We left Saturday morning on what I would call a marathon adventure just to get over there.  We flew from Fargo to Chicago (long layover) to Amsterdam (watched Juno, awesome flick and slept), then took a 2 hour bus ride through the Apanine mountains into Florence which is in Tuscany.  The Tuscan landscape is just as you see portrayed in pictures..rolling hills, vineyards, olive trees, and Cyprus trees.  When we arrived in Florence around 3:00 p.m. we were instructed to avoid at all costs going to sleep until the evening.  Adrenaline kept us awake and we showered and went strolling in the streets of Florence.

Our Hotel was right on the river.  The bridge in the background is the Ponte Vechio which is famous for all of its jewelry shops.

Many of the streets are made of cobblestone which made walking in the small heel I brought quite difficult.  I learned my lesson and the rest of the trip I dressed in flat shoes…and warmer…it was chilly there.  The bike shows that the movies are accurate.  Many people use bikes as transportation.  Gas there is 7 dollars per gallon, the streets are small, and there is no where to park.   It makes sense that bike riding is popular.  Cars are very very small….have you heard of "SMART" cars…google it…interesting looking machinery!

In Florence there are shops that display their food..the most common (o.k. the only) selections are pizza, sandwhiches, gelato (hmmm ice cream), and pasta.  The food situation was too funny as Steve does not like pasta.  In fact he pretty much lives on tacos.  He spent most of the vacation on a quest for something spicy or tacos.  The other picture (blurry I know) is meant to show the romance in Florence.  It is a very romantic city and there were many couples embracing along the river.  It was the largest display of PDA I had ever seen, but for some reason, in Florence, it was not offensive…not like seeing it at a mall or something.

For tonight I will stop and blog more later on the rest of the trip.  Off to bed for me.

Bye for now….

Hello…We have returned from our "cultural excursion" in Italy.  I call it cultural excursion because it was very much a history/cultural lesson more than a "holiday."  There was no time for rest, relaxation, and revival as we saw as much as possible while we were there. I am planning on posting more with pictures too, but it is too late tonight.  The pictures were all mostly taken by my husband.  I will post just one now.

This was taken in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  When I first saw it it was amazing…I got goosebumps.  The tower is really a bell tower for the basilica and baptistry next to it.  You can see part of the Basilica right next to the tower in the picture.

More later…

Bye for now….

One thing I tend to overdue is always looking toward the future which does not really work with the philosophy of "live in the moment."  However, being that is how I am, I  am in a very good place this moment as I have lots of stuff coming up to be excited about.  First, on Friday of this week the hubby and I are flying out for a trip to Italy.  Our last vacation, just the two of us, was to Medora when Ella was 1.  I am hoping this trip will bring a lot of "res"  rekindle, rejuvinate, revive, relax…etc…  After I get back it will be Easter, Ella’s 5th birthday and then the always anticipated scrapbooking getaway with my lady friends.  I have already started preparing for the scrapbooking weekend by going through all the pictures I have taken of my girls since October and getting them ready to be scrapped.  The other big event I have going on right now is training for the Fargo half marathon.  This time I am following Hal Higdon’s intermediate schedule which is a little more intense than the novice one last year….I hope (cross my fingers) to finish in the low 1:50′s….it is a little scary to put a goal out there like that for fear of not reaching it.  Now that I put it out there, I am really going to have to go after it.  Here are a few of the "old" pictures I have been going through that I never blogged before, but may scrapbook…

The stamps you get at AG Gymnastics…..I like to scrapbook alot in black and white because then I am not limited by the colors in the pictures…I also like to scrapbook pictures that tell more of a story…and that give me inspiration to journal about.  I probably would not hang a picture of Ella in my house with her face all scrunched up looking frustrated, but I LOVE to scrapbook a picture like that!

Bye for now…..

Right after I posted the last entry I went to check on Ella.  She was complaining of chest pain and her "heart pumping so hard"  So we rushed to the doctor and they gave her a diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia.  My poor girl..no wonder why she is so sick.  She has an antibiotic now and should be feeling better in a day or so the doctor said.

Bye for now…

The last two days I have been at home with my very sick Miss Ella who has not been anything but horizontal for 24 hours.  During this time she has watched a LOT of TV.  So a few minutes ago I was laying with her and we were watching baby shows and she asked me if I was "fat" after I had babies.  I said that yes, I gained weight during pregnancy.  She then told me that I probably should have called LA weightloss.  Yikes!  Too much TV for that one.  Here is how she has been looking…

And Josie too…she was cooking lunch with me today.  We were making grilled cheese and tomato soup and she says "me take bite dat ma"  I look over and she has the whole block of velveeta in her mouth…silly girl…

and a couple more…

When I zoomed in on the catch light in her eye on the picture below you could actually see the neighbors house quite clearly….

Bye for now

Today we had a very lazy day which does not happen very often.  Sure there was stuff we probably should have been doing…laundry on the floor, dishes in the dishwasher, messy bedrooms.  For some reason Steve and I were both in the mood to just ignore all of that So what did we do on our lazy day…we played Hannah Montana, we never got out of our sweats, read books, ate three meals from restaurants, took naps, helped Ella take care of her "sick" baby, I pretended I was a bird with Josie, discussed with Ella that chocolate milk does not just come from brown cows, snuggled in our bed with both kids, and took a long shower.  I also took a few pictures while Josie and daddy played which are awesome moments.  It is pretty much the thing in our house that Josie likes mommy best so when I see them bonding it makes me smile…and I got it on record too:)

And a super cute one of Josie herself….no pictures of Ella today because I had my camera out when she was visiting the neighbor’s baby.

Bye for now…..

I had the pleasure of photographing this newborn this week.  She was so tiny…just weighing over 6 pounds.  Both my children were over 9 so she seemed so itty bitty to me.  So alert and calm though…..

Collage…because who can decide on just one picture?

Thanks for sharing your sweet little miracle with me….

Bye for now….

Finally some time outside.  It was warm enough outside to play so we bundled the girls up and went outside on Saturday.  I also got to learn how to use the snowblower which for some odd reason Steve finally agreed to share with me the secrets of the snowblower.  I knew my chance to learn would be fleeting so I jumped at the opportunity.  He taught me in his typical not patient way, but I got the hang of it.  The girls "helped" too by using their shovels and lawn mowers to remove the snow.  We found time to play too climbing on a  snow pile in the culdesac and covering the girls with snow.

Here is Steve with the snowblower…

My little Ella…this picture was actually taken when her whole body was under the snow..only her face was showing…

The Queen of the Hill!!!!!

Love the blue sky!! 

Josie was actually the first one to be completely under the snow…she came up with the idea and had herself half burried before Steve finished the job!

Thank goodness for nice winter days…..Spring will be coming soon and I can not wait!

My other taste of fresh air came in the way of three full days off of work.  It feels so good and this summer will be some much needed time to "breathe" and reconnect with the kiddos.  Life is so chaotic in the winter. 

Bye for now….Ella is bugging me to get off the computer.