Summer Vacation

What an exciting summer it has been for us so far! Here are some of our adventures from June and July:

First, we celebrated a VERY special day : Ainsley's 1st Birthday! I cannot believe that she is one already, and she is walking up a storm! No babies here anymore, she is a full fledged toddler now. Here are some captured moments from her big day.

Sweet birthday girl!

Having some bubble fun in the back garden

Also, my sister, Cate, came and visited with us for a few weeks. I loved that she was able to come out, it was so nice to have company around the house too! While she was here we toured London and flew to Italy to see Pisa, Cinque Terre, and Florence.

Having a picnic, and impromptu dance party at the Abby Gardens (Bury St Edmunds)

Cate and the girls walking up to Framlingham Castle; where Mary Tudor was crowned Queen of England

London Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament!

The Olympic rings on Tower Bridge. So neat!

Buckingham Palace!!!

Had to stop by King's Cross Station!

And  then we flew to Italy. It was HOT in Italy. Definitely brought back some memories of living in Florida...except that a lot of places in Italy did not have air conditioning...

We also had the experience of being in a country that spoke a different language. Thankfully, "toilet?" is pretty universal. With a just-potty-trained two year old, that word was used a lot. Some other words that we learned to say were, grazie (thank you), ciao (hello/bye), fragola (strawberry), and most importantly, gelato!!! We ate gelato at least three times a day and I think I'm okay without eating it again for a while. Real Italian gelato was pretty amazing though, as well as all the food we experienced there.

On our first day we flew from London to Pisa and spent the afternoon and evening there.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

First Italian gelato

 The next day we boarded the train to Cinque Terre "The Five Lands" to enjoy some time in the sun on the Italian Riviera! Cinque Terre is made up of five little villages along the coast; Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia (pronounced cornelia), Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare.

Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

On the Via dell'Amore to Manarola

Monterosso

Myla had a long day

 Then, to finish our trip we took yet another train to Florence. This city was really beautiful and there was so much history there! I am definitely glad we did not rent a car, though. Driving in Florence was crazy; I don't know how the locals do it.

Duomo - the Florence Cathedral.

 The cathedral was HUGE! Do you see a bit of the red brick dome in the back? That is the dome that people can go to the top of...if you make it!

On the left is the replica of the statue of David.

Statue of Neptune (Poseidon..but we are in Italy, remember?)

 So, we decided to do it. We walked the 460+ steps to the top of the Cathedral with children in tow. It was hot and the stairwells were very narrow. It was basically a long single file line of people all the way up. At the top you had to almost pull yourself up out of a hole in the roof. When Matt and I emerged holding the girls, the people actually gave us a round of applause. Too funny!

Top of the Duomo Dome

I really enjoyed my time in Italy, but for some reason it made me miss America a lot. I probably just had a slight culture shock with everything being so different. I am still so happy and blessed that we are able to travel around like this and see so many things that I might never have seen otherwise.

Can't wait for our next adventure!