Livin' the Life

Since warm weather won't come here, we travelled south to Las Vegas to find IT. Our brother-in-law hooked us up with an awesome vacation home down there w/ a pool and putting green which was just what the doctor ordered for ALL of us! What a blast!
The kids jumped into the pool about 8pm when we first got there Thursday night
and they hardly got out until Saturday was all but gone.
They tired themselves out so much that getting them to sleep was the easy part!
If they weren't swimming
they were likely playing basketball or golf, Massimo especially liked the golf!
He got pretty good at it by the end too!

My kids loved having time to play with their cousins! They would yell, "Celebration!" as they jumped into the water time and time again.
They were having a BALL!
After baths everyone wound down playing games and watching the Jazz ALMOST win.

Thanks Gina and Brad for making that happen and for feeding us so well! We never wanted for anything! So I guess if you do it right, what happens in Vegas DOESN'T have to stay in Vegas. Ahhhh. Life is good.

Spring Ball

"Ohhhh, I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller...." That is my youngest son's motto. He's not into the, "I wish I had a girl that looked good, I would call her" part yet, thank heavens!! (Does anyone else remember that rap song)
He really wishes that he could play soccer with his sister and Tee Ball with his brother!
He looks ready, wouldn't you say?
It has been fun to see Enzo's progress with Tee ball this year. He has a focus and competitiveness that he lacked last spring and it makes the game much more exciting! He hustles to catch every ball and will even try to get it from a teammate that has already caught the ball...we're working on that! He has a nice hit and most of all, he enjoys himself.
Arianna loves having her Dad help coach and she gets a little better w/ each passing season.
She says she likes soccer even more than gymnastics which is surprising considering that she does cartwheels and round offs all over town! She has a fun group to play with which helps too!

Lovin' Life

I love how kids are so easily impressed. They find joy in the simplest things. How very much I have to learn from them! We took a quick weekend away to Wolf Creek up in Eden last month and what did our kids love?? They LOVED being tickled and chased by their aunt, uncle and grandpa;they loved playing with their cousins; they loved taking walks to hunt for dragons...in the rain;
they loved 'swimming' in the hot tub out back; and they even loved taking a bath in the big tub once it was Sunday and they could no longer 'swim'.
Ahhh, I love simplicity. I love family. I don't get to see my father much, he lives in Thailand, but it was great to have him here for a time and to see the kids take to him as their Grandpa.

Enzo's Big Day

Yea, it has been a little while, like a month, but our vacation put me back a bit! I am still having a hard time realizing that he is 4. Just the other day I had to ask Marco if that was REALLY the case, and I meant it!!
He is one special boy though! He is very caring with his little brother, very excited to meet his new sister and 'give her hugs,' he HATES to do wrong and turns to tears when he fears that he has. Don't get me wrong, he is ALL boy! He loves his swords and his wrestling time with Dad and he teases his big sister and likes to go his own way when he can swing it. I cherish that giggle of his, though, and the way he senses the needs of another and answers to them the best way a four-year-old can. He is a sensitive soul, always has been, and we love him! Happy Birthday bud! You are my SUPER hero. Not quite sure why he chose a crocodile cake, but after seeing the Dino cake his brother requested for his recent birthday, green was in order.
We had a quiet night together opening his gifts, eating his favorite dinner ('PASTA, but only with Parmesan Cheese') and gobbling up the crocodile cake. The whole family enjoyed working together on all his new toys!
He has a great group of friends too! What a blessing.
I would have any of them over or a combination of many of them and they all seem to get along so well. Good kids, the whole of them. We had a blast training to be super heros, racing through obstacle courses, chasing down the Green Goblin, and finally resting for some grub and gifts! They were all great sports!

Wrapping it up in Milano

Our final destination was Milano. As we journeyed from Rome to Florence to Milan I noticed the streets getting cleaner, the people getting taller (and more stylish) and the prices rising. Quite a trend. I was glad we had gotten all of our shopping needs taken care of prior to our arrival here in the shopping mecca of the world because our pocket books wouldn't have held up in a town like this one!
Milan is rather famous for a great painting you may have heard of, The Last Supper, (which we didn't get any closer to than the outside of the church it was housed in) and this amazing duomo.
It is the 2nd largest cathedral in all the world (second to St. Peters in Rome)and rivals the Notre Dame in grandeur! What an intricate structure! The inside was dark and much the same as any other, but I loved this duomo from the outside!
Off the Piaza del Duomo is the entrance to Milan's famous shopping district.
This is as close as we dared get, but even the window shopping was exciting!
It was here that we met up with Marco's step grandmother. What a treat to have met her! Even in her 80's we all had to run to keep up with her! She was great! After treating us to more tasty pizza she landed us at the BEST Gelateria in all of Italy, I swear. She claims that Dolce & Gabbana get their Gelato here and after just one lick, I would believe that ANYONE would travel ANY distance to imbibe, so why not high class designers? Marco just wondered who in the heck THEY were and ate away!
How could 12 days have gone by so quickly?! We ate all sorts of Italian delicacies late into the night w/ Piera and her family and that was all that she wrote. We flew home the next morning exhausted and grateful for so many wonderful memories and experiences.