Italy!

Ok no more spiders...here is a better subject. My girls trip to Italy last weekend!! Brad was so sweet to let me go and take awesome care of Chase while I was gone. Chase is super easy going and didn't even realize I was gone! I did get a big hug when I got home though.

Anyways, we had wonderful weather. We stayed in Sorrento and saw the Island of Capri, Pompeii and Amalfi Coast. Everything was beautiful!!

Didn't get an entire group picture but here are several of us eating yummy pizza!

Here we are leaving Sorrento and heading to Capri.

We took a boat ride around Capri. We didn't get to see the famous Blue Grotto but the water was so blue. I was accidently on the camera mode where its blank and while and hi-lites one color. BLUE!!

Heading into Pompeii.

The four of us that did a self guided tour.

Seeing the human cast was very sobering.

The beach!!

Eating gelato in Amalfi.

The Amalfi Coast drive was breaktaking but the drive was rough for me. The taxi drivers are crazy and adding to that driving along the mountain and I wasn't sure I was going to make it! Thanks to Sarah for planning a wonderful trip and to Staci for being a great roommate. I felt like a middle schooler again as we had to force ourselves to stop talking and go to bed :)

I'm in trouble...

Check out this article Britain Braced for Huge Spider Invasion. Send your prayers my way!

Arachnophobia

I have shared my hatred of 8 legged creatures before - I finally made hubby take a picture. The ironic thing was he was in the bathroom to get tissue to clean up another spider (not as big) that he killed crawling across our floor. These things are everywhere in our house and it is terrible. Thank goodness he is home this time of year! Steven - the whole time Brad was taking a picture I was yellling "make sure there is a reference point!" Hopefully you get the idea. I know not all people like leaving comments but I put a little poll on the sidebar. Please vote on if I am crazy for hating these things in my house. That is the key - I can handle them outside - not in my house!! And just to give you an idea there have been about 25 or so in our house the past monthish.

I'll post Italy pictures soon!

Family Pictures

Last weekend we had family pictures with my good friend Shanna (check out her blog!). Here are a sneak peek of the pictures. Of course you can't see my favorites. Those are being saved for Christmas cards (hope you are on my list!). We had them done in the gardens of a local village. A special thanks to Logan who helped with Chase and Wagner during the shoot!

He wasn't really part of the shoot - he was just walking around so we got a picture!

Our Village

Could I interest you in joining us on our walk this afternoon? I figured I would show you around our little village. We have enjoyed living here but are actually considering moving on base. It's starting to get a little too small for me and the thought of seeing dada more is very exciting!

Anyways, Chase is up from his nap, has a cup of milk and we are ready to go.

We are first going to head to the church.

The building is open during daylight hours and they have some church/village information, a plant stall and book/dvd/jigsaw exchange. That's what we were looking for....I actually enjoy a puzzle every now and then so I came here to trade one I've already done for a new one. I guess the long winter nights get to a lot of people!

You can also come during the day to pray or worship. I actually thought it would be cool to do my quiet time here.

Off past the church, we go to check out the horses. There is a huge horseracing town only a few miles so they are several large studs in our village.

Sometimes they like coming close but today they were content to stay away and eat.

Our cottage - isn't it so ugly with one vine completely dead? The owners stopped by the other day and said they are going to replant it. It gets hard in the winter because the ground is always saturated. Everything gets so muddy! I am ready for a real sidewalk and driveway!

On our walk we saw a jet overhead. Hi dada!

We pick up the dogs and head to the park. Wagner's friend Sammi is staying with us for a few days.

Chase loves the swing. Isn't that a terrible design though. It can't be that comfortable.

Playing on the slide.

Uh-oh that is a dark cloud - we better start heading home.
Some of the streets in our village.

Practically every house has a name. It's one thing to have a plaque on the name but this cottage to the left of the pub sign the name is part of their house (the beige part.) I guess they are proud to live in the Reading Room Cottage!

It did start sprinkling on us so we had to run inside. It wouldn't be a real England visit without al little rain! Hope you got a better idea of living in small village England! It will probably be a week until I can post again - pictures from my girls trip to Italy this weekend!!

Real Life

I know it is easy to make your life seem wonderful on blogs. Well I think I should show you some "real life" sometimes. Daddy normally calls before he leaves work - that half hour until he gets home is probably the hardest of the day. I am trying to clean up and get dinner ready and Chase is getting tired and hungry. Drastic measures had to be taken the other day. Yep, here is my one year old glued to the TV about a foot away. He loves his Praise Baby DVDs!

He sure is cute though!

Walking

He is 14 months and we are excited that he can walk with a walker! Everyone tells me to not be in a hurry but when we are out and about and he is getting restless it would be easier and less dirty if he could just run around. When we stopped in Ireland the grass was all wet so we found a dirty piece of concrete for him to crawl around for a few minutes. Yuck! He always seems to find cigarette butts and all things gross when crawls in public places. Double Yuck!

Brugge

For Labor Day weekend we headed to Brugge, Belguim. We took the ferry from Dover to Calais, France then drove up to Brugge. We were looking forward to a relaxing weekend away!

Daddy and son checking out the white cliffs of Dover.

Keeping busy on the ferry.

Lots of yummy chocolate stores.

Chase hanging out in the square while waiting for dinner. Some friends were also in town that weekend so we met them for dinner.

There are lots of canals so we had to take a boat ride. Chase does not like sitting still and we didn't want to ruin the ride for everyone else so he pretty much got whatever he wanted for those 45 minutes.

We went to the Fry Museum. I guess during WWII some french speaking Belgians offered American some fries. They thought they were from France hence French Fries.

Getting to taste them after the museum tour.

Chase liked them too!

We definitely had a relaxing Sunday and went back twice to the room for naps. Chase let us know he was ready for nap. 2 more teeth came through this weekend so hopefully that's why he was a little fussy.

They had waffles with powdered sugar and chocolate - yum!

It's very hard to get a good family picture!

View of the city.

From top of the bell tower.

We also had to visit the Chocolate Museum! This is right before we left and Chase was pretty much done!

We had a wonderful time! The city was beautiful and the weather was perfect!