Our Trip to Italy

It has been a crazy month for us! We traveled to Italy at the begining of the month, and had a blast (you'll read about it in the following paragraphs). The week we got back, I was busy with the School Portraits. The next week we had quite the scare with Kedric getting pretty sick with ITP (Idoipathic Thrombocytic Purpura). His platelet count dropped dangerously low and had to spend a week in the hospital. He's doing a lot better now, back to the Kedric we know-- always wanting to eat and getting into everything! We just have to have blood work done every week for a while. Thank you all for your prayers! We know they helped not only him, but us too. This past week, I've been a lot more busy than I wanted to be with Sports pictures, and School retakes-- I'm glad it's behind me now!

Well, after all that, finally, I've put together a slide show of our adventures in Italy. But pictures don't even do justice. To view the pictures follow this link: www.designedphotography.com/ItalySlideShow

We traveled to Venice, Pisa, Florence, Rome, the Vatican City, and the Cinque Tierre. We LOVED Venice. It is such a unique and picturesque city, and want to go back for sure! We had fun in St Marco's Square with all the pigeons! Reilyn was scared to death of them-- but it'll be a memory for her. It was awesome to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It's leaning a lot more than you think when you just look at the pictures. We had fun making pictures of us holding the tower up! Reilyn was so funny-- she was really worried that it was going to fall on us! In the slideshow, you'll see the pictures of her face when she first saw the tower.

We drove down to Italy and the drive in Northern Italy is so beautiful. You don't want to drive too fast because it's just stunning with the majestic mountains, and beautiful vineyards in the hills with castles peeking through each turn. We also loved driving through Tuscany. I kept looking for turnouts to stop and take pictures, but never saw any-- so I'm sorry I didn't capture any of that beauty. But I did get some pictures of the pine trees that don't have any branches except at the top. I loved those trees!

We were able to see the statue of David in Florence-- again Majestic. No pictures of that allowed, but you all know what it looks like. Very impressive. I think James enjoyed Rome more than I did. It was neat to see the Colliseum and all the big ruins, and of course the Vatican City, and the amazing artwork in the Sistine Chapel. It was just hard to have the kids with us, plus I had some nasty blisters on my feet! Plus the city itself was just so busy, and hot and dirty. They drive like mad people and don't really stay in lanes (you'll see a picture of this). James says you're not a real man until you've driven a Scooter in Rome! I think all the smoke and polution has affected their judgement. Most of Italy is like that. A good place to visit, maybe not so much to live.

We loved the Cinque Tierre, 5 little villages right on the Mediterranean. We didn't have the chance to hike around them too much, and will definitely return someday. It was so fun to see the fishing villages and enjoy the tempting smells of fresh foccacia bread.

Well, I hope you enjoy the pictures. There are several, so you may get bored. But I did set the show to Italian Classical music by Josh Groban. We listened to his CD's while we were driving to set the mood. Enjoy!!