April in Italy

Once again a fairly uneventful week in Bella Italia, but that doesn't mean that we aren't having one beautiful day after another . This past Sunday while Chris played golf and Emma babysat, Liz and I went to the Pordenone Antique market. We didn't do a whole lot of shopping, but still managed to have a great day.

This is the Pordenone carousel. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, but it's the oldest I've ever seen. The artwork is really pretty, and the carousel itself is beautifully unusual. Liz took the first round herself. Second round we were given free tickets and I got to ride in the rocking carriage.

Riding in carousels works up quite an appetite. We headed over to a chocolate shop for a little refreshment. Peratoner chocolates opened in 1873 and has some of the most beautiful chocolate I've ever seen or tasted. Liz's hot chocolate was basically melted dark chocolate, we had to order a glass of milk to water it down a little!

I should have gotten a picture of their front display. The current theme is "fish market" and they have an entire window filled with life sized chocolate fish laid out like what you would see in a market stall.

Liz and I had a picnic lunch while waiting for Emma to get out of school last week. Here she is as a flower princess. Yes, she's wearing the same dress, different day, it's her "go-to" outfit right now, the cowboy boots are a daily thing.

There are several things that I've tried to get picture of, only to fall short. One of the pictures is of the sheep herds that travel from place to place. As far as I can tell they are used to clear fields, eating for a day or two until an area is bare, then popping up across town at another farm. The working dogs really earn their kibble running back and forth to keep the sheep out of the roads (no fences!). The other picture is of a Nonna riding her bike in heals and a dress, probably coming back from market. There are more than a few who can do this with a child or two on each end of the bike, packages hanging off the handle bars and in the basket, and all of it with more grace in heals than I can muster on a flat surface. Here are the best attempts so far.

Sheep...

Nonna...

Part of Liz's mini-basket team. Coach Eric is the big guy on the back row, and for those of you that have heard the stories of Paolo, he's front row second from the right.

Emma has been absent a lot lately when it comes time to snap photos, so here are at least some of the pictures she's taken...

The view next to us with all the fruit trees in bloom:

Geburtstag Strudel

On April 5th our dear, sweet, super smart, gorgeous, always fantastic girl Emma turned the big 1-4. That's right, a whole year into teenager-hood and so far no ill effects have been noted. Her birthday was lucky enough to fall into spring break, so we took advantage of the time off from school to head north to Germany.

It's a little over 5 hours to get to Garmisch from where we are, and the drive took us through some really incredible sights in Italy, Austria, and Germany.

I don't think we had snow sticks this high even in Iowa (well above my head!).

How could I not have gotten a picture of this?

Em prepping for her first round of skiing.

Chris and Liz on the slopes.

Birthday lunch, more German food.

For Em's birthday dinner we headed to a traditional Bavarian restaurant complete with Bavarian dancing, and....strudel. So Em, being the lucky strudel loving girl she is, got a delicious apple strudel for her birthday "cake".

Here's the yodeling, accordion playing, singing musician at the restaurant.

I tried to get pictures of the dancers, but the restaurant was just too dark. The food was delicious and filling. Chris and Emma were in heaven trading dishes back and forth.

Birthday girl getting attacked by her sister.

Emma just seems to get better and better each year, I can't wait to see what 14 brings us.