Trieste

Back in July Chris and I had a great date day in Trieste and at the Miramare Castle. The castle and grounds look like they could be out of either the Anderson or Disney version of the Little Mermaid. This might be a good time to tell you all that this blog also serves as the scrapbook I know I will never take the time to make. So I'm sorry, but you are about to be subjected to the modern version of the slide show after any random vacation. For those of you on FB, I'm doubly sorry, you've already seen these pics. Of course, you can just scroll really quickly past them all :-).

July and August

Summer always seems so long when it starts but by then end it's all over too quickly. 

Here we are at Raffa's with the Watsons. I don't think I will ever get tired of Raffa's food (or vino)! 

Here's the gaggle of children at Artugna's in Dardago for a going away.

 We had a Blue Fairy and Pleasure Isle Kid during the Missoula Children's Theatre week her in Aviano.

The kids were also in another great acting camp, I'll add the pics as soon as I get them.



The summer was also full of acting since Em (and Sophie) had their community theater debuts in the Aviano Community Theater production of The Musical Comedy of Murders of 1940. Em was a "radio girl", Sophie was ..well, Sophie.

The first day of school the weather went from summer to fall overnight. The kids both started attending the base school this year. With Emma it was planned since she is starting (gasp) High School. Liz was a last minute decision because of possible budget cuts that would have had her teacher in Montereale leaving. We miss everyone at Montereale, but it has really been nice having the kids in the same district. Liz started the 3rd grade this year.

And our last big (or small) announcement for summer was ....

 

Lilly. 

This little kitten was under the Greek food stand on base. She represents me being one step closer to being the crazy cat lady at some point, but I couldn't just leave her there. Now Liz and Emma both officially have their own kittens (I swear we found them because they begged for them in Italian), and I've promised not to find any more!

Where the blog plays catch up for June

Actually this is where the blog just barely scratches the surface..but it's a start.

So, in a nutshell...and to keep it brief.. In June-

My Dad came to visit:

The Ferrari store was one of the stops in Venice.

Gelato was had in Sacile:

All in all a busy but good trip, thank goodness Grandpa was such a good sport for all our our end of school year craziness!

We had end of year school parties:

Liz had a party with her class at a cabin near Barcis. 

They also had an end of year music fest at their school. Of course no music fest here is complete without some line dancing and "Sweet Home Alabama". I actually just found out from a friend that it's pretty much just our town that has the country music obsession. I'm not sure how we ended up here, but it seems pretty tailor made!

Emma will be attending the American High School on base next year, so this party was an end of school year and end of her Italian school experience. Here are some of the great kids in her class.

Our new kitten, Jack, continues to work his way into our family.

Chris continues to travel for work. I think in June he made three countries in two weeks. He's having a great time with his new job, even with all the travel. 

We made a few trips to the beach.

To finish the month off Liz and I were heading home in the rain one afternoon when we were t-boned at a curve by a car that hydroplaned. Our poor van was pretty torn up, but luckily no one was badly hurt. The end result is two months (or so) of a rental car since the car wasn't drive-able, replacement parts had to be ordered, and our mechanic (along with the rest of Italy) are vacationing for August (yes, not just "in August" but actually for the month). We're counting this as our inevitable Italian wreck, and hoping it will be the only.

Overall a fantastic end of school year and a great start to summer. Hopefully I'll get a chance to update July before August is over!

An unlikely vacation

So here's another "which one of these did NOT happen" quizzes?

1. we had a guest stay with us from Azerbaijan

2. we rescued a dying kitten

3. I frequented an Italian tattoo/piercing parlor

4. Chris changed jobs

5. We got to see friends from Montgomery

 And the answer is..(drumroll)..once again, I can't imagine this stuff, you get bonus points if you guessed that ALL these happened.

Now explanation time:

First up number 4,  it's the easiest. A few weeks ago Chris started his stint as the Aviano ADC. Originally this job was going to start off with a bang and he was going to leave the day he started to head to England for a trial. Luckily for me there was a postponement and he got to stick around here instead. There will probably be a pretty good chunk of travel with this job, obviously. The upside is that he's doing defense work, right where he originally wanted to be.

Now onto 1,2,3, and 5. Jackie was our visitor from Azerbaijan. She's currently "stationed" there in the Peace Corp. As a former AF child, travel and changes are nothing new to her. As one of my friends who met her said (and I wholly agree) Jackie's the type of woman that 1. gives us a good feeling about how our kids are growing up 2. is the type of person we hope they grow up to be and 3. is the type of person we wish we had been brave enough to be ourselves. Not only is she an incredibly cool person in her own right, but she also was able to educate us a bit on the Azeri (hope that's spelled correctly!) culture. Here's the wiki entry on Azerbaijan if you'd like to get a brief overview of where she is. I also included the Peace Corp web site, they do great things. ( And yes, to answer and reassure family reading this, Chris has already nixed the idea of us signing up after he retires.)

http://www.peacecorps.gov/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan

As an illustration of just how cool Jackie is...numero due. Her first night here we walked down to the local bar to get coffee. As we are walking back through town we spot a little smudge in the middle of the road crying piteously. The little bundle was immediately rushed off to the emergency vet, and although things were pretty touch and go for a while, we now have Jack as a new member of our family.

He's still having some health challenges, and will always have one blind eye. But other than his fondness for climbing up my body (with his claws) to sit on my head (with his claws) and his need to play right during the smack middle of the night, he's a great little kitten. We're getting a lot of laughter from having him around. The cool part of Jackie was that not only was she hip to the idea of spending her first night in Italy nursing a sick cat, but I can guarantee that she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Here's Jackie, her great sister Jessica, and Mom-Janet.

While Jackie was here we were happy to show her around and to help her get a few things done that are difficult, or impossible, to do in Azerbaijan. One of the things on her to-do list was to get a few things re-pierced. So, no, to answer my families next question-I did not (nor did the kids) get anythings tattooed or pierced. Honestly, I'm just too darned indecisive to be a tattoo type of girl, and my ears are enough for me to keep up with in the piercing department. It WAS fun to go with her, it had been a long time since I'd been in a tattoo parlor. The shop was great, right in the Aviano square if anyone needs a recommendation.

Jackie's time here was too short and before we knew it our new familial add on headed off on a cruise with her family, whom we knew from Maxwell. And that leads us to numero cinque...friends visiting. The Dents were going on a cruise leaving out of Venice, so we were able to see them while they were in. Chris and I had a great time heading down to the city for a day and visiting with them. Check out Chris's plate-he was brave once again and got another local specialty. It's pasta with squid, colored black with the ink....A big plate of flat black pasta with squid doesn't sound that appealing to me, but he reports that it was pretty tasty.

While we were there I saw one of the most romantic and charming things that I've seen in Venice so far. This couple was dancing in the middle of San Marco square. They were obviously learning, not perfect dancers by any means, but they were having so much fun and were so sweet together. Sitting there enjoying a spritz with friends, this was people watching at its best.

I've never been in Venice this late, so I couldn't help but get a "panoramic" evening scene of what is now one of my favorite cities. This is from the steps of Santa Lucia train station looking out over the Grand Canal.

We've had a busy past few weeks, more coming soon.

Beach Trip

Chris starts his new position this week, and I go back to classes every night. With all that, and our usual business going on, we chose to stick close to home this three day weekend. Here's our day trip to the beach..it was cold, but that didn't stop us from having fun.

Some of my favorite pictures of the girls are like this. I can see how sweet they are with each other, and how much they're each growing.

  The kids found some great seashells, there are so many you can't walk without crushing them.

Liz had some of the most fun on this coin operated helicopter-it went higher than the roof of the building next door. I keep saying she's our future attorney-maybe flying would be a good pastime.

 

You can't go to the coast without getting some good seafood. Liz and I stuck with our veggie dishes, Chris and Emma had plates that were so pretty I just had to get a picture.