Bubbles

For two days now, Kelsey has been telling me, "bubbles." It's very clear, but I had no idea what she was talking about. She dumped out her can of bubbles a few weeks ago and I haven't gotten around to getting another one.

Tonight I found out what she meant - BATH bubbles. Tally was home when she said bubbles and he immediately knew what she was talking about. I guess he started filling her bath with bubbles a few nights ago and now she knows how to ask for it!

She's learned the "I want..." part of the sentence and tells us what she wants. For example, "I want my towel...no PINK towel." "I want milk." "I want my binty (she can't say her 'k' sound, so she subsitutes with a "t." Or my favorite now, "I want to walk." It doesn't usually means she wants to walk, it means she wants to go for a walk. It's amazing how fast she is picking things up. Tonight at dinner, she sits down and clear as a bell, says, "RICE." By the time most of you see her again, she'll be able to carry on a conversation.

She also picks up on what we do. I threw a piece of trash at sink from the couch. Not 10 minutes later, Kelsey picked up a cheerio off the floor and threw it towards the sink. Great.

When we went for a walk the other day, Kelsey was walking and Tal pushed her stroller really hard so it raced ahead of us. Kelsey laughed so Tal kept doing it. Today when we took her doll for a walk in the stroller, she kept pushing the stroller ahead of us or letting the stroller go down the driveway (we live on a busy street so we have to be careful of this one). Monkey see, monkey do.

Easter in Italy

As I typed in the title of this post, I realized two things: 1. I'm not very creative in my Post Titles and 2. We spent last Easter in Germany. I guess Switzerland doesn't appeal to us during Easter :). Or that's when Tally has a few vacation days in a row so we head out to explore.

So back to this year...

We drove down to Italy over Easter weekend and stayed with Jessi's parents in Vicenza. Our first stop: Verona.

Verona, Italy

3. graffiti outside Juliet's house where lovers forever make their stupidity and irreverence for public property known (this doesn't get me like it does on famous churches or architecture - that really gets me). 9. Darling aprons

The amphitheatre or Arena built by the Romans in 30AD and is the 3rd largest in Italy

Love the Italian hills, trees, and villas

Love gelato. Kelsey had to have her own, of course

Verona is the city in which Shakespeare's famous "Romeo & Juliet" takes place.

"Two households, both alike in dignity

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene."
—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, The Prologue

This is the balcony that some falsely claim as historically significant (it was a story based on imagination, not on history)

Below the balcony is Miss Juliet. It's said that if you touch her right breast, you will get lucky.

Playing in Verona

Kelsey loved playing with and hugging baby Chloe

Dear 'ol Dads carrying the kids around

Splash, splash! This dirty fountain in the Piazza delle Erbe was so much fun to play in.

Playing in the Rocks outside the Petty's house

Playing at the park in Piazzola sul Brenta

In the background of the bottom middle pic, you can see the beautiful backdrop of the palace

Isn't it a gorgeous town center!? This is only part of it. I took more pictures of it during our trip 2 years ago.

Yes, that's our child, way off in the distance running away from us. There was a dog out there so I had to run and grab her in case it was a mean dog. She's too trusting of dogs.

Gelato at Piazzola...mmm. Makes my mouth water just remembering. We got Kelsey banana because we thought that would be the least messy. It ended up being SO tasty! I'm usually one for mint or cookie ice cream but this was good enough I think I'd get it again.

Bathtime - triple the fun! The Bergs are watching Kelsey for us for 5 days at the end of May, so it was fun to see them get along so well together. Kelsey really liked having other kids around. Abram to run around with and Chloe to give all her kisses to!

Our very own EVE...

Easter Morning

Look what the Easter Bunny brought!

Easter Sunday - Church in Italian

Everyone was so nice to us and even gave us gifts! They had made these tiny nests with a chick made out of pom-pom things...anyway, very cute and so sweet. We felt so welcome. Tally understood some bits and pieces since he speaks Spanish. They had a musical number in English, which was beautiful. What a neat experience.

Abram holding Kelsey's hand as they crossed the street and walked to the church.

Easter Outfits


Easter Egg Hunt

This one makes me laugh every time!

But dad, I saw one over there

I hope this one's loaded...

Success! Listen to all that candy shake in there!

Mom, look! There's one in the tree! Help please....

Now where can I find more of these...?

YES! It's candy, not money!

I love this - Chloe just picked up Kelsey's shoe and started chowing down on it! Kelsey didn't even mind.

More candy!

I love Abram's face here!

Family Easter Photo

Sick House

Saturday:

Kelsey did catch what Tally had and the poor thing is miserable. She's up several times a night, just screaming. Luckily, we have children's Motrin b/c the suppositories here don't seem to help. To add insult to injury, she's getting her incisor teeth and it looks like she has blisters where her teeth will be.

Sunday:

I finally caught it today, so we're just laying around, going for walks, and watching lots of movies. 

Monday: 

Kelsey seems to be getting better, no more fever and Tally went back to work and says he's feeling 85%. I'll manage. I just hope we're all better for this weekend. Tal & I are supposed to drive down to Nice this weekend and Kelsey is staying with Jenna for three days. It will be her first overnight trip without us and I think she'll do great. 

Cruisin in Greece

An MSC cruise ship was attacked by pirates - and the crew fended them off! Check out the story here.

Recently in one of the comments, I was asked how we get so many pictures with all three of us in it. Do I trust so many other people with my camera? The answer is this: I've started carrying around a tripod. I have one that is really lightweight and I got a new camera backpack for Christmas so the tripod snaps on and off easily. However, I don't think I used it once this trip even though I brought it around everywhere. The Bergs became our family photogs! Oh, and if we got one of all 7 of us, I usually trusted the camera with a fellow Nikon DSLR owner (better pics and less chance of running off with it). And don't underestimate the sprint of a pregnant lady going after her camera. I think I'd give any thief a good scare. That thing is my most prized material possession. That and my hard drive that safely stores all my pictures.

Jumping from the window - leaving Bari

Each night the kids got vanilla ice cream after dinner. We had to capture Kelsey's reaction on video.

Hide and Seek


Rocks & Explode


The Parthenon


Saying goodbye to Dubrovnik

Lots to post...

We just came back from our cruise to Greece on Monday afternoon. I have been doing laundry (all done now, suitcases put away - hooray!) and getting things organized. Tal has been sick with a terrible cold so I cancelled a photoshoot of twin newborn boys today (didn't want them to get sick). I'll get them next week. So, we are just laying low right now, hoping Kels & I don't catch this thing. I have over 950 pictures from our trip to sort, organized, delete, edit, download, etc. so don't expect to see pics from our trip anytime soon. Just know we had a blast with our friends, the Bergs and we got to see some cool sites in Greece, Italy & Croatia. And we're home, safe, for now.

Greek Cruise

One year ago, here's what we were doing...

Bon Voyage! 

Disembarking from Venice

 

Jessi & BABY Chloé

 

People wonder how we travel with kids. Here's a prime example of how. 

A lot S-L-O-W-E-R! 

After the party, it's time for a nap (with a book of course)

She woke up just in time to say good-bye to Venice

She LOVED playing in this window and would jump from the window to the bed

Bye Venice!

This was such an amazing port to leave from. We had such a cool bird's eye view of Venice. 

The kids had a primo spot too. 

Look at all the boats!

Views of Venice from our ship

BARI, ITALY

Our first stop was in Southern Italy

Be warned - don't drive your car into the water! 

The streets of Bari

Snuggling with her blankie

I love hanging out with dad!

The Adriatic Sea behind us

First formal night dinner on the cruise

RHODES, GREECE

Doesn't she make a great statue?

I was surprised by how many Greek Americans lived here

Gotta love the crocs!


YUMMY Greek Food
Authentic Gyros!!

Greek Gelato

 

Greek to me!

 

What a beautiful view!

 

ATHENS, GREECE

We hired a taxi driver to take us around the city. Here's a view of the Peace and Friendship stadium.

Bergs and Prices

Excited to see Athens

Such an old city! 

The Acropolis is the hill behind us - can you see the Parthenon?

The top left picture shows the ancient ground level. I didn't realize cities had these until I traveled Europe. Did you know cities literally get built up over time because of all the dirt and what not? Verona, Italy is another place I noticed this. You can't tell in the picture but it's a LONG ways down.
I also thought it was funny that on the market streets there were chairs lined up in the middle of the road for the shop owners to sit outside.

Temple of Zeus

Streets of Athens

That weird graffiti face was also graffitied on signs in my hometown. What is it!?

 

Taking a rest...in front of a cool door of course ;)


The Olympic Stadium in Athens

Changing of the Guards

We got to the palace just in time to see the changing of the guards

I loved the skirts and the pom-poms on the shoes!

And do you know any other guys that can lift their leg that high?

The Acropolis

There are SO many ancient ruins, they are just piled on top of each other.
It's also quite a hike up so it has great views of Athens.

This used to be some kind of theatre.

Random cool columns

So amazing to think people could have made and built these so long ago
Some were so offset they looked like they could tumble

THE PANTHEON

Prices and Bergs in front of the Parthenon at last!

It was a bit surreal to see the Pantheon in person. It's something I'd always wanted to see, but never thought I would. I had to pinch myself.

Here comes trouble...

Kelsey and Abram kept picking up the gravel and putting it on this bench. We were so enthralled with seeing the Parthenon we didn't pay too much attention. Well it wasn't long until we were scolded for it. For some weird reason they don't want their millions of visitors moving the dirt around these historically significant buildings.

Only minutes after being scolded, Kelsey ran under the barrier. Have you ever tried to coax a 1 1/2 year old out of ancient ruins? I finally had to go in there and get here. I was glad not to get scolded again. ;)

Hmm...what can I do to get in the most amount of trouble in the least amount of time?

The Erechtheum
I remember studying this in my high school and college textbooks. The Porch of the Caryatids (ladies behind us holding up the roof) is very memorable. Those are actually replicas! The Greek broke part of the roof while trying to restore them (and all the pollution in Athens was ruining them) so they took the real ones to a museum and put up these replicas.

One thing that opened my eyes being here was how much the rest of the world STOLE from Greece! One of the reasons a lot of it looks so ruined is because of centuries of wars, looting, etc. It's amazing to me that we saw some of the original art from Athens in Rome and France.

After a relatively hot day in Athens (I can't imagine going in the SUMMER!?), we headed back to the boat. The kids actually did a good job hanging in there for us, though the riding in the backpack seemed to be the coveted ride. Luckily, our taxi driver picked us up before we got to the bottom so we didn't have to walk as long! It was a great hike up, obviously worth it. Oh, and did I mention it was FREE to go up? It only is on rare occasions and I guess we got lucky.





ARGOSTOLI, CEFELONIA, GREECE
Despite my sour attitude about NOT going to an island with white buildings/blue roofs, we had some fun. I felt like it was a wasted stop b/c the beaches were on the other side of the island, an expensive taxi ride leaving not enough time on the beach. I guess that's what you get with an Italian cruise line ;0. The natives seemed equally unhappy that we were there. We walked around the town, looked at all the shops, tried to find a rental car shop - didn't find one until we were already heading back to the boat, ate baklava and other tasty treats, and and that was about it. We tried to find Gyros for lunch but weirdly enough NO RESTAURANTS SOLD THEM. They must not be from this region or something.

Drive up gas station, shopping streets, cool boat, COOP in Greece?, Farmer's Market, beautiful landscapes, the Park?, cute kids shops, local florist

Is that a blue roof I see?, baklava, more cute kids shoes!

Our ship

We were dressed for some beach tim

Kelsey got so much attention walking through the streets in her little Mexican dress

We had to tender out to the island in these boats

A "tender" kiss
Instead of laying out on the beach we laid out on the ship! The kids loved playing in the pools and we loved laying out. Tal took Kels for awhile while I read a book about Florence.

Formal night

Our friends, Jessi & Jacob. Eating with kids and having 5 courses was a bit challenging but I think we managed great! I can't imagine if we'd already had Aiden...
Our waiter, Franklin
Every night they would bring the kids a scoop of ice cream for dessert. The first pic is when she saw the waiter bringing it out and the second is her anxiously awaiting. It looks like she's saying, PLEASE!?

DUBROVNIK, CROATIA

I love this picture

Isn't Abram such a handsome boy!

Kelsey's Croatian Flute

Not a bad view of Dubrovnik & the Adriatic

Bus ride back to the boat

Bye bye Dubrovnik! Hugs to Chloé 


Pulling back into Venice

It was cool to see Venice without all the people! From afar...


We had an amazing time and only wish we could go back this year ;). Thanks for inviting us Bergs, we cherish this trip and are so glad we did it together. When's the next one!?


Memorable things from the trip:
-Jessi taught me how to knit
-we took turns watching each others' kids so we could enjoy a night out
-Jessi and I going to a cooking class on the ship - ha!
-saving high chairs
-Italian pizza


I know there is so much more - Jessi, Jacob, Tally PLEASE email me with more!! I'm going to bed.