W28 & 29 of Y3

School

The first week of school didn't go exactly as planned...

The first day we were ready. I took them to school early. Aiden was complaining about his stomach hurting all morning - he was nervous.

First day of school pics. Aiden didn't feel good so they had to sit down for the pictures.

On our way into the classroom he threw up all over this rug. Poor guy.

Second day of school.
Jeremy took him this time.

I guess he started feeling sick again so Jeremy took him to the bathroom. No throw up though. I asked Jeremy to take a better first day of school picture and this is the one he took... in the bathroom!!

Football

After meeting the football coach at the open house he convinced us to sign Connor up. Connor started his conditioning this week. His first day was rough but we were so proud of him. He didn't quit.

Since he started later than the other boys he's the only one here without a uniform on.

While he seems to be at football practice all the time these days Aiden and Whitney get to spend a lot of time together. It reminded me of when Connor was in Kindergarten and Aiden and Whitney were home all day. I'm so grateful that they are so close!


We took the boys out of school their first week for the Labor Day weekend. I felt a little bad for it but we got to go to Italy... so it was ok!

Lake Como, Italia

To drive to Lake Como you go through the Swiss Alps. The drive alone was worth the trip! Beautiful!

"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas" You don't see bumper stickers like this in Germany everyday!

Twinners!! With their laptops and headphones! :)

Being chased by a group of Ferrari's!
The scenery was breathtaking.



The Gotthard Tunnel (10.5 miles long). It is the 3rd longest road tunnel in the world - after one in Norway and another in China. It was really long! You enter in Switzerland and come out in Italy.

From the road leading waaaay high in the mountains to our house.

OMG! Our house is so cute!


Aiden and Whitney checking out the view with a very nice pair of binoculars


Checking out her new bedroom for the next week.

Aiden immediately claimed this room because it had trophys in it! lol!

The best part about the house - our own private pool!



First night - Jeremy started grilling some steaks for dinner while the kids swam and Kayla ran around barking at the neighboring donkeys. Heaven!



Success!

Our first morning waking up to this view.

Our house was so high up the mountains that we were literally in the clouds!

Mennagio/Varenna/Bellagio

After researching towns on Lake Como we learned that the 3 most popular are Mennagio, Varenna, and Bellagio. So on Day 2 we set off to explore all 3!

My little lady getting all dolled up for the fun day!

Mennagio

This is where we caught the ferry to take us around to the other towns.

The kids were really excited to ride on the ferry!


It was so fun seeing the charming towns from the water. The geography of this area was like no where that we've ever been. The huge mountains, blue water, quaint little towns... it was almost unreal.

Varenna

We didn't get off the ferry here but could see the town from the water.

Arriving in Bellagio! (It is said that Bellagio gets a lot of American tourists because they think there is some kind of relation to the Bellagio hotel and casino in vegas... not true) Lake Como is in the shape of an upside down Y. Bellagio is unique because it sits right in the middle of the Y.



Pizza!


Can you see Jeremy...?

Putting our feet in the water

One must eat LOTS of gelato when in Italy!!

After a long day of site seeing it was so nice to go back to our home for a swim and bon fire for a weenie roast!




That night Jeremy and I went to dinner at a restaurant down the hill from our house in Argegno called La Griglia. A true Italian experience!

We didn't understand much on the menu so we just picked and pointed. Mine was good. Jeremy's was... interesting.

Milan

The next day was rainy. We thought this would be a good day to go to Milan - almost an hour away.





Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II - named after the first president of Itay

Piazza del Duomo

Jeremy is standing in front of the Cathedral doors. They were so tall!

I was fascinated by the detail on the door. You could look at it for hours without seeing it all. Each square told a story.




St. Bartholomew, one of the 12 Apostles who was skinned. That is not a robe but his skin wrapped around him. The statue was built by one of Leonardo de Vinci's students.

You could walk up the 250 steps to get to the roof of the cathedral which we all thought was pretty cool!







While we were up there it actually stopped raining too!

In the main square people were giving away FREE HUGS!!


But we had to pay 4 euro for the stupid bird seed! The kids loved it though.

More gelato before we started to head home. We did a quick drive through tour of Milan before going home. It was a great day. The kids were begging to go back to our house though. They would have been happy if we never left the house EVER!!

Aiden loved sipping his hot cocoa in the mornings

Our neighbor donkey's.

Day 3 we decided to explore our own town of Argengo a little.




There is a cable car that leaves from Argengo and goes up to Pigra (which actually means 'Lazy' in Italian). We were definitely going to do that!



It was disappointing that there was so much fog. You couldn't see anything on the way up!



Why did the chicken cross the road? (sorry, I couldn't resist)

After arriving to Pigra we understood why the town was named 'Lazy'. Very quiet town.


The clouds lifted and the view was breathtaking!!!

Why is it when you have the perfect background the kids don't cooperate? haha!

Lots of lizards in Pigra (Connor and Aiden were in heaven!)

They have one restaurant in Pigra. The boys still say this was their favorite pizza they had in Italy. And... we had a lot of pizza!

Whitney CHOWED her spagetti!!

Always room for ice cream




I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was so beautiful!

What can I say? I guess we got caught up in all the beauty around us!!
Going back down was a lot prettier than coming up!

Home sweet home. Kayla was always standing guard by the pool. She wasn't' sure what to make of it. She would prance around and bark at it for no reason.

That evening Jeremy and I took a private sail boat ride on the lake.



'I SAIL!'
Comacina Island - Lake Como's only island


There was a storm chasing us! Our sailor was an expert though and we never got wet.


After the storm was over we saw the coolest lighting effects all around the lake.

Even a rainbow over this mansion that was used to film the last James Bond movie here!

Our wonderful British Sailor!

We stopped to get some local fish from Lake Como for a late dinner before going home.

Day 5 we had one mission: To actually SWIM in the lake! We were told there was a beach where you could swim in Menaggio and after extensive research that seemed to be the ONLY place on Lake Como where you could swim. So we set off to find the beach.

Here it is... complete with pools, umbrellas, chairs, but... what? No access to the beach! There was a huge wall built and you would have to jump off of it without hope of getting back up. This was disappointing!

Whitney was being a good little Mommie while we were trying to find another place to swim.


We finally found a little area where you could go in... kind of.

Yes, I even got in. It was freezing!!

Jeremy, and the locals, were up here laughing at us.

These visitors appeared out of no where! I guess WE were actually the visitors. I'm sure they were wondering what we were doing in their lake.

So... when that failed we decided to do the next best thing:

Go skinny dipping in our own pool!! The boys couldn't stop giggling. They thought it was so funny!



Laying out and thinking 'I never want to leave this place!'

For dinner that night we wanted to go to a nice restaurant with everyone for our last night there. We saw signs for Argiturismo al Marnich but really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!

After driving so far up the mountain we arrive to this gate that we have to call down to have them let us in.

That building is the restaurant and everything else is the amazing view.
We were greeted right away by this beautiful dog!

While we waited for our table we were invited to explore the grounds. We walked through their vineyards, fed their sheep and donkey's, and marveled at all the crops they grew there. Everything on their menu is produced right here on this patch of land!


Our appetizers: Fresh goat cheese with fruit, honey, and walnuts and very, very, very aged sausage


More goat cheese and something that tasted like grits

I was proud of the kids. They tried lots of new foods, they didn't complain, and had good manners all night. The owner came to talk with us (kind of- he knew very little English, but that was ok because after being in Italy for about 2 hours Jeremy was yaking it up with all the Italians like he was born there! Honestly, sometimes I wonder if he has a secret life that requires him to speak several different languages).

Before we could leave the boys insisted on conquering the best tree-climbing tree EVER! It actually had a ladder that went up to the lower branches and then you could go as high as you wanted!




That was really scary!

Whitney played it safe and just watched from her swing

It was time to go home. Good bye little house in the mountains!
One of MOST favorite vacations yet!