Sunday, April 26, 2015

Week 27


Our Friday night tradition...  Pizza from Al Castello!
Waiting patiently for our pizza :)

Aiden was on the All A's honor roll again this quarter!  

Aiden also received the Good Citizenship Award for always showing VES values, being kind to everyone he meets, and always being respectful! 
We had to get a riding lawn mower to keep up with our massive yard.  The kids are now begging to mow the yard!!

Parent Teacher Conferences are always fun!  I loved this story Whitney wrote.  She is definitely one of a kind!

Whitney's teacher wanted me to see this paper to show me how Whitney didn't follow instructions.  Yes, it's true... she didn't follow the instructions on the paper but she made up her own instructions and I like hers better!!!

One more....  Aiden was in a bad mood so Whitney wrote him this very sweet letter.   In case you can't read it:
Dear Aiden, First of all... I love you and you are like a butterfly.  Aaaaand you always make me laugh.  You are the light of my life.  You always make me smile.  You are awesome.  Yep, a awesome boy.  My little star.  I wish you could always be with me.  I just want you to know... I love you. 

Connor mad the All A's and B's honor roll!!!  (yes, he's wearing make up! - I took this picture right after dress rehearsal for Aladdin!)

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Week 26

Back to Reality

It's always hard to get back on schedule after being gone on vacation.  This week was no exception.   We were blessed with beautiful weather over the weekend though and finally got to tackle some of the yard.  Our yard is massive!  Jeremy actually had to buy a riding lawn mower this weekend or else there would be  no way we could ever keep up with it!  Thank goodness we have 2 strong boys who are money motivated. :)





My little jungle boy! 


They found some bulbs mixed in with all the weeds.  Can't wait to replant them!


Lots of snails here!  And lizards... but they're too fast to take a picture of.  
Saturday afternoon it started to rain - hard!  So we rewarded the boys for their hard work and we all went to see Paul Blart - Mall Cop 2.  We all laughed so hard!!  

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Weeks 24-25 Part II

The rest of Spring Break....

We actually got back home from Slovenia with a few days left of Spring Break which was nice.  It gave us time to just relax, unpack, and just enjoy our new home and village - which we love, by the way!!

Whitney had a friend sleep over and we all went on a bike ride to get some gelato!  I'm predicting this will be a regular thing this summer!! 

Such cute friends!  We met them when we were in the hotel together right after moving here and have been friends ever since!

Gelato!! :)

Our Village.  It almost feels like we are out in the country!


Once again Whitney found a recipe online and talked me into trying it.  One of her favorite YouTube channels in Nerdy Nummies.  She finds all of her "ideas" on here and then expects me to do as good of a job as the girl in the video.  Well.... at least I try.  This time it was chocolate Wii remotes with candy centers.

The finished remotes

Jeremy and I took the train downtown for a quick date.  The train ride is exactly 5 minutes long!

Our train station - just a small sampling of the graffiti. 

Downtown Vicenza - beautiful city!!

And before our break came to an end, Whit and I went to see Home.  I love spending time with just her sometimes! 

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Weeks 24-25 Part I


Spring Break 2015

One trip that we cancelled when living in Germany was a trip we had planned to visit parts of the previously Yugoslavia.  We decided to complete part of that trip by spending Spring Break in Slovenia.  What a pleasant surprise!  Sorry in advance for so many pictures... you will see why I just couldn't help myself!

First of all.... I can not even describe the beauty of these mountainous villages.  Everything was so picturesque!



Arriving to our village - Luce


Outside our house



Our house for the week
Dinner was hot and ready for us as soon as we got there
The view from our room.  The beautiful church bells woke us up every morning.  I felt like I was in a movie!

Easter!
I couldn't believe it...  the Easter Bunny found us in Slovenia!!





It's hard to believe they could find their baskets and the eggs with it being so messy from our late night of board games the night before! lol!







Bled
Bled was about 1 1/2 hours from our house so we decided to spend a day there.





Lake Bled
First things first though... lunch!
Typical Slovenian food
Cheese and spinach dumplings in a mushroom cream sauce - to DIE for!

Bled Castle, also known as the castle on the cliff, is the oldest castle in Slovenia

Bled Island.  Prehistoric settlements from 11th to 8th centuries BC have been found here as well as a Pre-Romanesque chapel which is rare.  



I was so surprised that it started to snow!  It didn't feel cold enough for snow and the sun was shining.  





We walked halfway around the lake to get to the castle.  The entire lake is not very large and could probably be walked in under an hour.


The hike up to the castle though is another story. That was a climb!  But we all make it... even Kayla!
The view from the hike

Resting







Wow... the climb was worth it!!  Gorgeous!












The kids decided to roll back down the hill instead of taking the stairs ;)

We kept seeing these signs everywhere so decided we needed some to take home with us for dinner.



We got some Bled Cream Cake and pizzas to go and went back to our cozy little village

Snovic
We read about a nice, relaxing spa outside our village that sounded amazing for the adults and kids!!  However, not everything ends up being as wonderful as you think.  Most of the time when we visit a new place - it is better than we expect.  That wasn't the case with Snovic.  
It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there and the drive was less than relaxing on very narrow roads winding up and down the mountains


All the anticipation led to this...  


It was snowing hard almost the whole time we were there which was pretty to watch

They had a cafe there for lunch but I couldn't read a thing on the menu!!

We ended up getting a great meal anyway



We paid for 4 hours so we had to stay the whole time.  Jeremy left for an hour to get a massage.  You have to hear him describe this massage in person!!!  Soooo funny!!


That night Jeremy and I snuck out for a quick date in our village.  The food here is very interesting and delicious!!
Govc Vrsnik in Robanoc Kot
After a disappointing day at Snovik we thought we need something amazing for the next day!  We heard numerous recommendations from the locals in our village to go to Govc Vrsnik while we were there so we thought we would give it a try.  

After driving through the mountains for a long time and thinking we were for sure lost we suddenly came upon this view...  could this be it?

We got out of the car and was immediately greeted by the sweetest little pup ever!

It was like the set of a movie... absolutely breathtaking!  

We couldn't find anyone here.  We knocked on doors, rang bells, but no one was around...

We were disappointed that everything was closed but still explored the area anyway

Then a lady appeared!  She owned the restaurant and lived there but said they were closed that day.  I think we woke her up.  I apologized for being there and we talked for a while.  She spoke very good English and was so sweet.  She wanted to know all about us and why we were in Slovenia.  Then she said she had a little soup and invited us inside.  We were really surprised!  The first thing she did was give us some kind of drink with blueberries in it.  I still don't know what it was but everything they serve there, they grow right there on their farm... so we thought it must be ok. ;)


Then she brought out 2 bowls of soup that we devoured!  
One was a cream of mushroom type soup with handpicked mushrooms and a potato puree and the other she said was a beef soup but had, what I thought was potato peels in it ....  it was actually little strips of pancakes cut up.  It gave the beef broth the most unique flavor!  I was so surprised!


The pancake soup was Whitney's favorite! 

After soup the kids just couldn't wait to get back outside and run around, explore, play with their dog, etc...



Little did they know that more food was on the way!  While the kids played king of the mountain we had a feast!  Where did all the food come from????  I don't know how she whipped all this up so fast and unexpectedly!!  We had cheese dumplings, pork cutlets in some kind of gravy with a berry jam on the side, grilled onions, fried noodles and some type of beef that was filled with something that tasted like stuffing.  The different, but complimentary, flavors of all of these foods mixed together was the most memorable part of my entire trip!  I know that sounds funny but it was really amazing!!  
After dinner we all enjoyed exploring their farm a little more... especially Kayla! :)




This place was the highlight of our trip.  We want to come back here and stay a few days in one of their rooms. Actually... I would like to just move here and never leave!  Seriously!!
Exploring Luce
We enjoyed spending a day just enjoying our village.  We LOVED Luce.  The locals were all so nice... even the teenagers!! 
This is the neighborhood dog that would greet us every morning and evening






Stopped at the a little cafe for the best hot chocolate we've ever had!!!  It was thick like pudding but didn't just taste like melted chocolate chips like other thick hot chocolates in Europe.  It actually tasted like pudding.  It was awesome!






LOTS of firewood everywhere!  I think this was the only way people heated their homes.  The entire village smelled like burning wood... it was fabulous!






Saying goodbye

This is the fire that heated the snuggie in the snuggle room below

The snuggle room.  The large box thing behind Whitney was the snuggie that was nice and warm while we ate our last supper in our house.

After dinner, one last game of Yahtzee!!

There *MAY* have been some cheating going on.... but Aiden won and Connor got 2nd.  Everyone else was at least 100 points under them.  

I can't believe we have to leave this!
Before we left I had to take a picture of these... what are they?  They were everywhere but I have no idea what they are.  Jeremy thinks they are hops.  If anyone knows, please tell me!!!

Back to Italy


Sorry for so many pictures... I realized I took the same pictures every day I was there because each day the views took my breath away as if I was seeing it for the first time.  Believe me, I deleted so many beautiful pictures trying to decide which ones to include here.  Slovenia is only a 4 hour drive from our house and I know we will be back really soon!

**Olja - I thought of you the whole time we were here.  Miss you!!!**