Gitano

I have been trying to get a photo of this guy for a year a half. He is always out on the streets with his burro and wagon. I am assuming that this is his only means of transportation, as he drives in the streets right along with all the cars and no one seems to be bothered or think it strange at all.

He was more than happy to stop for me to snap his photo, and lucky me, he even offered me a ride. Too bad Matt and the kids were waiting in the car, I might have actually taken him up on his offer. How many times in our life do we get offered a ride on a burro pulled wagon with a local gypsy in the streets of Spain??

Baby it's Cold Out There!!

Winter has come to sunny Spain, and we ARE feeling it. Not only do we have to bundle up to go outside, but we bundle up inside too. Our house is a dream in the summer when it is a blistering 110 degrees, but it is a frigid nightmare in the winter. He sure looks happy about it though!

Track Meet

Matt got some AWESOME photos of Bella. She is looking like a superstar! She placed 1'st in her 60 meter run and 2'nd in the hurdles, unfortunately she scratched on her long jump...

Alessandro placed 2'nd in the 50 meter dash and Renzo placed 4'th in the shotput. Max is actually at every practice with them and can lap them all pretty easy, but he is not competing this year.

our tasty morsel

He is getting too cute. Every day is so much fun with him. With the way we act, you would think he is our first. He loves his brothers and sister, they can always make him smile. We were atually in the middle of dinner when I decided to change him, and we all just couldn't resist snapping a photo of the chub. Too bad the chub is not cute when your creeping on 40, huh Matt?

Nonno Visits

Trying to take photos with 6 children HAS to be one of the most irritating and difficult things on the planet! Every time we would get them all together, 1 of the kids would wander away, or look in the other direction- -- Any way, we sacked a few, and called it good. At least Nonno was patient.

Everyone was told to be silly, maybe that is the only way to get kids to cooperate??

Siena,Italy

Bella, Ottavio and I sat in the main square eating Tiramisu and chamomile tea, while Matt and the boys went around the whole square hitting all the Gelato bars, 5 to be exact, eating a gelato from each one. what a taste test!!

Matt then informed me which one was the best. It happened that the "best geladeria" had a very attractive women attendent. HMMMM? I wondered why he offered to help me place the order.

Catching Rainbows

Catching 2 AMAZING rainbows on our way to Italy. they were so large and so bright that the traffic on the freeway was coming to a stop. It was actually a highlight in our trip.

Too bad we didn't catch the pot of gold at the end!!

Castles, Castles and more Castles

This Castles was amazing, actually one of my favorite things we did on our trip. It was not only huge, beautiful, in perfect condition, located in one of the most pretty gorges I have seen, but was still owned and lived in by the family as a vacation home.!!!!

They had English tours with a thick German accent, and I thought it was not long enough, I wanted more history more info. Never the less we enjoyed ourselves, and even saw a few antiques that we own in the castle!

You had to hike down a pretty long and steep hill to get to the castle from the parking lot. With all the trees you didn't see anything until you turned a corner and this was your first view of her. I was breathless!

Apples were everywhere and we just couldn't resist picking a few. I am sure that farmer would have given us some anyway.

Luxemburg

We thought that we would jump over to luxemburg just for the day since we were so close. It was about a 2 hour drive, through beautiful country I might add.

It was a bit overcast that day unforunately, but we still managed a great walk around a lake and some sight- seeing.

The largest wolf pack in eastern europe

They advertised that they had the largest wolf pack in eastern europe. But we went for the castle. The wolf were pretty and the boys loved that the wolves followed them as they walked. It gave an erie feeling, even though there was a chain link seperating us. The grounds were huge and the forest thick.

It is always fun for me to sit and ponder about who would have lived in a place like this and what their life would have been like.
As far as I can tell, from all the castles I have seen, I would have rather lived in the little cottages in the valley where there was light and a felling of cozyness.

Our baby "O"

I had to take a quick pause from posting our family vacation to upload our growing cutie pie. We bought him his "jumpy play center" yesterday, and, well as you can see he really likes it. So does mommy for that matter because this means she has free hands, at least untill the excitement wears off. How can you resist these little hambones!! I want to nibble on them all day!

Germany

We loved the typical German style houses. They are so very different than Spain. One of the greatest things about Germany is the level of cleanliness. It is almost unbelievable. You rarely ever see litter, all the houses are manicured and kept in perfect condition and we never even saw 1 stray animal. I am not sure why so many Germans live in Spain, it must be awful to them. Spain is like a dump compared to Germany. But then I guess it carries over to the people. The Spanish seem to be way more laid back and fun than the Germans were.

HELLO!!

A walk in The Forest

Among seeing dozens and dozens of castles, the kids love to go for "hikes". Of course Matt and I are always up for some exercise. So, here we go.....
The forests in Germany were straight out of a storybook, I thought that at any minute we might just bump into Hanzel and Gretel. Here Bella and Lorenzo feasting of wild blackberries, yum, too bad we didn't have a bucket to take some with..
The kids even discovered a "treasure". They sat and debated on what this could be, and were sure it was some undiscovered archiological site, guess we have been to too many Roman ruins?! Too bad we burst their bubble when Matt said that it was probably an old campsite marker, he he.
Here are the boys in all their glory, MUD I am sure they used every bit of will power they had to resist jumping in those puddles, might have helped that I threatened their lives and their dessert! We took about 15 minutes just to get them to move on, what is it with boys and dirt?
Well, here I just couldn't resist letting you all see the tender and sensitive side of Matt. Blowing a pussywillow, and most likely making a wish. He has his moments, even if they are hidden away in the forests of Germany, ha ha!

Frankfurt Temple

The Frankfurt Temple is pretty different looking than most of the others, but I really liked it. I was very unique in shape , but still as beautiful. I thought it was more ornate inside than the Swiss Temple.
And the accomodations were top notch.

Having a "home cooked meal" at last!!
One of the great things about staying at the Temples, aside from the 6$ a night price, is the communal kitchen.

I love that my boys are so great in the kitchen!!
I guess my mom was right when she told me to marry an American!! Those American boys are not afraid to get their hands dirty.

Massimo and Dante patiently waiting for dinner, while "writing in their journals"

Switzerland Temple

The reason we take our yearly trip is to celebrate our Temple Sealing.

We as a family made a pact 4 years ago in the Denver Temple, the day we were sealed, that every year, no matter where we are, we will visit a temple together.



This year the Temple(s) we saw were in Switzerland and Germany.

I was even lucky enough to go to a session alone in each one, while my sweetie watched our brood.

It was really neat in the Swiss Temple because so many languages are spoken in Switzerland, there were lots of people using headsets and you never knew if you were going to be able to communicate with the next person you met or not.


Waiting for Mom to come out of her session. Matt toating Tavio in sling and all. What a good papa.