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.

The Swiss country side was so beautiful. I could barely keep my eyes on the road and Sabina swore we were moving here next! After arid Spain this looked like Heaven.
The houses were straight out of a story book, and the people were just as nice.

French Cuisine Casto Style

France is famous for its beautiful countryside and chateaus. As we drove from France into Switzerland and then back into France we had to stop and enjoy an afternoon in the park. It so happened that we ended up in Evian, France where the water was tasty and the pastries were even better.

Tarragona Tower Extravaganza

Tarraogana has an annual competition that involves teams of all ages working together to form a human towers. We joined the pre competition parade which led us through the crowded streets and into a large town plaza. I can only imagine what the local towns people thought as we marched along the crowded streets with our six children and baby stroller. We either must have looked offical or just really stupid, because noboby said anything to us. We made our way into the city center with such ease. We were able to witness the entire festival from between the three competing groups. We were so close that we feared for our safelty, as the human towers erected and plunged one after another. What a spectical!!! The only problem was once we found this prized location we were trapped. Five thousand plus beer drinking Spanards with eight niave Americans in the center of the action. Leave it to Sabina. She found a way out.

Tarragona

After a few more hours of driving we stopped in Tarragona to have lunch with some of Matt's business associates. Lucky for us Tarragona was in the middle of FIESTAS!!

Giant heads paraded all over, it was really neat.
The drizzle was a bit chilly, but it didn't stop us from having fun. Nor did it stop us from camping on the beach that night. The boys thought it was awesome, Bella and I slept in the van. We were toasty and warm.

Day 1!

Our adventure started out in the north eastern part of Spain. We had traveled only 3 hours before we saw a sign for an old Roman city. Being unable to resist we followed. The actual ruins were closed, but the journey took us down some beautiful back roads, and up a hefty hill. The hike itself was about 1 hour going up. Times like this make me love Spain.