We Heart Venice

Kee & Dani waiting for the train into Venice

Gondola - Venice

 One of the MANY beautiful bridges in Venice.

 Basilica of San Marco

Breakfast at the hotel

Every corner we turned was another beautiful picture.

 Some German boy scouts visiting Venice.

 The kiddies admiring the scenery.

 The whole fam.

Dani & Kee on a Gondola in Venice. Cool stuff.

 Me and the man responsible for this amazing trip. I love him.

So many beautiful food/treat displays in the store windows.

We woke up and had breakfast at our little hotel. It was a typical European breakfast. Bread, rolls, jams, cheese and "tea, coffee or hot chocolate". They always act surprised when Jeff and I order hot chocolate instead of coffee. The hot chocolate was divine. It was so thick and rich. The kids were in heaven.

We got everyone ready and walked to the train station to head in to Venice. It was a 10 minute train ride on a double decker train. No one will be surprised to know that Jeff was giving all the kids safety lectures as we waited for the train. Some of that advice included, "don't stand too close to the tracks because kids start monkeying around and someone could get knocked down onto the tracks. Some kids just spontaneously spaz out.  If you fall on the tracks, you'll get cut in half." I've always loved how subtle and sensitive Jeff is. (B* later pointed out that technically, you'd get cut in thirds because there are two tracks)! Hopefully none of the little ones will be having nightmares tonight about getting cut in half.

Venice was AMAZING!!! We felt like we were in a dream needing to pinch ourselves the entire day. Of all the places I've ever traveled, I think Venice is the most beautiful city I've ever seen. Every corner you turned was another picture waiting to be taken. And each looked like it could be a postcard. As we wandered through the streets, a gondolier approached us about taking a gondola ride. We said, "no thanks" until he offered a price we couldn't refuse. So all 12 of us hopped in two separate gondolas and headed down the grand canal and then into some beautiful narrow canals off the beaten path. We were on gondolas......in Venice! It still seems like a dream. A really, really good dream! :)

We had lunch in a quaint little Italian restaurant where they put us in a back room lined with beautiful wood paneling and a restroom that looked like a little hobbit cave as you entered. I'm quite sure they stuck us back there, in fear, when they saw the sheer number of children in our party. They hoped we wouldn't disturb anyone if we were banished to the back room I'm sure. Of course, we preferred to think of it as the V.I.P. room they save for parties of 12 with very well behaved children. We had amazing pizza, lasagna, and salads and then headed out to find gelato of course.

After our gelato, we headed to Piazza San Marco and the Basilica of San Marco. Stunningly beautiful! I have never, ever taken so many pictures in a single day. Thank goodness for digital cameras!!

The girls have been absolute troopers. We literally walk all day long and they don't complain at all about being tired. They've been so good on this trip. Jeff has been extremely patient with the 1,000 stops a day at souvenir stands and shops while the girls try to find the perfect souvenir for themselves or a friend. He is also the master navigator. Wherever we are, he is standing there with his map navigating our next turn. He is so much fun to travel with. He keeps us all laughing too!

After a very full day in Venice, we headed back to the hotel on the train and then stopped at a grocery store to buy dinner. We made Prosciutto with Swiss cheese sandwiches in the hotel room and enjoyed some delicious Italian apples and grapes. 

Observations about Italy:

• It is breathtakingly BEAUTIFUL here.
• Italians are very expressive when they speak. They use there hands/arms when they talk. It's fun to watch them.
• People stare at us A LOT because they're not used to seeing big families. (Funny, because I wouldn't really consider us a big family)
• The majority of the people here smoke. And they smoke A LOT....incessantly, constantly, everywhere. I didn't realize how good we had it in California.
• Many men here wear scarves (for style, not warmth). 
• Italian men are snappy dressers. Jeff says we have yet to see a European man who could beat him up. Hopefully he won't be challenging anyone to a duel. 
• There are a lot of beautiful churches in Europe with more tourists than worshipers visiting them. It's pretty sad.

Bergamo, Italy

On our 11 hour layover in Italy, we put our luggage in storage at the airport and took a bus to Citta Alta (the upper city) in Bergamo. Our first meal in Italy was pizza cut from big slabs and paid for by the gram.

Our first gelato stop. SOOO good.

Is he the cutest little old man ever?!? Italian men are SNAPPY dressers! He's all dressed up to just sit at the park and people watch. Awesome.

Some Italian bag lady sleeping on a park bench.

Oh wait, that's me.

They have these awesome fountains that you can drink out of everywhere.

Our day in Italy was fabulous!! Now off to Romania.

Day 1 - Car, plane, tram, plane, bus, bus, bus, bus, plane, car + 30 hours = ARRIVAL in Romania!

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We made it to Atlanta without incident. We were quite the sight going through security but we didn't even set off one alarm!!

I packed a lunch last night so we ate turkey sandwiches on homemade bread at our gate. Mmmm. The hubby sort of harasses me about packing a lunch and bringing it along whenever we travel. But it sure beats airport food! Even he can't deny that. Not to mention the $50 we probably saved from not having to pay for said airport food for 6 people. To console myself for being under-appreciated, I may just award that savings to my souvenir fund. Perfectly fair don't you think?

Since we were flying through Atlanta and you always seem to see lots of servicemen in that airport, we brought cards and candy bars to hand out to military personnel. I wanted the girls to make cards to thank them for their service to our country. When we got to Atlanta, I was worried we wouldn't see any military personnel but when we walked into our gate, it was FILLED with military. There were probably 60-70 guys and a couple of women. Jeff talked with one and found out they're headed off to Iraq and Afghanistan. We really are so grateful for them! The girls walked around handing out the candy bars and cards they'd made. Some of the men seemed really touched. It was pretty cool.

Don't you wonder who he is talking to?? Maybe a girlfriend or wife or mother. Saying good-bye for who knows how long. He got a candy bar and a cute thank you card from my girls and hopefully the realizations that there are LOTS of us who really appreciate what he is doing and the sacrifice he is making!

We got some cute video of the girls handing out the cards and candy bars but apparently we don't have the fire wire to upload it.

Well, we're off! Nine hours to Milan, then 12 hours cruising around Bergamo, Italy before we fly to Romania. Many hours of travel still ahead of us (23 to be exact) but so far so good! :)

FHE

In an all girl house, dolls showing up (in their bathrobes, no less) at dinner and family night is a fairly normal occurrence.
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At a recent Family Home Evening, I snapped this picture of KeeKee and her doll quietly listening to the lesson. Apparently her doll had a question, and yes, we called on her (the doll) to see what it was. I can't remember what the question was at the moment, but I recall it was very thought provoking....you know, for a doll.

Cold Feet and Japan

It's raining tonight. O.K., that would be an understatement. It's actually pouring. As I was walking by the back door, I noticed the water was getting too close to the bottom of the sliding glass door. With the hubby nowhere to be found, I ran and grabbed a flash light to get a closer look. Sure enough, the drain was covered with leaves and wasn't draining properly. The water was getting dangerously close to the bottom of the door and to my wood floors. I grabbed a broom, rolled up my pajamas and stepped out into cold water up to my ankles to clear the drain. I was only out there for about 2 minutes.

When I came in, my feet were red and numb from being in the cold water. I slipped them into my warm slippers, rolled down my clean, soft pajamas and suddenly thought about the people in Japan. I wondered how many are cold and miserable tonight. How many have lost all their wordly possessions...or worse, any or all of their loved ones? How many trivial things have I worried about this week, while for them, life has been completely turned upside down? Then I sat down at my desk and wrote a check to the L.D.S. Church Humanitarian Aid Fund and marked it "for Japan". I heard today that the L.D.S. church has 15,000 blankets and hundreds of cook stoves on the way to Japan via China. I hope my money can send just a little more comfort and relief their way.

Japan, Preparedness

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So my younger sister, her hubby and 4 kids live in Japan. When I first heard about the earthquake, I was pretty worried. But for some reason, I thought they would be ok. What stressed me out a lot, was thinking about my sister's kids. My four little nephews, without warmth, light, normalcy and I couldn't imagine how stressed and scared they must be. I assumed they were being affected in some way but of course couldn't get through to them to find out to what extent. I prayed, I worried and I basically sat at my computer the entire day reading news reports, checking my email for word from them, listening to more news reports, checking my email, facebook, blogs etc. for word that they were ok.  That was just kind of the repeated pattern all day.


We eventually got a short email saying that they were safe, but as expected, without power, under a lot of stress and dealing with this crisis the best they could. I felt kind of helpless. As I found out they were short on batteries and candles, I wished I could get some of mine to them. It was really hard only getting occasional short messages and not being able to communicate regularly or help in any way.


By Saturday, I turned my stress into action. While I couldn't do anything more for the people of Japan than donate money for relief, I could work on getting my own affairs in order. (On a side note, any money donated to the L.D.S. church humanitarian aid fund goes directly to help those in need. 100% of it. I always donate this way because I know every penny of my money will go to helping the people and not paying administrator's salaries.)
Click: Donations for Humanitarian Aid for more info.


I'm grateful to have church leaders who have encouraged us for as long as I can remember to BE PREPARED. We are encouraged to have food, supplies and money saved in case of emergencies. Whether that emergency be the loss of employment, an earthquake, tsunami, wild fires, floods or whatever other craziness may come.


So by Saturday, I channeled my stress into organizing and inventorying our supplies. It felt SO good. I now have a much better idea of what we have and additional things we could use. My sister's blog posts from Japan have been great at showing what they have used, needed or wished they had more of.


Here are some pics of my newly organized food storage. Yes, I see I have an expired box of Corn Flakes on the shelf. What can I say, the kids didn't dig Corn Flakes as much as I had hoped. My family eats A LOT of cereal. Last week there was an amazing sale on cereal (between $1-$2 a box). I bought close to 100 boxes. With a shelf life of over a year, we will easily eat it all. Probably in the next 6 months. Like I said, we love cold cereal. You need to store what you will eat.

I found these magnet boards on clearance at Home Goods for $5 each. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them until Saturday. Hooray! I hung them on the wall in my food storage room. I don't know Excel well enough to make fancy spread sheets so I just made some rough ones on Microsoft Word. They helped me figure out how much I have and keep track of things I use so we can replace those items.

I hung a pen so we can mark things off as we use them. That way, when I go to the store, I can just look and see the items I need to stock back up on.

After all, any disaster would REALLY turn into a disaster if I was out of chocolate chips.

The hubby built me these food storage shelves. Pretty sweet eh?

The items in the white boxes are #10 cans of foods I canned at the local L.D.S. food cannery. Did you know that you don't have to be a member of the Mormon church to go can food there? They told me half of their patrons are not members of the church. Pretty cool. So, take your friends and neighbors and help them get prepared too!! Many of the items canned in this way will store for up to 30 years. We use and rotate ours but it's nice to know they'll last a long time.

I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be without toilet paper either. I store lots of that along with soap, detergent, toothpaste and even deoderent.

At the top of the 'coat closet turned food storage closet' are our 72 hour kits.

There's one for each family member. They have things like: food, water, soap, t.p., blankets, a change of clothes, comfort items for my kids, CHOCOLATE, first aid stuff, medicine, hand warmers, etc.

When there were wild fires here and we were evacuated, we grabbed our 72 hour kits and threw them in the car. We didn't end up needing them but it was comforting to know they were ready.

Hearing about my sister's situation in Japan, I have such a testimony of our Prophet's council to be prepared. It's so interesting to me that while my sister's family is seemingly not going to need to live on their food storage for an extended period of time, they've been able to bless the lives of others BECAUSE THEY HAD FOOD STORAGE. Because they had food storage, they (and others) were able to donate three car loads of food and supplies to those in a neighboring town who have next to nothing right now. Pretty cool. My prayers continue to go out to the people of Japan.

So, my 6 faithful readers, do something today to get prepared!

xoxo

P.S.,  One more compelling reason to have emergency food and supplies before the emergency happens...
Click here for the story: Panic Buying Adds to Shortages After Japan Quake
My heart goes out to these people.