Italy Part Two: Venice

After our excursions at "the chink" we headed across the country to Venice for our last day en italia.  I think Venice always gets this bad reputation for being so dirty or trashy or whatever.  Personally, we thought it was a delightful city.  Sure, I wouldn't drink from the canals or lick the sidewalks, but the only place you can do that kind of stuff is in Provo.  Sometimes people ask about tips for traveling with kids. Well, here's a tip: don't take a stroller to Venice.  I guess I always somehow imagined that all the bridges would be nice, smooth, ramps.  I guess I should have know that they are all stairs.  And with the frequency of bridge-crossing in Venice, it all adds up to bad news for mommy and daddy.  Lucky we had one stroller and one backpack.  However, this also poses unique challenges when taking pictures; I was usually too tired or lazy to unbuckle and rebuckle the girls every time we had a photo-op.  Just a little tip, in case you were curious. 

Anyway, we had a great time touring around the city, trying various foods and just feeling out the city.  I guess there is more stuff to see like some glass factories and other islands, but we had a good time and our one-day Venice experience impressed us.

Between the girls, light rain, the stroller, and the $100 price tag, we never got around to an authentic gondola ride.  If we ever regret our decision, you will find us on the canals in the Venitian in Viva Las Vegas. Mark did, however, take advantage of the opportunity and serenaded the passengers with his best Dean Martin as they passed.  It was (a little too) memorable for everyone.

By the time we started our drive home Sadie's unicorn/avatar bump had slid, slipped, and drained its way over to her left infra-orbital space.  Deep down we knew she was our same sweet little daughter, but it was getting hard to tell.

PS- Update: she's all healed now.

Rub a dub dub, 2 crazy babies in a tub.

A few reasons why I like to take bath pictures of my babies...

1. They are cute

2. They are clean

3. They can't go very far while trying to get a picture of them and if you scream loud enough they will look at you and maybe crack a smile.

A small amount of proof that London's hair is in fact making it's debut. 

 There were never better bath buddies...

Italy Part One: Cinque Terre

One of our first and favorite trips since we have been here was our visit to Cinque Terre in Italy.  Cinque  Terre means "five lands" and is named for 5 little villages along the coast that are connected by train and a hiking trail.  We went with Mark's sister Kristi and her huz Cade.   One of the most exciting parts of the trip was the secret rendezvous with the Bucks.  I say secret rendezvous because they had been off backpacking and taking trains around Europe for the last week.  No cell phones.  No facebook.  No means of verifying our meet-up location.  They had gone dark.  Hopefully you can picture the intensity and excitement as we chose a location and time to meet up: the train station in Levanto at 5:00 PM, a location we had never seen and only suspected it existed based on our best research on Google Earth.  Once we set the details, Kristi and Cade went off the grid.  We were trusting they could get there traveling through Belgium, Switzerland, Rome, and who knows where.  And we were equally anxious that we would be able to make the 11 hour drive with just some baguettes and cheese sticks for the girls and our GPS to arrrive at the right date and time in the correct village.  No room for error.  Anyway, to make a long story short, we both met up there, and how great was our joy.  

We camped in Levanto and took a train to the first of the "five lands".  Our awesome plan was to hike from city to city as we explored the beaches, ice cream, and pizzas.  Turns out that most people start from the other end and walk toward where we started.  Turns out that most people don't hike with two huge babies on their backs (thanks for the help, Cade).  Turns out hiking up and down cliffy vineyards was beautiful, but a little harder than we had anticipated.  By the time we arrived at the beautiful second village (see below), our legs were about to collapse and we were a stinky, sweaty, mess.  Luckily it was well worth it.  That being said, we still decided to take the train from that point on.

Our view as we descended from our hike.

We love any form of sea life!

Oh... and then there was Sadie.  If you see this picture and are thinking, "man, she sure looks like an Avatar," you are right.  While we were camping, Sadie fell and got a little bump.  It got progressively worse throughout the week as it drained, constantly altering her appearance.  We were sure some sort or unicorn horn or something would pop through. Didn't :( .

Waiting patiently for the train.

This Avatar likes ice cream.

Sleepy, heavy hikers.

Awesome hike.

We never know what our girls are thinking...  If you run out of raisins, just ask for more. Don't attempt to start some type of revolution or uprising.

Mark takes the plunge.  Much to his dismay, he was the only one there not wearing a speedo.  A mistake he vows never to repeat...

It was a real blast, and a very unique place to visit. Recommend. We spent the first two days of our labor day holiday there, and then off to Venice for a day.  To be continued...