Trip to Verona

 My two good friends and I decided to take a day trip to Verona (home of Romeo and Juliette) with our little kids.  I only took Aaron and Isabel, and Jordan stayed home with dad to have a special day with him.  Above is my friend Paige, and below is my friend Brianna.  These two awesome women are living in Bologna while their husbands study at John's Hopkins University.  Sadly, they'll be leaving at the end of May. :(

 This is the Arena, much like the Colosseum in Rome, but this one is intact and there are operas and concerts performed here all summer long.

 Verona happens to also be the first city that I served in on my mission.  I lived here for 4 1/2 months in 2000.

 This is a castle the we walked up.

 View from the bridge of the castle.

 Aaron's very cheesy grins.  He held up very, very well for a long day of travel, and not playing with his Cars2 cars.

 The statue of Juliette.  Superstition has it that if you rub her breast, you'll have good luck.  I'll be luck-less after this trip. :)  This would explain why she is shinier in some places than others.

 Piazza comunale

 Got the big sized ice cream cone.  Aaron was VERY happy.

 This is from Ponte Pietra.  Theses scenes are what I think of when I think of Verona.

 If you walk up a lot of stairs, you can get a fantastic view of the city!

 This picture didn't turn out great, but I rode my bike in front of these beautiful buildings THOUSANDS of time, and this is where I began to fall in love with Italy so many years ago.  As I looked at this place I was filled with wonder and awe at the ability that God has given us to love Him, love beautiful places, good people, and good things!

Here's Ada and Taryn, the other two tag-alongs.  They held up great too!

Partners in crime

Aaron and Jordan are little buddies. They are so cute when they are accomplices in crime or just plain fun. We were at a bathroom at the local grocery store in the crazy attempt to have me go to the bathroom while having 3 kids and hoping that they don't go into another stall and don't touch ANYTHING. They inevitably do, and it grosses me out. So we always wash our hands after. They had so much fun drying their hands, and for once I had my camera with me. I try to go to the bathroom only in an emergency because it's a lot of work.

To date they have also:

Stolen some juice boxes from the cupboard and hid themselves in a secretive corner and giggled like school girls while taking turns drinking. It was plain adorable!

Easter

Paolo's comment when he saw her Easter outfit: "What's that on her head?!" I personally thought she was adorable.
Aaron wanted to get in on the cheesiness of taking pictures.
New toys from grandma. Thank you mom! It's been perfect timing with 4 teeth coming in on top. I love that you can see her bottom teeth.
3 silly monkies!
"cheeeeeeese! Eeeeeee!"
There are no Easter egg hunts on Saturday around here, so we did our favorite past time: we drew a map and went in search of treasure. Jordan loves this little telescope and it was the key to adventures this Saturday. :) Notice the accessories tucked into his pants. I tried to talk him into wearing pants with pockets, but I couldn't convince him.
Getting ready to leave for fun adventures of egg and treasure hunting near our house.
These kids were pumped up. Wildebeest might be more like a good description. :)
Isabel joining us for the fun adventures. Next year she can walk around with us.
This is our traditional treasure hunting route.
Aaron has named this spot the "follow the prophet" circle. It was the follow the leader circle because the first time we set out looking for treasure/dinosaur bones, I walked around the circle singing the song from Peter Pan about following the leader. I should clarify it's the song that I remember singing to myself as a kid. The music and the words may not in fact sound like anything you see on the Disney movie. My kids will never know the difference though.

So we didn't have any real Easter eggs to find, but we found some awesome sticks, rocks, and flowers (aka weeds, but don't tell my kids that), and.... some strawberries. Jordan was the lucky explorer to find them (after Aaron walked right past the very obvious grocery bag that I was pointing out to him).
Buon appetito!

Swiss trip part II

Aaron got a hold of the camera on a couple of occassions, and when we got home from the temple trip to Switzerland. So here's the pictures that Aaron took: the trip through Aaron's eyes.

It's difficult to make out what this is, but if you look closely you can see Aaron's mouth (white in the lower right corner) . He opened his mouth wide open and took a picture
Naturally the nose is the next thing up from the mouth... :)
We drive a Pegeout.
It's a manual...

This is the street down to our house.



I love this picture of Paolo. Good job Aaron!