Guess Where I've Been...

Do you ever take a break from doing laundry?

Well, I didn't plan on it... it's just that every time I thought about doing a load of laundry I always came to the conclusion that I wasn't feeling like it.  I went with that feeling for a little too long... and suddenly  1.5 weeks went by and I found myself at a crossroad.  Either get myself down to the basement and tackle the mountain of laundry-- or drive straight to Walmart and buy new socks and undies for everyone in the family.

I opted to do laundry.

I've decided to not be embarrassed about my self initiated holiday from laundry-- instead I'm looking at the positives of the situation... such as:

• I was forced to wear the clothes in the back of my closet because all of my fav's were dirty-- turns out I have more clothes than I thought
• Yesterday I was at home ALL day-- didn't leave-- but I wore my super cute pink jeans because they were the only clean pair of pants left.  No sweatpants for me.  Turns out pink jeans made for a happy kind of day...  Bet you didn't know that!
• For the first time ever my tiny closet felt spacious-- because so many of my clothes were sitting in the laundry room downstairs...
• Caleb ran out of pants (ALL of his jeans and sweatpants were dirty) so yesterday he was forced to wear shorts.  They were way too short-- and I now know that he needs new shorts for summer-- I wouldn't have known this if I hadn't been on laundry strike.  So really-- my laundry strike was more like wardrobe research-- not laziness.

So as you can imagine-- I spent a whole lot of time in my laundry room-- sorting clothes, doing hand washing, soaking all my kid's stained items (thank goodness for oxyclean) and shuffling load after load.

I would love to have a gorgeous, light filled, laundry room one day-- of course I probably don't deserve one because I apparently don't spend enough time there-- but yesterday I wish I could have been spending my day in this gorgeous laundry room.  It's bright, clean, fresh, simple, and has a few pretty accessories that I love.

Kelly Deck Design via The Globe and Mail photography by Barry Calhoun

Anyhow-- three loads into yesterday's laundry marathon I ran out of laundry detergent.  Can you guess what I'll be doing today?

And while today is pretty much a normal day (the kids still got up way too early, Doug's at work, and I'm doing laundry) it's a reflective day for me-- I'm reflecting on Christ's sacrifice... and on his great great love for me-- for us.  "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Hoodies for Everyone!!!

When it comes to buying clothes for the fam-- I end up shopping online at American Eagle quite a bit.  I don't necessarily need to shop online for myself (although sometimes they have amazing deals online rather than in the stores) but I HAVE to shop online for Doug.  When you're 6'7" you have VERY limited clothing options.  Nothing in the stores fit him-- but-- if you shop AE online they have extra long shirts and jeans/pants that come in 36 length.  So-- we shop online.

But, did you know that American Eagle also has a kids clothing collection online?  I never buy regular priced clothes for the kids because those prices can be a little ridiculous... but their clearance items are pretty great.  Caleb's been growing like a weed lately and all his pants/hoodies are way too short-- with a tall Daddy I can only imagine that this trend will continue!  So I just ordered these three hoodies for him-- they were each $14.88...

1/2/3

I have been really impressed with the quality and fit of their kids clothes.  I also buy Old Navy and Joe clothes for the kids but I find that they don't hold up nearly as well as these clothes.  I haven't ordered the kids jeans yet but a friend of mine always buys their jeans for her little boy and loves them-- they are really cute and fit well.

And of course... Eme got something too.  Isn't this just the cutest little hoodie for cool summer evenings?

Anyhow... just thought I'd share a favorite source for kids shopping... again-- let me repeat that the regular priced items seem a little ridiculously priced to me... but the clearance section usually doesn't disappoint!  And, right now they are clearing out a lot of their winter stuff so it's a great time to stock up for next year... yup.. I'm one of those shoppers...

Click HERE to see the 77 Kids clothes collection.

Bring on Summer

It's raining outside today (shocking-- I know) but I've been dreaming about summer this morning.  Why?  How?  You might be thinking...  Well, I watched the first two episodes of Summer Home on HGTV Canada and suddenly I want to do summery things-- like sit at the beach, play in the water, go camping, and eat a whole lot of smores.  And I could spend some time in this lake side cottage from the first episode-- isn't it adorable?

via HGTV Canada

Such a cute before and after...

via samanthapynn.com

Samantha Pynn is equally adorable in her new HGTV show.  She's super silly and cute-- the whole show is full of dorky jokes that make me giggle.  After watching her dancing with a broom and attempting to use a table saw I am quite certain we could be friends.

You can watch the first two episodes of Summer Home online HERE.

Bring on summer!!

The Final Stop

The final stop on our trip was Venice.

Friends and family that have been to Venice before advised us not to spend too much time in this city-- most people we talked to actually said that you only needed a day in Venice.  And really, for us-- it was all we needed.  It's the most expensive city we stayed in-- by far-- and so we opted to only spend one night in Venice.  After a LONG train ride from Levanto (6 hours) we arrived in Venice just before 5 pm.  And we were feeling a little tired :)

But Venice in the evening is quite beautiful-- so after checking into our hotel we wandered around for a while and took in the sights...

We had dinner along one of the smaller canals-- it was a little bit chilly once the sun set-- but it was kind of fun to sit out along the water, under the lanterns all bundled up eating pasta after dark...

We were up bright and early the next morning ready to explore.  We had to catch the train back to Rome that night (our journey back to Vancouver would begin the next morning) so we left our bags at reception in our hotel and took off for the day.

If you think you can navigate your way around Venice without a map-- I'm going to tell you right now that your can't.  Even with a map you can expect to get lost at least twice.

I don't have much else to say about Venice-- other than I enjoyed the best pasta of our trip while we were there (ravioli in a tomato cream sauce-- yum) and the four cheese pizza was pretty amazing too.

Oh, and it's pretty picturesque too...

Loved watching these elderly guys rowing away-- some kind of gondola rowing team I guess...

Gondola repair shop... maybe?

St. Mark's Square-- crazy busy... crazy beautiful.

And after a day of sightseeing in Venice we started our trek back to Rome-- the craziest 3.5 hours of our entire trip.  I had reserved us seats on a train back to Rome-- it's about a 3 hour ride-- we were going to arrive at the Termini station at around 9 pm.  The problem was-- the hotel we were staying at was right beside the airport (since we were flying back the next morning we wanted to stay somewhere close) and the last shuttle from the airport to our hotel left at 10 pm.  If we made it there too late we'd left at the mercy of the Italian taxi drivers-- expensive and stressful :)  So, when we got to the main Venice train station I noticed that there was a earlier train leaving in a few minutes-- it would get us to Rome over half an hour ahead of schedule.  We ran to the ticket office and asked if we could switch our reservations to the earlier train-- they let us do it-- so we RAN like crazy for the train that was leaving in a few minutes.  We made it.

Three hours later we arrived in Rome-- I checked the list of departures and saw that the train to the airport terminal was leaving in FIVE minutes.  Our Eurail passes didn't work on the regional trains so we RAN to the booth to buy tickets for the regional train and RAN (with all our bags) for the train that was about to leave.  We made it.

The train was going to arrive at the airport at 8:53.  The second last shuttle to our hotel was leaving the airport at 9.  We had NO idea where we were going to find this one little bus at the Rome airport so Doug called the hotel and asked if we were going to make it and how to find the shuttle.  The lady gave us directions and said that if we ran, and if we made no wrong turns, we MIGHT make it to the shuttle. Well, the train arrived and we took off-- running as fast as we could.  Keep in mind that I had knee surgery just a few months ago-- this was the first time that I had attempted to run since then so you can imagine that it wasn't pretty.  Well, we ran and ran and ran-- through the terminal to the airport, through the all the parking lots to the little parking spot where our bus would be waiting.  Well we made it.  With 2 minutes to spare.  We crawled into the bus-- sweaty and exhausted-- and pumped that we'd managed to make it from all the way from Venice to our hotel in Rome in 3.5 hours.

And that wasn't even half as exciting as what happened the next morning at the airport.  We had already done the online check in with our flights and only had carry on bags so we figured that arriving at the airport 3 hours before our flight was departing would be MORE than enough time.  Well people-- it sure wasn't.  Getting though security in Rome was an absolute nightmare.  An absolute gong show.  Everyone complains about Heathrow-- but Heathrow was an absolute dream in comparison.  There were thousands of people waiting to get though the most inefficient security screening process I've ever seen.  We waited and waited and the line was moving SO slow.  In our line there was ONE metal detector/screening area for hundreds of people.  Everyone was super worked up.  I saw all these teeny tiny little Italian grandmas get out of line, march up to these big security guards, and tear a strip out of them-- in Italian.  Well-- we made it through security in the nick of time, and started running (yes-- again) for our gate.  We made it there with 15 minutes to spare.  So if you're ever wondering how early you need to get to the airport to fly out of Rome on a Monday morning-- 3 hours is not enough!

Well-- our flights home were uneventful-- thank goodness.  We got bumped up to business class on our cross Atlantic flights to and from London so we were more than comfortable.  And flying without kids?  A dream.  I don't know-- Westjet's Kargo Kids idea seems pretty great to me :)  I'm joking.  Kind of :)

Anyhow-- that concludes the recap of our trip!  It was amazing-- and wonderful.  It was also wonderful to see our kids again after being away from them for 12 days!  And almost two weeks later-- it feels like it was just a dream...

Friday Night

It's raining like crazy... Doug's out of town for the weekend... and we needed dinner.

Crepes and blueberries it is!!!  Eme was a fan.  Quite frankly, I can't remember the last time I saw her shovel food into her mouth that fast.

Those of us that aren't allergic to dairy enjoyed a little whipped cream too.  Caleb said "Wow!  This dinner actually tastes really good!"  Guess I the non-sugary healthy meals I've been making for him lately have been missing the mark...

And... just when you thought we'd had enough sugar for the day...

Paska for dessert anyone?

Cinque Terre

After several busy (and fantastic) days running around Rome and Florence we took the train north to the Cinque Terre for a little relaxing.  The cities are busy-- the five towns that make up this region were quiet and peaceful.  The only people we saw were a few older retired couples and the locals.  It was perfect.

So many of our friends raved about the Cinque Terre-- telling us that we HAD to stop and experience it.  Honestly, after being there I would have to say that it's one of the most beautiful and charming places I've ever been.  If you ever have the chance-- you need to stop there!!

We didn't have a whole lot of time so we ended up only seeing two of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre.  A few months ago there was a flood in two of the towns-- Vernazza and Monterosso-- so they weren't even really open to tourists anyways.  Our first stop was Riomaggiore.

We were quite excited to be there.

After lunch in a cute little cafe we set out for the hills to do a little exploring.  There are all these tiny little gardens/farms clinging to the side of the rocky cliffs that are carved out like steps all the way up to the top.  We walked some of the paths-- taking it all in.

Like the gardens and farms-- the towns are clinging to the side of the rocks.  Walking the streets can be quite the workout-- let me tell you.  Pizza and pasta for lunch?  Not a problem!  An hour later you've already worked it off after walking around the town!

We then walked to the next town-- Manarola.  There are walking/hiking paths that connect the towns-- many of them were closed while we were there but we were able to do the walk between Riomaggiore and Manarola.

We spent much of our time in Manarola sitting along the water staring into the sea, watching the fishermen come in and out with their boats, and taking in the sites of the town.  It's so beautiful.

It was warm while we were there (well-- warm for spring) and by the middle of the afternoon it got nice and sunny.  I can only imagine how fabulous it would be to spend time there during the summer.

Every street is picturesque and perfect.

If only my laundry looked this cute.

The colors are so incredible.  Each building is a different bright color.  Each one is perfect.

We had dinner sitting in a little restaurant in an outdoor patio-- we were the only ones there.  I had the best pesto ever.  EVER.  If you go to the Cinque Terre you must try the pesto!

Eventually the sun began to set and it was time to take the train back to the town we were staying in.

It can be difficult to find good accommodations in the five small towns that make up the Cinque Terre-- so we opted to stay in Levanto.  Levanto is a 2 minute train ride north of Monterosso and any of the 5 towns can be reached by train in less than 15 minutes from this location.  Levanto is a bigger community that has lots of shops and restaurants, a big sandy beach, and tons of different hotels, B&B's, and hostels.  Out of any of the towns in the area we thought it would be the most kid friendly (if we ever decided to back with the kids) with it's big sandy beaches complete with parks and stuff to entertain the kiddos. We found the best B&B that was really affordable, a five minute walk from the train station (needed when you've been lugging your bags all over the country), had the best view, the most amazing breakfasts, and was terribly cute.

I mean seriously, this was the door to our room.  So cute!  From our room we could walk out onto this gorgeous patio that looked out over the town.

This was our view from the front door.  Come on now... it doesn't get much better than this :)

So in summary-- the Cinque Terre is beautiful.

You should go there.

And consider staying in Levanto.

Next up... Venice!!

Florence

I always knew Florence would not disappoint.  It didn't.

After three days in Rome, we hopped on the train and made our way to Florence.

We found our train!!!  How exciting!!

Florence was warm, sunny, and gorgeous.

The exterior of Santa Maria del Fiore (or the Duomo) is gorgeous.  I could have sat and stared at it all day long.

Florence isn't the most colorful city (it was known for it's development of innovative architectural design principles during the Renaissance-- not for being overly decorative) -- so this basilica with it's colorful and decorative exterior is a dramatic contrast to the other plainer buildings in Florence.

Caleb's favorite pictures from our trip...

He likes this little bird coming to help me read my map.  He also likes a picture of me in Rome-- there's a bird that looks like it's about to fly straight into my head.  Apparently that one's pretty "hilarious" too.

Caleb was SO fascinated by this bridge-- lined with shops and stores.  It totally cracks him up.  Our hotel was actually a 2 minute walk from this bridge-- it was a great place that was super central and within walking distance of everything.  They also served the most amazing breakfasts-- mouth watering pastries and all the freshly brewed espresso and cappuccinos a person could want-- served in a beautiful BEAUTIFUL room complete with pretty table cloths and dishes-- even cloth napkins... my kind of breakfast!!

Right in front of the Duomo is the Baptistry.  We didn't go inside-- but I was pretty fascinated by the doors.  I remembered studying them in Art History-- beautiful.

Santa Maria Novella-- houses Masaccio's painting Holy Trinity-- Another painting I studied back in the day.  Wow-- can't believe it was that long ago that I was a student in Art History.  Actually-- thinking about school-- just yesterday I was at the dentist getting a filling (boo!!) and the dental assistant thought that I was a college student.  When I told her I am actually a mom with kids she seemed a little shocked-- that's gotta be a good thing... right?

Back to Florence...

We also visited the Brancacci Chapel to see Masaccio's Tribute Money-- I wrote a paper on this painting years ago.  It was very cool to see it in person.  It is forbidden to take pictures in most museums and churches that house famous works of art-- but in this chapel they allowed you to take pictures without a flash.

We also visited the Uffizi Gallery to see many many other famous works of art and the Galleria dell Accademia to see the famous statue of David.  Since we were there in March and not during the summer we didn't have to wait in massive lines to get in-- definitely nice.  If you're planning to visit these places during the busy months of summer I'd recommend paying a little bit extra for an entrance reservation.  When you only have a day or two to see everything you can't afford to stand in lines for hours!!

Florence was all about the art and museums for me-- Doug was a real trooper... he was willing to see everything that I wanted to see and he let me "teach" him all about the artists and stories behind the works of art we viewed :)  He says that he actually really enjoyed it-- when you have some background info it can make the experience that much more amazing.

So if you ever visit Florence... my advice is to do a little bit of studying and read up on some of the famous paintings and sculptures-- if you're going to take the time to see them-- take the time to know something about it!  That makes the experience so much more fascinating.

So that was Florence! 

Next stop... the Cinque Terre!