Weekend Fun! June 10-13

Amelia's first day back at her babysitter's house -- first day in over 3 weeks!


Her shirt says "Ciao Bella"

She was pretty excited to go, but very hesistant once we got there. She did not want me to leave right away, but she got settled in pretty quickly.

That day we received our first delivery in our fruits & vegetables CSA -- we bought a share in a farm's summer/early fall crops:

Romaine, radishes, herbs, swiss chard, peas, and strawberries -- it was all great and quickly consumed!

I also received flowers for my birthday:

The ones on the left here are mine -- in order to have Amelia help him pick out some, he had to buy her the ones on the right :)

On Saturday, we walked to the Farmer's Markets in town, and bought some yummies.

Later, we split up. Chris went to watch a USA World Cup match, and Amelia and I went to a UK Alumni event.

Slurping down the lemonade:

She dropped something down the cornhole game:

Enjoying the property that the party was held on:

Amelia and I had a great time at the party -- I think all of the older folks were pretty entertained by her energy.

Later, she had a babysitter, while Chris and I went to a birthday party. Mark and I share a birthday, but this year was his 30th, so he had the big bash like I did last year.

On Sunday we went to church....

... and then spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out around the house, getting more settled in from our trip.

Did She Enjoy the Trip?

Yes! She sure did!

Amelia seemed to really enjoy having Mama and Daddy around (almost) full-time, and loved vacationing with "Namma" and then "Gampa". She liked riding around in her stroller, or on Gampa's shoulders. She played tourist as well as the rest of us did - taking in all of the sights, and making friends with every animal we found along the way. She slept well in her bedroom, and even napped a few times on the go - in the car seat or stroller. She LOVED being set loose in a piazza, where there were no cars, and she could stretch her legs and explore.

And whenever we were out in public, the pint-sized cutie with the head full of blonde hair attracted a lot of attention. She has always loved attention, so she enjoyed this! We heard "Che Bambola!" (what a doll!) all the time, as well as excited, glowing comments on her big blue eyes and curly blonde hair. And in turn, Amelia would use the words "grazie" (thank you) and "ciao" (hello/goodbye) in return. They loved that!

Amelia had an odd diet there. She ate lots of yogurt, bananas, raisins, and bread. She ate gnocchi (small pasta balls), regular pasta and pizza a lot, but she was pretty finicky about it at times. She perfected drinking out of a glass or water bottle. Of course, she loved all of the gelato (ice cream) and pastries. She decided that she loves Tuscan-style beans, and thinks that they should always be served with pizza (even here).

We have one more story to share, but I'm going to ask a guest blogger - AKA Daddy - to share it with you another time.

Italy - Days 19 & 20

Monday 6/7

On this day, we headed to Torre del Lago -- the beach! The Mediterannean Sea was beautiful, and the beach was nice. The water right at the shore line wasn't the nicest I've seen -- it was very dirty/sandy.

Walking down the beach -- past all of the paid beach areas to the free one:


All ready to go into the water:

Daddy pretending to throw Amelia in the water:

Searching for some shells and some new rocks:

Checking out the waves:

Having a great time with Gampa!

Getting all warm, dry and snuggly:

After about an hour or so of playing in the sand and surf, we headed back to the house. Chris made our final yummy home-cooked meal:

Amelia napped, and we started packing our stuff for the ride home.

After naptime, we drove to a winery where we tried out a couple of the local wines.

Then we headed up to Monte Carlo, to look around more, and have dinner at the wonderful place with the nice view.

Pretty girl:

Toasting our final night in Italy:

Toasting with Daddy:

Last pasta dinner - yum!

Tuesday 6/8

This was the morning that we packed up the house and started our trip back to the States.

Amelia's last yogurt breakfast -- with crazy hair:

We got to the Pisa airport, with plenty of time to spare. My dad had his second flight cancelled on him, so he was re-booked to go with us 2/3rds of the way home. We went through security, passport control, got some lunch, and had one last espresso right at our gate.

Taking off from Pisa:

Enjoying the magazine that the flight attendant gave her:

Moving on to one of her books:

At Heathrow -- getting off one plane and heading to another:

We then flew from London to Washington. Amelia slept for part of the flight, and was calmly awake the rest of the time.

She enjoyed watching cartoons, eating m&m's and wearing her sunglasses:

When we got to Washington, we went through passport control and customs. We found that we had a major issue of only 1 person in our whole group having a flight back to Ohio. But, a rock-star United staff person managed to re-book the rest of us with mere minutes to spare.

So, we all got on flights to our destinations and we all had safe flights home.

We landed around 11:15pm Ohio time (5:15am Italy time) and my birthday officially arrived before we arrived at our house at 12:30am. We spent the next day trying to relax, and not being terribly festive. But that was certainly okay!

Italy - Days 17 & 18

Saturday 6/5

This day, Dad and I took the Metro back to Rome to see the inside of the Colosseum, while Chris and Amelia stayed behind at the hotel.

Reading papers together -- Daddy and daughter:


Colosseum from the outside:

Here I am!

Inside, from the upper level:

The floor there is just a simulation of what the floor of the Colosseum would have looked like. The entire bottom had a floor and the area underneath was where they kept the animals and prisoners:

Arch of Constantine, view from Colosseum:

Another view of the inside:

On the lower level - you can see the underneath better:

Cross in the Colosseum:

After a thorough self-guided tour of the Colosseum, we went back to the hotel to meet up with Chris and Amelia.

Amelia was enjoying more breakfast -- toast and nutella:

And we all walked to one street over, where we sauntered down "Viale Amelia"! [Amelia Boulevard]

Pictures with the sign from her street:

We finished packing up, and headed back north to our little house in Marginone.

On the way, we detoured over by Florence to the beautiful view of the city from Piazzale Michelangelo:

And we drove back home for a nice dinner at a local joint:

We were happy to be back "home" in Marginone.

Sunday 6/6

On this day, we were still decompressing from our whirlwind trip to Rome and back, so we stuck around the house and the local towns to relax.

Later in the afternoon, we went to Altopascio to enjoy the "passeggiata" -- where the locals all socialize in the town piazza in the early evening.

Amelia enjoyed the fountain for a bit. She was looking to see if there was a fish in there:

But of course, then she had to return to picking up rocks...

There was even another little girl that ran over and grabbed her hands and tried to play with her.... but she wasn't terribly interested in that. She just wanted her rocks.

Silly little girl:

Then we headed over to our favorite restaurant in Altopascio for one last dinner (Chris's 5th visit, my 3rd):

Amelia decided it was a good night for destroying some of their decor:

And laughing at Mommy:

It was a great evening with the friendly owners of Magione del Tau:

Next, we headed home, where an (early) birthday cake was awaiting me:

It was really tasty, with meringue, fruit, etc...

and nutella on the inside!!

Amelia enjoyed it just as much as the rest of us (except we ate it like adults):