Our Belgium Trip

Took a trip to Belgium to see what we could see....

Had a nice day...our first stop was in Antwerp.....where we were just in time to see St. Nickolas arrive on his boat from Spain. He got on his white horse and led the parade through town. The entire tradition is very similar to our Santa Claus and Christmas with just a few twists.....We sampled Belgium Chocolate here...nice place.

Our next stop was Brussels and this is us in front of the Atomium. They hosted the World Fair in the 50's and erected this structure. This thing is gigantic. Not sure if you can get the full affect of that......or not......

Went to Belgium Yesterday

Took a little trip to Belgium and wanted to show you some cools pictures....

Who knew Belgium was such a happening place.....great architecture!!! And really the center of much!

The square was spectacular and was probably one of the most ornate squares we have visited this year.

And the best part of the whole trip was my "entire reason for being there".....right there in the corner of the main square in Brussels was my very own store with my very own name....how cool is that?

Taking a train to Paris on Wednesday to do some sightseeing and Christmas shopping....will take lots of pictures and try to get to you in a timely manner..... LOL! I know you are laughing equally as hard!
We are only staying a few days then I think Gil is coming for a few days.....

We are taking a final European road trip in a couple of weeks....going to take a 9-day trip around Europe....We get to explore Budapest and Vienna...which is my 'roots'...so that will be nice...will get to visit the extraordinarily beautiful city of Prague...wow..can't wait for that...going to spend Christmas in the Swiss Alps...other stops like Salzburg, Germany; Lucerne and Zurich, Switzerland; going back through Innsbruck, Austria..which we loved last time...so that will be cool..oh, and we get to go through the Black Forest in Germany and visit the shop where the "Cuckoo-Clock" was invented...yes, you heard it here.....we will be visiting the home of the "Cuckoo-Clock"...actually we are very excited about the whole trip.....

Going to spend New Year's Eve in Europe, coming back home on January 5th.....

So, we are getting depressed. Our days are numbered here and I'm sure it will go by much too quickly...But, we are equally as excited to get back and see everyone...we miss the lake...can't wait to soak in the hot tub....with a big glass of something with ice in it...lots and lots of ice....ahhhhh...the little things in life that bring us so much pleasure...I'm telling you, this ranks right up there........

Todi in the Fall

Just some cool pictures we took while out driving a couple of weeks ago....

The first one is the Duomo in Todi....I was actually trying to get a picture of the cute little Fiat in front of me...we saw this lady in this slick little antique Fiat every time we went to Todi.....and I actually got this postcard perfect picture of the Duomo......

Look at the cool trees in our driveway...they were beautiful....almost all the leaves have fallen now...but they were spectacular!

Once again, I'm going to try to catch up on the blog...but I am up to the first of August when Fran and Roger arrived...and we have been to some really cool places...so I have lots to show you....but you may get some posts out of order....I'm feeling a little chatty right now and want to share some of recent posts with you as well...while catching up on the backlog.....

Happy Veteran's Day everyone!

Dirt Roading in Umbria

Well......we love going 'dirt-roadin''.....and it is just as much fun in Italy.....in our area of Umbria any way....

This is the area around Todi in the Fall.....the fields of the beautiful colors are actually Sangrantino grape vineyards near Montefalco....they have the best colors....just rolling hills of them....the other vineyards just kind of dry up and die.....so it was spectacular to see the rolling fields of these.....

We also happened upon a herd of lambs...had to have been hundreds of babies...everywhere..all the same size......so cute....this was in a little area called Lorgnano...Leyla told us later that there was a shepherd who lives here and sells fresh Ricotto and Pecorino cheese.....should have ventured a little further into the town there....The next day Sue, Fran and Susan took the same drive and actually got some really cool shots newborn lambs....newborn..... newborn....

The other picture is just a cool bridge....we found some really cool places while dirt roadin'......the colors are fantastic...

Our Summer in Todi

Well,

I know I haven't posted in like 4 months....yeah yeah...I hear ya!

But I'm going to catch you up and continue to post....

We didn't do much over the summer after our family left...

We hung out at the pool, took care of our flowers, tended our garden(yeah, that's our little American Garden)...and oh yeah..we did get to see James Taylor at the Umbria Jazz Fest.....there were all kinds of musicians that we recognized, but J.T. was the only one we were able to see in concert.

We took lots of day trips to the little towns in our area, but stayed close to home and enjoyed the pool.

Vatican City

Our final stop on their visit was Rome....Had to save the best for last.. .....this is in front of the Vatican City.

Paolo and budding musicians in a jam session

Paolo is a jazz musician and the kids couldn't wait for him to come jam with them...both Lauryn and Ace play the guitar....

Finally, Paolo sat down to jam with them...it was a while before they actually allowed him to play...I think he was quite impressed with them....

By the end of the night, poor Paolo was playing the guitar while listening to an ipod in one ear, and tunes blaring out of 2 laptops simultaneously in the other ear......He was bombarded by the kids' favorite tunes....all at once! I think he loved it!

Good Ol' Game of Football

Okay,

So our friend Paolo is an avid Football (soccer) fan...so the kids couldn't wait for him to visit us and play a game with them.......

The boys were getting all fired up and made their team flag which waved proudly during that battle.....

And they had a little help from Cookie (Grace's puppy) ...I can't remember whose team Cookie was on, but in my opinion, she was the star of the game...she was involved on every play, every kick, every goal, every loose ball,......she was there......

The boys worked hard making the goal posts out of bamboo they found.....

Leaning Tower of Pisa

We of course had to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa

New Moon Set in Montepulciano

So, you are aware of the sequel to the Twilight Series "New Moon" is about to be released this month.

A portion of the movie was filmed in Montepulciano, which is very neat hilltop town in Tuscany. We were bummed to find out that they had just finished filming the day the kids arrived. But we went for a visit anyway.....

It is absolutely one of our favorite places...they have great wine there as well.

The kids in the square where the movie was filmed and also in the alleyway, they think that Edward stood in before he was going to reveal himself...before Bella saved him......you understand if you have have read the books.....

Pay close attention to this part of the movie...where Bella runs through the fountain to save Edward from committing suicide by revealing himself to the Volturri Bunch......something like this.......

Our Family came to visit

We visited the Isle of Capri....which, in my opinion, is the absolute best that Italy has to offer for visual stimulation.....

It was absolutely beautiful.....we took the convertible taxi ride around the island....Maxine lost her hat and is trying to keep mom's hat from the same fate....

The other picture is all of us overlooking the cliffside of the island....stunning!