Sirmione, Lake Garda...Trip #2

  We went to Sirmione back on Mother's Day weekend but we loved it so much, that we decided to go back. This time we took our swimsuits and played in the lake. Of course we ate Gelato, walked around the tiny town, ate lunch, and then this time we visited the Roman ruins that remain on the north end of the penisula. It was really a great day. Relaxing, and much cooler by the water than it was at home!

  

  

  

  

  

Father's Day 2012

 I already shared what we did on/for Father's Day...here are B's and Papa's gifts.. (B's was framed for his office, Papa's was made into one of those faux canvases).

Are we a lucky bunch or what!?

Chioggia, Italy...Fun in the SUN!

Last weekend was Father's Day and B'S 30th Birthday. While I would have loved to have a barbecue and invite everyone over, make a big fuss over it....that's not his style. He wanted a relaxing day at the beach. I tried reasoning with him. I asked if he wanted to go alone. I tried reminding him that with the four kiddos "relaxing'' wouldn't be the word I'd pair with a sand filled beach but he insisted.  So after we made a quick trip to the PX for some boogie boards and a quick lunch, we drove the hour to the beach. The two we had heard about were Jesolo Beach and Chiogga. We had heard that Jesolo is the nicer, bigger one but that traffic would be horrible on a weekend so we went with Chioggia.

Obviously we hadn't been to the beach yet since moving to Italy so we weren't exactly sure what to expect but overall it went really well. We learned that we must leave earlier in the day; noon was too late and we were stuck in traffic for awhile. Probably nothing as bad as it would have been to Jesolo though.

Pooks was ready to go! We had to walk about a block from the parking place.

We found a spot in the sand, got all settled, looked up and the first thing I saw was two men in speedos. Just another reminder that we're in Europe. Last summer was spent on North Padre Island...note, this isn't a Texas beach, lol!

Being Americans, and Americans with four kids, we brought sand toys, snacks, a wagon to carry it all, towels, etc. I told the kids they could each bring one bucket and one truck, so we didn't go overboard (to our standards) but apparently Italian children don't really bring toys down to the water at all. There loss though, because my kids had a blast!

 

 Sissy took a long time to warm up to the idea of playing in the sand and water, so we laid out and got some sun for awhile. (As much sun as a 20month old who is wearing SPF 75 can get, lol)

 

  

 Bubba was super excited to "surf" and he spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out that Boogie board. B showed him what he was suppose to do over and over but in the end, sitting on it and balancing won out.

 Sissy finally went out in the water with B, but only if she was sitting on the boogie board...

Overall it was fun, but to me the beach is always more fun in theory then how it actually plays out. For one, it was extremely crowded:

 and for two, the sand + the kids = me going crazy. They had sand everywhere. All over our towel, all over the Gatorade bottle, in the pretzel bag, in their hair, sissy had it in her eyelashes. And it's one thing  that's it's stuck everywhere but they they COMPLAIN that the beach is too sandy. Um....okay?! All in all, it was worth it. And on the way home we stopped off at a 'bar' where B was able to get a platter of mixed seafood so the Birthday boy was happy :)

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR THE SUMMER...

It feels like he's the last kid on facebook earth who is finally on summer vacation, but all that matters is that it's finally here! No more getting him up at 6:40am. No more waking the little kids up to pick him up from the bus stop either. Woohoo!
We don't have too many plans this summer. I want to go to Cinque de Terre for a weekend. We plan on returning to Venice and Lake Garda. My parent's are coming out at the end of July and staying for a few weeks! That is definitely the highlight. We're planning on going to Garmisch, Germany on one of the weekends that they are here. Definitely gotta stop in Austria and/or Switzerland too! We want to take them to Lucca and to Pisa to see the leaning tower. I want to go to some places that I've never been to: Jesolo Beach and Nove, definitely Verona. Random day trips for sure! But other than relaxing and traveling, our summer will hopefully be very un-eventful...and I'm looking forward to that :)

Not to be forgotten...

Peanut was very upset that I didn't do pictures for him and because no one wants to deal with an angry 3 year old, here he is:

Please excuse the poor image quality, these are nabbed from Facebook as the power keeps going out and I don't want to ruin our external hard drive during the outages