Barbies Anyone?

Another garage sale find! A beautiful Barbie Grand Hotel with furniture, an elevator, and working telephones. Knowing that I had the Barbie Hotel waiting for some play time I called and got permission from Cara's Aunt Cyndi to see if we could play with her stash of old Barbie dolls that were in the attic. Given the go ahead we had an afternoon of fun, even grandpa joined in. Yes, real men can play with dolls.

Helping Grandpa set up the hotel.

Getting the front desk in place.

Inspecting the elevator.


Answering the front desk phone.

Thanks Aunt Cyndi for letting Cara play with all the Barbie stuff!

Never Forget

A Day At The Parade

A local town in our area had their annual fair and parade this last weekend. We enjoyed this fair and enjoyed visiting the different food vendors and the handcrafted items offered for sale by local artists in the area. Today would be different, however, as this is the first time we were going over on parade day. Saturday morning found Cara, daddy, mommy, grandpa, and myself getting up early in the morning to be ready to head over to watch all of the excitement.

With a beautiful cloudless blue sky and cooler weather we scouted out and found what we thought would be the best place to see the parade. The parade had veterans from the different services, bands, floats, politicians, balloons, old cars, classic cars, tractors, bands, scouts, policemen, and firemen. Emily and I helped Cara to collect a small batch of candy that was tossed from the floats as they went by. Cara, of course, thought this was great.

After the parade we spent some time enjoying eating curly fries, strawberry shortcake, carmel corn, and hot dogs. With full tummies we walked around and saw some of the crafts and we treated Cara to a ride in an Amish buggy.

After a busy morning we headed back to our house for a nap, more playtime, and a big surprise! I will post about the surprise next.

Catching Up

After being home from Italy for a couple of days our number-one priority was seeing Cara and her folks. We met half way between our homes and had a Sunday brunch at Cracker Barrel. After hugs, kisses, and pancakes we headed into town to find a park so we could have some play time . . .



Upon arriving at the park I started to head for the toys for the toddlers, thinking that this is where we would be playing. When Scott saw me going for the little ones' play ground he said I was going the wrong way and pointed to the play ground with toys for the older kids. When I saw the climber I was a little worried that Cara was too young for it, but soon was reassured by watching her climb (with Grandpa carefully behind her), that she could master the big climber. She was going down the big slides and when she would get off she would look up at Grandpa and call for him to slide on down too, which of course he did.

Rock climbing and jumping with Grandpa

Time to head over to the water with Grandpa and see if we can find any fish swimming.


After some hard play it was time for some snacks and drinks; of course we shared with Grandpa.


Presents from Italy! Reading a special card that Zio Danilo made for Cara.


Yea! A University of Bologna sweatshirt from Zia Cyndi and Zio Danilo.


Cara's very own suitcase filled with presents from Grandma and Grandpa! It was bought in the town where Cyndi and Danilo live.


After Cara opened all of her gifts she put them back in the suitcase, and whereever she went in the park the suitcase came along.

It was great to see Scott, Emily, and Cara but the time went by too fast. After a hard afternoon of play and many hugs and kisses it was time to call it a day. Emily said that when they arrived home Cara and the suitcase went for a walk. When Cara would see a neighbor she would tell them that Grandpa got her her suitcase. She even walked down to the neighbor's dog and let him sniff at it and told him all about it. The reason Cara thinks that it was from Grandpa is because he went to the car to get it and had it behind his back until her other presents were opened. When she was finished opening things he told her he had something for her and handed it to her. Too cute!

Ciao Italy

It's hard to believe but one week ago today we were still in Italy. The dark cloud of us having to leave Cyndi and Danilo followed us wherever our adventures of our last week together took us. We took advantage of every minute that we had left but all too soon the dreaded day came . . .



. . . one thing about the airports that I really have a problem with is the leaving. It is never easy to say good bye and not know when your next visit will be with those that you love. Our summer was ending and it was time to head back home full of memories and too many photos to count.


Trying to keep things a little light and goofing around for one of our last photos with Danilo.

With heavy hearts and many tears we said ciao and passed through security at the airport to await our plane that would start us on our long journey home. As we flew out of Bologna and watched the city shrink down until I couldn't see it anymore we settled in for round two of our connections. Our plane leaving Bologna was late which meant that we would have to sprint for our next connection.

We barely made the next flight and as a matter of fact our luggage didn't. How we would have loved to have that extra day if we could have stayed in Italy. Our trip home was as nice as flying for eight and a half hours could be in a confined place with a full flight . . .



. . . how wonderful to be back in the states! We could understand the people around us talking, the announcements on the PA, could order what food we wanted, and get the right items that we ordered. Our first stop was at the Burger King and we both thought this was the perfect place to have our first stateside meal as our first meal in Italy when we arrived was also at Burger King.


Cheers to Italy and the good old USA!

Ouch!

We arrived back at our house in a lot better shape than one of our suitcases though we both were rough around the edges. We, after a week, are still jet lagged but slowly are getting back to our time zone.

It is good to be home but already we are missing our Italian family. We had a wonderful summer with Cyndi and Danilo and cannot thank them enough for the hospitality given to us while we visited. Miss them already.

Now it is time to plan when the next trip will be,who will do the traveling, and visiting with Cara and her folks.

To Be Continued

In Rome . . .

We are having a fantastic time in Italy visiting with Cyndi and Danilo traveling near and far making memories as each day passes. Our trip is winding down and instead of trying to keep up with the blogging each day I am taking the time to spend as much of it as I can just visiting and getting the most out of every moment we still have left of our trip. When I get back to the states and get caught up on the jet lag I will catch you all up what we have been up to.


Girls day out . . .


In Milan . . .


Love to all from Italy

Grandparent's Photo Album

Sharing some of our fun that we have enjoyed with Cara.

No Mucic For The Video