More pictures

Katie was in a short play at school. Every quarter one of the classes does a play to show one of the values they have been working on that quarter. Hers was "Trustworthiness". They did the play "The Shepherd Who Cried Wolf" and Katie had the lead as the Shepherd!! She did a great job.
(Don't forget to shut off the playlist before watching)

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I thought I'd show a few pictures from the first baseball games of the season. They aren't the greatest photos, but I'll get more later as the season progresses.

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This may be my last update for a couple of weeks. Our movers come to pack us out in two weeks so I will be a bit busy prepping for that.

Finally: Another hike and Easter

I finally got my Smilebox working on my computer again, so here you go.

On Saturday, we decided our family hasn't done enough hiking in Italy yet, so we headed off for a random mountain near us and set out. It was not our best hike I must say. We didn't even summit--so disappointing. We started off and Brendan was saying he didn't feel well, we just thought he was whining and made him go anyway--we found out later that he wasn't and he was really sick--oops:( Meghan and Katie were not having a good time--they were tired:( I think we just picked a rotten day for a hike--oh well, not everything can be great. There were some great views though and when all was said and done--after we got paninis and gelato--everyone was happy again and we finished the day strong.--well except for Brendan being sick:(

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We came home and colored Easter eggs instead.

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Easter morning, Daddy was sick:( So the kids and I found all the eggs and baskets from the Easter Bunny and then headed off to church--we had a great morning. Around lunchtime Daddy was feeling better so we were all able to enjoy some outside playtime.


And now today, we are all back to work. Only three weeks until we ship all our stuff so I better get off of here and get busy!!!

sorry

I did take pictures of both a hike and of Easter. I have them all in Smilebox albums ready to post. BUT, for some reason Smilebox is being blocked on my computer right now. I'm trying to figure it out--I'm really getting frustrated--I will post them as soon as I get this issue resolved.

Clearing out

I have a love/hate relationship with moving. I love going to start over somewhere else. I love the adventure of it. I hate the logistics of it--shipping the car, when to ship all our household goods, what to keep in our smaller shipment, turning off utilities, cleaning the house to clear the landlord, etc. That's all just a ton of work really quickly--it can be quite stressful. But the thing I am loving the most right now is clearing the clutter. It feels so good to get rid of all the old clothes that don't fit anyone, getting rid of toys no one plays with, getting rid of all the "treasures" the kids collect and then forget about. So far I have done all the kids clothes, Katie's room, and half of Meghan's and I have gotten rid of 3 garbage bags of trash and 6 garbage bags of things have been donated to the thrift shop!!! It feels great! Yes, I still have a bunch to do, but what a good start. Speaking of which... I'm off to the abyss that is Meghan's room:)

Trip to Cinque Terre

We had a 4 day weekend this weekend. For 2 of the days we decided to go hiking in the Cinque Terre. For those of you who don't know, these are 5 villages on the coast that are linked by trails. (There are no cars allowed--well there are a few, but not normal driving) We stayed in the nearby city of La Spezia and took the train in--Dillan loved that! The first day we took the train all the way to the last town--Monterosso--we decided that we should do a "hard" hike that first day. It took us about 4 hours on some not so easy trails to get to the next town which was Vernazza. We looked around there a bit, had gelato, played on the playground and then took the train to Corniglia (the easy trail was closed between Vernazza and Corniglia). We took the 382 stairs up the town and realized there was nothing really there--it would be a nice town to just relax in, but the kids were a bit restless and ready for dinner. So we got back on the train and headed back to La Spezia and had a late dinner near our hotel and then went to bed.

On Day 2 we headed back in to the train station--had some coffee and pastries--and then took the train into the first town--Riomaggiore. We bought some fruit from a stand and sat on the rocks near the sea and had some more breakfast. We then took the easy trail to Manarola--and found a geocache on the way. We enjoyed the walk along the coast and had a nice seafood lunch. Finally, we took the easy trail back to Corniglia--this time we didn't head up the stairs--and then took the train back to our car and headed home.

It was a relaxing couple of days with some beautiful scenery and really no agenda whatsoever--a great way to spend some family time.
Hope you enjoy the photos. (don't forget to turn off the music in the sidebar first)

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