A few great shots.

I took the kids down to the river the other day for a little photo shoot. Not only did they cooperate...... the pics turned out really great.

I really do have beautiful children!!!!!

I love his dimples!

Look at those eyes!

This pic is very Parker...... What can I do with this rock????

My little model!

There are alot more but these are my fav's.

Starving with out gas in Italy????!!!!! Yeah thats right. ITALY!!!!!!!

We are home from Italy! Yes we was there. (jumping up and down!)

We drove to Pisa on Sunday. It was a 9hr drive but oh so very worth it.

After we arrived we got our gas coupons, checked into our CAMP site, and asked about the commissary. HA HA the commissary is closed Sun & Mon. So no groceries to fill our empty cooler. GREAT! So our next question was where in the closest restaurant because we were starving..................... well it was around 4pm and the restaurants dont open till 7pm! Hence the starving. We though we would go get gas while we were waiting for FOOD. We were on E. Yup not open! Hence the NO GAS. So we went to set up our tent, it went up with out a problem. Thank goodness! By this time we were all hungry/ravished and awnry! So we went down town to walk around. We ran into a little pizza bakery and downed a small pizza in about 2 seconds just to hold us over till we could get a real dinner. We found a quiet little place right off post with wonderful service and lots of PIZZA.

I am sure of 3 things.

1. Italians love pizza.

2. Italians cant drive to save their lives.

3. Between the hours of 1pm and 7pm, they DONT eat!

Day 2

We got up early (finally got gas) and headed to PISA. The city itself is nothing to write home about. Its beautiful yes. But a city non the less. Then you see it....... and you cant look away. It rises above everything else. The leaning Tower of Pisa. The whole plaza of miracles is just breath taking. They almost dont look real. It is true, no matter how many pictures you see it never can compare to the real thing.

WOWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!

We spent a good deal of time here before we stopped for lunch. PASTA. Very yummy.

We then did what the travel book said to do.................we left it all behind and headed to destination #2 CARRERA! Home of the marble quarries. Michelangelo used these quarries. The mountain is so scared but still in use. AMAZING!

The mountain.

The city. Look @ the water.

Ok so after CARRERA we had to go back to Pisa one last time to see the tower in the dark........

Day 3

FIRENZE AKA FLORENCE

I LOVE FLORENCE!!!!!! Trav hated driving in florence. CRAZY! We spent like 8hrs walking the city seeing as much as we possible could which was alot. Our feet hurt. We had a great lunch right beside the cathedral. LASAGNA. :)

We saw as much as our feet would allow.

See all the pics below. We saw ALOT!!!!!!!!!

DAVID was so beautiful. Truely amazing.

P.S. Ice cream in Italy is mind blowingly AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Visiting teaching

The cities seal

The old clock tower

Chris and I in front of the church door.

The oldest house in town

The markt
Houses built on the old wall. The castle.

Here in Germany we do visiting teaching a little different. We have a group of ladies and we all get together once a month, share a message and chat. Its actually a really great set up. Well this month one of my ladies had a great idea for our March visiting teaching. DAY TRIP!!!!!

Nancy is missing from this pic.

We decided to go to Hirshhorn Germany.

The town.

I didnt want to buy the post card so I just took this pic.

FISH TANK

So, a friend of mine is moving back to the states on Thursday. While packing her house she decided she was not going to take her fish tank and asked me and Trav if we wanted to have it. Since I broke Trav's last fish tank....... we said sure. It came with everything including 6 fish which have been named as follows. Biggest fish is butthead, Fred, Maya, Sarah, Jack, Turtle.

So we got it home, moved it into place and started filling it up. While we were filling Trav brought the fish in the house. They were in a plastic tub. Trav tripped. Yup you guessed it........... fish floppin on the floor and water everywhere. I was more worried about the water all over our crappy hard wood floors then the fish so I grabbed every towl we had and started cleaning up. SQUISH!!!!!!! I stepped on a fish. I thought it was a goner for sure but the little guy pulled through (at least so far). Then we put the poor flopping half squished fish in the tub to play until the tank was ready.

Next we put in the filtration system.......that doesnt work AT ALL plus it squirted Trav in the face several times. The kids and I laughed....... Trav didnt!!!!!! So we are now on the look out for

a filtration system and more bubbles. We will also add more fish eventually. As for now we are shocked that the fish we have have not gone belly up.

Bobcat badge

So my little man got his Bobcat badge on Saturday!

He also received several belt loops for ice skating, bicycling, bowling, music, astronomy, language and culture, and flag football.

He has been working really hard in scouts.

We are so very proud of him!!!!!!

Happy 31st Travis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday honey!

Trav is 25........(31) today!

We woke hime up early to open his gifts.

Laura..... the pants FIT!!!!! Yeah! He also likes them alot.

Now we are heading out for a few hours of birthday adventures.......

DONERS!!!!!

DIE KARTOFFEL!!!!!!

YUM!!!!!!

Happy Birthday honey.

I love you and am so happy I was able to spend another year with you. I'm looking forward to 100 more.

I love you!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Franfurt Zoo

We have always loved going to the zoo. So since we have so many zoo's so close to us we can go to, we never hit the same one twice. This time we went to the Frankfurt Zoo. It is a very small zoo. They dont have elephants, or tigers. They did however have all of our favorite animals so we are not complaining.

We saw the reptiles for Parker.

The flamingos, penguines and zebras for Sarriah.

The lions and monkeys for daddy.

Hippos and flamingos for mommy!!!!! I love hippos!

This bird kinda followed us around.

They started fighting right as I took this pic.

After the zoo, we made a quick stop at the Frankfurter Kaiserdom.

Another GREAT day!!!!!

To St Goar to explore........

This was our second trip to St Goar. The first time we went it was Summer, even without all the green it was breath taking! We didnt come to see the castle this time....... we came to explore the under ground mines. We packed our lunch and our flash lights (and chalk to mark the floor in the mines so we didnt get lost) for our adventure. We did a quick tour of the ruins just as a reminder and to see the amazing views, then we set off for the mines. Trav and I had to crouch down and in some areas almost crawl through the tiny damp spaces. Sarriah and Parker thought they were so neat because all they had to do was slighly tilt their heads forward.

We had to go in a certain order..... Trav first, then Parker, mommy and last Sarriah. Sarriah was holding my jeans so tight I thought she might rip them off. She was scared but so excited to be in the mines. We asked Parker to check one of the hall ways with the flash light to see if it was a dead end or if we could continue, (Trav would have had to literally crawl to check it) We told him we would watch him he looked around the corner and ran as fast as he could back to us. He told us it was a dead end but when we were back in the sunlight he said he was just to scared and that it really wasnt a dead end but he swears he saw something moving. We went through as many as we could handle. Crouching down like that can do a real number on your legs and back. OUCH!!!!

We drove down the Rhine aways and found a lovely park for our picnic. It was right below a great gothic cathedral and a castle. It was perfect!

Cat and mouse.......

Katz Schloss

Mouse schloss

A church along the Rhine river

The park where we had lunch.