Venice and Verona

Our next leg of the trip was to Venice and Verona. I've heard that people either LOVE or HATE Venice and so I was a little nervous about this next leg of the trip. Did we love or hate it? We LOVED it! More than anything, we appreciated how unique of an island it is. We were taken back by the beauty of the whole city. Just the fact that they only get around by boat is super cool, too. Above is Landon standing on the Rialto bridge. Which was close to our apartment we stayed in.

I think this picture describes Venice perfectly.

The four of us, Mom, Breanna, Landon and I got off the beaten path one morning and found some great treasures.

We got a call from Dad the second morning we were there saying that he was going to make his trip over to meet us in Venice into a work trip. He couldn't stand not being in Venice with us! What a great surprise! Here we are standing in front of THE ABSOLUTE BEST bakery I think I have EVER been to. Their pastries were to die for. And it was really close to where we were staying! Bonus. The morning we left Venice, we got a dozen pastries to share between the four of us. They must have thought we were crazy...

Here we are at one of the most spectacular parts of Venice. A small island where actually Venice originated called Burano. We loved it here.

All the houses were painted a family color. Oh how cool is this? I want to go back there again one day.

Here are some old men sitting around a table on the main walking street of the Island with an accordion. They sang and sang at the top of their lungs for an hour or so. I have video of it.

Who wouldn't want to live here? All the colors would make you so happy!

The last night in Venice, we wanted to find a place that served bruschetta. So we waited until we got back onto the Island of Venice to find a place that we had seen before during another excursion. Well, by the time we got there, it was closed. So we had to walk and just find a random place to eat. Now if anyone has gone to europe, sometime that can be a huge hit or a HUGE miss. So we were all a little bummed out. Breanna spotted the first restaurant to be open and it happened to be this place. It was one of the best meals we had in Italy! Oh it was so good! The best part about it was that these two old Italians served us. I swear, both their ages had to equal 200. Just kidding, but seriously.

Here is the Colosseum of Verona. We just spent an afternoon in Verona on our way back home to Milan the last day of this trip. I really liked Verona. It was quite a romantic city. As it should be, being the location of Romeo and Juliet and all.

Here we are just outside of the Capulet's real life home in Verona. We even saw the balcony were Juliet stood.

It's blurry, but I wrote our names with a heart on the entryway of the courtyard of Juliet's home.

Landon loved it too...

Nuns havin' fun

The road to Love, Vampires, and a Quick Stop

Our next leg of the trip was to Cinque Terre, Volterra, and Florence. The very first experience we had with Cinque Terre was the lover's walk from the first city, Riomaggiore, to the second, Manarola. What tourists have done here is expressed love by writing theirs and their lovers name on a padlock and then lock it to anything that would hold it and throw the key away. This is regarded as important as marriage vows and obviously super romantic.

The view of the lover's walk.

Lovers :)

In the second city, which had lots and lots of wooden boats on the streets, we had lunch...

Lots of boats...

This is the hike to the third city, Corniglia. Man was it a bit of a hike and once you were done with the stairs, the whole city is set on cliffs and so there was more hiking around the town. Here, we had gelato!

This is in the fourth city, Vernazza. This place had lots of restaurants and people. No matter if you are a little boy or little girl, they don't wear tops to go swimming. I thought these kids were so cute! Their parents were at a restaurant across the way and here these kids were, just enjoying some ice cream. So cute! We had to get some focaccia pizza in this town to continue on the tradition of eating something in every city.

Mom and I bought a water color painting of this exact building. We had to get our picture in front of it to show that it really was a place in Cinque Terre that this artist painted.

In the last city, Monterosso al Mare, we laid out on the beach! Oh it was the perfect ending to the perfect day. We had fruit from a tiny little market in this town. It was so fresh and yummy!
Then, we went back to the fourth city to eat some grub. And when you are Italy on a coastal town, you eat seafood!
The next day, we went to Pisa. Landon was a little off in this picture :)

I think the square surrounding the tower of Pisa is just as cool as the tower itself. It is so colorful and pretty.

Our next stop was per request of Breanna. Volterra! This is the city in book two of the Twlight series, "New Moon" where Edward and then Bella come in Italy. It is a real place. I didn't see any vapires lurking in the shadows though.

Just as described in the book, this place is in the middle of the Tuscan countryside of Italy set up on a tall, tall hill. The drive up to this place made me think that it was impossible to have a whole town on the top of it! We made it up there and the girls had to get a picture for proof.

This was one of the many spectacular views of the Tuscan countryside from Volterra.

Lots of hills to walk up.

Landon loved this place, too. It really was one of the coolest places I've been to in Europe. i would go there again for a relaxing weekend in Tuscany. They had great places to stay along to way, too.
From Volterra back to Milan, we stopped in Firenze (Florence).

Our trip began in Milan

So yes, I am finally blogging about Italy. Our first excursion was in Milan itself. We flew into Milan because that is where Dad lives. Mom and Breanna had already been there for about a month or so when we arrived on July 29, 2011. This day was a great one, but Landon and I were still getting over jet lag so for some of us (Landon) things were a little bit of a blur.

Here we are standing in front of a big park in Milan.

Dad took us to canals that Leonardo di Vinci himself designed in Milan. Mom and Dad are standing right close to that area.

It didn't take long for us to find a good gelato place. There are good places to get gelato and there are not so good places to get gelato. Most of the time, we were able to scope out the best gelato places in town. I don't have a picture of the ABSOLUTE best though. This absolute best is at a place called "Yummy" and it is exactly that. Delish! My dad went back one night and got to know the owner on a first name basis and tried every single flavor he had. Not only that, but the owner comes up with his own recipes for gelato. He had a mayan chocolate gelato that was legit.

Here we are at the Duomo in Milan. I think Milan is a really cool city in Italy. Maybe because fashion is bursting at the seams here... maybe.

A preview of our Italy trip! We had so much fun and are excited to tell all our friends that read our blog about it... Stay tuned!

Oregon 4th of July

We spent our Fourth of July weekend with Landon's mom (Danna), sister (Lindsie), and Danna's boyfriend (Chris), and his family (Jennifer, Jessica, Josslyn, and Vickie). I am so glad that we were able to make time for this trip, because it was one of the funnest vacation spots I have EVER been to. We stayed in a beautiful beach house right on the beach in Netarts, Oregon. Danna's ex-in-laws live here and so that is how she knew of this beautiful gem of a place.

Here is a picture of our (for lack of a better word) beach Sunday night.

There is so much to do in this part of the country. Oregon is the best of every world. There is the ocean which brings deep-sea fishing, crabbing, clamming, boating, surfing, swimming (if you are brave), running on the beach, sea animals and so much more. And then there is the mountains to hike and camp in, freshwater lakes, sand dunes, green thick forests, beautiful farmland with beautiful cows for yummy cheese and so much more. And then there is the city life in Portland about an hour and a half away! And we all know that I have to have my city life close by. To say the least, Landon and I absolutely loved it!

Here are the clams Chris, Josslyn, Jessica, Landon and I dug for.

This is Lindsie, Danna, me and Landon out to lunch in the Pearl District, Portland.

Our deep sea fishing adventure. Landon caught around 10 fish and I caught 7 or 8.

Jessica caught 16!!! Our group of 9 caught 63 fish total!

Not to mention, Tillamook Oregon is only about 10 miles east of Netarts.

Landon was in heaven. Not only is there cheese, but ice cream!

Kiwanda, Oregon is a little surfing town. We ate lunch at The Pelican Pub and Brewery.

Landon and I have a very similar picture of the two of us on the Fourth of July 2009 in Island Park, Idaho. That is the trip Landon told me he loved me for the first time :)

He told me he loved me on this trip, too ;)

Here is our backyard at "our" beach house.

Well, all I can say after all that is if you randomly hear that the Andertons packed up all our stuff and moved to Netarts, Oregon to start a B&B on the coast, you probably heard right. Thanks, Danna for planning and bringing us on this AMAZING trip! We only wished that we could have stayed for the whole week!

New baby Julianne

Here is my new niece, Julianne Ruth Russell (Melissa's second). I got the chance to spend the rest of spring break with them while Landon came home and worked. Lucky me. Pretty much all weekend, I got to hold Julianne and dress her and yes I even changed diapers. It was nice to spend time with Melissa, Travis and Isaac. Isaac is a hoot! He says and does the funniest things. When he wants to hold Julianne, he says, "Here, here" and holds his hands out. He came up with a nickname for Julianne all by himself, JuJu. And my two favorite phrases he said over the weekend were "Yee-haw baby" and "All aboard! Tickets Please!". He is so funny! Melissa got me on to this new website www.melskitchencafe.com and she made some good dinners while I was there. We also went to H&M, which is the biggest H&M in the world. Super cool.



Those binkies are funny! And it looks so big in her little mouth!


Landon was so cute with Julianne, he wanted to hold her as much as he could for the afternoon he was with me at Melissa's house.




I made this little headband and the flowers on the shirt out of a t-shirt of mine that I had been saving because I loved the color and the design on it. It turned out to be the cutest little thing! The onesie is a 9 month size, so I can't wait to see her in it in 8 months!



Here is funny little Isaac watching "Emperor's New Groove". Every time he watches anything Disney, he needs to put on his Mickey Mouse ears... How funny!

Family is great and I felt lucky to get to spend time with Melissa and her own family over spring break.