My Birthday in VENICE aka Venezia!! Part 2

Here are some more pictures of the WONDERFUL artwork that we got to see...

 I could have stayed here ALL DAY LONG!! It was just amazing!

After we checked out the artwork, we checked out the PIZZA!!

Samantha and I both paid... She paid inside at the desk and I paid the waiter outside at the table. It was funny trying to explain to them how we paid the bill twice. I guess they hadn't dealt with those English words before!! LOL

Check out this little bitty house. They sure do squeeze them in!

Skype with Detto

Detto and I have been able to talk a few times on Skype.

It is so nice to see his face.

I know that it is hard being in the Sand Box! War is not fun and it is not good.

I am glad for those days when I do get to talk to him.

It is hard going days and weeks at a time without being able to talk to the Man I LOVE!

Even with all of the technology available, he is sometimes not able to use it.

He goes on missions and there is no wi-fi or time to sit and chat with your loved ones at home.

Also, a fact that many people may not know is, if a soldier wants to call home they either need to stand in long lines to use an outdoor payphone (can you say sandstorm?), or they have to pay to have internet in order to talk on Skype. The internet their costs aproximately double what our monthly bill at home costs and the service is TERRIBLE and not always available.

And US phone cards dont always work, or the minute used are 6-7x's as fast as they would be in the US. Example a 60 minute phone card gives a soldier aprox. 5 minutes of talk time!

Let us not forgot to pray for our military.

They are sacrificing ALOT for us here at home!

And for the record - Deployments SUCK!

Hiking In Maniago, Italy

One day while we were at Samantha's house we were all sitting around the kitchen table talking. Sam had let me borrow some books she had about Italy and of course, I was complaining that the hiking book didn't have any trails anywhere near her house! Everything was at least 2-3 hrs away!

So, she told us about a cool waterfall that was right near her home!

And that was the begining of our hiking adventure...

 Well, we started out looking for the waterfall,

we couldn't find the original path but we found this church and next to it...

there was a path.

So we decided to take it and see where it leads.

Sam and I took turns carrying Anaia up the hill!

Look what we saw.

This hike was quite a workout!

It was very neat. The kids kept wanting to go farther and farther. We went until we could go no farther.

Then we came back down and rested!

Trieste, Italy ~ Castle of San Giusto Part 4 ~ Week 7

Then we went to see the Castle of San Giusto!

This castle took almost two centuries to build, but it was finished in 1630!

Check it out..

This place was sooo huge!

From the castle courtyard we could look down and see the entire seaside town of Trieste!

This is the statue in the courtyard -

This is soldiers carrying a wounded warrior!

After we sat and stared at the town below we realized that if we didn't start walking we would miss our train.

These are some pictures we took along the walk back to the train station...

When we realized that we missed our train we decided to stop and get....

GELATO!

I sure will miss you gelato!

And I HAD to include this picture! This was what I imagined a "typical Italian couple" would look like!! Or maybe my Mom & Dad when they get old! Hee hee hee

So, when we finally caught the next train this is what we saw on the way home.

The vinyards are EVERYWHERE!

I love the mountains!

And of course my babies, sick of being on the train...

Do you see Alyssa's red streaks in her hair?? This was what she wanted for her birthday!

We even put a little color in the front of Stephen's hair!

Goodbye Trieste! I will miss you!

This town was a great place to visit. There was sooo much more we would have loved to see. I would definately recoment spending a few days here!