15 Years

We made it. Our 15th anniversary has felt like a huge milestone for a long time and it's finally arrived. In some ways, this year has been the hardest, but I'm seeing that sometimes pain brings the most growth and positive change. Meanwhile, we keep pressing on, recognizing the good things, being grateful for all the blessing that has come from 15 years of marriage. The longer we're married the more grateful I am for every year we have together and every bond of memory we share. 

Love you, Philip! Here's to the next 15! <3 span=""> 

One of the boys asked if I could make a collage of anniversary photos from all the years.  Here is the result.  Bonus points to anyone who can correctly identify all the years, lol.

NYC or Bust!

For years my brother and sister and I have been talking about doing a sibling trip, but it's never worked out...until this month!  We decided to go to NYC, a city I have never really visited.  My goals for the weekend: drink some good coffee, eat some really good food, sit somewhere pretty and see a couple of cool things. My brother, trip planner extraordinaire, said these were attainable goals. :)

Day 1 we drove up from VA, arriving by lunch time when we checked in our with overly aggressive AirBnB hostess. Our experience with her was really the one downer of the weekend.  Oh well.

After finally escaping her long-winded tour of her tiny apartment, we headed south to Central Park for lunch.  The food and view were a bit disappointing, but we were glad to be there anyway.  Next we took the subway a few stops south and walked the High Line.  It was cool, but super crowded, so we bailed on that and headed for a snack.  I can't remember what these amazing french pastries are called, but they are meringues filled with delicious flavors!  So decadent!

                                         

Next we headed for the Staten Island Ferry.  My parents lived on Staten Island back in the early 70's so we wanted to take the ferry for familial reasons, as well as to get some views of Lady Liberty without taking a special tour.  It was a great choice and we really enjoyed the ride and the "drive by."  We also got an amazing view of the NY skyline.  I never expected to "fall in love" with the city that never sleeps, but I have to say that she really captured my heart!

                                         

Lady Liberty at sunset.  Beautiful!!

After the ferry ride, it was getting darker and later, but we really wanted to walk at least partway across the Brooklyn Bridge before dinner.  We were not the only people with this idea.  It was crazy crowded, but we did get some great views despite all the people!

Manhatten at sunset.

Onward we dashed to Little Italy where we found, not surprisingly, delicious food!  Sooo good!  Followed by amazing Italian desserts.  Hooray!

From here we really did have to dash as we had tickets for Top of the Rock.  We barely made it in time (actually, we were late, but there's a buffer!).  The views were so fantastic.  Loved it! And it's really quite something how close to the very top of the building you can get!

Day 2 started in basically the best way possible (that is, after escaping our crazy AirBnB) with bagels, cream cheese and coffee.  A-MAY-zing!

Since it was raining, we next hit the Met.  We only had about two hours, which is definitely not enough for an in-depth viewing of anything, but it was still very enjoyable and I'd love to go back sometime.  A few of the exhibits were a bit underwhelming, but we were quite tickled by this glass-covered taxidermied deer...

Next was a hunt for real NY pizza.  We finally found what we were looking for.  SOoo yummy!

Next goal: walk a LONG way through Central Park.  We succeeded.  It was a much better experience than our little view of the Park from the day before.  We saw all kinds of famous and quintessential things.  Such fun, but our feet were definitely done by the end!

The one place that was on my "must do" list that we hadn't been was Ground Zero.  The older I get, the more 9/11 effects me each year.  I think it's because I can relate more and more to the parents who lost children and children who lost parents and the spouses who lost their partner.  I was surprised at how emotional I was at our visit, but I am really glad we went.

We were out of time.  Homeward we went.  Great weekend...great memories!  Hope to go back!

Finding Fun

We're at the beach for summer's last hurrah and, at the encouraging of some of my friends to have more fun in life, I decided to prank the boys... Toothpaste in the Oreos. The reactions: Joshua thought I'd stored the cookies with peppermint essential oil, Andrew thought it was odd but ate the whole thing, Caleb (who had the benefit of the other two's experience) bit in and said "Is this toothpaste??! Eliana handed hers back. 😂😂😂 It was priceless and very fun. :)

I also judged a sand castle building contest.  The grouchy two year old who only wanted mom made it impossible for me to build myself.  All the boys, Philip, Grandpa and Aunt D participated.  Everyone won a category. :)

And in the interest of doing something ridiculous to make a memory, I held Philip up on our date.  Again, priceless.  LOL.

A New School Year

Clearly I have been delinquent in my posting here.  What a crazy busy time we've had since last October.  Nothing like moving to turn your world on its side.  I'm glad to say we're happily settled here, but changing houses does cause lots of work!

I kept busy over the summer by teaching 22 students (ages 8-15) the basics of cake decorating.  That was so fun for all of us!  It worked well to do that this summer since we have done zero traveling, for a variety of reasons.

The boys kept busy by playing, soccer mostly, with the neighborhood kids.  One of the biggest blessings of the move has been an explosion of available playmates for the boys.  They have loved it!

So, sadly for everyone summer is coming to a close and it is once again time to go "back to school." We dabbled our way back in this morning, with tears from all the boys at one time or another.  I softened the blow by making them an extra special lunch, which seems to have made the day "happily memorable" for them.  Score 1 for Mom!

Here they are!

And off we go!  Year 6 of Homeschooling, here we come!

10th Anniversary Cruise! Part 1

So I know I've just been sitting around doing nothing for the last six weeks (or not), but it has taken me too long to get this post done.

Philip and I actually made it to our 10th anniversary still married and took a Mediterranean cruise in September to celebrate! :)

We flew through London to Barcelona, Spain, where we had a day to see the sites before we boarded our ship, the Norwegian Epic.  Our favorite thing in Barcelona was Parque Guel, which was designed by Gaudi. We loved it because it was free, there were lots of places in it to walk to, and the view from the top was fantastic!

Here's Philip in London with ALL of our luggage. :)

The view from the top of Parque Guel. The tall structure on the mid-left is the Sagrada Familia, the famous Gaudi Cathedral.

After boarding the Epic on Sunday afternoon, we had the evening and all the next day to just relax and enjoy the ship.  I think Philip's favorite things were the hot tub, water slides and unending sources of protein. Mine was the balcony in our room.

Check out those water slides!  There were three and they were really fun. :)

The whole ship...it was rather large.

Our first stop was in Naples, or as the locals call it, Napoli. We had a little bit of excitement (ok, a lot) meeting up with our tour group that morning, but once we got past that little bump, we had an amazing day.  Both our guides that day were fantastic, the weather was great and the sites were terrific.  First we went to Pompei and took a tour.

Outside Pompei's city walls

I think this was the courthouse

Street off the main square

Hanging out by the oven where I belong. :)

Cast of a poor soul trying to get clean air to stay alive in 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius

Following our time in Pompei, we headed south of a driving tour of the Sorrentino and Amalfi coasts.  They were just beautiful.  We also took a boat ride from Amalfi up and down the coast a ways to see it from the water.  This was quite possibly the highlight of the whole trip.

Town of Amalfi

WAY high up...so beautiful!

The next day we ported near Rome and drove in. We saw a lot that day, but definitely missed seeing many things that we would have liked to have seen.  And so it goes when you only spend 6 hours in a city the size of Rome!  We did, however, visit the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Plazza Novonna, the Pantheon, and Vatican City (we went to St. Peters, but sadly didn't have time to see the Sistine Chapel). I must say I did not love Rome (too crazy and crowded!), but certainly would take the opportunity to go back some day to take the time to see it "right." I really appreciated it for the incredible history of the place.

Outside the Colosseum

Trevi Fountain, surprisingly large and beautiful...and yes, I threw in a coin

The mammoth St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

One of my favorite sites of the trip, Michelangelo's "La Pieta"

Ok, thus ends Part 1...getting too long. Next up: Florence!

10th Anniversary Cruise! Part 2

While the Amalfi coast was perhaps our favorite place, Florence was most definitely our favorite city! What a refreshing change it was after the 4 million people city of Rome to visit Florence, which is home to only 400,000. It was just beautiful.  We really enjoyed seeing the Duomo, the baptistry's "Gates of Paradise", Ponte Vecchio, the original medieval streets, the square full of statues by the Uffizi and more. Our guide told us some lovely stories, and coupled with the study the boys and I did of Michelangelo last year, it was just so neat to see history come to life. We also had some very tasty chianti and gelato here, as well as the best cappuccino of the trip. :)

The Gates of Paradise. These are actually replicas as the originals got damaged by a flood and after restoration were moved to a museum, but they are beautiful.

The Duomo, from the mid 1300's

The Duomo's dome: huge and amazing.

In Florence, the tradition is to put a coin in the wild boar's mouth and pet it's nose if you want to return, so we did. 

On Ponte Vecchio, which is full of jewelry shops. It used to be full of butcher shops, but the famous Medici family kicked out all the butchers because it was too smelly.  Philip and I tried to buy a piece of anniversary jewelry here, but we just didn't have enough time.

Living statues were all over Europe. This guy is DaVinci

Michelangelo chiseled this with his back to the wall, hands behind his back and without looking. 

After Florence, we drove to Pisa.  I was not expecting to be impressed at all, as all the pictures I've ever seen made it look like this dingy brown building.  The 1000 year old baptistry in the front of this photo is HUGE and amazing!  The church huge and beautiful and the tower was actually beautiful as well.  The white of the buidings, coupled with the bright blue of the sky made for a gorgeous place.  Wow.

Apparently it's all Philip's fault that it's leaning...

The last two days were spent in France. We went first to Nice, Cannes and Eze, which are in the French Riviera. I must say, the Amalfi coast was very beautiful in it's own way, but the Cote Azure (blue coast) of France....WOW. I have never seen water like this before.  Just stunning.  The french crepe we bought in Cannes, however, left much to be desired. On the beach behind me, Philip went swimming so he could officially say he'd be "in" the Mediterranean.  I was good with just sticking in my feet. :)

Driving along the Riviera

The medieval town of Eze (pronounced "Ehz", not "easy") was quite a ways up, and just on the other side of a hill from Monoco, which we did not visit.  It was a cute little place with some nice views, most of which you had to pay to get, which we did not. :)

Our last day, we ported in Marseille and took a half day tour to Aix on Provence. It was a beautiful little town with many buildings built in the 17th and 18th century. It was particularly beautiful because the because the rich people building homes were all competing for who could have the nicest house. We also stocked up here on our favorite European chocolates.

A church with the gothic entry, from the 14th century, on the left and the roman entry, from the 12th century on the right.

I wish I could have bottled the smell coming out of this bakery. AH-Maz-ing

It was a lovely way to end our trip.  That afternoon we enjoyed the amenties of the boat for the last time and the next morning we were back in Barcelona, ready to fly home.

There ya go, the gratuitous 10th anniversary kissing picture. I got my dress in Amalfi. By far my favorite souvenir. :) Although, the delicious chocolate we bought runs a close second...

It was a great trip.  We learned a lot about how to travel internationally, and about how to be by ourselves for nine days! First time for that since Caleb was born. :)  We are very thankful to Philip's parents for keeping the boys...and even homeschooling them...while we were gone!