Cinque Terre Day 1:Corniglia and Monterosso al Mare

    As most of you probably know from seeing my Facebook and Instagram is that Aaron and I just got back from our 10 day vacation exploring Italy, Malta, Spain, and France. We had a wonderful time and now I get to share all about our trip with you guys over the next several posts. 

    Our first stop was Cinque Terre. Since moving to Italy, we have been told visiting these 5 beautiful villages surrounding the Cinque Terre National Park was a must. The villages are located on the Italian Riviera and are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Seeing them in pictures is beautiful, but seeing them in person was absolutely amazing. 

    Our first day included driving 3 1/2 hours to La Spezia, a town right outside of Cinque Terre, and checking into our apartment. We decided to stay in La Spezia because driving around the city and parking our car would be much easier, plus it was just a short train ride away from the villages. After checking in, we walked up the street to the train station, ate McDonald's {so not my choice, but with a hungry toddler you eat whatever is available} and bought our train tickets for the day. Our first city to visit was Corniglia.

    Corniglia is the only village not located on the sea. Because of this we had to climb 385 steps after we got off the train to get to the town at the top of the hill. It was hot, and tiring, but the view was so worth it.

 That smile says it all.

4th of July

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." - Elmer Davis

     Happy 4th of July all the way from Italy {where we have spent it 3 years in a row}! We had a wonderful time celebrating with friends at a small BBQ yesterday. Thanks Kels and Matt for hosting it, I think I gained about 5 pounds from eating so much delicious food.

Sunflowers

    Last night my good friend Kelsey took me on a little surprise trip to a sunflower field she stumbled upon during the week. She's been teaching me about photography, so she knew I would looooove to take pics of the sunset over this beautiful field full of sunflowers. We got there just in time, I'm talking minutes, before the sun quickly disappeared behind the mountains.

Sirmione and Parco Termale de Garda

     Since we didn't visit Sirmione and the thermal lake on Sunday due to the rain, we went on Monday when the weather was much nicer. We had such a nice time exploring the city and Lake Garda.

Father's Day 2016

      We had a wonderful laid back four day weekend celebrating Aaron being am amazing daddy. I thought it would be sweet for us to make Father's Day extra special for him by making him special art. I love doing crafts with Connor for different holidays and special occasions, so crafts for Father's Day was definitely a must. After nap time on Thursday was the perfect day for us to do them. Connor painted a couple watercolor pictures, drew on the inside of a card that I made, and made a superhero out of  his hand print and foot print all for his daddy. He had  a lot of fun doing it and was so excited to give them to him on Sunday.