ITALY!

We had so much fun! It was a great Success! Ever since I was in 4th grade and we studied Italy and Micheal Angelo I always wanted to go and get a stamp in my passport! I now have one! I loved every minute! It was so great to see Jackie! She is doing great! It was so fun to have Darren, Laurel and Nick with us! We got to see Venice which had those attacking birds, Rome and the Vatican with the Sistine Chapel. St. Peters Cathedral is impressive! Then we went to florence and saw the Duomo there is incredible and we got to see the David! We drove out to see the Leaning tower and the Ferari Factory! One of the Highlights of the Trip! I've never seen Darren so excited! Then off to Milan and a Day in Paris which was unbelievable! Then back to Viterbo and then home! We miss Jackie and the incredible Gelato! We took a million pictures - here is just some hightlights! This is in Florence over the Arno River

This is Uncle Darren really Buggin!
Venice
Leaning tower of Pisa
Eiffel Tower in Paris
Nick & Savannah climbing to the top of St. Peters Basilica
View from the Top
The cars are little Nick got the Trunk
Darren & Laurel at the Train Station with Darrens new friend - A crazy old Italian who didn't speak any English - Darren talked to him for about 10 minutes!

School Pictures have arrived!

The kids got their school pictures back! I love school pictures they can be so goofy!! Savannah & I leave for Italy on Tuesday and are busily packing and getting ready! Steve's mom is coming to take care of the family on Monday until the next Sunday and then they are on thier own for a week! We get back late on the 27th. I will miss Thanksgiving dinner so this sunday we are having Thanksgiving! Jackie is very excited for us to come! We will post pictures if we can while we are gone! If not when I get back! Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!Grace is in 1st Grade 6yrs old
Savannah is in 5th grade and 11yrs old
Derek is in 8th grade and 14 yrs old
Lauren is a Junior and 16 (almost 17) and not a school picture - She won a contest and got a free picture from a local photographer( who now wants her to be a Senior picture model for him) so she got to skip out on the school picture

THE LOST EASTER EGG IS FOUND!!!!!

Every year we can't find one easter egg. We look and look and still every year there is one missing. Grace found it! She was scrounging around in the couches and came up with an easter egg (YUK! it is 6 months old!) Plus she got her hair cut so it was a good picture opportunity!

Jackie just finished a trip to Greece you will have to check her blog! Her pictures are incredible! She is having a great time but getting homesick! She can't wait for us to come in 8 days!!!! The count down is on! I have lots of things to do this week to get ready!!!

A VARSITY HALLOWEEN

Grace, Savannah and Steve were out for 2 hours trick or treating! It was all Grace had dreamed of! We ended up having about 100 trick or treaters this year down from last year (we live in a busy neighborhood). Savannah and her friend were Smurfs, Grace and Zoey (our dog) were witches.

After all the fun of Halloween was over Lauren came home from Basketball Tryouts and made the girls Varsity Basketball team! She was so excited! So here goes our Basketball season in High Gear - Savannah - parks & rec - Derek 8th grade A team - Lauren - Varsity. Grace is so excited she can hardly stand it! (she hates ball games - we figured she has probably seen about 1000 already in her life time)