Author: Jen

My Mom got here early just in case baby boy decided to make an appearance. So we had some time to kill. We went downtown Vicenza and saw the market, went to Nove to shop for ceramics, went to an Italian cooking class and walked around the beautiful city of Verona. Sadly Nick and I were slacking on the photo taking, but we did snap a few in Verona with the Ipad. It was the first day of the Christmas market in Verona so we sampled a few goodies and enjoyed the decor.

Mom in front of the Roman Arena, notice the gladiator

Mom with Juliet…she wouldn’t rub her breast for luck though

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving with just us and Grandma. We made too much food and then we proceeded to eat it and feel grateful that we have plenty of everything we need…food, love, clothes, toys and so much more. We are especially grateful to have my Mom here at this time, she is always a huge help, thanks to my Dad for giving her up for a whole month!

We even made a HUGE turkey which my Mom helped me turn into Turkey enchiladas the next day. I’m pretty sure that is everyone in my family’s’ favorite part of thanksgiving…the enchiladas in the months following.

Some of you have seen on the news the pictures of people swimming in San Marco square in Venice. It’s true…we got bit flooded over here. Vicenza even got it pretty good on Sunday after lot’s of rain, the river runs through downtown and therefore often times overflows during rainy November. It was so bad on Sunday that they shut down most areas of downtown.

The flooding in Venice is fascinating to me. Last weekend they had record flooding so we decided to go see what Venice was like underwater. When we went though, it was completely dry! I had to do a little more research to better understand the “flooding” of Venice. It’s not just a flood, it actually has to do with the high tide, rain and drilling offshore. Basically, as I understand it, recent years of offshore drilling have increased the frequency of the “aqua alta” (high water). When we get a good amount of rain and the high tide comes in, the low parts of Venice get a bit flooded. But it goes back out with the tide. So once I understood this better, I realized that you can’t just go see the flood in Venice, you have to be there at high tide.

So on Monday, we caught it. It wasn’t as high as the record breaking one the day before, but it was fun regardless. Jonah was in heaven splashing through one big puddle in the main square. It was over his rain boots, so we had to ring him out afterwards. Our friend Giovanna tagged along, and Nick was there, just behind the camera.

Pork burritos and pineapple tiramisu. It’s all about the food for this guy. Happy Birthday sweetie. We love you. (And yes, Jonah is pretty much always in his undies at home…he likes to dress and undress himself as he pleases and when we’re home, we allow it.)

We had the opportunity to go to an olive oil producer (Bonamini) and help with their olive harvest. Jonah loved using the little rakes to rake the olives right off the tree.

Then we lifted up the nets that covered the ground and poured the olives into big crates which where then taken into the processing plant to be made into yummy olive oil.

I love that my three year old LOVES olive oil. It’s so cheap here too. I don’t know how we are going to afford all of our new habits when we go back to the states.

After months of waiting we have finally welcomed our new arrival….

And no I’m not talking about the new baby. I’m talking about our very first brand new car. We had quite the time getting our hands on this “baby”. Our other car unfortunately gave out on us and being in Italy made it nearly impossible to try to save her…so she had to be crushed. We weren’t even allowed to take any of the brand new parts we had recently put in her due to the fact that the Italian government allows us to bring our cars in without paying an import tax, therefore they don’t want us possibly making money off of something without having paid taxes on it. Buying an American spec car in Italy is pretty limited.  You choose between lemons and brand new cars. So, rather than deal with another lemon, we sprung for new.

Tribute to the “white car” or “Takyra” as I once named her. She almost made it to 200,000 miles. I bought her my sophomore year of college from my Mom. She made the 12 hour drive from Provo to Moscow countless times. She helped me move countless times (you’d be surprised how much you can pack in there…) She had been to almost every state I think, between driving up and down the US on the West side, and driving West to East, East to West and West to East again. (Across the country three times!). She even made across the ocean to Italy, all around Italy, Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. She was very reliable until about her last year…when the problems came one after another. Here are a few pictures I found of her…

Moab, Utah with my Sophmore roommates

 

Mesa, Arizona. Working at Anasazi.

Road trip across the country with my Dad when Nick deployed.

Any how, the new car or “Elmo” as Jonah calls her, took about three months to get here. Originally we were supposed to be getting a black car, but for some reason it needed a new paint job and a new window (no idea why a brand new car would need new parts already…) and was going to take another month or more…so we switched to the only other available Ford Focus which happened to be race red. This whole process really took the fun out of having a brand new car…we are just glad to have transportation before our next “new arrival” arrives.

We started our morning at the Arc de Triomphe, and wandered our way down the fancy shopping street, through the touleries garden and into the Louvre.

Venus de Milo

Dude that made the beard popular. Beards are Nick’s favorite thing about vacation I think.

Nike of Samothrace

Mona Lisa