July 4th with Kate!

I'm catching up on the blogging today so adding Italy below and our weekend with Casey, John and Kate now! We met them at their new home construction in Hartsele Sat. on the way up. The house is really taking shape and they were almost finished with the roof that day. I was a little nervous trying to keep up with Kate since the front door isn't in and it's quite a drop -- then upstairs there are no rails yet! But it's going to be a beautiful home and I know they will so enjoy it!

Kate is growing up so fast! She's potty trained now and so we had to bribe her to be good in Target with the promise of new panties! She got some Toy Story and Hello Kitty ones. Had one melt-down when we tried to try on some shoes to see what size she wore, but she wasn't having any of that!

Sunday, I kept Kate at home while the others went to the house to finish laying the liner underneath. I still think I had the easy job! As long as I did what Kate wanted, she was an angel! We went to Casey's boss' July 4th picnic that night and it was a lot of fun -- and lots of good food! I fell over in my chair trying to pick up Kate's shoes -- which provided some entertainment for everyone there! (I was sitting on an incline, that's all I'm going to say!)

Then on Monday we drove over to a shopping area to park and watch the fireworks. I think we were all more impressed than Kate! She just wanted to climb on the back of the truck and "dance"! She's a mess -- and we loved getting to spend time with her!

Grand Tour of Italy

What can I say about my trip to Italy except . . . FANTASTIC! I think it's probably my favorite country I've ever visited so far. I love the scenery -- I love the history -- I love the art -- and the people are all so pleasant and easy to talk to! Most know at least some English and our tour guide Barbara taught us several phrases (and hand gestures!)

We flew first to Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Milan where we met with our bus and other tour participants from Georgia and Colorado! Our first city to tour was Venice -- which I loved -- and we took a gondola ride through the canals! I can't write about everything we saw, but my photos are up on our "10 Days in Italia" Facebook page -- and our itinerary is below:

Grand Tour of Italy:

• Day 1 -- Fly overnight to Italy
• Day 2 -- Milan • Venice
• Day 3 -- Venice
• Days 4-5 -- Florence
• Day 6 -- Assisi
• Day 7 -- Pompeii • Sorrento region
• Day 8 -- Sorrento • Rome
• Day 9 -- Rome
• Day 10 -- Depart for home

I actually had fun being the Tour Leader for our group and I'm thinking about doing a trip in 2012 with EF. You can see all their tours available on the EF website.