when the Bobble is away...

the bug will have the time of his life with his Noni, Daddy, Lily & GG! I am SO grateful for such awesome people in my life who allowed me to spend almost 2 weeks in Europe with Nicole. I didn't worry about Anderson at all because I knew he was having more fun than if I had been there!

This is right before we left for the airport. Love you, Mom! 

Europe has apparently not heard of wifi, so we spent a lot of money and a lot of time trying to get facetime to work during the trip. 

Brandon took our 5 year old to get a new haircut.

They went to a car show to check out a train ride

and a monster truck!

Lots of park visits.

 There was a rebate for these juiceboxes a few weeks ago & I love them because the kid on the front looks like he is wearing blue glasses!

 My poor mother's water bill. Scary thought.

 Mom took him to make a stone thing for Brandon for Father's day. She said he took it very seriously!

 Love this one.

 Exhausting times with 2 toddlers.

 Apparently a little boy broke his arm when they were at the park & an ambulance and a fire truck showed up with sirens and everything! Brandon was in heaven. Poor kid who had to take one for the team.

I am sure there was not actually a lot of sleeping.

It is safe to say that we missed each other a lot!

When in Rome (& the rest of Italy...)

Apparently I am the luckiest person in the world. Great family, friends, job, life.

 Oh, I just got back from a 2 week trip to Europe with my sister, a few coworkers and an awesome group of high school students. 

It. was. Awesome. 

We started out in Rome & did all of the highlights-The Vatican/St.Peter's. Traveling to Italy is when you are SO proud to be Catholic & Italian! Apparently our maiden name, Salvaggio, means Wild in Italian. Of course.

We hit up the free fountains. Always on the lookout for something free, even in another country. By the way, it was close to a million degrees outside, but your shoulders and knees have to be covered to go in most of the churches, which is why I look like I'm dressed for winter.

The Colosseum never ceases to amaze me. Back to that lucky thing, this was my 3rd trip to Rome, but I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing the amazingness that is the Colosseum.

Instead of actually going into the Pantheon, we made a detour to get the best gelatto in the country-Giolitti! I had nocciola (hazelnut), fragola (strawberry) &  stracciatella  (chocolate chip). TAKE ME BACK!

We did take a pic to prove we were there. After we ate the gelatto, of course.

For some reason we took way too many scary face shots. But, a scary face shot is acceptable if it is in front of the Trevi fountain, I think. We threw our coins in hoping we get to return to the mother country soon!

 Makes the history of the good ol' USA seem sort of trivial. (Just stating a fact.I love you, America. )

 The grave of Julius Caesar. English nerd. 

 A  lot of this happened. These trips are a lot of walking in very hot weather. In Italy...

 I think we literally spent more on gelatto than actual food. 

A nun! In Rome! I just felt holy standing there sort of stalking her. 

We lit a candle for our dad because he likes candles. And, he is Italian!

Our second major city was Florence. Breeding & I played the real Italian game & had espresso at the counter of a cafe. And, took a picture, which is the real American game.

In one of my favorite Lily stories ever, Lily told her dad not to worry about Mama leaving because she was going to find Ursula. Hilarious and random. Well...we found Ursula in Florence!

You can take the Bobble out of the country, but you can't take the compulsive need to seek construction equipment out of the Bobble.

Yummy afternoon snack of wine and cheese in Florence in front of the fake David. 

 The most delicious meal we had the entire time was in Florence at a restaurant called Il Gatto e La Volpe. This was just one of the appetizers. Heaven. We also had pasta carbonara and prosciutto & melon. More heaven.

 Seriously, there is just a lot of gelatto.

 In addition to big cities, we stopped at a few small towns, which were beautiful. Assisi was breathtaking and made even more cool because it's where St Francis and St Clare are from-again, with that Catholic thing!

 The Church of St. Clare! This is where Clare's name is from-how awesome is that?

 I'm always so intrigued by McDonald's in other countries. The kids' meals come with parmesan cheese chunks or mozzarella/tomato salad. Here are the McFlurry flavors. I think this is the only pic I put on here of our stop in Bologna, which is the food capital of Italy. Sort of ironic since it is an American fast food restaurant.

Everything in Europe is more compact, including the garbage trucks. Shout out to my bug with the green garbage truck!

Another small town stop was Verona, the city of Romeo & Juliet. Nicole was so excited and I sort of acted like I had an idea that this was the seeing for the story. We are posing with Juliet under her balcony. 

The toilet in Verona. And, we paid for this!

English nerd take 2.

When we got to Venice, we stayed in a little town on the outskirts that is a European beach vacation (holiday) spot. It was hilarious because it reminded us of Gatlinburg of Myrtle Beach. Just in Venice. This is the street our hotel was on-should I call it a strip? There were restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, grocery stores and just a short walk to the beach!

 A gondola ride. Of course.

There were a lot of very surreal, "is this really my life?" moments on the trip.

 Delicious pizza off a little alley in Venice.

 Dr. Seuss really is universal.

 What can make a giant fried cheesestick better? Throw in some prosciutto!

Dinner in Venice. Yes, we each had our own pizza. 

View from the gondola!

Cheese is everywhere! How much fun would it be if Weigel's just sold chunks of mozzarella cheese?

Our Italian mama. Her kids ran hotel we were staying at and we became sort of obsessed with her. She did not speak one word of English, but she literally made us laugh so hard we were crying with her hand gestures and fast talking. She reminded me of my Nanny! And, the tiramisu we had at her hotel was one of the best things I ate on the entire trip!

As I mentioned earlier, we went with students and they were one of the best parts of the trip. Teenagers will always be there to provide entertainment for you. We spotted a few of them walking on the street barefoot. We asked about their shoes & they replied, "We are in Europe." Duh. Because of course people in Europe just don't wear shoes. Except they do, so the grocery wouldn't let them in barefoot.

Which is why we had to give them our shoes. The shirts off our back....

You have to pay to use the restroom in most places in Europe.

And, for just a tiny bit more you can get an entire bottle of wine! This is the equivalent of $2. For an entire bottle of wine, people!

One of our nicer hotel rooms. We did not have air conditioning in any of the hotels. I shocks me how Italy can preserve structures that are literally thousands of years old, but can't even put a window that opens in each hotel room!

 "Chaperoning" with these women was one of the best parts of the trip! Here we are starting the trip by being very responsible.

 The entire group wore matching shirts on the way across the Atlantic, which was fun until Nicole & I realized when were were separated from the group we look like adult twins who still dress alike. Got a few stares.

 The chaperones!

 Hanging out with Chelsea.

Gemelli is the Italian word for twin! I found this pasta in Kroger in Knoxville and was excited/sad.

Cheers to an awesome time with my sister! I can't even remember the last time we went to Target by ourselves, much less ate a meal (or 33!) together. This trip was definitely one of the highlights of my life and I  loved every minute of it! More pics to come covering the rest of the trip!