Ketch Up!

In just a few days we have family visiting...LOTS of family!  And LOTs of traveling comes along with it, with LOTS of photos and LOTS of storytelling.  Before any of that happens, I need to catch up on the semi-important things that I haven't journaled about yet so there's is not total procrastination at blogging about our big Merback European Adventure!

Happy Birthday to Me!

For starters I never bragged on my family about their spoiling me on my birthday!  Joey and the kids bought me a tray full of my favorite flavors of Gelato.  After the candles were lit and the song was sung  we all grabbed a spoon and dug in family style:

And I turned 33....KRAZY!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

An Italian Opera

On my birthday weekend some friends of ours watched the kids for us while Joey and I went with two other friends to Verona to see the Opera, Aida.  Belissima!  

We sat in an ancient coliseum built in 30 AD (around the time of Christs death...that old!!) and watched the entire floor of the stage filled with water to make a "lake" crawling with white "alligators", torches and rings and giant rocks lit on fire,  "elephants and Giraffes, line the stage, all while listening to Italian Opera.  We're not big Opera people but in this setting, it was pretty freaking cool.  The weather was perfect, the company was great, and we won't ever forget it!

The opera ended at 1:30 am so we spent the night in a cute little working farm just outside of the city, ate the delicious included breakfast with our friends upon waking in the morning and then headed home to retrieve our "real life" and our children....magical weekend!

 A New Pet

On an even happier note, we have a bunny!  A cute little black baby bunny who's name has evolved into BunYun.  What started out as Kitten Michino (kitten in Italian) Fiore (flower) Merback became..."BunYun"...after those nasty onion ring chips called FunYuns.  Don't ask me where or how.  The only thing I know is that 3 days after getting the bunny the kids called me down for a circus performance with said amazing bunny.  They had her jumping off shoulders, baring teeth and climbing body parts and kept referring to her as the amazing "BunYun".  We've never looked back;)

Our favorite friend Daniela's family has a beautiful little farm with chickens and rabbits on it (for eating).  Two of their cutest rabbits, a breed called Lion Head, had a litter of 4 bunnies and her Mom offered to give us one as a pet when she heard we lost 2 of our chickens (more on that later;).  When the other 4 chickens were finished off by the cingiale (wild boar) I promptly called Daniela and said, "yes! we'll take a cute little bunny!"    

She really is the perfect pet for us.  We're becoming quite sold on the idea of eternal rabbit owning!  While all the kids have taken to her, Isaac seems to be the most proactive about toting her around the house.  It's pretty cute;)  

Funny story that the kids have said repeatedly that they will never forget:

BunYun was hopping around in our living room with Isaac and Georgie while I put Juliet to bed.  She found a pipe sized whole in the wall that we had forgotten existed and wormed her way into it....*&%^ Holy crap...our new rabbit (after just killing 6 chickens, mind you) was now sure to die somewhere in the walls of our house!

After some waiting and stressing for 3-4 hours of hearing nothing from the rabbit I finally got the idea to reach into the hole and take photos with my iphone.  With that done we discovered  that the space she'd hopped into was actually quite small and that the bunny was, in fact, alive!  Phew!  We resecured the carrots and lettuce just outside the hole and waited and watched for her to get hungry!  Sure enough, after 5-6 hours she emerged, Georgie spotted her, wittingly whispered of her location to Isaac and he successfully POuNcED!  Bunny Saved!!  WooHOO!!  We can have alive pets after all!

And that about catches us up...I have only one more story to tell of heavy breathing and chickens screaming in the night...stay tuned;)

xoxo

Ashley

Baska

We hit a new country!   CROATIA! And from now on when we dream of crystal clear, relaxing family beaches with nothing but our little people, a scoop

 of gelato, and a cozy place to stay, we will dream of Croatia!  

Here's Juliet at the entrance of our cute little apartment with our own private garden smelling the glorious fumes of fresh bread baking in the bakery situated just at the front of our apartment.  We walked by it every time we came and left.  

We spent our entire first day here:

 The kids chased fish in water that was clear as your bath and because we were in a large cove there were no waves to tackle them and tire them out.  The beach was literally a 1 minute walk from our apartment...just across the pedestrian only street.  Ahhhhh!!

The second day we spent the morning hiking to the ruins just above the town.  There were wild fig trees growing everywhere.  We suspect that the end of August will be a good time to return for a free harvest.  We kept pinching ourselves, commenting how never in our lives did we think we would visit Croatia.

The top had great views of the town of Baska and its coast.

Our hostess Sylvia recommended a yummy restaurant just up the beach from

Us. We ate there both nights!  Why mess with a good thing!

Pan fried, cheese stuffed Ravioli

Fresh that day Tuna Steak (my seaside break from vegetarianism!!) with spinach potato sauté which was way yummier than it looks.

 Isaac ordered a spaghetti with mussels both nights that I couldn't stop swiping from off his plate. The tomato sauce was some of the best I have ever tasted...The tomato sauce always seems to blow me away in seaside spots.  I am noticing a trend!

 On the way back from the restaurant Joey and the kids did a Gelato tasting on the way back to our apartment. That means you get one scoop from a few places along the way and judge the best ice cream...yea, it's pretty fun!  

Georgie literally cried when we left Croatia. With only a 3 hour drive between us, this place is one we surely will return to!  

Xoxoxo Croatia!  

Hotel:  Authentic Apartments Baska found on Booking.com

Restaurant: Cicibella

Best Gelato:  Aida

Lake Garda! and a School Year of Success!

On Friday Isaac and Georgie finished their first full year of Italian School!  And we drove off to 

Lake Garda

to celebrate.   Joey told the kids that they have now done what no one else in the entire extended family has ever done...gone to school in a foreign country, in a foreign language.  At 9 and 7 years old, they are bilingual!

 I think (or at least I hope) that made them feel a little bit special.  Because they deserve to feel special.  What they did this year was hard...harder than we probably ever gave them credit for.  And they succeeded!

 They deserved this "kid friendly" trip to this HUGE, gorgeous lake just outside of Verona with a handful of their best buddies and no demands from Mom and Dad saying, "behave, walk faster, lets go, come on!!"

 We stayed at a Euro Camp sight called Camp Eden and our friends stayed right there withe us.  WE stayed up late talking and playing cards and spent the day times playing at the campsights' pool complete with slides, a huge playground, an amazing view and a gelato shop (of course!)  Swim caps were required(...they are at every Italian pool).

 We spent one morning rock climbing in the dolomites, Isaac and Georgies first time ever in a harness.  It was fun!   

 Our friend Jeff has all the gear and was nice enough to share it with us.  

Our kids are really close to the same ages and get along swimmingly.

 The kids really love each other.  

Especially these two who are using large leaves as umbrellas for the rainy hike down the mountain.

 This morning before heading home we stopped at the beach and skipped rocks, skinny dipped (Juliet only) and enjoyed the view.

 We love our life here...sigh.

As we watched the kids on the beach we commented on the three of them all doing their own thing, indicitive of their individual personalities, and somehow still playing together while doing it.  Isaac skipped rocks, requesting our audience from time to time and showing Georgie all the cool rocks he was digging up.  Georgie gave Isaac her full attention whenever he asked but spent any spare moment wading in the cold water (it wasn't warm outside either folks), dunking her face in to see the water life through the lens of her pink goggles.  She stared out at the view and talked to herself from time to time.  Juliet walked in with her clothes on, cried about being cold until we took her wet clothes off, and then walked around up to her knees in full glory (naked), collecting rocks and putting them in my pocket and chasing after any duck that came by.  She watched Isaac and Georgie playing, laughing when they would laugh and trying to act big like them.  It was one of those, "Life is good" moments when you want to pinch yourself to make sure that its real.  Great day.  Great weekend.  I think we might be getting a hang of this traveling thing, or at least how it works best for our family.

xoxo
Ash

Happy Birthday Isaac!! You are 9!!!

Happy Birthday, ISAAC!!

Isaac turned 9 on Saturday!!!  And you know what he said to me?

"That means I will only be with you for 10 more years."

Gee that really put things in perspective...

The day of Isaacs birthday was a great day for all of us.  It started with, the usual, breakfast in bed:

Isaac wanted crepes and fried flowers but all the fry-able flowers were gone so I fried him some peaches...and he didn't like them;)  He also requested what Georgie got...a fruit parfait.  Joey made his name out of legos.  

And Georgie made him her own lego creation that was really cute.  When she brought it into him she said, with a sheepish giggle, "I'm so embarrassed!"  Legos aren't something she does very often and I think she was comparing her creation to what Isaac builds.  But I love that she wanted to make him something that he would appreciate.  

Isaac with his new watch.  

 And the new lazer tag set he got from Dad.  He also received a bigger lego set that he and his Dad built last night.  

We spent the Juliets nap time watching The Hobbit which despite mixed reviews from everyone we know, we really enjoyed.  Joey and Isaac read it together a few months ago so it's something the two fo them have especially been wanting to see.   It was fun to sit and watch a movie together in the middle of the afternoon no matter how many chores we should have been doing.

 For his birthday dinner Isaac wanted to go to New Punjab, an Indian restaurant near

our house that we all LOVE.

 My men...

 Look at that spread of yumminess!! Best Indian food we've ever had 

(minus the Naan...they don't make very good naan:(

A birthday in Italy wouldn't be a birthday without Gelato.  Even if it is 45 degrees outside.  

Happy Birthday dude!

xoxo

Mom

For Angela Jones...we hope you choose this one!!

For Angela;)  

Family, please ignore;)

Front of the house/driveway/front deck

Side/back yard.  You can barely see the shed that is back there but its cute.  The lawn hasn't been mowed all spring so it looks a little hairy but you get the idea.  The yard doesn't have any landscaping so it would be easy to take care of.  Just mowing.

This is where you walk in.  To the right (where you can't see is the living room, straight ahead is the dining room and then the kitchen and to the left are 2-3 steps up to the three bedrooms and the  bathroom.

This is the first living room to your right as you walk in.  The furniture is all piled into the middle so you can't see how big it is.  It's a decent size.  Not huge but generous.  You can see the door that leads onto the porch.  There's a door off the dining room that leads to the porch too so in that way the upstairs living areas are all connected.

This is the "dining room" but this is a bad picture.  I think I was taking it of the Italian Murano glass chandelier!  So I didn't get the full room.  It's equally as big as the other living room (who's size you also can't see';)  There's a door to the right of the huge window that leads onto the same front porch.  You could easily fit a dining table and a small sofa in here or a couple of comfy chairs to the side of the table.  Or a homework desk or something for the kids.  

Here's the back half of the kitchen.  I'll be jealous of your countertop space if you get this place!  Though it's narrow-ish there is a lot of countertop space.  There is currently only a small refrigerator but I told him that people would definitely want a tall fridge so maybe he would need to remove a segment of cabinets to fit one in.  He said he could do that.  

6 burner stove and cute little spice racks/shelves.

Cute kitchen tile

THe pretty buffet included in the kitchen, if you want it.  But you could put a fridge here and then have 1 and 1/2 fridges!

Front porch

A bedroom...can't remember which one.

The smaller bedroom.  You could fit bunk beds in here and the right wall is all built in storage.

The storage wall

ONe of the hallway storage cabinets

Inside one of the cabinets.  Lots of organized storage space in this house.  

The upstairs bathroom. Big.  But Italian bathrooms usually are. 

The extra separate shower

The huge downstairs room with the landlord trying to duck out of the picture;)  His name is Rudi.  He's probably in his early 30's.  Really nice guy.

The windows in the huge downstairs room.

The HUGE fireplace.  It's prettier than this picture conveys but it does need a good cleaning.  

This is just a detail above one of the doors.  But there's lots of stuff like this all over the house.   You can tell someone loved it at one time;)

This is the downstairs kitchen but a BAD picture.  Not sure why I photographed this thing instead of the actual countertops!  This drawer unit you would probably want to have moved out before you moved in.  This kitchen is pretty small but you could put an extra fridge in here or freezer or make it a little craft room.   It has a stove in it too so...two ovens.  Can't complain about that;)


This is the downstairs bedroom off of the garage.  You can't see the 3-4 feet of width on the other side of the bed.  It's at least a 15x15 room.  Again, all this stuff could go or stay..all the furniture in there he said could go or stay as the renter wants.

 An extra random storage room on the other side of the small kitchen.  There's already storage shelving in it and a deep freezer.  ON the other side of this is another medium sized bedroom that I didn't photograph for some reason. It had a bunch of old armoires and chests of drawers pushed into the middle so you probably couldn't have seen it anyway.  It has a window in it.

 Downstairs bathroom with large mirror and lots of storage.

Here's the part of the yard directly behind the house.  A little stone walkway is up against the house...you can see it to the right.

Another cute touch...chalkboard in the kitchen;)

Backside of the front door...front entry way.

the front steps to the house with a large landing.

The front walkway with built in globe lights that work!  You can see the hedge there on your left and the giant climbable magnolia tree in straight ahead.

Here's the other side of the hedge with the long straight grassy area.  Your kids would love to play in this yard.  lots of knooks and crannies and, of course, the awesome magnolia tree.  

My friend Daniela's house directly in front of you.

Danielas little girl, Emma;)  She calls me "cashi":)  She is just a bit older than Juliet and has Downs Syndrome.  She is so cute!!

The view of the house from Daniela's yard.

Best of all, it's close to us;)  (And Daniela who is actually cooler than we are;)  You will love her.  The bus ride from Sarone is about 30 minutes both ways and the bus stop is a half of a block down a sidewalk from this house.  You could totally walk there in 2 minutes...less probably!  Talk soon!