CA' BRUZZO part due (two)

Aldo showing off his beautiful vineyard




A row of vines



Now that's a wine cellar!!



Aldo and his wonderful wife Sarah


Their crazy looking but very sweet"adopted" dog-
part lion-part who knows what.

Aunt Marsha and Grandma Rice Visit Italy

J, Aunt Marsha, and B playing the slide in our backyard.



Aunt Marsha holding C. Like the "poor me" look on her face? She is great at looking pathetic!



Aunt Marsha playing karate with A in the backyard. No, he didn't need the protection of his helmet from Aunt Marsha, he had just gotten done with a bike ride.



Grandma hanging out at the castle garden.



Grandma and Aunt Marsha enjoying their day in Venice.

Thanks for coming to see us Grandma and Aunt Marsha! We loved having you and miss you already!

More Trieste

Trieste

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Trieste. It is a city built on the coast of the Adriatic sea and is very close to the border of Slovenia. The city is built into the rocky cliffs and is breathtaking.

We took J's grandma and Aunt Marsha there while they were here visiting us. It is only about a 90 minute drive from us.

We ended up eating a delicious lunch when we got there and then toured a castle. The castle has been restored and is beautiful! It was built for an Austrian naval commander, as the city used to be part of Austria, and is decorated in a naval theme. The castle has a fascinating history, which includes being occupied by the Germans for about 12 years.

Our pictures are as follows...

1. A view of the city and the Adriatic Sea, from the walk to the castle.

2. The outside of the castle.

3. Aiden at the small courtyard garden and fountain.

4. Another view of the castle.

5.The staircase adorned with intricately carved wooden statues.

What's up doc?

For anyone in my family that attended my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary in July of 2003-this may remind you of something... Possibly A's father? It involved similar teeth. Think really hard... You may need to break out you VHS tape of the party and watch it to remember...And now that you are done laughing, (sorry for those of you who are not aware of the joke), A has acquired a set of "Billy Bob" teeth of his own and wore them for about 3 days straight. He even got his little girl-friend (not girlfriend, girl-friend, get it?!?) involved. J had found his old set (anniversary party 2003) so A has 2 sets now. A mother's dream, let me tell ya.

Hamilton's on wheels!

Brinlee got her cute little car for Easter and even though she looks pitiful, she loves it and can cruise all over the house.

And as you can see, Chloe has no problem getting around and has a blast like always, thinking she's funny leaving Brinlee in the dust.

Aiden has graduated to a big boy bike!! We gave him this bike (it has Transformers on it) for his birthday and now that the weather is a little nice, he is a riding maniac! He is barely using his training wheels as they are set really high and he can turn some crazy tight circles that make me hold my breath and look the other way!

The Spaghetti incident

Yeah I have learned how to post pictures!

Here is typical dinner at the Hamilton household when spaghetti noodles are involved. The girls ALWAYS put noodles on their heads and then of course Aiden has to participate too. And don't ask me why his toes are on his nose or how he got them there. He is a boy of many talents! :)
(And by the way, Brinlee is in the green and Chloe is in the peach color)

Piancavallo and miscellaneous adventures

I will start off this entry with our fun filled day excursion to Piancavallo ski area. I have been hounding my husband to drive us up there for a looooong time and I think he had been putting it off bec of tales he heard about how narrow, windy, and dangerous the road is. But I FINALLY got him to take us there. It was an overcast day so we should have waited to go until it was clear so we could sight see more, but off we went anyway. In our neck of the woods, it has been a little rainy and cloudy but some days quite warm. However at Piancavallo there is still TONS of snow and I couldn't wait to get there to let A. play in it. This past winter it only snowed for a few hours one evening and it melted right away and he really has been wanting to play in the freezing white stuff and make a snowman and throw snow balls. Boys will be boys after all.

The road up the mountains was quite narrow and windy and the fog was as thick as clam chowder but we made it after about a half an hour. The highlight of the trip up was a car in the oncoming traffic passing people and we didn't see him until a few moments before he swerved back into his lane. I shouldn't be surprised but I was a bit. Let's just say that this road is just a teensy bit bigger than our car.

We got up there and could not even see a ski lodge or any of the buildings bec of the clam chowder fog but we were able to find a perfect spot for out goal of playing in the snow. We pulled off into an empty parking lot, bundled the kids up, and tramped around in the middle of the lot that had the plowed up snow in it, which in some areas was up to my thighs. (I sunk many many times). Thankfully the kids were able to stay on top of the snow for the most part and had a blast. The girls have never seen snow so that was fun to see their reactions. C kept crawling backwards (not sure what that was all about). Both seemed to really enjoy it even though they were soaking wet and of course A was having the time of his life! He made snow angels, huge snowballs (which were mostly directed at me), and jumped and ran and laughed. It was so fun to watch his excitement.
We manged to stay for about 45 minutes I think and then everyone was wet and cold. After a quick clothes change in the car for the kids, we headed back down the mountain and called it a day. I can only imagine what the view must be like when it isn't foggy. I look forward to going back on a better day and taking some great pictures and video.

Other things in our life....
Well where oh where to begin. C now has a crib tent (yes they make such a thing and it is safe for anyone wondering) as she has mastered climbing out of her crib. A was never a climber and so this is all uncharted territory for us. We wondered how she was doing it bec she is so small but J caught her in the act and she just lifts her tiny little leg over the edge by the corner and slides down the side like a little fireman. J caught her walking around their room one day when she was supposed to be napping and she was having a great time getting little treasures for B.
Oh and she can also scale the dining room chair that has her feeding seat attached to it and sit herself in her seat. I was stressed at first but lately have realized what an asset it is bec now I just pull the chair out when it is time to eat and tell her to climb up. Saves some strain on me! :)

A. is doing well and driving us crazy with made up Italian words and phrases. He likes to say a bunch of crazy words that sound a bit Italian and then tell me to ask him what that means. And then when I do he says something crazy like "that means you have to turn the TV on mom". He is such a creative child.

We have been busy trying to get our house ready for company this spring and summer. I still have boxes we have yet to unpack but we are getting there. I pondered aloud to J one night about whether or not I would actually hang up all the pictures and mirrors that I have strewn about the house before we left here or not. I have them all where I want them, just not hung. We have concrete walls so it makes hanging things a challenge. And I should not be trusted with a screwdriver so it is up to J when they get hung I guess.

Well that is it for this entry I think. Nothing too exciting. I think every day is just crazy and hilarious for us but since it is always that way, I find myself forgetting about what happens and then I feel like I have nothing to say. Maybe I will start writing things done when they happen....

A lot of nothin

I am sitting here thinking of fun, witty ways to blog about what we have been up to lately but I got nothin, so here I go.....



I recently compared the girls to "demons on crack" after about the ten-millionth time I pulled one off the top of the dining room table and the other from under the table with the answering machine in hand. It probably wasn't the nicest thing to calm them and I truly meant no harm in my words, but let me tell ya, spend 5 minutes with them and you may be saying the same thing.



They are a joy though even though they are very naughty. :) B recently has learned how fun it is to turn in circles and get very dizzy and then fall down. C is a jokester like her brother and father and she likes to give us "crusty" looks and then giggle and walk away but she particularly enjoys doing it at dinner time. They are getting so big and are starting to mimic more words. And they adore their big brother-the second he walks in the door from school they are shrieking and on top of him. He is for the most part very gentle and kind to them but he can get his fill and needs his space.



A is good. He has been a big help to me lately around the house and with the girls. He loves to tackle them (not too hard, he just grabs them) when they about to do something dangerous like climb the couch, run to the street, etc. He is getting so big too. His head comes up to my rib cage and he is only 4! All of a sudden all his pants are too short and shoes too small. I wish he would stop growing for a little bit-he is going to be taller than me when he starts 1st grade! :)



I was able to escape for a night and one day awhile back. I went and spent the night at my friend's house and then we got up and had a leisurely breakfast and then caught a train to Venice. We had bigger plans-like going away for the whole weekend but my hubby had to study for a big test so I was only able to sneak away for a day. Venice was fabulous and fun. It was the 2nd time I was there and I got to see more than the first time since I didn't have the children to worry about. We had a nice lunch and then walked, saw the sights, did a little shopping, then had dinner and made our way to the train station for the ride home. I must add, we had to ride a water taxi to the train station because we got a little off course and found ourselves quite far away. The taxi ride was fun though. It was a new experience for me. I was a bit nervous we may capsize as it was a rough ride at parts but we survived to tell the tale. I am so fortunate to be able to just go to Venice for the day. I can't even comprehend it!



Not much else is going on. I am going to attempt to attach some pictures to this. Hope it works. If not, I will keep trying. Everyone have a great day!

C

Adventures in Stay At Home Mom Land

Ciao! Well, I don't really have any "Italian" adventures to speak of lately, but I do have a huge assortment of funny and not so funny "adventures" from the kids. It has been a loooooooooong week, let me tell ya. A few of the highlights are as follows:



*B and C were caught in their cribs with no diapers on, pee-pee all over, and B made a nice little "deposit" in the corner of the crib that resembled something a dog might do. (sorry for the visual, but my life is not rated G and I think you all must understand my pain)



*A has had a very sensitive week and has painted his toenails when I was still sleeping and got polish all over the rug, which is light in color, my kitchen table, and all over him of course. When asked why he did that, he said he wanted to be like me. Hmm..

On that same day, he also decided to spit milk on the wall. Not sure what caused that outburst. Then later that evening when he was starting to watch a movie, the volume was turned up quite high (compliments of B) and when it blasted on, he insisted that his ears were now broken and went into total screaming melt down. Oh and I forgot, earlier that day-I had kept him out of scuola (school)-we went to a play group and saw my friend and her daughters and then he was obsessed with going to their house and went into a few meltdowns when I told him we could not go. Fun stuff. Today I saw my neighbor and we chatted a minute and I apologized if we were so loud and she said not at all, but she thought maybe my son had a bad day yesterday bec he usually doesn't cry like that. Hmm.... Nice and embarrasing.



*This morning, I was frantically getting ready to go meet my friend Todd that I used to work with in Great Falls when I was in college, as he was coming through on his way back from a deployment, and in the time span it took me to try and change the crib sheets bec both girls had peed out of their diapers (which never happens until of course today when I had to be somewhere), they had found a bottle of teething tablets and poured them out and had started to eat them. Thankfully I think they had just gotten the bottle open when I saw them, but I frantically called my friend, who is a Veterinarian, but also very knowlegeable in the human species, and asked what I needed to do-maybe call poison control? Go to the ER? Induce vomitting? Leave my house and never come back? She assured me all should be ok and she was right. Then we dashed out the door to meet Todd. I must add that all that happened in the time span of like 30 minutes! Thankfully I had taken A to school already.



Those are just a few things that have happened this week. Not very exciting, but none the less, it is a little preview of my life. I plan to go on a day trip this weekend with my friend as I need a break in a big way! J has to study for his next rank test so I can only escape for a day but I will take what I can get! We are all doing well considering the craziness. Or at least I think we are! I really haven' t seen much of J this week but he is off for a few days so that will be nice. B and C are growing and growing and saying more words and getting more teeth. A is such a great helper when he wants to be! Or should I say when he isn't spitting milk on the wall and painting his toe nails.

Oh I do have one little cute Italian thing I just remembered. We have a service that comes to our house that I call "the Schwan's man" and delivers Italian frozen foods and goodies every 2 weeks and he was just here tonight and we got delicious gellato (ice cream) and frozen pizzas which are unlike ours (of course). For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Schwan's man, it is a frozen foods home delivery service in the states. I made a small attempt to speak Italian to him as I took Italian 1 and am currently taking Italian 2 but he told me I could speak English. I think that was a hint.



Well my lovely husband is due home soon so I had better wrap up. Just wanted to say hello to anyone who reads this and catch you up on our lives.

A visit to the eye doctor

Here is my first shot at being entertaining with an adventure in Italy. For some reason the base does not see children for eye exams and we have regularly had Aiden seen so of course we want to keep up with it so we went ahead and had the base schedule us an "off base" appt. with an Italian Optometrist.

The day arrived and Jeff was off so we made it a fun filled family adventure. I forgot to mention that the appointment was in another town by the name of Sacile (pronounced Sa-chill-ee) which is about 20 minutes from our home. So this meant that we had to get out the good old GPS to navigate our way through the winding, crazy streets.

We were off on our way with GPS and written directions in hand, so no problem right? We had to get to the main town square, which we did, a couple of times. :) Of course at one point we pulled over to mess with the GPS and read the directions a few times and headed back the way we came and got there!! I think it only took us an extra loop through the town square, which may be a record. And you must visualize all the Italians walking through the square and streets staring at our GIGANTIC car (we have a Chevy Tahoe for those of you who don't know) by their standards and our confused faces through the windows as we try to figure out where we are and where we are supposed to be.

I must add that the landmark we had to look for to know we were there was a "large wooden door" under the "porch" across the street from a certain clothing store. Sounds a little like Montana directions, huh! Good thing I was brought up that way or we'd be in big trouble. Jeff purchased our parking ticket as I started unloading all the children. We knew we had stairs to climb so no stroller for the girls so we each carried one. (this is important later in the story). The next part of our directions was to go to the large wooden door and ring the doorbell by the Doctor's name. So we did that and were let into the door into a courtyard. Many buildings and homes are set up this way and this was our first experience with the whole doorbell ringing, etc. Then we were to go into the door on the left (which was unmarked but had a bell), we went and rang it and were let in to the next phase. Then we were to climb a flight of stairs and see the door for the office-which was labeled "Studio". I wasn't sure if we were at the Optometrist or Dance class! And of course there is another bell so we ring it and are let into an office about the size of a large walk in closet.

We get checked in after some language barriers and made our way to the waiting room. There were a few people in there and I think they were shocked to see all 5 of us, who are obviously American. Now here is the part about no stroller. Since the girls cannot be restrained in the stroller, they are free to roam, which is a VERY bad thing. After they warmed up a bit to the people, they were off, trying to go into the exam room, secretary room, pushing chairs across the wood floor, and so on. Jeff had not had the opporunity to experience the craziness as much as I have and I think he was feeling a bit stressed. Aiden's name was called and I of couse, being the mother, HAD to go with him (more like I am not crazy enough to stay with the girls), which left Jeff with Thing 1 and Thing 2, as Jeff affectionately calls them (from Dr. Suess if you don't know what they are).

The Dr. spoke English which was nice and examined Aiden's eyes and then without warning, dialated his eyes with drops and of course Aiden was not too happy. Then we had to wait for 10 minutes in the waiting room, where I read books in Italian to Aiden (I can read it quite well, just have no idea what it says ) and go back in and let him examine him again. His equipment was quite different than what we are used to and not as up to date as ours. But it seemed to get the job done and all was fine with Aiden's eyes, except for the fast that his little pupils were the size of pancakes! My poor baby. Thankfully it was evening time when we left and so he could see ok.

Oh, and I must add, Jeff had left the building carrying both girls during the appt. because they had gotten out of contol (this happens quite often in our lives). I was entertained trying to visualize how he got out of the giant wooden door with the girls in tow, as it had a big latch.

We made it back home without getting lost and that was the end of that. I couldn't make the story as funny as it truly was because with most of our stories, you have to be there to really appreciate them. So try your best to visualize. Hopefully you will keep reading this and maybe I will get better at story telling.

Intro to Italian "Mis" Adventures

Ciao! I have heard so much about blogging and my friend Cindy has a blog and uses it as a way to share stories with friends and family and so I thought I would give it a try. I know I send out mass emails quite often but when I thought about it, there are really A LOT of funny and sometimes not so funny things that happen to us pretty much on a daily basis and I don't often remember to share them. So here I am, making an attempt to enter even more of the technological world (kinda scary for me since I took typing class in high school on typewriters-YES, I said typewriter-remember those?)



I must warn you all I may be very boring and obnoxious with these and put WAY too many entries. Just try to remember, I have little contact with the outside world (especially the American one) and I spend the majority of my day with my "precious" toddler girls that talk gibberish, which makes it hard to carry on a conversation.



So look for new posts coming soon. I just wanted to get this set up and see if I could do it!



Christy