Early Pics from Italy

Becky will be sure to add some more details to these pictures when she returns. She tells me they have been on the go non-stop with little to no down time. They started in the North and are making their way South now. They will be in Rome soon where they will finish the trip.

Bunny drinking a Coke with our friend Dave

Bunny with Juliette in Verona. The tradition is to place your hands on Juliette's "nursies"

Bunny taking in the sites of Venice...touring the canals...and feeding the birds

The Duomo Cathedral in Milan is the 4th largest cathedral in the world

Here's what Sedric is experiencing... 

Sedric using the bidet...not much time for a full tubbie :)

I believe this is a picture of Bunny and Fr. Peter next to the relics of St. Catherine of Sienna

Monday night and Tuesday

Marcus always has to make his "famous" chili when grandma and grandpa come to visit!


On Tuesday morning grandpa held Sedric for a little, and he fell right asleep:


Then grandpa got to play with Ding Dong!


I spent the afternoon in the barn, cleaning the hay/straw on the floor and rearranging the layout so we could fit the tractor in for the winter. Dad and I found an old trike and he had the kids paint it up to be something really special! ;o)





Dad told the kids the story of when we lived in Albion and Joe wanted a bike to ride around with his friends, but the only bikes we had were pink Huffys. So dad told him that he could paint a bike any color he wanted. Joe did, and when his his friends all saw his "new" bike, they were so jealous! They all wanted a cool bike like Joe! And now ~we~ have a cool bike just like Uncle Joe.

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Dahlia harvest

At a local u-pick dahlia farm:








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Pumpkin harvest

Also on Monday we went to Uncle Shane's pumpkin patch for the Big Pumpkin Harvest:























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Outdoor work

On Monday, we did some outdoor work (no surprise there!). We had a big dead branch that needed to come down before it fell on someone. Marcus and grandpa were up for the challenge!





After they got the branch down and moved to the side, grandpa wanted to plant some tulip bulbs. The kids each got to choose their favorite colors from BiMart, and we planted them in the landscaped area between the house and the sport court:


Gemma stayed busy playing with a beetle. Good thing they have hard exoskeletons:








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Sous chef

Gemma helped me make breakfast:





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Sedric's baptism

Sedric woke up happy on his bap-a-tism day! (that's how Mariposa says baptism):


Father Juan did the baptism for us, just as he has for all the kids starting with James:


Bunny and James took all the pictures for Sedric's special day.





























After the baptism the 9 of us (me, Marcus, kids, gma, and gpa) celebrated with lunch at Reedville Cafe, then we went to Barnes & Noble to pick up some Italy books for our trip. After a short time at home--gpa took the kids out to pick hazelnuts and walnuts--we joined the rest of the family at family dinner at grammae and papa's. Yummy braised chicken thighs with root vegetables, and bourbon blonde brownies for dessert. All in celebration of our little guy's big day!

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Friday afternoon errands

The men stayed home Friday afternoon, and the women did woman-things like going to a beauty salon and shopping for groceries. :o)





Grandma really liked our new New Seasons:


Bunny said, "Looks like grandma joined the wine club...."


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