In the beginning of July we decided to go to a cemetery in Simsbury. Another blogger mentioned it in her blog and thought we would follow in her footsteps. We used to stop at cemeteries when the kids were younger and we are continuing the tradition.

Jack had finished his ice cream and wanted more. So he marched up to the window and said "More please!"

4th of July in Vermont

Dave, Rebecca and I headed up to our place in Rochester,VT nestled in a small valley on July 3rd. We are 45 minutes north of White River Junction and just over the gap from Brandon. We have an A frame house (co-owned by my brother-in-law and husband). We love going up there through three seasons, spring, summer, fall and not so much in the winter when everyone goes to ski. We are not skiers, hence no need to travel the snow laden roads. We have started going up once during the winter at my insistence. But I digress. This is about our day in Burlington.

Burlington, VT was celebrating its 400th year. In the park we listened to 'crunchy' music. (I don't think they know the 70's are over.)

We entered the Mall and took a little break on the bench. A kind passerby offered to take our picture so that we would all be included.

We loved walking up and down this 'closed' street. There were people singing and playing instruments. One was a little girl of about 5 playing the violin. She squeaked out Hot Cross Buns very well. Kudos to her for performing in front of an audience!

Dave saw this atop a hotel. It reminded me of one of my favorite movies "The Wizard of Oz".

"I've got you now, my pretty!"

After walking up and down and all around we choose a restaurant with tables outside. It reminded Rebecca and me of Italy! Mangiare!

Down the hill from the park and the 'closed' street was an area where many activities where taking place. We just walked around and enjoyed the scenery.

Here is a nod to our friend Flavio who loves Al's French Frys.

A picnic at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford

It was such a nice day, beautiful in fact, that we decided to go to Elizabeth Park in West Hartford. Such a change from the rain we have had off and on for the past week! My parents, the McDermotts (Ashley, Justin and Jack), the Fishers (Jessica, Ryan and Ethan), Rebecca as well as myself went for a picnic.

My camera doesn’t work so I ‘borrowed’ pictures from Jessica and Ryan.

We didn't find the picnic tables so we had to improvise with benches.The picnic benches were on the opposite side of the park. We'll have to remember that for future reference.

My mother loves to walk around and look at the roses.

Here is my father looking for my mother.

I loved the colors in this flower!

Jack just wouldn't accept that this door was locked!

One of the flower gardens at the park.

My parents in a moment of not arguing!!

A picture of me taking a picture.

Jessica, Ryan and Ethan under some beautiful purple flowers.

Walking to the cars with my parents.

An end to a beautiful day.

This is what someone of us did when we got home. Lucky Ethan!!

31 Bloggers in 31 days Blog Party

31 Bloggers in 31 days Blog Party
Momdot and other participating bloggers are going to be hosting giveaways for the entire month of May! There are going to be amazing prizes and extra entries for momdot contests if you post about this event on your blog.

http://www.momdot.com/31-bloggers-in-31-days-blog-party-info/

April 2009

Well, I see that is has been a few months since I have posted. Let's see...what's new.....Dave was laid off about a month ago. There goes my new kitchen! A lesson I have learned from this is do what you can do when you can do it. We kept putting it off for various reasons none of which was lack of money. Don't get me wrong. We were not financially that well off that it wouldn't have been a drain. But we weren't in the red either. Now we will have to wait until Dave gets another job and is established for a while before undertaking such a big renovation. With this economy it might take longer than I would like.



Now onto the good news. Ethan, Jessica and Ryan's first baby, is now 11 weeks old. He is a handsome lttle man. We call him that because Jessica and Ryan like to dress him in grown up looking clothes. They eschew 'baby' motifs. I happen to like both styles. Ashley and Justin are giving Jack a baby sister in July. Her name: Cynthia Danae after her two grandmas. I can't wait to buy little girlie things.

There's a cool blog that reviews things and she's giving away an ipod shuffle, here's her blog http://www.babesandkidsreview.com/2009/04/ipod-shuffle-giveaway.html

Quilt giveaway

Ashley sent me this cool blog about quilts. The quilt blogger is having a giveaway, so go check it out! Quilt giveaway

Back from Italy

Rebecca and I just spent three weeks in Italy! It was a wonderful trip. We saw and explored by walking miles of Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Sienna, Milan, Venice, Treviso and even Zurch , Switzerland!


We started out landing in Roma. We had a heck of a time finding our hotel, which was supposed to be a 30 minute ride from Rome. Ha! We had to take a train (which ended up being the wrong one) and then another train and then a 45 minute bus ride that left us at the bottom of a hill. At his point we had been up for almost 23 hours. As we lugged our luggage up the unpaved hill, I groaned that I was not going to make it alive to see Rome! We finally reached the hotel near the top of the hill , crawled into our room and slept until the next morning. Then refreshed we decided to go to Rome.

As we walked around Rome, we found out that the climate there is like Florida. There goes the curly hair! We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and some other sights. The next day we went back to Rome and finally found the Pantheon. We went to Vatican City and joined a tour that was well worth the fee. The art work on the ceilings was spectacular! The Sistine Chapel was amazing! You need to go and see it for yourself!!

From Rome we took a train to Pompeii and were amazed at the size! We both thought it was a small area but it was a city! It was sad to see the plasters casts of the inhabitants, including one of a pregnant woman. There are still so many structures standing after all the volcanic eruption and centuries of being covered.
Wikipedia states: “ During early excavations of the site, occasional voids in the ash layer had been found that contained human remains. It was Fiorelli (who took charge of the excavation in 1860) who realized these were spaces left by the decomposed bodies and so devised the technique of injecting plaster into them to perfectly recreate the forms of Vesuvius’ victims. What resulted were highly accurate and eerie forms of the doomed Pompeiani who failed to escape, in their last moment of life, with the expression of terror often quite clearly visible.”

We also went to Ostia Lido (the beach) again by train on the Tyrrhenian Sea which is part of the Mediterranean Sea on the west coast. We had a nice relaxing day there.