Beach Day - Grosetto

The Monday after Easter Sunday is also a holiday in Italy (I love that). We were feeling a little guilty for dragging the kids to all our favorite places. Easter Sunday felt like a marathon with church in the morning, a formal dinner in the afternoon, and a trip to Assisi in the evening. The kids are great travelers and can have fun anywhere, but we felt like they needed to go somewhere that was made for them. We told the boys that the day was theirs and they could choose where to go. They unequivocally decided on the beach so it was off to the beach we went.



The closest beach to Siena was in a place called Grosetto. I will be honest. It wasn't the most amazing beach I have ever been to. There was a ton of wood everywhere and a fair amount of trash. I actually feel a little silly complaining about it. I think the rest of Italy spoiled me so I was surprised to see something that just looked normal. It was a sufficient beach and the kids had a ridiculously good time. In fact, if you ask them they might say it was their favorite place in Italy :).

See the wood! It was everywhere! But still, the water was sparkling and the mountains in the background are gorgeous....I'm definitely being too picky.

Esme took a short nap in the stroller. We weren't worried about anyone bothering her seeing as how she was guarded by the wood fortress.

I'm glad the boys could make due with the variation of sand toys that we threw together. The eggs were from the giant kinder eggs they got for Easter. They used those like buckets and shovels. I found the large plastic container in our washroom. Then we had a large collection of McDonalds happy meal toys (as anyone who knows Luke can well imagine). That was enough for them.

It felt so relaxing to know the boys were having fun. Afterward, we had to drive for quite a while to find something to eat and then we were stuck in severe traffic most of the way home. But there is really no better place to be stuck in traffic than in Tuscany.

Poggibonsi

I really slowed down with the Italy posts. I just got so tired of sifting through and editing pictures. There are so many pictures! But I would love to have it all done so I may just skip the editing and fly through the rest of that amazing trip.

Poggibonsi was not very far from us. We saw signs for it all the time as soon as we were on the outskirts of Siena, so one day we decided to go check it out. It was getting late when we arrived and I don't know if we ever actually found the main part of Poggibonsi. But it didn't matter. Because I just love saying that name and I probably said it 34 times while we were there just for the fun of it.

We somehow ended up at an excavation site of some kind at the top of a hill. It was probably very old and very cool inside. But it looked closed and the kids were anxious to get out and play. So we turned around and went back to a park we passed about 5 minutes earlier. It looked like a little mini Disneyland to the boys. Complete with a zip line (totally unsupervised which I doubt would ever pass in sue-happy United States) and a merry-go-round. There was also a playground and a little aquaduct where we tried to race bark, but it didn't really work.

It was such a lovely evening. We didn't feel like visitors, but actual residents who were just hanging out with our kids at the park. The amazing thing about Italy is that it is so easy to just stumble upon these beautiful little places. No one publicizes them. And when you find them you feel like you dug up a treasure that no one else even knew existed.

Kindergarten Looming

Luke is about to start Kindergarten. I think I'm okay with it. I know that being very sad (or very happy) when your child starts kindergarten are both normal reactions. I'm going for a little of both. He is obviously ready. I put it off as long as possible by putting him in Young 5's which was a very good thing for him. I am excited for him to enter this new phase of childhood and I'm a little giddy about some of the things that go with it....back-to-school shopping, lunchboxes, fieldtrips, reading logs, etc.

While I am feeling lots of excitement and anticipation, I am also in mourning. I'm mourning a phase of my motherhood where no one could really bother us. Up until now I have had total control over our activities and what my children are exposed to. I decide how our time will be spent. If I want to take the kids on a roadtrip, I just go. No one is annoyed. No one falls behind. We have been free. I have loved this phase of motherhood. Even if it means that I rarely have a break to be by myself, I'm okay with that. I realized when I had lots of time to myself in the hospital that I'm sort of addicted to my kids. Good, bad and ugly, I just like to be with them.

But I'm letting go. At least I'm letting go a little bit. I planned a very fun summer, full to the brim with all my favorite family activities, just so I would have an easier time letting go come September. Luke told me this morning that he is a little nervous about going to kindergarten because he won't be with me ALL DAY LONG. I may have over-dramatized this little fact in his mind. I just wanted to be sure it didn't take him by surprise. So I eased the fear a bit by telling him that we will still have lots of time together in the morning and after school. I put a big fat smile on my face. But in the back of my mind I was sad. I know I will miss having this kid around all the time. Letting go stinks even if it is the best thing to do.

Luke always knows exactly what to do to press my buttons

But he usually quickly corrects himself to get on my good side again:)

He adores his little sister

He's turning into a little monkey

See! Wouldn't you want to spend every waking minute with this kid!?

No one is going to miss Luke during the day more than Cam. But boy am I excited to have more undivided attention to give my Cammy. That is my silver lining. 

Optimism in Depression Blog

I have a nephew named Alek. He is my very first nephew. The nephew that made me an Aunt. Back then, I thought of him more like the little brother I never had. He is all grown up now and is pretty much amazing. When he has an idea, he just goes for it. He always wants to help people and make the world better. After his LDS mission, when I realized he battled depression and anxiety, I felt confident that he would use his experience to help people. I knew that whatever life held for him, he would face it with courage. So when he told me that he started a blog to share his thoughts on living with depression and anxiety, I was excited to share it with people.

Take a look and share it with others. Everyone knows someone affected by depression or anxiety (or both). I often feel like the people who can help the most are those who know what it is like and can offer compassion, perspective and hope without dismissing the reality of the struggle. Pass it on.

Easter Week & Assisi

We were pretty excited to be able to spend Easter in Italy. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that we saw a procession during Easter week where the kids marched through the streets carrying a cross and chanting the words to Ave Maria...

There were also some areas where beautiful flowers lined the narrow streets on Easter morning...

During holy week, I tried to write down important events from Christ's last week on separate pieces of paper for each day and hang them on the wall. But we sort of lost steam by Friday. I felt like every time I tried to have a moment with the boys to explain something holy and important to me, there was instantly something happening to distract them. On the Thursday evening, which would have been when Christ went to the Garden of Gethsemane, I took them to the olive tree orchard in our backyard and thought it would be the PERFECT backdrop to teach them simply about the Atonement.

I don't even know if olive tree groves exist anywhere close to where we live in America. So I brought them there and had some flat bread and water to teach them about the passover meal. I read some scriptures and started to talk about the Garden of Gethsemane when suddenly a cute little girl came running through the olive grove excited to play. Her parents had just arrived at the bed and breakfast and she was anxiously looking for friends to play tag with. My boys could hardly contain their excitement. I was able to keep them at bay while I finished one more scripture and then they ran off. Luke came back for a quick second to say, "Sorry Mom". Obviously he felt a little bad that he couldn't sit and listen to me any longer. Whatever, I tried.

But it was nice to walk around that olive grove and think about what happened in a different olive grove so many years ago. And the boys did have a great time with their new friend.

On Easter morning (Buona Pasqua) we had our traditional "hunt for the Easter baskets". We got both the boys giant kinder eggs that are a traditional gift for the kids to receive on Easter morning. I misread the price and ended up buying what had to have been the most expensive eggs in the store. But whatever, it was fun and the boys loved them.

Then we went to church. It is a very small branch. But I think they had some more people that day because it was Easter. I went to primary with the boys which was in a small room with 4 other kids. It was a little crazy because the teacher spoke English but 2 Italian speaking kids unexpectedly came. So another member came in to translate for the Italian kids. I think normally there are just two kids in Primary and they are brother and sister so to triple that number and have a lot of translating going on made it a little bit crazy. But we made it through.

After church, Andrew's boss at the hospital invited us over for a traditional Italian meal at her house in the country. But I decided to make that a separate blog post because this one is going to be huge as it is.

After the dinner, we decided to drive straight to Assisi (our poor kids...this was a long day). Assisi is home to St. Francis of Assisi who is a very famous Catholic Friar who wrote "All Creatures of Our God and King" and did many great things while he was alive. I really liked Assisi. It was beautiful. There were lots of people there for Easter and they were all very nice and doted on our kids. However, it was kind of missing the spirit of Easter for me. I don't know what I was expecting, but it just felt like a normal day (with more crowds than usual).

Assisi in the background. The church on the left juts out of the hillside. It is quite majestic in real life.

The walkway up to Assisi was lined with these bricks. I'm guessing these are people who gave donations. There were people from all over the world.

I didn't realize until I looked through my pictures afterward that I took LOTS of pictures of this church. It was just SO beautiful and the light around it was gorgeous. I think it might be my favorite church exterior in all of Italy.

a very real family photo

There was a hiking trail close to the church which led to a monastery where St. Francis gave some famous sermons. We were too late to walk all the way down but the trail was very pretty.

I have to admit, little Esme stole the show. Strangers showered her with complements. One woman came up and gave me some flowers and told me they were for my sweet baby. 

I wouldn't mind eating at this restaurant. Quite the view.

Panorama view

Lots of fun stores