Italy

I decided to go through all of my pictures from Italy and pick out my top 10 favorites! It was no easy task considering I took 626 pictures while we were there!! We have been home for almost a week now and I miss it so much. I miss being in Italy, but most of all I miss my brother and his family. It was so special being with them and having real quality time together. The girls had the best time playing with their cousins who they had not seen since last August. Everyone keeps asking me what my favorite part of our trip was and it has been an easy answer....time with family! We went on amazing excursions around Trieste and surrounding cities and spent an amazing day in Venice, but hanging out with Jay, Clay and Court each night after we put all of the girls to bed was my favorite part of the trip. Some nights we watched funny shows on the computer and died laughing together, and some nights we had really meaningful conversations. Almost every night we had gelato, nutella or some other yummy treat. One night Ellie got out bed and caught us with our treats. She said the funniest thing that we laughed at all week... "Hey, you are you busting out the treats?" My favorite thing we did was taking a tour of two different castles in Trieste. It was amazing to see buildings that were constructed around 1300! They had the original furniture, weapons and artifacts in them too. There was a lot of history in the city that my brother lives in. The views were also amazing. You can see the snow covered Alps from the street that they live on! Court and I had fun shopping one day and shopped so long that the stores started to close. We also stopped that evening for a crepe before we even had dinner. I had white chocolate and strawberries in mine. It was one of the sweetest and yummiest things I have ever eaten!!! My other favorite thing was taking a day trip to a surrounding city called Opicina. We got to go down in a cave that is actually the world's largest cave that you can tour. It was breathtaking!!!! To get down into it you had to go down 500 steps and then climb back up 500 to exit. The stalagmites and stalagtites were amazing and some of them were huge! I know I will never see something that amazing again. To get to Opicina you have to take a bus and then get on a tram that goes up the side of a mountain. That was the coolest mode of transportation I have ever been on. While Court and I were shopping I found a cute black and white picture of the tram on a magnet that I was so excited to buy. I have loved looking at it this week and it has served as a great reminder to pray for Clay and his family. This trip was the trip of a lifetime and we are so thankful that we got to take it!!!