Ravenna, Italy

One of our stops while visiting Venice was the small town of Ravenna.  What a fascinating place!  There were several churchs and museums still standing that were filled with mosaics from the 6th century.  Check out the amazing detail and symbolism in what we know to be restored truths...

The only bad part of our trip was saying goodbye to our Heather!  We miss her so much already!  At least we have a ton of memories and pictures to remember her with.  She is the most incredibly helpful, responsible, kind, fun and beautiful girl.  I am so happy my girls have a nanny, and friend, like her to look up to and admire.  We love you, Heather!

Venice!

We were lucky enough to take a summer vacation to Venice with the Rowbotham family.  What a blast!  We were especially lucky that Reed spent his mission in Italy and could help us get around.  The Rialto bridge was beautiful at sunset.

Even though we had kids with us on the gondola rides, it was still quite romantic!  However, I couldn't seem to talk our gondolier into singing us a tune...

We couldn't drive to our apartment in the city.  What an adventure to take a water taxi and then walk up and down the bridges with our luggage!

Madison and Ellie's favorite things there were the masks...and chasing pigeons!

An absolutely beautiful and magical city!

Hiking through the Alps

           

We were lucky to host the Rowbotham family here before they took Heather back with them to the states.  On one of our days with them we hiked through the alps, singing songs from the Sound of Music on the way.  I was very proud of Madison.  She ran with "the big kids," Heather, Yan, and Kyle.  We ate at an awesome little restaurant on the side of the mountain.  All of the views were quite surreal.  We had a great day, and were pretty worn out when all was said and done...