A day in Tuscany

Dan is not a fan of long car drives and he often will weigh out the value of how many hours are spent in the car versus the amount of time spent at the attraction we are going to see. I on the other hand am like.... Lets go! ( I might be the author of this adventure blog??)

So recently when someone posted some pictures and video to a travelers face book page I follow I looked it up. AHHH! Tuscany! Beautiful Tuscany! Tori and I looked at the calendar and knew if we didn't go this weekend, tennis, and company and school it would just all get in the way of us and our having fun! So we decided on Monday we would leave on Sunday. Dan wasn't here so no one could tell us a 3.5 hour drive wasn't worth a 2 hour swim. SO we went!

We went to church, came home and had some lunch and jumped in the car. The sun was setting as we were arriving and the views were just breath taking. We had to stop several times to take pictures on the side of the road.

We followed the tips we read on the travelers page and stayed the night in a near by farm house and woke up early to get to the cascades before it was over crowded. We are glad we did.

The water runs up from a natural spring and is a luke warm 99.5 degrees. It has a milky blue look from the minerals and many cascading pools that care still, and several falls that you can sit in and climb on. 

at 7:30am there are only a few people there and we enjoyed climbing and exploring the falls and the pools. Behind the house, was a river that fed these falls and it was just lovely.

The smell of sulfur was a bit strong at first, but you get used to it after a while.

The water was just so blue and nice and warm, we stayed till we got shriveled and then went back for more.

It was more than worth the drive! It was a great day trip, and a wonderful adventure!

Then around 10 am the people started showing up in groves and we decided it was good and stamped it "DONE" and packed up our things and moved on out!

Tori had ravioli with zucchini inside

WE went back to our farm house and showered up- tried to get the sulfur smell off but in reality that took a few days. Then we packed out and headed for a tuscan lunch to fill our bellies before we drove back home! 

Seths Gnocchi with pest and sausage 

Paige's Zucchini flowers stuffed and bacon

My Wild Boar white sauce on fresh pasta

Yes, We love Tuscany , and I think the drive was beautiful and the hot springs were amazing and the food was great as usual. However the best part was the spontaneity and the memories that were made! Love my family and I love the fun!

The start of something new

It doesn't feel right. I feels more like we were having those last day of school ice cream sundays just last week and here we are starting all over again..... well it guess thats life moving on and sucking all the lazy, vacationing days out of our grasp!


Seth and Paige are attending Naples High School in Naples Italy on the Navy Support Site

Seth is in his Senior year. He loves drawing and finished a disney drawing class on line this summer. He would love to be able to get into the field of animation in the future but he is also playing with the idea of being an educator. He is on the tennis team again this year only this time as the CO- Captain of boys team. He had a great summer going to camp Helaman in Germany and then back to Germany again for an international english speaking FSY/ EFY.

He wants to leave for a mission shortly after he finishes this school year, and we are super proud of him. He's a good kid who has good friends and stands up for his morals and protects those around him.  It is a bit crazy to us to think that we only have him around for another year and yet we are excited to see all the great things he's going to do.

Here is to an amazing Senior year Seth! GO Wild Cats!



Paige is starting her Sophomore year (my favorite to my memory) She joined the color guard this year and is making some fun new friends. She had a tough teacher last year who discouraged her from trying to be in the honors class this year and Paige bucked up, took an extra writing class during the summer and is already showing that teacher she's not squash able! Go Paige! We are so proud of her hard work.

Paige loves everything sea life and or rock oriented. She got a underwater camera for Christmas and has been having a great time this summer taking all kinds of pictures. She would really like us to extend here and let her finish High school in one place. She likes the small size of the school and being so close to the Mediterranean as well as all the volcanic rock and mountains.


Happy Sophomore Year Paige!

Oh yeah, and we still live in rural naples so we see things like this on the way home from school. Its normal life.

My Man Child

Yes, he's carried the nick name "Old Man" since he was quite young and I think the irony of it has had an effect on his understanding of what it means to "Grow up" I believe with him around I will never truly feel the absence of kids in our home and for now I think thats a good thing. 

We celebrated Dan's birthday a bit early because he had a work trip to go on, but it resembled any young kids birthday party. Toys and games, cake and ice cream and a lot of laughs!  

Happy 46th Dan! We love you and your youthful ways! Keep staying young!

la cugina pizzaria

Sampling real Italian ice

The cute cousin Marin came to surprise Tori right after the cruise. It was pretty fun! Tori left with Dan in the morning to go get registered for school and I ran out to go get Marin from the train station. WE chatted, hung out, had a great time. Then Dan called and said he was at out gate. I sent Marin to Tori's room to wait. After Dan and Tori entered and I gave a few casual comments I said "Oh tori, I had forgotten I had gotten you a little surprise and I just came across it this morning. I put it on your bed" She was excited for a present and went down stairs to see it.

She said when she first saw her she didn't register that it wasn't just Paige and Luana sitting down there. Then there was squeezing and hugging and tear. All followed by a way fun week of adventuring together!

The painted city of Procida

We rented a couple of boats with some friends and headed out to tour around the naples islands.

It was a fun day of swimming in caves and sun and waves!

Marins favorite part was getting to spend a day in the kitchen at one of our favorite pizzerias. Marin wants to become a pizzeria owner and she came her to Naples to learn from the best. This is where pizza started and the people who do it the best. She got real life training and we got to eat all of her hard work, no one was complaining!

Stuffed crust margarita

Sausage and pesto

It was hot!

One of our last adventures was visiting the Island of Capri and touring the famous blue grotto. It was very beautiful, and I am glad I got to see it, but if I had to sit an hour in the sun like that again for a 10 minute tour of a tiny cave I'd cry about it for sure!

Cousin love! So fun!