2009 Trip to Italy

It has been a while since I posted last, and quite a bit has happened in the last month. One of the biggest things was our trip to Italy. Stephen and I decided to plan a trip to Italy and then decided that it would be more fun to have a group go, so we invited both of our families. My mom, her best friend Carol, Mom and Dad Mota, Steph, Gene, Stephen and I all headed to Europe for a trip of a lifetime! What a dream come true! It was truly amazing and everything you could possibly think it would be!

Our journey started out in Rome. In Rome we fit in just about as much as you can in 3days. We went from sun up to sun down (and later a few nights). I don't think you could possibly see Rome in anything less than 3 days. It was truly amazing and our favorite tourist/site seeing destination.

Day 1 in Rome: We arrived and went to the Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona and Campo De Fiori

Day 2 in Rome: We started our day at the Borghese Gallery and then went on a 4 hour tour of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral (all of which were absolutely breath taking).

Day 3 in Rome: We went on a tour of the Catacombs, to the Colosseum and to the Roman Forum. We ended the night with another stop in Campo De Fiori.

Every evening ended with fantastic dinners, wonderful company and great vino!

From Rome we had quite the busy day. We took the train to Naples and to Pompeii. We visited Mt. Vesusius (the only volcano on the European mainland that has erupted in the last 100 years and it's still active) It even put on a little show for us while we were there. We also did lots of shopping! Although it was beautiful and quite the view, this was probably our least favorite stop of the trip. We ended the day with a train ride on to Florence.

Florence was absolutely stunning! Tuscany and the countryside was our most beautiful destination filled with vineyards and olive tree groves. Pictures just can't do it justice, but it was incredible!

Day 1 in Florence: We went to the Uffizi Gallery and to the Academia (saw the Statue of David). After that we did what we do best and shopped some more! We found some fabulous Italian leather coats that we had to try on and hold our own fashion show! That night we had one of the many fabulous dinners. In Florence we had our favorite dinner of the entire trip at a place called Il Latini. It was a traditional Tuscan style dinner, complete with several courses and several different wines. Lot's of fun and absolutely delicious!

Day 2 in Florence: We took an early train over to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa that morning. After running to catch our train back to Florence, we barely made our bus to the Vineyard. The vineyard took us to a beautiful castle in the middle of Tuscany where we tasted wine, toured the winery and took lot's of pictures of the beautiful scenery.

The next morning we hopped another train on to Milan. Upon arrival we managed to get in the Duomo Cathedral and the La Scala Opera House. Our main priority in Milan was of course to SHOP! So we did lot's of that! The next day in Milan we went to see the Last Supper at Santa Maria Delle Grazie which was quite an amazing site to see! Truly magnificent.

That evening we took the train on to Venice for a late night arrival. Venice was our favorite destination to visit. It was just super cool. Everything about it was different than America. No streets, just canals going everywhere. It was truly a site to see and it looked like it was pulled straight from the pictures you see. So fun!

Day 1 in Venice: We shopped until we dropped! We saw Rialto Bridge, went to St. Marks Basilica, St. Marks Square, Doge's Palace and of course took a gondola ride!

Day 2 in Venice: Did some more shopping! =)
After Venice we headed back to Rome for one final stop in Campo De Fiori and caught an early flight out the next day to get back to the real world.

It was definitely a trip of a lifetime that we will never forget! CHING-CHING!

Riley's 5th Birthday

Last weekend we drove down to San Angelo with mom and grandma to celebrate Riley's 5th birthday. Friday night we had a celebratory dinner at Texas Roadhouse where Riley got put on a saddle and roped to "Happy Birthday".

Saturday was the big party! Drew and Shelly got everything together down at their awesome cabin, complete with kiddie pool, a pool table, air hockey, fajitas and of course b-day cake. Riley had some of his buddies from school, neighbors and some cousins come out to the house for the party. These blow-up pools these days are a lot fancier than the ones we had as kids. ;) The kids had a blast, and the adults had a little fun too! ;) Then Sunday we had to go home! =( I miss those kiddos so much and have so much fun every time I get to see them!

We head to Italy this Thursday. I'm sure i'll have lot's of pictures to share upon our return! Can't wait!

Mother's Day & Gene's Birthday

We had a very busy weekend last weekend with both Mother's Day and Gene's birthday to celebrate on Sunday! We decided to split the day and celebrate our wonderful moms in the morning and celebrate Gene in the afternoon.

Mother's day was so much fun! Mom and grandma came in and celebrated with Steve's mom and the rest of the family. We all went to brunch at Cantina Laredo and then went to Steph's for cake, gifts and lot's of conversation (mostly about our upcoming trip to Italy). We love our moms dearly and thank God for giving us such wonderful women to look up to, admire and aspire to be like. Thanks moms, you all are the BEST!

Sunday afternoon we turned the focus to our brother-in-law Gene (Geno for the Italian purposes). We went to dinner at Saltgrass and went back to their place for more cake and gifts! ha

All in all, it was a fun filled weekend of celebration!

Baseball with our Lil Bro

Last Friday night we took our little brother Jonathan with Big Brothers Big Sisters to the Frisco Rough Riders game. We had an evening packed with hot dogs, sodas, cotton candy and fun. We all had a good time and got some souvenirs to remember the fun.

Rainy Weekend

It was a rainy weekend which was perfect for staying in the house and relaxing! We did manage to get out to do some Mother's Day/birthday shopping. May has a lot of birthdays in our family and then w/ Mother's Day on top of that, it feels like Christmas around our house! I am glad to say we finished our shopping, so that's good.

Saturday night we went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (cute) with mom and dad Mota, Steph and Gene which was fun!

Sunday we did some catching up on housework. We spent a lot of time with the dogs who are super entertaining! They have become pretty good friends. I have to say, Buddy really puts up with a lot with his little sister. She's not afraid of him AT ALL! =) See video below for a short sample of our constant entertainment.

Visiting Momma

My mom had surgery, so we went to take care of her as she recovered at home. I am glad to say she is doing well! =) She lives on the Brazos River, so it's always nice to get away, relax and enjoy the beautiful view. We got to spend some time with Shelly, Riley and Kaylin too so that's always fun.

Riley and Uncle Steve enjoyed sitting on the rock in moms backyard overlooking the cliff above the Brazos. While Kaylin loved playing with lil Izzy.

We watched a couple of great movies that I highly recommend 1) Facing the Giants 2) Fireproof. Both are Christian based movies but have great messages!

Buddy and Izzy have decided to be friends which is great news to the Mota household. =) Izzy is a typical lil sister that drives her big brother crazy at times, but for the most part he's pretty good with her. We're proud of our lil kiddos. ;)