Jumping Across Europe

We had an amazing trip to Spain and Italy!

Spain was warm and sunny and gorgeous.

Italy was butt freezing cold.

Like for real.

We jumped our way across Europe...

and had a marvelous time!

Seville Cathedral

Seville, Spain

A Picture for Anna

Frigiliana, Spain

THE Leaning Tower of Pisa

Pisa, Italy

St. Mark's Square

Venice, Italy

Colosseum

Rome, Italy

St. Peter's Square

technically Vatican City

St. Peter's Basilica

Vatican City

And I will leave you with my favorite.

Pantheon in the Snow

Rome, Italy

Best.Picture.Ever!

Get ready for the best.picture.EVER!



Love how it looks like we actually got some air.

But let's zoom in a bit.

We were told to jump like ninjas.

Steve decided making the ninja sound would help him.

Apparently, I was playing the part of a terrified ninja.

Let's zoom in once more.

best.picture.ever

El Fin

Checking Things Off My Travel To-Do List!

I've been busy checking things off my list!

Here is the view from our hotel room balcony in Nerja, Spain.



Disclaimer: This is after traveling over night and not showering or brushing my teeth or changing my clothes. :-)





Here's a pic I took that is the same vantage point as the one in this post.

And...I've done my share of sampling the local Sangria.  Yummo!

This is where we had lunch the other day.  Ri-dic-u-lous.  I know.

And I plan on getting my paella on today for lunch!

And so far the conference is going great!

Hope to update again soon!

Adios!

Spain and Italy To-Do's

If you don't know...we're headed to Spain today!

Read about it at the bottom of this post.



I wanted to share a few of my to-do's...or must-do's while we're in Europe.

Most of the time we are in Spain we will be working at a conference.

Busy Busy

So I think some of the only things we will see is this...

This is Nerja, Spain...the city the conference is in.
Our hotel is right on the sea.

Source: google.co.uk via Cheryl on Pinterest

 And I am most definitely sampling some of this stuff
...the real authentic kind...

Source: yellowsongbird.blogspot.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

And eating lots of this...
Paella!

Source: snippetandink.com via Suzanne on Pinterest

We have one free day where we might see this...

The Rock of Gibraltar

Source: Uploaded by user via Jan on Pinterest


Or this...
Sevilla, Spain

Source: Uploaded by user via Cheryl on Pinterest


But when the conference is over we are headed to Italy for vacation!
Here is my must-see/do while in Italy!
in no particular order

#1 - I AM doing this.  And I AM making everyone with me do this too!
It's a non-negotiable.

Source: Uploaded by user via Cheryl on Pinterest


#2 - You can thank my Art History class in college for the next 3 must-sees.
This one is David and he's in Florence.

Source: jenlmckenzie.com via Cheryl on Pinterest


#3 - The Pieta in the Vatican in Rome.

Source: google.com via Cheryl on Pinterest


#4 - Ya...I might cry.  The Sistine Chapel.

Source: sculpturegallery.com via Cheryl on Pinterest


#5 - Yes, I will be serenaded in one of these.
If they actually serenade you in real life...maybe that's just in the movies.
Boy will my hubby be embarrassed if I have to do the serenading.
I can do a mean version of "That's Amore"...you know...
"when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...that's amore."

Source: sunsurfer.tumblr.com via Cheryl on Pinterest


#6 - The Colosseum - Rome

Source: google.com via Cheryl on Pinterest


There's more...but I think this post is long enough already!

Can't wait to share with you all about my travels!

Hasta luego!
Ciao!

Valentine's Cards!

So happy to have Anna's Valentine's cards done before we leave on our trip Wednesday.

More on that later.

I had lots of Pinterest inspiration for these...and I love how they came out.

I love the square retro feel and almost 3D effect of the picture.

And I especially love the cute little girl in the pic!

I used picnik.com to edit the photo with the wording and hearts.

And I also used Instagram to edit the coloring.



And just for fun...I got little sister involved.

That scowl was about as good as I was going to get during our little photoshoot.

I have learned to take what I can get with little ones!

Hubby and I won't be here to celebrate Valentine's Day with our littles.

We will be in Europe!

Wha?

Yes...Europe.

Spain and Italy to be exact.

We are helping with a conference in Spain for about 10 days.

Then we are off to play in Italy for another 10 days or so.

We have some friends that live in Italy and we figured...the time is now!

I'm pretty excited.

Ok...I'm freaking excited.

I'm hoping to post the things I'm looking forward to seeing the most in Italy.

And then I hope I actually get to see them!

My in-laws will be holding down the fort with our littles.

We have great families who love spending time with our kiddos so we can travel the globe.

Literally.

I don't expect opportunities to come up like this all the time...

so we're trying to take advantage while we can!

Buenos Noches Amigas.

Hasta Luego.

sidenote:

I like speaking my "broken-I learned in 4 years of spanish class in high school-I can only speak in present tense" Spanish around my hubby.

He doesn't know what I'm saying most of the time.

I find that amusing.

El Fin.

 

One More from Thailand...

First of all...

I would like to blame jet lag on my lack of posting.

I usually write my posts at night and schedule them to appear in the morning.

But when you fall asleep on the couch every night shortly after putting the kids to bed...

wake up in the middle of the night fully clothed with your contacts still in and all the lights on...

stumble to the bathroom to get ready for bed...

and then lay awake in bed for an hour, because your body is like "ummm...didn't we just do this?"

then you don't get a lot of posts written :-(

I had one more Thailand post I wanted to share with you all.

But before that...

my friend started a blog

and thought it would be hilarious to post a video

of my hubby trying to feed me a food that terrified me - remember that post?

I did not know she was recording me...so that is the real Cheryl right there lol...

check it out here - ABCs and Frozen Peas

And now on to the last (I think) Thailand post...

Thai Modes of Transportation

This is a tuk tuk.

It's one of the most famous modes of transportation in Thailand.

This is Steve and I riding in a fancy tuk tuk.

Our hotel had one that would drive you down to the skytrain station for free.

Speaking of the Skytrain...

it is an elevated train like a monorail...but not really



This is me on my hot pink Thai phone trying to navigate the Skytrain map.

One mode of transportation we did not participate in was what I like to call a truck bus...

very unique.

There were about 200 gazillion (I counted) mopeds everywhere.

And apparently they have no rules.

They just zig zag through traffic...

somtimes going the wrong way on the street...

and push their way to the front...

like this...

We took cabs a lot.

So thankful English is pretty well known in Bangkok!

Made getting around in the cabs so much easier.

Here we are trying to tell a cab where we need to go...



And the most fascinating of all modes of transpor-tay-shee-owns

THE THAILAND CARTSCELATOR!

Seriously...fascinating.

Embrace the Camera - Thailand Style

Even while in Thailand, I was able to Embrace the Camera with my kids!

We Skyped with them almost every day.

The time change (12 hours) made it difficult...

but we would try to catch them while they were eating breakfast...

or right before they went to bed.

This is me and Ellie on a Skype call :-)

And that is how you Skype with an 18 month old.

Make funny faces and tell her that you love her :-)

I was SO thankful for technology while we were half way around the world...

LITERALLY!

my babies on another Skype call

We were on the search for free wifi every where.

I had to stay connected for my own sanity.

My kids were like a billion miles away and I HAD to be within an email away from them.

I couldn't stand the thought of not being able to know how they were doing.

Here we are taking advantage of free wifi at a Starbuck's at a mall.

This is me Skyping on my iPhone in a coffee shop in another mall.

Did I mention there were a lot of malls in Bangkok??

Steve had to shoosh me a few times...

I had my earbuds in and was probably making silly noises a little too loud ;-)

But I didn't care!

I was talking to my babies!

I can't even imagine what it was like being in foreign countries years ago away from your family.

before internet...

before email...

before Skype...

When all you could do was make a super expensive phone call or write a letter.

Wow.

Thankful for technology.

And now I'm thinking of Napoleon Dynamite :-)

Joining Emily with ETC

Thailand - Food That Terrified Me!

Let me first preface this post by saying...

I am a somewhat picky eater.

I would like to consider myself a Recovering Picky Eater.

I was way worse when I was younger.

I've gotten to the point now where I just don't like the taste of some things.

I'm sorry...but yogurt looks great...smells great...but tastes like sawdust.

EVERY TIME!

Same with pop tarts, tomatoes, pickles, mushrooms, flaky pastries, broccoli, and any tea...expecially chai...

oh my gosh chai tea makes me gag just thinking about it.

And I've tried...promise.

So...with that being said...here are some pics of Food That Terrified Me!

It was actually my friend Andi's idea.

Every day I kept pointing things out to her and say "That terrifies me!"

And she was like "this sounds like a blog post."

And I was like "that's a genius idea."

There would be a dozen more pics if she had given me the idea sooner in the trip ;-)

This first pic is a fruit.

No idea what kind.

It was red on the outside and a scary gooey with black seeds on the inside.

A pack of herding rhinos couldn't make me eat this.

Unidentified Fruit



This next one just does not come through in a pic like it should.

It had a gelatinny (I just made that word BTW) larva coccoon texture.

I've decided the only thing gelatin I want to eat is Jell-O, thank you very much.

And there was a LOT of gelatinny food choices in Thailand.

Sago Dumpling with Minced Pork and Peanut

These next 2 were in a food display case at a food court in a mall.

No further scary explanation needed.

squid on a stick

squid on a stick

Seaweed flavored Lays.

No Thank You.

Seaweed flavored Lays potato chips



Now I love corn.

Especially on salad.

But with my ice cream...

Not so much.

KFC Dessert

This next item was meant to be an ice cream topping.

It was black, gelatinny, slimey looking, in black sauce.

Sends shivers down my spine ;-)

Unidentified Black Gelatinny Stuff in Black Sauce

And just so you don't think I hated all the food in Thailand...

here are a few yummy pictures!

This was a yummy fruit.

It was hot pink and bumpy on the outside and white with black seeds on the inside.

It was a little harder than a kiwi texture-wise.

Dragon Fruit

Diet Coke...or what they call Coke Light

It tasted different.

Different sweetener...but I got use to it and enjoyed it just the same.

Coke Light

And this is me eating yummy Pad Thai!

I will say that as much as I enjoy Pad Thai...

I don't need to eat it any time soon.

I'm good for a while :-)

Yummy Pad Thai

Hope you enjoyed seeing some scary and yummy foreign foods!

Feel free to take a guess at what the unidentified items are!