Ciao Italia!

We have been in a moving whirl wind! We made it back to the states…finally. It was a crazy experience. Delta lost our carseats, pack and play and our DOGS! Yup, we arrived to Denver and they had NO IDEA where they were. It was seriously so crazy. Thankfully, they were found a few hours later. The kids were so amazing on all of our flights. The longest one especially Noah was so great. He is such a busy boy who always wants to “run” and play so I was expecting him to be over sitting in his seat after a few hours, but he did so awesome. I am going to post soon some tips soon for traveling with kids!

Anyways, we made it back to AZ to visit with family and we will be in our new home of Utah next week! I can’t believe it! I am excited to see our new house and decorate it of course ;) That will be fun! Revealing each room on here! I am so not prepared for the cold weather though. The weather here in Arizona has been amazing. Noah has been outside non stop soaking in the sunshine. 

Before we had our house all packed up and got ready to move into the hotel on base I wanted to go say goodbye to one of our favorite nearby spots, Lago Di Barcis. We usually stop at the best café and get a donut on the way up there but they were closed! I was so bummed but I'll always remember going there...especially the time my mom visited after Noah was born. She loved that place! I have never seen the lake during fall so it was a treat! Very short lived since it was freezing and we forgot Noah’s coat at home. He loved throwing the leaves around despite how cold it was.

I also took the kids for a walk through our neighborhood one last time before we moved into the hotel. I wanted to take pics of the area to always remember those narrow streets and how pretty it looks there during Fall. I want to remember the area I took newborn Noah for walks and newborn Siena and the little park hidden behind the trees next to the church where I would take Noah to play. 

We first took a long stroll up to Castello where the old castle remains are that were covered in beautiful red leaves. I took Noah out to snap a few photos next to them. We will probably never get to say that we lived next to an old castle again. Italy livin’ was one of the best experiences of my life and I am sure going to miss it and the beauty of those Dolomite mountains.

Around the corner from our street

Castello D'Aviano

The church next to the park 

Our Street- The Golf course at the end of the street

I will miss traveling Europe and experiencing different foods and culture. I will miss how easy it was to sight see and just experience things I had only dreamed about seeing in “real life”. I will miss our favorite restaurant, Casa Bianca, the owner who knew our family so well and always gave Noah way too much candy as we left! I will miss the espresso, the amazing gelato shop close to our house, the pizza, pasta and pastries…basically all the carbs haha. I will miss Noah playing with the local Italian kids and the adults gushing over the kids. I will miss going to the antique market the first Sunday of the month and our town market every Tuesday. I will miss all the festivals and just ALWAYS having something to do! There is always something to see in Italy/Europe.

All good things must come to an end, right? I was sad to see this chapter of our lives come to a close but I know that God has more great things in store for our growing family. Being home and seeing Noah spend quality time with his grandparents and great- grand parents just validates those feelings. I have goals and dreams that are easier to achieve being stateside and I have support closer by that I often times missed while in Italy. I also think Utah will be a fun place to raise young kids. I hope one day I will visit Europe again. 

There are so many wonderful chapters and seasons of life. We can choose to be sad that something is over or feel so much joy that it happened! We lived in Europe for over 3 years and brought back 2 babies. We traveled more than most people travel in their whole lives and as a family too (Noah is a seasoned traveler now). My marriage became stronger than ever because we only had each other to depend on. I will always be so thankful for the growth we had as a family and the experiences we had together!

Ciao Italia, until we meet again!

My first picture after arriving in Italy August 2013 

Venzone Pumpkin Festival

Fall in Italy is my absolute favorite. Especially the area where we live because it's so close to the mountains. I love when I can see the trees on the mountains changing to fall colors. Living where there is a real fall has been such a blessing. This Arizona girl loves it in case you couldn't tell ;) I'm so thankful we're moving somewhere that will also have beautiful fall scenery.

One thing I have loved about Italy are all the town festivals. You can always find something to do on the weekend because a nearby town will be having a festival celebrating something. This past weekend in Venzone, a town about an hour away, there was a PUMPKIN festival. Basically my dream festival. Literally pumpkin everything. Tons of booths selling pastries of every kind, breads, pizza, pasta, sandwiches, beer...you get the idea. I like that here in Italy they put a savory twist on food with pumpkin vs the typical pumpkin spice everything like in the states...although I'm all for that also :) Venzone is such a cool town and has the most breathtaking views of the mountains. You really feel engulfed in them and it makes the air extra chilly! Perfect weather for all the walking we had to do. 

It's so bittersweet that we are getting ready to move from Italy now that Noah is getting bigger and loving the places we go to see. He had so much fun at this festival. It brings me so much joy when we go do things as a family but especially making memories here. He got his face painted for the first time and it was seriously the cutest thing. He held still the whole time much to my surprise! He of course, chose the dinosaur and was "RAWRING" the rest of the day. He ate the "peeba" aka pizza and loved the pumpkin donut we got him. He's not a shy boy and makes friends with the Italian kids which is so fun to watch. The language barrier makes no difference. He was obsessed with one of their wooden horses so we were on the hunt to find him a horsie of his own.  There was also lots of amor, swords, bows and arrows, costumes and anything else you can think of that has BOY written all over it. If Noah was a little bit older I'm sure he would have been begging for it all, but I am happy out of everything he just wanted the horse. lol. We all loved watching the parade. Everyone was dressed in medieval costumes. The kids playing the drums was probably my favorite! So adorable.  

And then there was Siena, sleeping through it all. She is not a fan of her carseat so Robbie wore her the entire time so I could take pictures. Is there anything better than a baby wearing daddy?? 

I am SO glad we went to this festival. I am soaking up this last season we get to spend here in Italy. I hope you all had an equally as fun weekend!!