Quick Update

I mean it this time, this will be quick! Not much has been going on. It's been insanely hot (which I love, but no-one else does haha) The sun feels like it's burning your skin when you walk outside, it's so bright and sunny. We got a decent patio set finally. This is the first time Michael, Caleb and I have eaten at our OWN kitchen table since we lived in Albion about two years ago. Speaking of eating, I made a three bean chili tonight for the first time tonight and it came out FANTASTIC. I used kidney beans, pinto beans, and black beans...chopped up some green pepper, white onion, fresh garlic, and fresh tomato...obviously a few other little tweaks I can't tell you about :-) Caleb loved it so much he was actually picking out the beans to eat them! Well nothing else is new right now, but we'll keep you all updated.

Gaeta

Saturday we went up to Gaeta for the day. The scenery was incredible. We originally planned on going to the beaches up there because they're cleaner and nicer than in Naples, but the day turned out differently. Because of traffic and driving up there for the first time not really knowing where exactly any good beaches were, it took us about 2 hours. We didn't mind so much because we got to see some pretty stunning sites, between the rolling mountains on one side, and the Mediterranean on the other. After we got there we were told that it's not a good time to go to the beaches because they haven't been cleaned yet, so there would be broken glass and garbage, so instead of going to a beach we decided to walk around and explore the city. I tried to take pictures of everything, but there's not one picture that comes close to seeing it in person. It was so amazing it felt like it wasn't real. We would just stand there and stare out into the water and looking for the little villages scattered atop the mountains. It was almost too perfect. The water was sparkling too much, the sky was too blue, the sun was too hot, the mountains were too clear, the flowers were too colorful, but we can never get enough gelato! We walked through all of the buildings and up and down side roads through some of the most beautiful structures I've ever seen. You had to look closely because you never knew when you might find a hidden staircase, or walk up some steps and look through the bars of a door and see a church inside with beautiful statues and pictures. There were winding staircases and random doorways everywhere, wrapping up and down buildings throughout the whole area. We spent a few hours just walking around taking pictures, then headed back to a gelato shop to get a little treat, and then headed home. We found out today about a free beach up there that's plenty clean enough to go to now, so we'll definately be driving back to Gaeta soon. There's not really much more I can say about our day yesterday, it was just a lot of walking around and gawking at the scenery. But we do have some more great news from the "Caleb trying new foods" front! Today he ate corn on the cob for the first time! We grilled it along with talapia (which he LOVES), and cooked up some gnocchi. Check off another vegetable off the list! He wanted me to take a picture of him eating the corn, which is posted here on the blog, but the rest of the pictures from Gaeta are on snapfish and I'll be sending everybody the link, so let me know if you haven't gotten them.

Life is a bowl full of cherries

Yesterday I made strawberry varenyky for the first time all by myself. For those of you who don't know what that is, it would be like perogies with a sweet strawberry filling. I used fresh strawberries I had from the vendor right outside the base, and after I cooked them I topped them with fresh cut up strawberries and a little sugar. They came out really good, everyone liked them a lot. Caleb wanted me to take a picture of him eating them, which are the only real pictures I have right now, so I'll post them on here instead of snapfish. We also have more good news. We stopped at the vendor this morning to buy a watermelon and some more strawberries, and the man gave Caleb a few cherries before we drove away. He has fantastic cherries, we've bought his cherries before, but Caleb has never tried them. On the way home, Caleb gave a cherry to Michael, gave one to me, and then ate one himself! He loved it! Caleb likes cherries! Then at dinner tonight I put some salsa inside his taco and he ate that too. It's so nuts. He has his good days and his bad, just like any other kid, but more and more he's starting to eat anything you put in front of him, even fruits and vegetables. We're so proud of him. Today we went to the pool on base. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't crowded to the point where we couldn't swim a little and enjoy ourselves. Caleb had a BLAST, and it was definately refreshing as it's been blazing hot. It's a really big pool with different areas sectioned off for people. Only thing is that on our way out I actually stopped to read a sign and we realized you're supposed to buy a pass when you come in. Oops. Tomorrow we're going to the beach. We've heard the beaches up in Gaeta are really nice, so we borrowed a GPS and we're going to head up there in the morning. We'll make sure to take lots of pictures!

YESSSS!!!

Caleb is eating broccoli!!! We needed a quick dinner tonight so I baked up these Chinese vegetable wraps, cooked up some broccoli with a little cheese on top (to try to make it more appetizing for Caleb so he would maybe try it) and rice with a seaweed seasoning on top. He ate everything! We couldn't believe it! He actually said he LIKED the broccoli! Like I said before, by the time we leave Italy we'll have that kid eating everything! :-)

Downtown

Type in "Naples, Italy" in google images and take a look at some of the pictures. That's what it looked like today. These were some of the most beautiful sites we've seen so far, and we only went to downtown Naples again. This time we were alone, and we walked a LOT farther, until we ended up leaving all of the traffic and hub-bub of downtown life. We reached the water and were about ready to jump in. Unfortunately Italians have a trash problem (they like to leave it everywhere) so we saw a few piles floating through the rocks, but as long as you didn't look right at the shoreline, it was absolutely stunning. The pictures I took don't even do it justice. There's no way to capture how beautiful it is without seeing it yourself. While we were walking through downtown to get to the water, there was some sort of parade or protest going on, we're not sure what it was. There was a huge group of policeman leading the way, and men and women waving signs and flags walked by singing songs together. It was awesome. The battery on the camera ran out while I was filming the first video, but then while we were standing there they started singing "Yellow Submarine" by the beatles...but in Italian of course, so I switched batteries and caught a little bit of the song. As we left the busy part of downtown and made our way to the water, there were a lot of flowers, and a nice large stone sidewalk with little vendors, statues, and trees everywhere, and it seemed every couple minutes we'd walk by a couple making out. Apparently love was in the air today. We also saw a lot of sunbathers out on the rocks, as well as two different weddings. I couldn't imagine getting married in one of those churches or castles, and then having my pictures taken up on a ledge against the water, holding onto a pole kissing. It was breathtaking just watching them. We got gelato on our walk back to the bus stop. It was PHENOMENAL!!! Caleb got chocolate, Michael got some sort of oreo looking stuff, and I got a scoop of caffè with a scoop of menta on top. YUM YUM YUM! By the way, for those of you that looked at the last link of photos I posted on snapfish, the reason we had so many pictures of sushi was because I made it myself for the first time. It turned out wonderful and we'll definately be eating it more often! We hope you all enjoy the pictures and videos.

Here is the link to snapfish with the photos we took today. http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=912407007/a=37864239_37864239/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Link to Snapfish Photos

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=903781007/a=37864239_37864239/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Just Another Day

So not much is new right now. We've gotten pretty much everything we need for the apartment (except for a new bed for Michael and I, which will come in the next couple months) and we're all settled in. Due to a week of very stormy weather, we haven't gotten to go out and explore like we had planned this past weekend. Tomorrow (Thursday) we will either be going on a Safari or going downtown again, so some nicer pictures of the area will be coming soon. So here's an update. Caleb likes strawberries! This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, but considering he never used to like any fruits or vegetables, this is a big deal. Now he's eating an apple almost every day, beans, bananas, strawberries, and he ate stuffed peppers for the first time a couple nights ago (minus the pepper on the outside). We've also gotten into the habit of grilling salmon and talapia (or shrimp) once every week or so, and Caleb has tried it all. He liked the salmon, he has eaten a piece of shrimp here or there, and he ate the talapia like someone was about to take it away from him. By the time we leave here we'll have him eating, or he'll have at least tried, everything! We are all doing wonderful and are really enjoying ourselves. Michael has had a couple days of excitement at work recently, but thankfully (for safety reasons) it was all false alarms. Caleb and I spend most of our days going to the park, or for bike rides, taking Sucre for walks, and just playing games and enjoying ourselves. There are a lot of kids around so usually there's someone else on the playground he can play with, as well as the people we've already made friends with. Sucre has almost doubled in size since we got him a couple weeks ago. He has his next vet appointment on the 8th, where he'll be getting his first set of shots and a set of tags. We haven't had too much trouble not having him tagged, but there is one certain guy in security that likes to stop by whenever he sees me out with Sucre and always asks about his tags. The other day we went to IKEA and Leroy Merlin with some friends of ours. That was quite the adventure! Not one person spoke english (which wasn't too much of a problem for me because I've caught on quite quickly to the Italians), but I've never been in a store so big that they had arrows on the floors directing you on which way to walk. We figured this out when we were the only ones walking the wrong way and kept running into everyone. Here in Italy there are fireworks every night. Sometimes we can see them, but most nights you just hear them in the distance like thunder. There are always strikes going on and every other day is a holiday here in Italy. And when they have a holiday, they shut everything down. One of the other bases here was completely shut down one day because the Italians didn't want to work. You couldn't even get onto the base. They love life, and they love to have fun that's for sure! The weather here has been hot and sunny almost every day since we've been here up until the past week. When it rains here it pours. It's been almost like a mini-hurricane every day, and it's been cooler, more like in the 70's instead of the 90's. From the looks of it though, it's gone back to normal. We have a few more pictures and videos, but not much else has been going on lately. We're just going about our every day lives right now, finishing up whatever paperwork, errands, and settling in we had left to do. We've also tried our fair share of good Italian wine, for those of you who are interested! There's wine tasting at the NEX almost every day, but you have to watch out, because at Italian wine tasting you are guaranteed to leave with a buzz. Instead of a taste, they give you about half a glass to drink, and they'll continue to shove wine at you until you just walk away. We can't wait for everyone to come visit us! We miss everyone and love you all very much. Next blog I'll have more interesting things to write about!