This is how we Finger Paint

Need I say more?

Our most recent get-away!

We went on another road trip in July. My aunt Linda and her husband have been serving a mission, for our church, in Genova, Italy for the past 18 months. July was the end for them! A few of my cousins came to Italy to tour around a bit before, bringing Linda and her husband back home. We decided to join them on some of their adventures! This is what we did....
1. Turin, Italy. About 4 hours from us is Turin. We decided to stop here and check out this old Olympic town to see what it had to offer.

2. From here we went to Milan, Italy. I remember going here when I was 17 years old with my mom. My grandfather served a mission here.

love this duomo!

3. From here we traveled to Como, Italy to meet with my Aunt Linda, her husband, my cousin Stacie and her husband. This was a wonderful experience as we have family living in Como from my maternal grandfather's side. We didn't know them very well, nor did we speak any Italian, but we were able to enjoy a wonderful evening with them all!

4. Afterward, we headed to Zermatt, Switzerland! Oh, this was also amazingly beautiful! Unfortunately, we were not able to see the Matterhorn. It was too rainy! :(

the people used to build here homes like this to keep the mice from entering.

rain..rain...rain

cemetery for those who had died trying to climb/descend the Matterhorn.

view from our hotel

5. From here we were going to go to Venice, but the trip was getting a bit too long for Seni and I so, we decided to head towards home. On our way, we stopped in Chamonix, France, briefly.

Matt with a large glacier behind him.

Picture of the cute town.

6. From here we went to Grenoble, France.

shout out to daddiooooo!

Bastille Day fireworks!

Seneca was not comfortable with the fireworks and wanted to wear her glasses.

"les bulles" we took this up to the top of the mountain to get a good view of the city.

beautiful!

7. whew! we made it home! c'etait bien!

:)

Seneca's Purse

So, Seneca got this cute purse from her friend Emilie. She absolutely loves it and usually it never leaves her side.

She also loves to accessorize with it...

So, a few months back we started to go on "Nature Walks" to collect "Nature Treasures". Well, this fun little has turned into everywhere we go we (Seneca) is on the look out for "Nature Treasures". Now, she has this cute little purse to put it all in. Well, the other night, while she was sleeping, I had to see what she had inside. She wouldn't let me do this if she was awake...so, this was the best time to check out her treasures. So, this is what we found...

The purse was really heavy so, I emptied it out, to try and "thin" it out without her knowing it because she refused to do it.

She is a collector...

baby jason

my sister invited us to come and stay with her for three weeks to help care for jason while she worked on a project. we were so happy she asked us! i am so grateful to live so close to her....love it!

now, my sister doesn't want him posted on the internet...but i will just post just a couple of the little man. he is just so cute! he has a wonderful smile and an infectious laugh!

seneca talking to daddy at night just before going to sleep.

seni being such a good big cousin.

our trip to heidleberg

jason and matt

silly...

you are my bestest bestest friend, uncle jeff

well, i am way behind on blogging so, i will try and catch up in the next couple of days....

the first to mention is uncle jeff! uncle jeff came to visit us at the end of may beginning of june! having family visit us is always so good! we really enjoy living where we live but we truly miss our families and friends who are back home.

in preparation for uncle jeff, i made sure to show seneca many pictures of him so that she would not feel uncomfortable around him.

then the big day was here...matt went to pick up jeff from the train station and brought him home. we greeted them both at the door and uncle jeff said hello to seneca and then picked her up to give her a hug. all seneca did was just stare at jeff and did not say a single word. i recognized this look...it was a look of gauga! our little seni rae has a crush on her uncle jeff. poor jeff....from this point on for an entire week, if was all about him. "come sit by me, uncle jeff", "i hold uncle jeff's hand"...etc...etc. it was really funny to see this.

still to this day, she asks..."where is uncle jeff? is he at school?" Jeff, she absolutely LOVES you!

well, during his brief stay we visited a few places. here are some pictures documenting our time with him.