Sicily.....

These pictures all pretty much speak for themselves.  Sicily was really, really nice.  We spent about half of our days sitting at the hotel pool all day and the other half finding neat beaches to hang out at.  It did get a LITTLE hot for my 8 months pregnant taste though.  I may have started crying at one point because I was so hot and felt like I was suffocating in my own body.  Yeah, it was that hot.

BUT, it was also beautiful and we had a really good time.

Hallie learned how to snorkel and is now addicted.

Chase refuses to snorkel mostly because Matt really wants him to try it and he's the king of opposition.

Anytime I get out the camera to take a picture of Chase he starts "shaking his booty" for the camera and will NOT hold still.  So I have lots of pictures like this one.

I loved watching Hallie get passionate about something that Matt loves so much.  Matt went snorkeling/spear fishing EVERY day when we lived in Hawaii, and really wants his kids to love it as much as he does.  Looks like 1 kid down, 1 to go.  Soon 2 to go, but I'm not letting him take this baby snorkeling for a while.  She needs to be a few weeks old at least.  :)

We are currently going through a pizza/gelato detox.  The kids start convulsing when I tell them they can't have icecream today and we're not having pizza for dinner.  It's back to healthy eating habits for these kiddos, and they're not happy about it.

When Chase WILL hold still for a picture (usually after being threatened by Matt), this is what his face looks like.  I think I prefer the dancing to the creepy plastered on smile.  haha.

Overlooking Trapani.

Exploring a cool, old city above Trapani.

Spent a lovely day at this little cove.  The hike back up wasn't all that lovely though.

Once again, Chase with creepy smile.  CHECK out that water though! 

Uh huh, yeah, it's gorgeous.

So is this little girlie.  She's loving being in 1st grade, although she did tell me that they don't do nap time in first grade and she's not cool with that.

Now back to real life.  No more vacation for us for a looooong time.  Well, Christmas time when we go home to the states. 

In baby news:  The Dr's here do an ultrasound at every apt (love that) and this little woman is a BIG FAT BABY.  :)  She's measuring 2 1/2 weeks bigger than how far along I am.  The good news about that, the Dr is going to induce 2 weeks early! YAY!  Two less weeks of being pregnant.  That means she should make her arrival in a little less than 3 weeks.  Oh man, here we go!

Dear (whoever you are),

Dear Baby in my belly,
     Please flip around so I'll stop being kicked in the bladder.  And please feel free to come out when you've reached about 8 pounds.

Dear Women who love being pregnant,
    I'm sorry, but I think you're kind of weird.  I mean...I love having children....just the act of carrying them for 9 months kind of blows.  And getting them out at the end isn't all that awesome either.

Dear Hallie and Chase,
   Please be really REALLY good on the airplane tomorrow.  PLEASE.

Dear Matt,
  Thank you for my ipad.  I love it.  And I love that you got it inscribed with "Matt loves Sara".  I find that to be particularly funny since my wedding ring isn't even inscribed....but my ipad is. 

Dear Housekeeper,
   I love you. 

Dear German Midwives who will deliver my baby,
   I'm not gonna lie....I'm kind of scared of you.

Dear lady who doesn't look even a little bit pregnant who parked in the maternity parking spot at the grocery store,
   You're lame.  That parking spot is not there because you feel like you're going to throw up, it's there for if you feel like you have a person about to fall out of your uterus and a few extra steps MIGHT be the straw that breaks the camels back....or bag of water....or whatever.

Dear Dishes,
  Please wash yourselves.

Dear Children,
  Please wash yourselves also.

Dear Italy,
  Please don't be too hot while we're there.

Dear Passport people,
  Please make getting this baby a passport a speedy process so we can go home for Christmas.

LOVE, SARA

Our Vacation....in picture form.

Since I had approximately one million pictures to post...I didn't photo edit or crop a SINGLE one. 

Takes too long. 

WAAAAAY too long.

Anways, here's our whole 2 1/2 week long trips worth of pictures. 

Because we "had" to go to Italy for Matt's masters class he was taking I set certain stipulations on the kids and I attending with him.

1) I will not walk around Italy in the heat.

2) I will not stay anywhere that doesn't have airconditioning (except camping in bavaria, because it's nice and cool there.)

3) I WILL eat gelato everyday.

4) I will also eat pizza everyday.

5) I'm sick of seeing cities and buildings....I want beaches and pools.

6) It must be relaxing for me and in no way stressful at all whatsoever.

Matt is awesome.  He met all of the requirements and then some.  Here's the pics to prove it.

When we were camping in Germany we were about an hour away from where Matt had served his mission in Innsbruck, Austria.  So we went there for church on Sunday.  It was lovely.  I love Austria.  Might be my favorite country in Europe.  Well...that and Switzerland.

Aren't they just DARLING??  They're getting pretty sick of posing for pictures. 

At Eibsee Lake...loved this day.  Loved this lake.

Chase's "awesome" face.  He is pretty awesome.

Why are kids naturally so perv-tastic?  I didn't realize she was doing this until after I took the picture. 

It is pretty funny though....

A beach we found near Pisa that is right next to a baking soda plant.  So the sand is basically baking soda and the water is a CRAZY color of milky blue. 

We wanted to be original and NOT try to hold up the leaning tower of Pisa.  So instead we jumped in front of it.  No one does that, right?

Don't you just want to kiss this naughty little face? I do about 200 times a day.  Makes him craaaazy.

Waiting for our pizza in pisa.  Hallie is SO wonderful to be around.  (except for when she's not)  But she usually is, and I love the relationship we have.

Eating lunch at the Cinque Terra.  We HEART the Cinque Terra.  Muy Mucho.

GELATO!!!

I spent a lot of time sitting in random places with sleeping Chase while Matt and Hallie went exploring.  FINE by me.

Sand Castle building.

oooooh I love them.

Matt did convince me to do the "walk of love" or whatever it translates into along the Cinque Terra.  Promised me it was "easy".  Yeah, well, it was.  AFTER we climbed these 154,328 stairs to get to the trail.

However, this view was worth it.  (Lemme tell ya...the legs on this little girl are going to be a BIG problem when she's a teenager.  It's going to be mandatory sweatpants from the age of 12 on).

And maybe a mandatory bag over the head.  She's just so cute.  I know, I know.  All parents think this about their kids. 

The whole familia.

Sometimes I take face shots of Matt just so I can revel in his handsomeness. (is that a word?)

All along the "love walk" or whatever it's called, couples tie knots or put locks on all the fences to symbolize their looooove.  We just made out instead.

Isn't it awesome?

Sexy.

Chase sleeping on a bench....this kid can sleep anywhere.

FLORENCE!  This is a city we did see.  Kind of.  We parked, then took a taxi to the center of the city.  Then took a taxi back.  What?  I hurt in areas you don't even WANT to know about.  I deserved a taxi.

HOLY CANNOLI! Those are sooooooo good.

Some quality brother/sister/gelato time on the streets of Florence.

I used Chase to make the Statue of David a little more....modest.

 I almost died laughing when I saw this sign at the air force base at Aviano.  Really?  Us pregnant people aren't THAT bad off....

We pretty much spent our entire time at Aviano doing this....

and of course flying a kite while doing it.

THE END.