What do they eat in Sardinia?

They eat amazing pizza and gelato, that's what. I didn't see a single sardine during our stay, not even one:) Sardinia (or Sardegna, as the locals call it) is very beautiful and also very deserted this time of year, which wasn't completely a bad thing because we had our own private beach almost the whole week of our vacation. The only downside was that it was much harder to find open gelato shops than one would expect on an Italian island. Oh well, we all have our crosses to carry. Anyways, apart from it being a little bit chilly and windy, for the most part the weather was spectacular and the water was great. We were gone for a total of 9 days and in order to get there we took a 5 hour car ride to an Italian port and then an overnight ferry to Sardinia. I was lots of fun J I stared a room with Anna and Mariah on the boat and we had fun playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark and telling stories. Here are some pictures of it all!

On the second day of our visit, we decided to check out this little town up in the mountains called and on the drive we noticed this little park right off the side of the road, so we stopped and let the kids play around for a little bit.

This is the view right across the way from the random road side park.

Me and Anna. She insisted we take some pictures:)

Here is a statue right outside the main church in the piazza (or town square) that I thought was beautiful.

The sign on the church.

This was a fun little shop we found, but we didn't go in because almost everything was closed. Unfortunately we arrived just in time for Siesta, but we still got to see a bunch!

Luck was on our side that day because we found an poen Pizzeria even though almost every other restaurant was closed. And what's more awesome, the pizza was absolutely FANTASTIC!

Another day we visited Palau on our way to the Island of La Maddalena, and while we were waiting for the ferry we found this amazing, and I mean amazing, park. I swear, had they built something like this in my neighborhood when I was young, all my childhood dreams would have come true. And yes, I did play on everything while using the excuse that I was looking after the kids. Don't judge me.

On the ferry. As you can see it was pretty ginormous because it also transported a ton of cars over as well.

A photo of La Maddalena from the ferry. While we were there we were able to get some amazing gelato. I got Pistachio, which is my favorite. Dad, you would be proud of me!

We also decided to go on a hike up to Capo d'Orso (Bear Peak) and it was amazing! It's the rock formation kind of in the back that looks like a bear.

Here is a better view of it.

Another close by random rock formation. I don't know why I took this.

Here is inside the bear's head. It was really cool because we got there and because it had been really windy the day  before, we couldn't immediately go and see the bear up close, only 1/2 way because they were working on some electrical problem (the pathway has lights so you can hike it at night). Just as we were about to leave the tour guide came and he let us go see it!

Here is a view from the Bear.

And here is a better view of the head.

Oh! This was incredible! There were tons of lizards all around and one of the girls saw this one scamper across the path and hide in one of the bushes. If oyu can't tell, that's a dragonfly in it's mouth. I mean, that's cool! National Geographic should hire me as a photographer.

Ok, so the tour guide was absloutely adorable and italian and precious, so I covertly took a picture of him to show my sisters, haha. Hopefully he didn't notice.

This is a picture of the sign of our Villa we stayed in.

A picture of the Villa. It was beautiful and seriously the beach was 1 minute away. We went multiple times a day! 

Pretty pretty.

The yard. The sign says "Don't climb on the rocks" in italian.

This was the view from my balcony. Yes, I had my own balcony. Could I get any luckier? :)

Me and Mariah at the beach. She wanted us to pretend we were dead princesses. She was obviously better at it than I was:) I am wearing a sweater because it was cold that day at the beach.  It was great because I got to go to the beach every day and their parents loved it when I took the kids by myself so they could go on bike rides. I love the beach!!!

Here is a sandcastle we made. It was so fun because I got to teach them how to find sea glass and sea shells and how to build things in the sand that will stay up and how to swim in the sea. Thank goodness I was born in Southern California!

Me and Tyler. He loved playing in the sand almost as much as I did. Poor kid, he got sand rash because of his diaper. It's a hard knock life.

Also, Italians are incredibly nice and I love them. I have never previously wanted to learn Italian, but after staying in Sardinia and interacting with Italian people, I want to learn that language just to be able to talk with them! And my favorite thing about the whole vacation was walking with the kids and being stopped by random strangers wanting to touch and look at the baby and children. They absolutely kids! It was so wonderful to hear them exclaim "Oh bella bambina! Bambini! Que bella, que bella!" I loved it. It was like they had never seen kids before:) The national treasure of Italy is not silver or gold, but children, and I think that says so much about the people.

Fam-Bam

So today I got to speak to my family and I realized that I miss them:) Even though we are big and loud and occasionally grumpy and dysfunctional,  I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't get home sick, but I guess this is the closest I'm going to get to that sentiment. Being with another family has really made me appreciate my own. I get to notice things that they do differently and things that are similar, which remind me of home. I love it! My Family:

Some of my family:)

Sarah! this is not a very cute picture of either of us. oh well.

My sister. but seriously.



FHE family. I miss them too!



I don't think enough people have seen this picture. Mike, an FHE bro, on a mission now, trying on my shoes. Not the best idea.

My real brother Mike.

My brother Josh:)

My dad blowdrying Sarah's hair because he was afraid she was getting sick. She was real mad.

2 small pictures of my whole family:) I hate computers, I can't figure out how to make them bigger.

Vincent Arnold Rusesabagina Baird, whose name recently changed to Arnelda seeing as how we discovered He is actually a She.  I love my baby.

C-to-the-H-to-the-O-to-the-C-to-the-O-to-the-L-to-the-A-to-the-T-to-the-E

MMMMM. Chocolate. Chocolate is wonderful. I wonder what it is that draws people to it. There is nothing better than a smooth, rich, creamy, lovely bar of chocolate. And nothing worse than chocolate gone wrong. One word man: Hersheys. That stuff was made with a secret ingredient all right: woodchips. Oh chocolate done right! It's the closest thing to ambrosia we have. Yummy, yummy chocolate. And there are so many kinds! Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate. Further than that, there are sub-divisions of each one: 50% dark, 70% dark, 82% dark, 90% dark (to die for). Chocolate with chili pepper, hazelnuts, almonds, fudge-centered, mint, caramel, I mean...the possibilitles are ENDLESS! Let's not even get into all the pastries that impliment this celestial treat. Actually, let's do. Chocolate cake, german chocolate cake, peanut butter cookies with the little rolos on top, all the stroodles and breads. I am going to die if I don't have a chocolate chip pancake right now. And chocolate chip cookies?! I mean, come on. What kid, or adult, or person for that matter, doesn't appreciate the delicate simplicity of a warm plate of chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk (not too tall though, otherwise it's too hard to dunk, which is a tragedy.) I could sit here in this park for hours and hours writing about chocolate. Except my irises are being burned out of their sockets from the brightness of the sun.

Cows, Castles, and Ice Cream

So, sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been blissfully busy. Rachel and I did a lot of traveling around and had a few good adventures:) Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a boatload of them because I don't really feel like typing all that much. Enjoy!

Actually, I'll split this up into 3 or 4 sections/adventures. The first one is our day in Geneva visiting the United Nations and the Red Cross Museum which are right across from each other.  On our way there, we stopped at this magnificent park that was facing Lake Geneva and ate lunch and talked about Harry Potter. Both of us were tearing up by the time we were ready to leave, which was really funny. I love Harry Potter! The park was actually owned by one of the original founders of the Red Cross, which was really cool! The UN in geneva is wonderful because one of their main focuses is humanitarian aid, which is what I would love to have a career in. Here are the UN pictures!

This is right outside the UN.

This statue of one of my heroes is on the way to the UN. Bless Ghandi.



So in the UN building, countries from all over the world have donated beautiful pieces of art representing their countries and I took pictures of my favorite ones. I think this was donated from Burma or somewhere like that.



I love this picture. I think Ecuador or Peru donated it to the UN.

Obviously Italy donated this beautiful painting.

A view of one of the courtyards.

This is a mural hanging up in a hallway that faces a large window that looks out into the courtyard. In the courtyard there is a memorial dedicated to Woodrow Wilson, another one of my heroes. This sister mural was painted by a french artist and it depicts war. The sister mural hanging next to it is a depiction of peace, but i didn't get a picture of it!

This is a set of doors that I thought were beautiful. They are of Adam and Eve, but they aren't really used anymore. I forgot why, but there was a couch in front of them.

The UN emblem hanging up in one of the Conference Rooms.

Nametags of countries in the same conference room. It was amazing.

Ok, now I'm going to talk about our visit to the Chateau de Chillon. It is this ginormous castle that is literally on the shores of Lake Geneva (on some parts it's kinda built on top of it), and it was the perfect mixture of creepy, educational, and lovely. It is found in the beautiful town of Montreux, which is a town that was basically built on a hill, really cool. Lord Byron wrote a poem called The Prisoner of Chillon, which talks about a prisoner who was locked up in the dungeons of the castle and could only hear the waves beating against the edifice and see the sunlight reflected off the waters of the lake through the window. Oh my gosh. Amazing. We actually saw in the dungeon a pillar where Byron carved his name into the stone. AHHHH! It was really cool. Pictures!

Le Chateau.

This is the prison part of the castle. It was on one of those pillars that Lord Byron carved his name.

See how close the lake was! This was an escape exit for the king or whoever owned the castle. There are mentions of this chateau as far back as 1100 AD.  

This is the dining hall.

These crests were painted on the walls, probably showing the different families that owned the castle.

A pretty window with something french written on it.

An ancient toilet. I thought my dad would especially appreciate this picture:)

Another view of the chateau.

This kind of shows how Montreux was built on a hill.

This is a highway right next to the castle, also built on a hill. It was beautiful there!

Ok this is the adventure that I'm most excited about! We went with the familyIi'm staying with to this  little festival called Des Alpes and they have them all over Switzerland. Basically, it's this celebration to bring hthe cows from the mountainous pastures in the Summer back home to the towns. They're really fun and a ton of people from all over Europe go to see these festivals. The pictures will explain better just how interesting it was:)

Oh, ok really quick, I had to take a picture of this because it was the most random thing in the world. At first I couldn't even tell it was a fake baby, but then i looked closer and realized that it was a doll. Why on earth someone thought this was necessary, I have no idea, but there you have it. I was totally creeped out.

As part of the Des Alpes festival, they dress up all the cows with flowers and it's really cool looking.

A lot of the cow herders will get dressed up too.

This is Tyler, one of the children I look after. He's the cutest kid in the world. And he loves cheese.

We had to be really careful where we stepped, as you can imagine. You cannot imagine the smell though. Actually, for the most part it wasn't too bad, but we really did have to tread carefully:)

This is Anna and Mariah, they are also wonderful:)

An artfully costumed cow herder. I appreciate him.

This guy is just a local shop keeper in St. Cergue (the town that hosted the festival) and he was the hero of the day because he gave drinks of orange juice and white wine to the passing cow herders, who deeply appreciated it:)

Another cow.

A pretty cow named Sandra. A lot of the cows had huge bells with nametags around their necks, it was cute:)

This one says "For my 45 years" in french.

I love this picture. I think they were also cow herders.

I need more cow bell. Haha, these are the bell ringers, they have these huge cow bells that are supposed to go around the cow's necks, and they're playing them like instruments. It was really fun to see!

Very Swiss. I even heard some yodelers Aimee!  Sorry I didn't get a picture of that! 

The last thing I'll report on is also wonderful. Rachel and I went across the ferry to Yvoire, France and found the most amazing ice cream shop of all time. It was so good, we decided to make it our goal to get ice cream in every city we visited. That didn't end up happening (almost though), but nothing quite compared to our ice cream shop in France. We even made a special trip across the ferry again on one of the last days Rachel was here just to pick some up.  Yeah, we're awesome. We also got to visit some wonderful patisseries and boulangeries (bread and pastry shops) and even a crepe shop. Life was wonderful. Here are a few pictures of this beautiful town.

This is a view from the ferry.

This is a really pretty manor right outside the town.

Yvoire is a really old town, and this is a ruin encompassing the village. I want to go back, but a lot of the shops close at the beginning of October, which is a bust.

This is the street where we found the ice cream shop. I took this on our second visit, and as you can see, we're making a bee line for it!

Pretty floral decorations, which are very common all over the town.

Rachel made me take this picture because she thought this flower was incredibly beautiful, especially in her hand:)

Well, that should be enough for now. At least, that's all I'm willing to update at the moment. My back hurts from sitting here so long. Rachel left today, but she'll be back soon, so I don't feel sad:) It was a really good week!