Asher Walking

Here is a video we shot just about 2 hours ago of Asher taking his first try at some SERIOUS walking! ( meaning, more than one or two steps). What I love about this video is the way he cheers for himself throughout it. It's only about 1 minute long. Enjoy!

Birthday Boy!

Asher is 1 today! I can hardly believe it's been a year since we had our last-minute C-section and Asher Edmund joined our family! Wow! Here's a photo of the little cheeser when he was just a few hours old. He's changed so much! His favorite thing to do now is say "hiiiiii babeeee!" with a huge smile on his face. He's also VERY close to walking. On Sunday, he took about three steps between Nathan and me.
Happy birthday sweetheart!

It made a better movie...

Okay, so it's fairly rare that you hear people say that a movie was better than the book it was based on. Usually it's the exact opposite. My friend Nhia and I got chatting about this fact at work recently. Her example of a movie one-upping a book was "The Last of the Mohicans" and I have to whole-heartedly agree with this one! What a great film! And I'm sure the book is good, but the one time I tried to muck my way through it, I didn't even get through the first chapter. Ugh.
Another one in my humble opinion is "The Princess Bride" and yes, I have indeed read the book by William Goldman. (I was THAT big of a fan!) The book is funny, I'll grant you, but not nearly as entertaining or addictive as the movie.
Rumor has it that Forrest Gump also falls into this category, but I've never read the book, so I can't really say -- although I find it hard to believe it could be as fun as the movie was.

Can any of you think of any other examples of movies over books?? It's rare, lemme tell ya!

Highlights of Tuscany

Here are a few of the photos that Nathan took during our vacation in Italy. We had an amazing time -- some of the highlights? Wine tasting in a castle built in the 12th century, hiking to a monestary in the middle of rolling vineyards are hearing the Benedictine monks who lived there sing their Gregorian chants, eating bruscetta and tiramasu while sitting next to a gorgeous bath/lake used by the Medici family -- sitting on the Piazza Il Campo and sipping cappuccino. It's too hard to pin down only one favorite memory! What a trip!

Back!

Well friends, we are back in the country! After dealing with some serious jet lag, I find I'm now dealing with work jet lag. I had sort of gotten used to going to bed by 10 p.m. and sleeping for 9 to 10 hours per night. Now, it's back to working until midnight and getting up with the boys at 7 a.m. or earlier. Ugh. I'd be lying if I said my first night back to work last night was easy. By 8 p.m. my eyelids were dropping. Oh well. At least its a short week! And next week is short too, with the Thanksgiving holiday! Yay!
Our trip was amazing! I hardly know where to begin. I'm going to try to post some photos here shortly, so stay tuned!

Piazza Il Campo

We had a great night tonight in the Piazza Il Campo in Siena, Italy. This piazza is known for the horse race that is held in it twice a year, in the summer, drawing thousands of people. Tonight, we arrived at Il Campo at dusk and sipped cappuccinos while overlooking the piazza. It was a lovely evening.

Buongiorno!

Buongiorno from Italy! It is Tuesday evening here, and we have arrived at a four star hotel that has Internet access. Now we can give you all brief sneak-peak at what we have been enjoying so far in Tuscany. With the hundreds of photos Nathan has taken, you can imagine how difficult it is for us to choose a handful of photos to post!
It has been like heaven on earth for us these past few days. Everyday we hike to a new town and enjoy the wine, the shopping and the views.
Here are a few photos from our journey. The photo of the old man playing the concertina was taken in Florence on Day 1 of our trip. What an incredible city! That is also where the picture of the two of us is from. Here we are standing in front of the Duomo of Florence, where they were marking the 40th anniversary of the great flood of 1966, in which the Arno River flooded some parts of the city – 15 feet deep at some points. Here in Tuscana (as it’s called here) it is the olive harvest season. The photo of the man spreading nets on the ground below the olive trees for the olive harvest was taken outside the birth home of Leonardo da Vinci, outside the small town of Vinci. The photo of the vineyards was taken at Colle Verde, an excellent winery, as well as olive oil producer, located outside Montecatini. Tonight we are in Siena. We have yet to see much of the city because we just got here. But please check in later, as we’ll be at this hotel for 2 days and plan on blogging a bit more before we set off for Rome. Ciao! (And to our sweet boys, Gabriel and Asher, we miss you so much and can’t wait to see you soon! All our love and kisses! Be good boys! We’ll be home soon!)