Venice and a Sparling Reunion

Milestone 900th post :)
The final stop of our European Road Trip was Vicenza, Italy.  Chris and I loved Venice when we visited in November of 2011 and wanted to take the kids there.  It's just a short drive from Vicenza, so we braved the heat (and August crowds) on Thursday.

St. Mark's Square

Setting sail on a gondola ride

Make a wish and seal it with a kiss going under the Bridge of Sighs

Grand Canal

Family photo with St. Mark's in the background

The Rialto Bride under scaffolding :(

A big reason we made our final stop in Vicenza was to see the Sparling family.  They just transferred to Vicenza and we were very excited to have a reunion with them.  Here are some flashback pics of the summer of 2007, the last time we saw each other.

Emma with baby Camden & Avonlea

Chris & Jeff enjoying a beer at a local summer festival

Me & Jessica at a Yokohama Bay Stars game trying to keep cool with our snoozing babies :)

Here we are now!
Camden, Emma, Avonlea, and Seren hanging out at the pool

Cheers to making more memories in Italy!

Loisach River Rafting

This afternoon Emma and Camden went on their first river rafting trip.  The weather couldn't have been better and the landscape around Garmisch was awesome!

Gearing up

So happy to be enjoying Mother Nature!

 My favorite guys

 Family photo

 More beauty around each river bend 

 The kids wanted to go in for a little swim...

 Brrrrrr! It's cold!

 Camden decided to stand still in the river for a while...

 ...but quickly realized he had to swim hard to catch up with the raft!

The kids LOVED the trip and are asking when they can go white water rafting :)

A Return to Lake Eibsee

We're back in one of my favorite places in the world: Garmisch, Germany!

 After a pit stop for a bit of America (shopping at the jumbo exchange & lunch at Chili's) at Ramstein Air Base, we made it to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort.  We had a wonderful stay here three years ago and decided to add it to European Road Trip 2015.

We had some time this morning before our rafting trip, so we decided to hike around nearby Lake Eibsee.  We loved Lake Eibsee on our last visit.  Check out how much the kids have grown up! 

 Camden is visited by a mama duck and her 3 babies

 Emma checks them out

 Happy girl!

 Whoa!  Wading through the lake on some slippery rocks

 Camden's playground

 Emma's turn as photographer

 Rock star hikers!

 A fun little waterfall along the trail

Emma on the far side of the lake

 What a heavenly hike!

A Brussels Sunday

We are big fans of Rick Steves.  He has been a faithful companion throughout our European travels. On Sunday, we combined 2 of his walks and saw the major sites in Brussels.

A flower stand in the Grand Place

 More amazing buildings in The Grand Place

 Emma standing in the oldest shopping mall in Europe: Galeries Royales St. Hubert

 Church of St. Nicolas

 St. Michael's Cathedral is the national cathedral of Brussels. When we walked in, Mass was just starting so we sat down and enjoyed our first French Mass.

 Belgian Comic Strip Center

 Who is this important explorer?

Belgium is the birthplace of the Smurfs!

 Reading some comics in the library

 Brussels' most famous statue: Manneken-Pis

 A fun street we found on our walk

 While we were taking a little afternoon break in our apartment, a street corner concert entertained us

 Evening back in the Grand Place