Youth Sports Basketball Season 2018

Another season of youth sports basketball is in the books!  Emma moved up to the senior league and Camden played in the junior league.  Ironically, they both had the same uniform. 

 Camden at the line

Point guard taking it down the court

A free throw in action

 Emma was excited to have Madison and Caitlyn on her team

Playing tough defense

 Emma definitely had a height disadvantage to overcome :)

 Camden's team made it to the championship game in the end of season tournament. He played an AMAZING game and they lost by a point.

 Chris was asked to coach the Junior All Star team. Last Saturday they were victorious against a visiting Italian team

 Keller, Camden, and Coach K

Willy Wonka

Emma had the honor of being cast in her second production at Naples Middle High School.  This year's musical was Willy Wonka.  Our Violet Beaureguard was a HUGE hit at all 4 shows. Photo credits to the talented, Dot Ramirez, who caught some wonderful moments for us!

Violet gets her Golden Ticket

Seeing Mr. Wonka's factory for the first time

Augustus Gloop falls into the Chocolate River

Sailing in Wonka's eerie boat

Wonka introduces Violet to his special gum

 

She doesn't listen to his warning...

 The Oompa Loompas carry Violet, the blueberry, back on stage

 Mel, Sherri, and Ron with Emma after the show

 PROUD parents!!!!

Snow Day in Naples

I would never (in a million years) have thought that we would have a snow day in Naples, Italy. 

Today proved me wrong.

A Siberian Blast has brought the big chill to most of Europe.  On our drive to school Monday morning, it started snowing. This was the view out the front door of the school a few hours later.

All after school activities were cancelled and everyone was encouraged to go home before it got dark and the temperatures dropped. The forecast called for below freezing temperatures (but no snow) which would ice up the roads.  

A 2 hour delay was called for Tuesday.

Flash forward to this morning when I looked out my window.  

To my surprise, there was a blanket of fresh snow on the ground.  Here are 2 excited kiddos in our yard about 7:00.

 We all loaded up into our Jeep Cherokee and headed out to base.

Just before we got to this point, we found out school had been cancelled. We decided to continue on to base and wait out the snow that was supposed to stop in a few hours.

The kids outside the school. 

They were over the moon excited and I was asked, "Mom, why don't we have snow boots and snow pants?"

Answer: It NEVER snows in Naples!  

My neighbor posted a pictures of her yard.  That's our house in the background. :)

1:00 and the highway is drying up on our way home

Thankfully there was still snow to play with in our yard.

Presidents' Day Weekend in Puglia

The past 2 years we've spent Presidents' Day weekend at Carnevale in Viareggio. This year we decided to head to the heel of Italy and explore the province of Puglia.

Here is our trulli house in Alberobello. We had 3 apartments in this cute little country villa. Poor Melissa had to spend all weekend in her trulli apartment because she was sick. :(

Saturday morning we explored the Caves of Castellana

Down, down, down we go...

Photos were only allowed where there was natural light coming into the caves.  We hiked through some magnificent areas over the next hour!

After the caves, we headed into Alberobello

Camden being Camden :)

Unique art on the trulli buildings

Such a cute town to explore!

Sunday morning we went to nearby Locorotondo

Beautiful little streets...

...that were full of runners competing in a road race!  

Here Ron and I are trying to get down the street and stay out of their way

The Adriatic Sea

We looked for a place to eat lunch on the water and found this cool restaurant 

Seaside lunch in February!

 We continued driving up the coast to one of the larger towns in the area, Monopoli. I'm sure it is a hopping place in the summer, but on a Sunday afternoon in the winter, it was a ghost town.

Camden and Emma making the most of our tour around town

 We ended our evenings playing Scopa and Canasta with the Zs. Ron and Chris would enjoy some wine and a cigar while checking out the stars.