Worst Mother Award

Get Away!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

We were at our cottage in Wisconsin over Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday, we took a leisurely ride around the lake in the pontoon boat while Darin fished a bit. Everyone was having a lovely time until Darin caught a fish and it got off the hook and started flopping around on the floor of the boat. The kids screamed and huddled in the corner and Jake was visibly terrifed. So, being the good mother that I am - I opted not to console my frightened son, but to photograph the scene since I was laughing hysterically. Here is a series of shots that captured the emotion of the moment.....








Fortunately, Jake was back to his normal self after Darin threw the fish back into the water. I showed the photos to the folks in my office and they felt compelled to design an award for the Worst Mother in the World. That's what happens when you work with a bunch of graphic designers.

Sorry Jake, someday you'll laugh about this too.

Italy Wrap-Up

Cycling - Italian Style
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Well, it turns out I didn't have to ride in the Nove Colli. As I mentioned in the earlier post, we did some riding around the countryside. I'm not the most daring on the descents and rain was scheduled on race day. I told them that I was apprehensive about riding downhill in the rain with 10,000 other people and they said, "You don't have to do the race". Thank goodness. So, Darin and I rented a car and went to Florence for the day.

Driving it Italy is interesting. Street signs are non-existent. You have to figure out where you're going by reading the signs in all of the roundabouts and even that is unclear since the signs are all repeated numerous times....and they're in Italian. We were wondering where we were going to park once we got there. We followed a car into this piazza where there were a few other cars and decided to chance it and park there. The other folks were probably local and just going to church, but it worked out for us! Luckily, the car was still there when we returned. Check it out in the photo (our car is the silver one):



If anyone asks, parking in Florence is really easy. We got to see all of the sights in a flash. We had to get our rental car back to Riccione before they closed at 7:30pm, so we had to check out the city pretty quickly. Here's another shot while in the city:



We saw Florence on Sunday (May 18) and then on Monday we had one more ride with our group. We rode to a small village, stopped for a Cappucino (Darin had gelato) & took some pictures at the castle. it was a nice leisurely ride to wrap up the trip. We had dinner at a really nice place on Monday night....I had to make this photo bigger so that you can see the details:



I think Italy is the only place you can go on a cycling trip and actually gain weight! The food was spectacular. We've been to various countries where we'd start missing American food -- that surely wasn't the case here! We left early on Tuesday morning and arrived back in Chicago after a good 16 hours of travel. The trip was good, but it's nice to be home.

Italia!

Italia!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Ciao! We survived our first ride! It was 45 miles and quite hilly.....but it was beautiful. The countryside has some cool terrain - we passed vineyards, wheat fields and little towns with cobblestone streets. Apparently, my guide thinks I will be fine to ride in the Nove Colli on Sunday. Hmmm. I also found out that Nove Colli translates to mean nine hills. What did I get myself into?!

Lots going on these days....

Laundry, anyone?
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

We've been pretty busy lately. Darin built the kids a sandbox in the backyard last week. Now, I have to park in the front (instead of the garage) if I want to get them into the house. For the first couple of days after it was built, we would get home and they wouldn't even make it in the house. They would immediately take off their shoes and start playing in the sand. And, yes, I've had layers of sand in the bottom of their bathtub ever since.

I got a new camera for Mother's Day - so we tested it out with the above photo. They love the laundry basket. This is a rare moment when they're not fighting over it. Typically, one of them likes to be underneath it like a dog cage. Unfortunately, they don't both fit under there at once. I might have to buy a second one that's exactly the same.

Darin and I are leaving for Italy tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that I survive on the bike. I'll try to update the blog while we're there.