As you can tell from the picture, Louie is getting bigger and today he got his first grooming. Every night he sleeps in a crate in our room. Like any dog they make noises in the middle of the night, and he is sure to try and wake me up around 6:30 for food. Last night was not different in the noises, however there was something of interest that did happen.

We’ve been back from Italy about two weeks and are still trying to get it all together. It’s a big transition that I’ve made even more challenging by trying to get a new dog.
I dragged the kids down to the Franklin County Animal Shelter where we adopted a 2 year old Shepherd mix. We tried. We even extended her name from Princess to Princess Kelly Rocket Shoes. But she had some emotional problems I couldn’t overcome and it was a horrible afternoon that I took her back to the shelter …

Last night was to be our last night in Italy and the kids got gelato. Today we woke up very early to catch our taxi to the airport, and arrived early only to find out that our flight was canceled. Ironic, isn’t it, if you remember that our flight to Italy was canceled. The reason for the cancellation this time is the ash cloud from the Volcano that can’t be named, because no one can pronounce it.
At the airport we reserved a flight to Paris to leave this afternoon, and …

Warning – long post ahead.
This last weekend we travelled south to Tuscany! Despite the trip’s beginning, the end turned out well.
We left Bologna on a dreary note, namely rain. It was soured further by a poor experience renting a car from Eurocar – I advise finding someplace else to rent a car from. Eurocar was costly and the man who “helped” us was discourteous and unkind. To top it off, driving out of Bologna left us fearing for our lives as we interacted with Italian drivers. The whole morning …

There are times when I regret taking my own advice.
After my last venture to Venice, two years ago, I suggested to my readers that there were too many bridges with too many stairs to make bringing a stroller worth it. At every bridge we had to carry the stroller and the child up and over.
That advice was made when I had a child who weighed half of what he does today, and couldn’t run nearly as fast. Believe me, a fearless 40 lb three-year-old, surrounded by murky, green water (and …

As if this week wasn’t exciting enough, what with LJ’s race and our leaving for Venice tomorrow, we went and visited the Towers of Bologna.
You can see from the picture that there are two main towers, one larger in the back, the other leaning dangerously to one side. We climbed the one in the back. There are actually many more towers than these in Bologna, but these are the two for the tourists and one of them you can climb.
An interesting thing about Bologna is that there are many …

By Laura
Long before coming to Italy for the spring, I had repeatedly searched for some sort of race to participate in to prepare for the Cleveland Half-Marathon in May (which I still hope to run). I found two decent races – marathons in Milan and Rome – but the timing didn’t work. Imagine my surprise when I found that a 10.8 kilometer race was happening right here in Bologna this weekend! I couldn’t quite figure out how to register or what time it started, but yesterday I found a nice …

Here is another Addie joke. This one was made up in late Summer.
What is a plant’s favorite movie?
Grassic Park
When you say grassic you have to say ‘gurassic’ rhymes with Jurassic

It feels so strange to know that we are leaving here tomorrow. This place has become home, and it is sad to say goodbye. At the same time, I am excited to get back to my old life and the things I miss at home.
A fast recap of the last few days reveals that we were back at the hospital, to replace the bandage that Griffin tore off. It was fine, and he stopped crying once he realized that it wasn’t going to hurt. While we were there we …

Addie lost her first tooth at the border leaving Hungary and coming back into Croatia.

Yes we went to Budapest for the weekend.
Driving to Budapest from Zagreb didn’t take very long, about 4 hours there and 3 back. Right now they are still building the nice highway inside Hungary. The delay was caused by slow trucks on the back-route detour between the finished parts. On the way back it was much faster because we drove Sunday morning.
We stayed at the Hilton in the Castle District. The hotel was better …