Caleb, the World Traveler

Our Italian Adventure...

As most of you know, we just got back from Italy a few weeks ago. We managed to squeeze in this trip just before Caleb turned 2, which was yesterday the 28th. I still can not believe he is already 2. One of our neighbors thought he looked more like a 3 year old. Crazy! Anyways, our trip to Italy was amazing. Overall, Caleb was an All Star traveler. He only got his own seat on 1 out of the 6 planes we were on. We were hoping for his own seat on the overseas flights, but to no avail. Thanks to "Thomas the Train" videos, cars and truck toys, stickers, crayons and snacks we managed fairly smooth flights. It took Caleb and Mommy a few days to settle in once we got to Torino (Turin). Meanwhile Josh was on the go and climbed Mt. Blanc 2 days after we arrived with Andrea's brother, Anthony. I am still not sure how he pulled it off with such little sleep, a sore throat and jet lag. While he climbed Caleb and Andrea hung out with Nikki (Andrea's sister-in-law), Siena (4 1/2), Sammi (2 1/2) and Asher (5 mo). Caleb loved getting to know his cousins more and playing with cars, trucks, and trains with Sammi.

We started our vacation travel around Italy on Saturday by heading to the seaside. We stayed the first night in Bogliosco, a small, charming beach town just south of Genova. From there we drove down to Piombino to catch a ferry across to Elba Island. It was quite the travel day. The kids all loved the ferry ride. We made our way to our Bungalow (kind of like a little cabin). Elba is a very kid friendly island and a place where Italians like to go on holiday. Heard very little English spoken there which made it feel less touristy. We spent 3 days and 3 nights on Elba and explored lots of beautiful beaches. Caleb was quite the fan of the water. He loved it. On Wednesday morning we caught the ferry back to the mainland. Our original ferry boat broke down so we had to drive around to the other side of the island to catch another one a few hours later. Gotta love Italy! This was another long day of travel. It took us many hours to get to our farm stay on a beautiful vineyard in San Gimignano. The drive to S.G. was breath-taking. Josh just kept commenting on the Tuscan beauty. Our farm-stay was fabulous. Everyone there was so friendly and hospitable. We made our way into town for pizza and gelato. This was Caleb's first encounter with gelato. Let's just say he was a big fan. We were so impressed with San Gimignano (city of 7 towers) that we decided to spend another night there. We found another incredible farm-stay apartment nearby. We enjoyed watching the beginning of the grape harvest in this region and did a wine tasting while we were there. It was the first time any of us had been to San Gimignano and we ALL loved it!! I highly recommend it. From there we swung by Pisa for lunch and some photos of the tower and made our way back to Bogliosco to spend another night at the beach house. The next day Andrea's family took Caleb to the beach and Andrea and Josh took the train to Cinque Terre to hike and explore for the day w/o the little one. This was a HUGE blessing. Between our 4 train rides and hikes we can't imagine our stressful the day would have been with 1 or 4 children. Josh had never been before, so we knew we had to at least get him there to see it. We had a great day just the 2 of us. That night we headed back to Turino. The next day was Sunday and we got to go to A & N's church and hear Anthony preach in Italian. The name of their church is Il Refugio and we loved being a part of it for a morning(well, actually it is more like a half day community experience which is very different from our 1 hr. services in the States). We got to meet the faces of the names we always hear about. It was such a blessing to be able to go. The next 2 days we just hung out and did some sightseeing around Turino. It was great to be able to chill a few days with those guys before we came home on Tuesday. We are all now back to our normal routines and talk about our special memories often. As much of a stretch the trip was for our little family, we were so glad that it worked out to go. We have been wanting to go visit them since they have been there for 5 years.

Here are some fun pictures from our trip...

Caleb and Daddy on the Ferry boat over to Elba Island. Check out those curls on Caleb thanks to the wind!


Caleb and Mommy playing in the Mediterranean Sea with of course, a dump truck in hand. It was like bath water.




Uncle Anthony, Sammi and Siena exploring at the pebble beach near our Bungalow on Elba.



From the vineyard at our farm stay in San Gimignano. Tuscany was AMAZING!!



The city of 7 towers, San Gimignano, Italy. We all fell in love with this medieval Tuscan city. A must see if you ever visit Italy.



Caleb enjoying some of his first encounters with Gelato...yeah pretty sure he was digging it! What's not to like. We found our favorite Gelaterria in San Gimignano.



The family at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We stopped long enough for the kids to run around, grab lunch, and snap some pictures. Too fun!!



Josh hiking between Riomaggiore and Manarola city, in Cinque Terre, Italy. Absolutely beautiful!

Caleb Update

Wow, once again time passes so quickly. We can not believe our little Bubs is almost 2! We have had quite the summer. Lots of fun memories to look back on. We recently visited Andrea's brother and his family in Turin, Italy and are adjusting back to our normal routines. We will post another blog in the next few weeks all about our time in Italy. Wanted to show you some of our highlights from this summer. Caleb is the star of the show of course, at least for the next four or so months. Andrea is 20 weeks along in her pregnancy and we have decided to wait until the end to find out the sex of the baby. We are eager for this wonderful surprise! So...we will let you know around the 30th of January! Here is a snapshot of some of the highlights from our summer...


Caleb doing what he likes to do best: play with his trucks and cars on the ground. This was captured after Uncle Jason's (Josh's brother) wedding in August. Caleb was the handsome ring bearer. Thank goodness for washing machines with little boys!Family photo outside of the wedding chapel. Hard to get a 23 month old to smile for the camera, let alone want to stop playing long enough for a photo.

I am still amazed that they make such small adorable tuxedos. Caleb ran down the isle with his truck in hand. Hey, whatever works!


Great-grandpa Schmidt playing with his great grandson in our backyard. It was such a gift to have the Schmidt family out for the wedding. We got to spend a few days with family prior to the wedding.

Caleb in his glory! We stored Uncle Jason's big blue truck through the winter months. Caleb was thrilled when the blue tarp was taken off and he could see what was underneath. He even got to drive the truck. Whenever Caleb hears Uncle Jason he says big blue truck. I think we have a match!

We have spent many fun hours at the Children's museum this summer. This picture was taken when Nana Nancy and Papa Sam came out for a visit this June. We had a blast!

Caleb and Andrea went to Portland in July to visit Andrea's good friend and her family. We went berry picking one day and here is Caleb reaching for a ripe rasberry. He really got into it and had fun running up and down the berry patches.

So the theme here is trucks, cars and...trains. We went to the Denver Zoo with Nana Nancy and Papa Sam while they were out. Caleb likes the animals okay, but he LOVES the train and all the zoo vehicles more. Good times!

Caleb visiting Great Gram in Chicago at the end of May. We happen to discover these fun construction trucks across the street, what are the chances? Caleb got to drive the paver. He could have done this for hours! He and Great Gram had a so much fun together.