Our family in Venice

After we found our hotel it was dinner time so we headed to the Piazza nearest us for some Pizza and pasta! 

K and Coco's first real Italian meal!

Colette ate most of Daddy's spaghetti, brand new to her! 

Kaelan loved the pizza and the Gelato! 

Looking down at the Piazza San Marco

Venice is all about mystery and intrigue! 

They have had a lot of masked balls throughout history and still do! So, of course, every tourist shop sells masks. 

My mom and sister asked me if the kids would be wearing life jackets the entire trip! It was a little spooky having a 3 year old running around with no barricades next to the water. He spent a lot of time in the back pack and did a lot of hand holding! He did great! 

Taxi ride to our hotel

This was our first glimpse of Venice from the taxi boat!

This is a great way to see Venice when you first arrive...go in style!

Colette and I out on the pier in front or Piazza San Marco

This was our last meal before we caught the bus to the airport. We sat by the water saying goodbye to the boats!

Our Gondola ride

Every website I read about visiting Venice said to skip the Gondola ride. They said they were over rated and way to expensive! Well, the second part is true but can you really go to Venice and not take a Gondola? This turned out to be our family's favorite part of the trip! I loved every minute and didn't want it to end! Kaelan sat for 45 minutes perfectly still watching the Gondolier, the water and the other boats. Colette loves to do what everyone else is doing so she loved it of course and Travis and I were able to sit back and enjoy our children and amazing Venice! 

Another of Travis' great shots!

 My 2nd favorite shot of the trip.

She wanted to see what it was like to be a Gondolier! 

This is my favorite!

We have to bribe K to smile and it didn't work this time!

K and the Gondolier!

Our boat

Famous sites of Venice

Street signs leading us to the 2 most famous locations in Venice. 

The street signs were easier than the maps to follow but I swear we went in circles more than once while there!

The famous Basilica San Marco on the Piazza San Marco

The colorful work of art above the door is a Mosiac! 

They were incredible and the entire church is full of them, the floor too!

The Lion is the symbol of the Saint San Marco

This is the view from on top of the Basilica looking down on the Piazza. 

The building is the Doge Palace. the Doge was the ruler of Venice in the time Venice was a super power on the trade routes.

This is what the Piazza looked like on Easter morning!

Everyone was waiting to get into the Basilica for prayers. 

Even tourists have to get their 2 visits to church in...Easter and Christmas! 

The Bell tower.

We wanted to go to the top but we had 2 problems.

It was a long line with kids and the bells chimed every 30 mins right next to your head! 

Kaelan still has a love hate relationship with the bells so he was a little scared!

The bridge of sighs.

This bridge connects the Doge Palace to the Prison.

It got it's name from the prisoners who would gaze out the windows, sighing, seeing the daylight for the last time before they were locked up.

Even though the prison was not in a dungeon, nothing is underground in Venice and most things aren't even ground level due to the water, the prison had no windows and most prisoners would die there. 

The famous Rialto bridge!

At one point we were walking in the small street leading up to the bridge and got stuck. There were so many people and there was a tour coming the opposite direction, we literally didn't move for a couple minutes and when we did it was a snails pace! There was no where to go! I had to focus on my kids and Travis to keep myself from getting too claustrophobic! 

Uniquely Venice

Funny shaped buildings

Wells everywhere

They dug down below the sea water to find freshwater

 Old pillars peaking out under new refurbishing

We saw a lot of partial murals hiding in an alley, under a bride or in a courtyard.

I'm not a hopeless romantic but I love the Gondolas! 

They make Venice so special.

This was one of the "wide" streets!

The small ones were too dark to get a good photo.

Boats

And Bridges!

Another of Travis' creative shots!

Burano- Venice trip

Day Two- 

We took a bus (water bus pictured above) through the lagoon out to the surrounding islands and landed in Burano. 

Burano is famous for Lace making.

They are also well known for their colorful houses.

 I read they were painted bright colors in early times so they could be spotted from sea.

Travis' creative shot!

Our hotel- Venice

Travis and K in the small alleyway we got to walk down everyday. 

The taxi (water taxi!) drops you off as near as they can so we were on our own to find the hotel. We had to cross a bridge, ask for directions, go down a couple tiny alleyways and only by a miracle did we end up right in front of the door. They say maps are worthless in Venice and I now believe them (whoever "they"are!). The city is a labyrinth of small cobblestone alleyways with hidden courtyards and mysteries around every corner! Just as I dreamed all of Europe must be when I was a little girl!  

Our hotel is on the right

That's it! Impressive right? For what we paid I thought we would be staying at the ritz! In this poor, decrepit buildings defense, most everything had an old crumbly look. I guess being over 400 years old, and most likely on floats of some sort, meaning everything is shifting all the time, it is expected!  

Our courtyard with a well

This is our beautiful old world room! 

I LOVED IT!

K-man's sofa bed with Coco in the cot next to him.

Our hotel was more like a B&B. Breakfast was literally 2 steps outside our door and 4 other rooms opened up to the room as well. The hotel only had 14 rooms and they were all huge and very unique. 

No More Training Wheels!

Kaelan has been asking to ride his bike without the training wheels.  We decided this weekend to go ahead and try so Travis took them off and we walked to the parking lot across the street to see how Kaelan would do.  Travis said as we were walking over that he'd be putting them right back on but to our disbelief, I think we set a record teaching a 3 year old to ride a bike!  It took less than 5 minutes before he could go on his own and in 15 minutes, we were off on a family bike ride.  Maybe it's something in the water here in Holland?

Easter

We had a Easter celebration at our Mums and Tots play group. The kids made their little Easter basket, or cups in this case, and then got to hunt for eggs. So nice to have a little tradition from home.

So...can you see the word on Brandi's (the mom's) shirt? Look a little closer. See it? It says BOISE! She is wearing a Boise State shirt! Not sure I ever told you the coolest story about my first Mums and Tots event (actually my first event in the Netherlands!). It was summer so the group was meeting at a play ground and I was the first to arrive. Then a lady pulls in and gets her twin boys out of the car. I was looking at her wondering if she was part of the group or a Dutch lady bringing her kids to the park. Then I saw it! She was wearing a Boise State shirt that day too. The first international person I meet in the Netherlands is from Boise, Id! Can you believe it? Even better is that we both moved out of Tuscany (the same neighborhood) before we moved overseas. I learn everyday just how small this world is becoming! 

K filled his little cup with chocolate eggs! 

Some of the egg hunters!

Kaelan even brought some over for Coco too! 

Thanks Mille for the dress you gave her for our baby shower! It fit for Easter and the colors are perfect! 

Comparing (and eating) eggs!

What is this you may ask? Well...this is how I found him and all of his class mates when I picked him up from his last day of school before Easter. Can you tell what he is? Well, he's Dolly...the chicken! They had been reading a book in School about Dolly and all her adventures and so they were all painted up like her on the last day. They were adorable and he was so proud. He was very upset when some of it rubbed off when he ate lunch. Funny kid!

This is my Birthday, the day we left for Venice (some incredible pics to come!) and they day we had a little Easter hunt in our back yard. Unfortunately Coco was taking her morning nap and we needed to catch a plane so we couldn't wait for her but K was a great brother and found all her goodies too. He is holding up her new Wellies! They were the smallest pair I could find but still too big for her. They are so cute in miniature! 

K found a few eggs and some other fun things he was able to take on the trip with us!