Bruges, Belgium

As many of you know, I went on a dream vacation last month to Bruges, Belgium with my great friend, Amanda. It was so easy to fall in love with the town and I would put it on a European Must See List if you're planning a trip here! By now, all of you should be familar with Amanda's blog and I once again point you in her direction to read all about our trip (she is an amazing writer and can paint a beautiful picture with her words- not to mention her wonderful photos!). Please visit her blog and let her know who you are in her comment section- I'm sure she'd love to hear from you!

(her blog address is on the side toolbar or on my previous post- ENJOY!)

Pesto!

So, I've been trying to update my posts and put up some slideshows, but I can't seem to get Picassa to cooperate (does anyone have an idea on an easy way to post a link to photo albums???). I am a self-proclaimed lazy blogger recently and am so sorry. Since August 1, Karl has only been here about 27 days and I just haven't had the free time to blog that I would like to. Luckily, I have an amazing friend, Amanda, who is an amazing writer and blogger and I will once again direct you to her awesome blog to read all about our day of making pesto with Rosa (just scroll down until you see the pesto post) http://livingintheboot.squarespace.com/.

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I have all the pics of Parker's bday, Venice, Northern Italy, making wine in our vineyard, Belgium, and Halloween- let me know if you want me to send them to you via Snapfish (I'll try to catch up with some blogs once Karl returns)!

Parker's First Haircut

I figured if I am ever going to post pictures from the summer (since we're already in October), I'm going to have to resort to Picassa web albums (my upload time is tooo long to do them individually!) until I'm all caught up! My housekeeper (who is like a grandmother to Parker) took me to a great barber out in town in our little town of Pozzuoli. Parker was very well behaved and looked so handsome afterwards :) Enjoy and sorry sooooo late!!! ...

http://picasaweb.google.com/vthokie222/ParkerSFirstHaircut?authkey=Gv1sRgCI_nsJyPpfSGcQ&feat=directlink

Favorite Books

Sorry for the lack of posting, it's not because I have nothing to write about, I guess I'm just in a blogging slump. There's so many blogs I am planning to do...Parker's first haircut, his big birthday party, and our 16 trip to Northern Italy...and one day I will! I thought I'd take a moment to share with all the other mommies out there, and also with people who are always looking for great baby gifts, these fantastic baby books! The ones I'm listing are Parker's favorites and I don't know what we'd do without them!

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Tails by Matthew Van Fleet is an amazing book (great find Cathy!) with great illustrations and touchy-feely tails on each page. It's a beautiful book with rhyming words, pull tabs (that are actually made of board book material), pages that open and close, and different textures/materials throughout.

My next door neighbor, Lisa, got us hooked on Usborne touchy-feely books and I am in turn hooking other babies on them. These are Parker's favorites and we own (to name a few) That's not my monster (his ultimate fav), That's not my dinosaur, That's not my teddy, That's not my dragon, and That's not my doggie. I think every parent should invest in these books. Usborne also makes books for as they get older (we already have Night, Night Stories and love it).

Another fun book that can spark play between parent and baby is this series of "Faces" books. There are eye cutouts that mommy and baby can take turns looking through. Parker thinks it's soooo funny when mommy looks like a pig, zebra, and other fun animals! We have Farm Faces and Zoo Faces and I'm sure I'll collect others. My sister, Erin, found this book for Parker's birthday. It is one of the most beautifully illustrated books I've ever seen (remind me a lot of Eric Carle books) and also teaches about dinosaurs (this would suit younger children as well as kindergarten age). Parker is not allowed to play with this one, but I let him look as I read. The name is Dinosaurs Roar, Butterflies Soar by Bob Barner.

One last recommendation is Bee & Me by Elle J. McGuiness. Parker got this from my sister, Cathy, for his birthday and is fasinated by it. It's about a friendship between a little boy and a bee and also teaches the importance of bees and what we can do to help them. It has these neat hologram-like pictures that move on almost every page. Once again, this would even be appropriate for older kids since it teaches a great lesson.

I'd love to hear if any of you have great book suggestions (I already know about the classics- and have them all, but I'm interested in the lesser known ones). I believe that books are the best toys children can have and will continue to share my finds as they come along!

Greece, Turkey, and Sicily!

Get ready for a VERY long blog! I figured it was about time to finish up blogging about our Med. cruise in June since we are leaving on Saturday for 16 days to Venice and Vicenza! I already wrote about Croatia, so I'll just take up from after that when we headed to Greece.

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The second stop on our vacation was to Corfu, Greece- a beautiful island full of history, perfect views, and magnificent beaches. This pic is from a monestary we visited high up in the mountains of Corfu.

The view from the monestary...breathtaking! Thought this was so funny! One authentic Greek bar and Starbucks.

We found the most adorable playground in Corfu and stopped to let Parker play :)

On to our third stop- Olympia, Greece! This is where the original Olympics were held and where they got their name (most people think the Olympics were named after Mount Olympia...now you know!).

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This is the exact spot where the Olympic torch is lit every two years!

Behind Karl and Parker is the Temple of Zeus- one of the seven wonders of the ancient world!

Parker ordering room service

Our fourth stop (and our absolute favorite!) was Santorini, Greece- everyone should visit here at some point in their lives! Santorini is the island that is photographed most often in Greece with it's white buildings and blue roofs.

The buildings are so perfectly white that they just blend together in the background.

Views from the winery we visited on the island.

To get to the top of the town, you have to walk from the port up this winding staircase...or take a donkey!

I took a donkey! This was a terrifying experience and I won't do it again...once the little old man let me go with the donkey the dumb animal kept slamming me into the walls and cutting off the other donkeys...not to mention I didn't smell too great when we were done!

Our next stop was to Kusadasi, Turkey. We spend a lot of our time in the Bazaar and rug shops...by far the best shopping day of our vacation was here!

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We went to a carpet demonstration at Turkmen Rugs and actually bought a beautiful silk carpet with the tree of life design on it...I plan to hang it on our wall soon!

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This is a pic of how they get the silk from the worms and then spin it into thread for the rugs.

A perfect view. I didn't expect Turkey to look this way!

We also went to the house of the Virgin Mary. This is believed to be the location that Mary lived and died at.

Parker was helping us pick out a carpet!

After Turkey, we headed back to Greece to visit Athens! It was great to see the Acropolis and something everyone should do, but in general I didn't like the city much and was my least favorite of all the places we visited.

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The Schlegel's at the Acropolis and Parthenon!

Parker and I at the Olympic Stadium with the Acropolis Hill behind us...see the Parthenon?!?!

On the hill with the Ampitheater behind me.

Karl and a sleeping baby at the Acropolis.

Another family shot...Parker slept through most of this trip.

After a day at sea, our final stop was in Messina, Sicily. We went on a "In the Steps of the Godfather" tour and visited all the towns that they filmed the Godfather series. I've never seen the movies, but Karl was very excited throughout the day :)

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This is the view from the church where someone married some girl in the movie...Karl knows all the details.

This is the bar/restaurant where the guy asked the dad to marry his daughter...once again sorry for my lack of details!

The Sicilian Coastline

We took over 300 pics and I have them all on Snapfish, so let me know if you want me to email them your way! I'll have so much to post about when we get back in August...tomorrow is Parker's big first birthday and party at the pool, then we leave on Sat. for the next trip! Thanks for putting up with my tardiness on the blog!

New Address!!!!

I guess the military doesn't feel as if we have enough challenges here with our mail (takes months for things to ship to us, our mail is in a parking garage, some people won't send stuff here, we have to fill customs forms out for EVERYTHING, and etc.), so they've decided to give us all new addresses to add to the confusion. I don't really understand why they are doing this since our physical mailbox is in the exact same place as before, but I've figured out that questioning the reasons for things here is pointless. Sorry if I seem a bit disgruntled, but...I am.

Our new mailing address as of August 15 is:

Karl and Laura Schlegel

PSC 809 BOX 2372

FPO, AE 09626

Please make a note in your address books :)

Parker's Birthday Present

We have a new addition to our little family....JUVE (pronounced U-V...Karl named her after the Italian soccer team Juventus whose colors are black and white)! Parker has shown his love of animals since he was very little and we've been missing having a dog in our lives since we had to leave Boo in the states, so we couldn't think of a better one-year birthday present for Parker.

She was living outside of a friends parco (Italian housing community) since her Italian owners left her behind in a move. She really wanted a home and we fell in love immediately. Juve is very well behaved and has already made herself at home with us!

We have no idea what type of dog she might be, so if you have any ideas, please leave me a comment!!!

11 months old!

Can't believe my little pumpkin is already 11 months old...we're already planning his first birthday party!!! A quick update...he is extremely happy and healthy, but we're still waiting on teeth which makes feeding him a challenge. He is probably just days away from walking (he can push his toys around by himself, but he is a little too scared to walk alone). He is still a good sleeper and we're getting closer and closer to an 8 o'clock bedtime! We just bought a nice, big pool for the backyard and he is definately a water bug- he would stay in all day if he could and doesn't seem to have any fears or reservations about the water. This past week, Parker started bouncing to music, clapping his hands, and waving hi and bye...he's growing up so quickly! I'll have an update on his measurements in early August :)

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Better late than never....

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The end of May/early June Karl, Parker, and I took a 10 day Mediterranean cruise with Holland America to Dubrovnik Croatia, Corfu Greece, Olympia Greece, Santorini Greece, Athens, Kusadasi Turkey, and Messina Sicily! We had an absolute fantastic trip and are already looking into a Baltic cruise next Spring! Parker is a very seasoned traveler, so this wasn't hard on him at all (he's been transatlantic twice, all over northern and southern Italy, flew to Paris...the 10 month old has been in 6 countries already!). If anyone wants to see a lot of great places in a short amount of time, I highly recommend cruising and especially with Holland America. We were treated like pure royalty and Parker was the star of the ship (he was one of the only children and the youngest by far)!

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I've decided that it's too hard just to do one blog, so I'll do one blog for each place we went (hopefully I'll have this done before we go to Venice/Northern Italy in August!).

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Dubrovnik, Croatia was our first stop after a day at sea and it took my breath away. Have you ever been somewhere that was nothing like you imagined it would be? Dubrovnik is an ancient walled city that dates back to the 7th century BC and some even say to 6000 BC. It is seated in the subtropical Mediterranean with a warm southern climate, bright blue sky, and clear turquoise green and dark blue water that hug the rocky coastline, sandy beaches, and steep cliffs. The entire city is turned towards the sun and sea and is decorated with rich, colorful gardens, white walls, and terracotta roofs. (The pics are a little out of order..sorry!)

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This is the widest street we found in Dubrovnik. Most streets are extremely narrow with stairs like those pictured below which is making it harder and harder to get people to live in the ancient city.

We thought this was so interesting...still no idea what these birds were fighting over. Parker was checking out our first port from the window :)

The island of Lokrum right across from Dubrovnik. It is known for it's beauty, spas, and bathing resorts- it is completely uninhabited and has been since Napolean's occupation.

Fort St. John was the main defense for the harbor and one of the most important defense fortifications of the city and dates back to the 14th century.

Fort St. John

The water well in the cloister of the Dominican Monestary dating back to the 15th century. The Monestary is the treasury of cultural, artistic, and historical heritage of Old Dubrovnik. It is also the site of one of the oldest public libraries in the western world.

Stradun Street- the best shopping street in Old Dubrovnik :)

Parnoramic view

Beautiful...just beautiful

We're back!

Karl, Parker, and I returned home last week from a true dream vacation and I can't wait to start blogging all about it (but not today since all I want to do is crawl into bed and get some sleep). I did want to direct all of you once again to Amanda's blog to read all about our exploration of the Pozzuoli Ampitheater last Thursday....she does a fantastic job explaining and painting a vivid picture of a truly spectacular place just minutes from my front door! The link to her blog is on the right of this page under "Amanda and Ed". Thanks again Amanda for taking the time to write such a wonderful blog about our adventure!

Castello di Baia

I continue to be a lazy blogger and am so grateful that my dear friend, Amanda, is anything but. I will once again refer you to her amazing blog where she details our recent trip to the Castle of Baia! This is a place I've wanted to visit since we moved here since I see it across the bay from our house everyday. I had a wonderful time with Amanda and I am so happy to have an adventuring partner (we have set a weekly date to explore our local area since there are thousands of years of history within minutes of our homes). Thanks again for being such a great blogger Amanda!!!! http://livingintheboot.squarespace.com/

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Here are a few extra pics from our day out. This is Lago D'Averno which was once thought to be the gateway to hell in Roman Days. This is about 10 min from the house and there is a great Cafe Bar right at the top.

I love Italy for things like this...Amanda and I parked the car, paid the parking attendant, started walking up to the castle, and then visited the goats in the parking lot :) One of the beautiful rooms in the castle.

Paris...wonderful Paris!

Only a month late in posting...I'm getting better! I thought before we headed out next week for our 10 day cruise of the Eastern Med, I should try to get caught up with our blogging so I can start posting about the cruise as soon as we get back. There are so many places we have on our "must see" list, that I'm afraid we won't get them all checked off before we leave next year! One of those places that we wanted to go was Paris for obvious reasons- the culture, history, food, art, food, architecture, and did I mention food??? For our 2 year anniversary, we went to Paris for four AMAZING days- a total dream come true!

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The weather started out against us the first two days with constant drizzle and gray skies, but on day 3 the rain seemed to stop and the sun came out right when we got to Notre Dame! Karl and I are serious travelers and had an intimidating itinerary which had us going 12 hours straight each day! I couldn't post all the pics, but I at least covered our favorite places.

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Parker seemed to enjoy the city (at least everyone seemed to enjoy him!), but he did sleep through most of the trip in his backpack carrier! One day I'm sure he'll be upset that we took him when he was too little to remember it.

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I actually posted the pictures in reverse order, so we're basically starting from the end back to the beginning.

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The view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was wonderful to look down the Avenue des Champs-Elysess and the Rue St-Honore from the top of the arch- the view just takes your breath away! In this area are some of the best cafes, gardens, and shops in all of Paris.

Before we went up to the top, we stopped to buy a painting from a vendor on the street. I had always pictured Paris as a place where you can walk down the street and watch artists paint some of the most famous landscapes in the world...and I was right...so we bought a beautiful oil painting of the Eiffel Tower from a guy named Pierre! The Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre. It took walking up waaaaay too many stairs, but the payoff was fantastic when we reached the top and saw this magnificent church. Outside the monumental church were street painters, dancers, and street performers- we sat and watched a dance troop as we just took in all that was around us.

Parker playing with Karl outside Notre Dame...not a lot of 9 months old can say that!

Paris is the spring...simply stunning.

Parker, Karl, and I on the Pont Neuf (I obviously wasn't ready for this to be taken). This is the oldest bridge in Paris, as it was started in 1578, and it was the first bridge not to have buildings on it.

Our family in front of Notre Dame. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined! The first stone was laid here in 1163 and it was 170 years later than it was actually completed. It is a true Gothic masterpiece from the Rose windows to interior/exterior grandeur (no hunchback sightings though).

Karl and I have traveled enough now in Europe that I have seen too many churches to name, but it was in Paris that I found the most beautiful one to date. Sainte-Chapelle is absolutely magical and has been hailed as one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of the Western world. The church is made up of 15 stained-glass windows (50 ft tall each) that portray over 1000 religious scenes. Anyone coming to Paris MUST visit here!

As beautiful as this picture is, it doesn't even do it justice- you just have to experience it in person.

Parker and I in the entrance to the Musee du Louvre.

Not every baby gets to practice his walking skills surrounded by works by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Gericault, and Rembrandt!

Since Da Vinci Code is one of our favorite books/movies, we had to make a stop where the two pyramids meet...I wonder if she really is underneath here.....

As fantastic as the Louvre was, Karl and I actually enjoyed the Musee d'Orsay much more. It was here that we saw Monet, Whistler's Mother, Manet, Renoir, and Delacroix. The museum is actually a renovated train station and is home to many of the Impressionist art in the world.

The Tomb of Napolean Bonaparte inside the Dome Church.

Okay look closely from left to right and you'll see the Dome Church, The Thinker statue by Rodin (nestled in the bushes in the middle), and the Eiffel Tower.

The Thinker at the Musee Rodin- I never knew this was in the middle of a garden full of Rodin statues and the Gates of Hell.

Does this really need explaining?

Parker playing in the grass at the Eiffel Tower. We stayed about two blocks from here, so whenever we had downtime, this is where we hung out.

Perfect.