Anh and Patty's Spain and Italy Honeymoon

 

This is long overdue, but we had another first in our married lives (besides visiting Spain and Italy), going on our official Honeymoon!

Some might know that we took off to Maui for some time right after our wedding, from popular belief, that should of been called our "Honeymoon", but Patty convincingly dubbed it our "Mini-moon". I've never heard of that term before, but I guess it's what all the kids are doing nowadays. Anyway, we got to plan for another trip!

During the planning phase we chose 2 countries, Spain and Italy. In those countries, we visited: Madrid, Barcelona, Bologna, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome in that order. Travelling wasn't that bad, I had to convince Patty in going "backpack style" and it was a hard sell, but once we arrived to Europe, it was agreed that backpacking was definitely the way to go - backpacking fit perfectly with our travel style on this trip. Witnessing other travellers hauling massive luggage behind them, a couple of times tripping people, leaving only one free hand and sometimes no free hands. With all of our belongings securely strapped on our back, it gave us more freedom to take pictures, hold hands, scratch my butt, and other useful things. Even though Patty's pack was about half her size, she did great.

Barcelona, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome were our favorite cities - I don't want to discount Madrid, it was probably the jetlag talking.

Our Honeymoon was thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely absorbed all we could both visually and digestively as you can see from the photos when you click this link Photos Here!

Swim

It's after Labor Day, but for us here in the bay, summer's just about to hit its stride. Perfect time to get Huelan more comfortable in the water. 

She's spent a fair amount of time in the pool up to now- pool parties, Uncle Tom's house, Ba Noi's house, etc- but she's never been comfortable taking the next step beyond her floaty vest. Efforts at getting her to blow bubbles or put her head under water have been met with significant resistance. And some frustration on both sides. 

So we decided to bring in some pros, and lo-and-behold she takes to it like, well, a fish to water. (Kind of on the nose, I know, but I couldn't resist.) Dunk your head? Ok! Blow bubbles? Yeah! Float on your back? Sure!

She's has two lessons thus far and she's having a great time.  Though when I ask her what her favorite part is, she tells me that it's the dried mango snacks they hand out after class.  Yes, they are professionals. 

Preschool Big Kid

Just before the start of school in the fall, Huelan's preschool has a little ceremony for the kids who will be moving on to kindergarten in the following weeks.  It's a pot luck held in the evening at a local park, so it makes it easy for the parents of all the kids to attend, not just the kids who are moving on.  Part of the ceremony is something that all the kids work on leading up the ceremony- leading a song.  It's not worked out ahead of time who's going to lead which song, and not everyone has to do it if they don't want to.  Of course not participating is not an option for Huelan.  And of course she picks the longest song the class knows, in order to maximize her song-leading time.

So the 5+ year olds move on, leaving a void of Big Kids that the slightly younger kids have to fill.  I wonder who's going to enjoy stepping into that spot...?