Weekend Update

I think this is becoming a weekly post for me.. maybe I should have my own SNL skit. ha. I suppose I'd be the only one laughing ;)

Anywhoo Friday Derrick and I went out on a date and left the girls with one of our great teenage sitters. I appreciate living in military housing very much for many reasons, one being that we have several sitters to choose from! We weren't really in the mood to drive all over town so we just went to an irish pub across the street from base (they also serve italian food but a few american things as well.) Afterwards we just went to Applebee's for dessert and coffee and walked around. There wasn't too much going on but it gave us a chance to plan for our upcoming vacation a bit.

Saturday we took the girls to my favorite beach in Catania- Lido Azzuro. It's a few euro per adult to get in but has very clean amenities including a restaurant, bar, picnic area, play ground, and boardwalk to walk down to the beach. It is always entertaining to sit and think of all of the cultural differences of the beaches in Italy vs. the US. The obvious being the speedos everywhere and espresso stands at the beach. There are also men who walk around with poles on their shoulders carrying everything from sunglasses to soccer balls. You will get hounded to buy something no less than 6 times over the course of a couple hours. I also love to watch the water aerobics/dance moves that always seem to be going on. There is usually an instructor on the beach shouting out dance #'s and lines of people in the water following. (a dance like the macarena, for example). The girls love the sand so I prefer to go there than the many rocky beaches around (though the water is clearer at those). We had a fantastic time, as seen below in the pics! (taken with our old point and shoot and not really photoshopped, sorry.)

You can see a faint Mt. Etna in the background.

Valerie is starting to swim a lot more. She was a total water baby and then developed a bit of an anxiety early this summer. Daddy took her waaaayy out to the deep end (hmm..) when mama wasn't looking so she had some swim time today. She prefers to hang out in this baby raft though. ha whatever works.

Apparently she was ready for a nap. Ellie likes to lay in the sand and make sand angels, as well as to dip her food in it. It's getting a bit better these days but I gave up long ago on controlling that.

Saturday evening we met some friends in Motta for dinner. Before sunset we had a beautiful view of the town below and the ocean. The park down the hill isn't maintained extremely well but it was a gorgeous, breezy evening. The girls danced at the restaurant and made friends with the owners. Ellie has turned out to be quite the social busy bee. She walks up to strangers, runs right into the kitchen, and begs for food. Afterward we walked down the street for some yummy gelato. The girls were up super late and did so well, although we felt the ramifications for letting them do so this morning. Both of them were super crabby and Val even had to be brought back to church because she was so tired and full of tears as we left her. They are both napping now so I'm about to sneak in a bowl of ice cream while I don't have to share. ;)