Swimming

Shelb and Nate had the chance to take swim lessons every Monday morning at school this year. Brad and I were really excited about it. The kids weren't so excited, so we went to see what goes on one morning. We were totally impressed!! They really were teaching the kids - wich is probably why the kids didn't love it - it's hard work. But the results were amazing to us!
Nate used to be so scared to be on his back in the water - not anymore! His teacher used him for the example for the whole class - Go Nate!!
He jumped off the diving board all by himself! Another HUGE accomplishment for him!
Shelby is the backstroke queen! She likes the stroke the best and is really good at it! They really teach them the correct way to swim - and tell them what to do differently if they are making mistakes - another reason the kids aren't so excited about it:)

While I was watching the kids and being totally amazed, Brad found other ways to amuse himself

Think the kids were embarassed?!?! Maybe they realized swimming is not so bad, as long as Mom and Dad don't show up!


But in the end, he was a pretty proud Daddy too......

Movin On

Picture says it all. The house is empty as of today, Wednesday, and we are making our way to the hotel to get ready for the flight to Paris for a small vacation before we take the flight Monday to USA. It was a great blessing to have the movers as I think we definitely are going back with more stuff than we came with.

CLOWNING AROUND AT THE MARKET

B and I had some friends offer to watch the kiddos on Saturday and so B finally got to take me to this market that she goes to. Very typical Italian street market that happens on Saturday and it is huge. Everything and anything for sale and all kinds of people to go along with it.

This is always fun to see at the major intersections in town,, many circus type acts who run out between the cars when the red light comes on. When it goes green watch out!! Clown insurance may catch on here:)

Yes, B said we should tip the guy since I was leaning way out the door hanging over the mirror to get his picture....this blog post actually cost me 2.50 in Euro...................................note to self not to make this a habit as I could go broke from blogging:)

MOVE UPDATE

Just a quick update on the move as we are busy beyond belief right now in a good way.

• March 27-31 the movers will be in the house packing: house to be empty by the 31st evening
• April 1 the entire family will take a train to Paris and stay for a few days enjoying some site seeing and well deserved relaxation.
• April 5 will be flying most of the day with arrival into Cincinatti Airport around 3 PM and sure we will all be looking to sleep by that evening
• April 5-9-ish will be staying at Brad's parents since the flight comes straight into the airport near their home
• April 10-ish to May1-ish will be staying at the B's parents so the kids can be going to the Rockfield school which they will go to when we move back into the house: they are excited!!!
• May1-ish............renters scheduled to be moved out and the house is ours, so we begin to do updates and wait for our stuff

That should about cover the next few weeks of our life. Everything seems to be going well but there definitely is alot of chaos now as there is paperwork for moving, friends to bid farewell to, kids are still in school, and I am running around the globe trying to finish up the first tractor launch so I can move on to the next. I definitely married the right one as B is managing all the above and more (like a baby coming) which is amazing how tuff she is:) There is a song out there , " God sent girls like her, for guys like me:)" I think by Eric Church.

MOLE

Turin's landmark is the Mole Antonelliana which is a beautful landmark. It has a lift in the middle which takes 59 seconds to get to the top. The building was a started around 1863 and finished about 1889. It is 165 meters high and at its completion was the tallest building in Europe.
Just as we walked in the door there was this sign telling about the Mole and the Cinema Museum. Riley requested that we take her picture here.

After touring the Cinema Museum, we got on the glass elevator and went all the way up to the top!! Very cool! Once you get to the top you can see everywhere. Riley loves to smile and Nate has the sun in his eyes. Let's stay away from the edge here kiddos.

Ok, I try to explain to my wife that the bars are there to keep your body inside. Here she is taking Shelb's camera outside the wire and I am praying she has the wrist strap on at 185 plus meters above the ground.

Mole view from top

It is amazing how small things looked.

Movie Museum

Today we decided to take a trip to the famous Cinema Museum here in Turin. This was a really good place and it was neat to learn how movie's started from shadow making to what we have today. There were some cool props and areas that demonstrated where people creatively watch TV. Shelb here is by the huge oversized fridge.

OK, maybe it is understood that magazines can be found in restrooms, but think about a tv in your restroom....hmmmm....well nate and shelb are trying out the idea here. There was a room full of these toilets for seats where they were playing old comedies.

There were so many fun theme rooms - with TV's in all sorts of places. This was a kitchen. There was a TV on the oven door, in the sink as you see here and even one in a huge pot that was sitting on the stove. The kids were amazed!Riley was swooshed off this exhibit by the custodian that told us in italian no climbing on the statue,,,,,so dad waits to the custodian leaves and then mom tells riley....go climb and yells .....brad snap the picture now.

In the early days people would sit at these machines and watch movies for a small piece of money....these were free so the kids watched them all
ok, movie museum over,,,so the culture part of our day was done...now B needed to feed the baby! B is the gelato lover of the family but she is very picky about here spots...this is mr. mucca and it is her number 2 spot

Shelby sleep over

Well when shelb throws a party she does it well. Shelb had a sleepover this weekend with alot of her friends and as you can see they all love Nate.

The girls always look forward to B's breakfest, this time it was muffins from scratch. She is a great cook and that word has spread around here.