Kick Off to Summer Vacation

Celia is officially on summer vacation.  Her last day of school was last Wednesday, 30th.  What a great experience for her and us.  The teachers were so nice and Celia got a good taste of life in another country.  So proud of her for embracing this move, going to a new (and very different) school, and for how geniunely excited she is to make new friends even when they can't understand each other!  I've learned a lot while we've been here, but one of the most memorable lessons will be from Celia and how she just jumps right into whatever the situation is and makes it a good time.

Dean was so excited to pick Celia up from her last day of school.

To celebrate July 4th, we got out red, blue, and white gear on and headed to the local U.S. military base where they were hosting a weekend celebration.  They invite the non-military community to it which is why we were able to go.  It was pretty surreal to be there for the celebration.

To continue the celebration we headed to Gardaland for a few days.  It's kinda like Italy's version of Disney World.  It's right on Lake Garda (just about an hour from us).  We stayed there at the Gardaland resort so we could enjoy the full vacation mode and too cool off in the pool (95 each day...pretty hot tamale for walking around an amusent park).

Dean insists on wearing his hat very low, which makes him have to look at you like this.

Making some wishes at the hotel's fountain.

Found this little resort for dinner.  The brown building on the left was the restaurant.  Such a beautiful setting.

Sidenote:  As I said earlier...it was REALLY hot at the amusent park.  We stayed cool by drinking lots of water, wearing our hair up, walking through the water mists, eating gelato, BUT apparently it's perfectly acceptable for women to take their tops off here when it's really hot.  Again, I'm REALLY glad we aren't living here when Dean's 15.