Home Again, Home Again... Jiggity Jig.

A couple of things upon coming home:
-Our house was clean, but not because I cleaned it before leaving. I asked my sister to have her cleaning lady come in while we were gone and have it cleaned in our absence. I think Im going to do this every single time we leave home for an extended period of time. It was seriously heaven to come home to a sparkling clean house.
-Unfortunately, its not clean anymore. HA! Laundry piles cover the floor. Our cleared off counter and dining room table have odds and ends strewn across them. There are a few dishes in the sink and dirt clots on the floor from the boys coming in and out of the yard.

But its good to be home.

On my list today:
- grocery shop. I am hoping to get this done before noon today.
- laundry. There are two more piles to get into the rotation.
- go through my pictures. I took 1250 pictures in Italy; much less than I thought. I need to go through them and get rid of the ones I dont need.

While I was in Italy, I kept a journal of what we did each day. After I get my pictures organized and proofed, I'll share them with my notes. Im kind of excited to see our vacation from this standpoint.

A few notes on Italy:
- Awesome trip. Kind of a whirlwind, but so fantastic and beautiful. We went there for my parents 40th wedding anniversary and split our time between Tuscany and Rome. My parents, my sister and her fiancee, and our cousins Michelle and Rasheed joined us.
-We traveled by plane, train, car and foot.
-We saw the Pope very close up. It was a trip! I was kind of shocked we could get that close.
-I ate so much good food and gelato. Oh man - the gelato! Im not a big ice cream person, but gelato is not ice cream. It is heaven. The food in Italy does not compare to here. I know that sounds harsh, but I dont know how differently to state it. Its divine - sooooooo good and fresh and flavorful. Im certain I gained between 5 and 10 lbs on our trip, but it was soooooo good. Given the chance to do it again, I would eat it all (and possibly more) in a heartbeat.
-Our villa in Tuscany was ah-may-zing! It was situated on a vineyard in Tuscany - a picture perfect location. The 500 year old villa is presently the country estate of the Contini Bonacossi family and the production location of Capezzana wine. The family rents out a portion it very large estate to vacationers throughout the year. I wish we had spent more time chilling there. It was beautiful are large and so charming in a mansion kind of way. lol
-The kids were great. They did much better than I ever thought they would. The flights were really long (our longest was 11.5 hours) but they traveled like little pros. No problems. None. It was amazing - a miracle. Once we were in Italy, we had a handful of little outbursts, but nothing that jaded my memories of going. Im sooooo thankful. They totally surpassed my expectations.
- When we asked the boys what they liked the most, Finn said "The Colosseum" and Seamus said "Spending 7 full days together in Italy." Awwwww.
-If I could use one phrase to characterize our trip, it would be "full throttle." We did not rest and my lack of voice today is proof of it. During our 7 days (and about 2.5 of those days were spent in route) we saw Tuscany, Vinci, Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Rome and the Vatican City. It was very intense. Go... go... go. We ran ourselves and the boys into the ground, but the sights were sooooo worth it.

Those are the cliff notes. More details to come.

Happy Monday.