Fun at the Lake!
Massimo likes digging! Swimming fun...poor daddy gets splashed!
Massimo has a blast with sticks and nature in the front yard
Our 3 little monkeys
Visting the Agrella farm in Reno with Auntie Alicia & cousins Cody & Ashley...Uncle Kevin was hunting.
So we finally got away just at the end of summer! We took a trip to my parent's house in Incline Village for 5 days...it was an experience! It was definitely a trip, not a vacation (don't you get to sleep while on vacation?). The kids had a really fun time and it was beautiful weather and so nice where we were. Everything was really close and we were able to spend most of our time at a private community pool/beach which also had a park & picnic area...it was everything we needed all in one place! One of Massimo's favorite things was going swimming and playing with Cody's motorcycles (his cousin whom we visited while there). The twins loved playing in the sand and going to the park. Dante did better the 2nd time at the pool and got daddy really wet! Abi loved the pool, she just loves the water like her big brother. Massimo and I tried to catch crawdads but unfortunately we had no luck, but he got to see one that some girls had caught in a bucket...it was probably about 5"! We had to go a little further out to try and get them and it was a little too rocky for the both of us...and Massimo kept wanting to eat our bait (hotdog). So it was fun for him to go out on the rocks and look for crawdads and he kept asking me to go back for crawdads - maybe it was just enough of an experience for me to go out to the rocks with him...I am not sure how I would've liked actually catching one! On our last day (Saturday) we took a drive to Reno to visit their cousins Cody & Ashley. They had a really fun visit there and I don't think Massimo wanted to come home! Dante loved the animals so much...he gets so excited and screams at them and wants to play with them (dogs, cats, chickens - yes, they pretty much have a farm) while Abrianna is a little more hesitant and not too sure of them. Massimo likes them but definitely has a fear of them when close. He was too busy playing with all of Cody's cars, trucks & motorcycles. It was a really fun time and their 1st time up there to visit! We hope now we will be able to visit them more often! Being in Tahoe was so peaceful and quiet and I truly realized what sucks up my time at home...besides the kids...the computer! Even though I still did some email & surfing the net on Donavan's iphone but with not much to watch on tv and no computer...it was a nice relaxing time (at night).
Today Massimo said a few things that tickled our fancy. When I picked him up from school the teacher told me they had burritos as Massimo is trying to tell me his version of the word which I couldn't quite make out. He finally says to me "mommy, I no eat my burrito, I no like beans". I said ok...he told me he ate his chi-chi (lunch meat in Italian) and his apple & cheese. Then tonight before he went to bed and was on the potty daddy came in to see what was going on since we were in the chair rocking and the next thing he knows he's on the potty. He says to daddy "Daddy, go downstairs and vacuum, clean up all my mess!" Ok, so can you see we've got a bossy boy on our hands...watch out for Abrianna, we are going to be in a mess of trouble when that girl can put a sentence together and since she's got her daddy so wrapped around her finger!
So the twins turned 1 on July 16th! It was an eventful day! Their cousins Selena & Damian came over and Nonna, too! Massimo had school so they got to have fun without any interruptions from him for part of the day. After dinner we celebrated with some cake - which neither one was too into. Dante cried...but he had already been cranky during his dinner so I think he was quite done with any food and being in his chair. Abrianna touched hers a little but wasn't too interested in it...a few days later she ate some of the cake and liked it! They had lots of fun opening their presents - of course Massimo had a hand in that and just wanted to play with all their toys! Dante's favorite toy is a little baseball stand with a bat (yikes, a bat with these 2watch out!) and Abrianna's favorite toy is a little playhouse which has little people, music and lots of buttons and things to push. It's hard to believe a year has gone by...some days (especially when I'm really tired) it feels like 3! This is a fun time with them as they will (hopefully) start walking and talking and we'll do lots of fun things as a family...I know Massimo is loving having 2 playmates more and more every day!
Fun at the SF Aquarium by the Bay
We took a trip to the SF Aquarium by the Bay today to satisfy Massimo's constant wish to "see the ocean and fishies". At the end of the day we asked Massimo if he had fun (yes, of course he says) and his most favorite thing was the...scuba diver! Yes, that's all he talked about when we asked him what he saw. Of course when we jogged his memory and talked about the fish and what we did he enjoyed "finding Nemo" (one of his favorite movies - and where the fascination of scuba divers all started...don't be surprised if that's what he ends up being for Halloween!) and touching the Stingray and sharks...and outside of the aquarium he got to see trains (Bart), trolleys, buses, and of course the ocean! It was all very exciting for him to be in a big city like that with so much variety around him...so many things to see. The twins loved it, too. Abrianna got to interact a lot more since she is walking and more able, it was a little hard to let Dante crawl so he got to snack and check it all out from stroller view. He did get out at the end in the toddler area and got to touch the sea urchins and he loved that so much! He got really excited watching all the fish swim by. It was a fun day (and tiring chasing after at least 2 and sometimes 3).
