Sorry I didn’t get right back to ya with my vacation pics.  Work, kids and a nasty cold kicked my butt and I am just now coming up for air. 

Soooo, moving on…..

We flew from Lithuania to meet the kids and the rest of my family in Budapest, Hungary.   The architecture in downtown Budapest is amazing, probably some of the prettiest I have ever seen.  The food was amazing and reminded me of the Hungarian dishes my grandmother made when we were little.  It was the only place that I ate meat….cabbage rolls, chicken paprikash, goulash…..and it was so worth it!  Friends of my parents were our fantastic hosts and gave us a wonderful tour of the city, including some places outside of Budapest.  I took a lot of pictures here.  It was hard not to.  The kids enjoyed the River Ride Bus.  Yep, a tour bus that plunges into the Danube halfway through the tour.  I could go on and on but I know that you are just here for the pictures:)

This is definitely a place where we will come back and spend some time.  Gorgeous country.  Beautiful people.

My brother and sister-in-love, Jeff and Stacie, enjoying a super yummy lunch in the market.

The River Bus as in drives into the Danube River.  Crazy.  The kids thought it was rad; I had a moment of pause.

My parents at their 50th anniversary dinner (with Violet and Paige).

The Jewish Holocaust memorial along the banks of the Danube.

Scott and I in front of the Parliament Building.

Grandma and her cuties:)

 

Part of our family and our wonderful Hungarian hosts.

Thank you George and Violet for showing us part of your beautiful country.  We loved it!

There is one more post about our vacation.  After saying goodbye to my parents in Budapest, the rest of us flew on to Venice. We were there for only a day and a half but it was definitely worth it!

Jennifer

If you didn’t see my previous post, I am giving a bit of a country play by play on our European family vacation.  Read the post below for the Northern Italy portion.  

Scott and I and his parents left Milan a couple of days earlier than the rest of my family.  We flew to Vilnius, Lithuania to visit the birthplace of Scott’s great grandparents.  We stayed in the Old Town of Vilnius, right in the heart of the city.  It was a truly beautiful city.  We found it easy to find our way around town, walking most of the time we were there.  Lucky for us there was a festival happening right around the corner from our hotel so we got to see some traditional dress and heard a ton of songs.  Also, vendors were selling their wares and food around the festival.   On our first day, the weather was gorgeous and we logged a ton of miles checking out museums, castles and a lot of churches. I can’t remember the exact number of churches in Vilnius but I think it was like 62.   The second full day we had, the weather wasn’t so nice and it rained most of the day.  We decided to fight the weather and take the train out-of-town to visit Trakai.  I didn’t take any pics here because of sideways blowing rains.  We toured an old castle out on an island at the end of town.

Scott and I were really not sure what to expect when we arrived in Vilnius.  Because it was once a Soviet occupied country, we weren’t completely sure what we were getting into and we were more than pleasantly surprised.  The architecture was beautiful, the people friendly and with little or no crime, it was easy to walk the city streets until late in the evening.  Here are a few of the pictures of our first day.

 

Beetroot soup.  A traditional cold soup that we saw on many menus.

 

Zeppelins.  Another traditional dish. A whole potato with meat on the inside.  The consensus was that it sort of tasted like a Kolinski family dish, Lithuanian Kugelis.

Tomorrow….Budapest, Hungary.  In Budapest, we ate well, drank lots of yummy beer and wine and saw some amazing things.

Stay tuned…..

Jennifer

Last weekend we got home from our much-anticipated European family vacation.  My parents so generously took our entire family to Italy and Hungary to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  We enjoyed every minute of it and saw so many beautiful and interesting things.  We started our trip in northern Italy.  We flew into Milan and then drove to Morgex, which sits at the base of Mount Blanc.  We did a couple gorgeous hikes, visited some castles, drove mountain passes and even got a chance to visit Chamonix, France.  We ate really well and enjoyed a bit of wine too:)  I had a blast taking a few (674) pictures.  Here are a few of the shots I got around northern Italy.

 

Mason peeks into an old chapel along the side of the road.

 

 

One of my favorite moments just hanging out in Morgex.  My mom (and dad, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brothers, etc.) had a blast riding on the zip line at the village park.

 

Of course, we had to try the macaroons while we were in France.

 

Chamonix, France

 

Alice and Paige standing in front of our mountain house in Morgex, Italy.

Grandma Peggy and Grandma Marilyn.  Scott’s parents also went along with us on the trip.

 

Celebrating 50 years of wedded bliss:)

 

My brother, Jeff, helping my mom down the steep part of the trail.

 

Mount Blanc and the surrounding mountains.

 

 

Alice and my niece, Madison, having some fun with the prawns.  Our kids actually ate the eyeballs!

Sam hanging out in front of the book store.  Of course.  Where else would he be?  🙂

 

The kids enjoying a park and fields in Cogne, Italy.

So, if you are still with me after all those photos, you got a not so quick glance at some of the beautiful places we visited.  In all their travels, this was one of the places that my parents really loved and wanted us all to experience.  It did not disappoint:) Thanks Mom and Dad for giving us this amazing experience.   Seeing it through our kids eyes was so cool.

Tomorrow……Lithuania.  My parents took our kids and flew to Budapest and Scott and I took his parents to Vilnius, Lithuania for a couple days.  Scott’s great grandparents were born there so we decided that while we were so close it would be great to take Scott’s mom to see where her grandparents lived.  Another super cool place.

Happy Saturday night.

Jennifer

 

Yep.  This is what happens when you are the youngest of four.

Let’s say it together now….Hand-me-downs.

Oh well, no matter the shirt, Mason can rock it with personality.

 

Happy Wednesday.

Today is Scott’s birthday but he is at work so birthday pictures will have to wait until later.

Love from Colorado,

Jennifer

 

Our sweet Paige had her dance recital last night.  She looked adorable and danced her little heart out.  We were so proud of her. She is definitely our shy child and getting on stage isn’t always her thing but she did a beautiful job nonetheless.

Our girl Rosie continues to be just as cute as ever.  She is definitely growing and it is getting quite cumbersome to carry her up and down the stairs.  Today she is thirteen weeks old and about 30 pounds.  We started puppy training this week and it seems to be going pretty good.  Of course, we have never had a puppy, so no matter what she does, we automatically think she is the smartest dog ever.

And she is.  Super smart.  Usually good, sometimes naughty:)

 

It is hard to be mad at her when she is soooo adorable.

Happy Thursday,

Jennifer

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, Alice had a big final presentation to finish up her primary years planner.  Essentially all the fifth graders had to complete a project that included all the standards taught throughout elementary school.  The fifth graders were placed in small groups based on interest level.  Alice’s group chose to learn more about endangered animals, and  more specifically, Sumatran Tigers.  They started working on this project back in January.  They did extensive research, spoke with many experts, worked with a mentor who was familiar with the Sumatran region and made an action plan to help save some tigers.  All in all, they raised enough money to adopt 6 Sumatran Tigers.  The final project was a 15 minute presentation for the families.  Alice’s group did an excellent job presenting their information.  We were so proud of them for working so hard on this exhibition of knowledge.

 

Way to go Alice!  She is now starting to focus on middle school.  She is going to be learning to play the flute next year.  Two kids in band.  Please pray for my ears:)

Have a great day!

Jennifer

We had a beautiful Easter this year. It was a nice, quiet day that was filled with Jesus, love and candy:) As I was going through my zillions of pictures and editing, it occurred to me that most years I get a very similar picture of my girls on Easter. I am missing a few years but you get the picture. One little sister that is always looking up to her not so much bigger sister.

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

 

Precious girls.

(Don’t worry, I did take pictures of the boys too. )

Jennifer

 

 

We went and got a little bit crazy. Yep. We got a puppy.
Introducing Rosie. She is a Newfoundland. Evidently her coloring is pretty rare as she has Irish spots (white on black).
We are all smitten with her…except when she steals our slippers or nips at our toes:) She is precious almost all the time. She loves Jesse. Maybe a little too much:)
So, here she is! Our newest family member. She weighs about 20 lbs now at almost 10 weeks and we hear that she might get a bit bigger (just kidding, we know she is gonna be a big dog)…..

This is the case about 75% of the time but when she is awake….lookout Jesse!

 

Yahoo!  Yippee!  Wahooeee!

It’s Spring Break and we are so excited!  We started out our weekend by skiing some awesome powder and then we packed up the car and headed west to Utah.  It was a funny contrast from the super snowy day we had on Sunday to the warm and sunny days we enjoyed at Canyonlands.    We all love the deserts of Utah.  Normally we would stop in Moab and ride our bikes but this time we kept on driving and met up with some friends in Canyonlands National Park.  We camped there for two days.  Instead of biking we decided to take some fantastic hikes and let the kids climb a bit.  Amazingly enough, there were some pretty great climbing and bouldering right at our campsite so Scott set a top rope and all the kids took turns climbing on rock.  So, now we are warmed up, sun-kissed, refreshed and ready for the next spring snow (which is supposed to arrive tonight).

I am tired and not feeling overly wordy tonight so enjoy ALL the pictures.  I had a blast snapping away.  My pictures don’t do the landscape justice.  It is beautiful and sometimes feels like a different planet.  If  you haven’t been, you need to go.  It’s crazy super cool.

 

And…..in case you wondered what it looks like in Summit County right now….here you go.  Now you won’t have to wonder why we need to point the wheels west and drive:)

The kids and I before heading out for a ski day.  By the time we got back to the truck, there was at least six inches of new powder on it.

Have a great night.  Tomorrow we are headed to Colorado Springs to pick up our new puppy.  Check back for some adorable puppy pictures!

Jennifer