Our first trip to an agriturismo...

Last weekend, Jason's shift from work made arrangements to have lunch at a local agriturismo. An agriturismo is a farm or rural area turned into a tourist attraction. They serve locally grown or produced food... all fresh. You really don't get to order from a menu, they just serve what they have prepared for the day. Eating is an extended affair. Your brought marinated fresh vegetables (olives, zucchini, yellow peppers, sundried tomatos, fresh mozzarella), then breaded appetizers, then pastas, green salad, meats, a liqueur that is supposed to help with digestion, desserts and fresh fruit, and finally the meal ends with coffee (usually just a shot of espresso or a cappuccino). It is hard to not get full after the first few courses, but if you limit yourself, you can make it through the whole meal to enjoy everything served. The restaurant itself is an old farmhouse... they leave sections of the wall unplastered so you can see the original structure and materials underneath. Agriturismos are located out in the valleys, away from the towns on the hills. This particular agriturismo was located near the towns of Mineo and Grammichele. The name is Agriturismo Valle Dei Margi.

Aidan gets the camera ready for our outing by taking this self portrait.

This is her ready to go to the farm...

Overalls, pigtails, and a bit of an attitude.

She fell asleep right before we got to the agriturismo... I couldn't bear to wake her up.

This is the back dining room with us and some of Jason's co-workers and their families.

This niche led to another dining room.

This was a path through the orange groves to some other buildings.

The end of the paved road... the beginning of the orange groves.

The walkway into the restaurant.

The coffee bar for after the meal.

This is the back of the coffee bar... I thought the overhang was interesting.

A beautiful building behind the restaurant... It might be for storage, or maybe its an apartment.

Aidan on the swing right after she woke up.

Her on the mini suspension bridge.

She wasn't too sure about the swaying and only made it to the third log.

But she loved the mechanical horse... it only took euro change and I didn't have much.

She went on a few rides...

One with her friend Sophie from her ballet class. After I ran out of change we told her the horse was too tired to give anymore rides. She sat on the coin box next to the horse and hugged it and kissed it trying to wake it up for more rides.

This was part of the petting zoo... It wasn't much and all the animals were in these chain link pens... Not much petting going on there.

This cute little baby goat caught Aidan's eye.

Her and one of the other girls tried to pet it's nose through the fence.

This big goat was a poser... It moved around and waited until I snapped a picture then moved again.

I tried to get a picture when this peacock had his feathers ruffled and tail up, but he was moving around too much and the other people were crowded around the pen.

I did get this nice one of his face by sticking my camera lense through the fence.

The was a small horse that was very friendly... He let the girls and I touch his nose.

One of Jason's buddies picked some oranges off a nearby tree and they were feeding it to the horse. Aidan tried several times to feed it, but got scared when he'd lean down to chomp it. Finally she let the horse eat it out of her hand, but I couldn't get a clean shot.

When we took her away from the horse she got very distraught... I couldn't help but take a picture. Jason smiling and Aidan screaming was just too funny.

She cheered up when we let her feed the goats some of the hay that was outside the pens. she couldn't get the hay through without dropping it though.

She finally got the hay through the fence and a couple of goats came to say hi.

Well, that is all for this trip... We are headed to the Valley of Temples in Agrigento this weekend. We are going with a tour group from the base. We don't know anyione else whos going, but it is easier to just enjoy the trip rather than have to drive and worry about parking and figuring out where to go. I will post those pictures as soon as I can. Until then... I hope everyone enjoys this Memorial Day weekend. Ciao...

Buona Pasqua... Happy Easter!!!

Buona Pasqua to everyone... Happy Easter.

Many of you have already heard our Easter adventure story, but for those of you who haven't, I will retell it. This year was Aidan's first Easter egg hunt. Last year we were visiting friends and family in the San Juan Islands and poor Aidan had the stomach flu and was going into her second week of being sick. The doctor had said she should be fine for the trip and told us just to go. Unfortunately, she was wrong and Aidan didn't seem to be getting better at all. By Saturday night, Aidan was so dehydrated, we ended up at Island Medical with Aidan on an IV. Sunday morning we caught the first ferry home and Dorothy and the Osborn clan came to us for dinner. By Tuesday Aidan was back to her usual self but had missed all the festivities of Easter.

This year are in a new place and haven't done much, but the base offers many different activities for the families of the service members here in Italy. The MWR planned a big Easter "Eggstravaganza" for the Saturday before Easter Sunday. Even though Jason had to work, I decided to take Aidan and see how she would do with the whole idea of the egg hunt. She was ecstatic with the crowds, the decorations, the music, and the fun of a celebration. She especially liked that she got a new basket to put things in.

This is right when we entered into the Midtown building... There is a movie theater, gym, pool, bowling alley, food stand, etc. There were so many families crowded into the small open court area. It was supposed to be outside, but even with the sun out the wind was chilling.

Aidan was so happy. She got to wear a new dress, play with her basket, and get some chocolate.

They had the hunts organized by age.. 0-1, 1-2, etc. Aidan had to wait in line to get in for her hunt. She was looking up at all the people standing around waiting.

She didn't know what to think of all the excitement.

Unfortunately, when we got into the area for the hunt, there were so many people that they were only allowing five kids with their parents in to take pictures. They also put a two limit max. on eggs. All the kids were frenzied collecting eggs and had to dump them out at the door. I was annoyed, but the kids were all a bit upset.

I got a few pictures with the full basket, just for the effect. Then we dumped out the basket and found two big yellow eggs. Aidan loves yellow, and the bigger the egg, the more that fits inside.

After I dragged Aidan from the racket ball court filled with eggs, she insisted on opening them immediately to retrieve the candy inside.

Before the whole hunting fiasco, it was announced that there would be a golden egg for each age group, and if you found it, you would win a big prize. To our surprise, when Aidan opened the first egg, instead of chocolate, she found a golden egg. She was disappointed, but I was thrilled that her first hunt wouldn't end empty handed.

Here she is with her big prize. It is almost bigger than she is. She wanted to open it, but I made her wait until Jason got home to help her.

After the hunt, we found our way to the Easter Bunny... Also something Aidan has never experienced. Unlike her bouts with Santa Claus, she was surprisingly nonchalant. She handed the bunny her almost empty basket and walked away.

We were able to coax her back towards him for a few pictures. She talked about her nose, and her eggs, then she proceeded to try and pick her nose. That is when we had to go. We went into the gym where they had bouncy houses set up for the kids to play. Aidan seemed so excited at first. Once she was inside, she couldn't wait to get out. She was more entertained by the look of them than by the activity itself.

After being stuck in Midtown for over two hours, jam packed with people, without someone thinking to turn off the heat, we had to get out for some fresh air. The MWR offered food, but I wasn't going to wait for hot dogs and chips. Aidan had some apple juice before we headed out to a nice lunch.

We went across from the base to Medusa's Restaurant. They have Aidan's favorite... Stelline con burro e pane. I had the caprese which is so fresh and delicious and a salad I have never tried before which was also very good. We finished it off with coconut cake. Aidan loves to go out to the bar area and dance, flirt with waiter, and look at the lobsters in the tank and fresh fish and lobster on ice. The waiter would spray the lobsters to make them move around for her.

When we got home, it was past nap time and Aidan had definitely been over stimulated by the whole morning's events. She took her nap and then got to open the basket when she got up. There were amazing things inside and Aidan loved pulling out everything one by one to play with them. Her favorites were the collection of Mr. Potato, Mr. Corn, and Mrs. Carrot Heads and the yellow duck that when squeezed, quacks incessantly.

Well, I hoped I didn't bore anyone with the play by play of our Easter hunt, but like I said, it was a first for me and Aidan. We had a great time and Aidan felt very special. She kept telling me it was her birthday and I would tel her that it was Easter and everyone got prizes. We told her it was a special day for other reasons too. Besides the egg hunt and the bouncy houses, Aidan had to tell us one other thing. When asked what she did for Easter, she told us that at lunch, "I saw lobsters... and they had beautiful eyes." So there you have it... Aidan's "first" Easter was overall a great success. She is still talking about the eggs, the kids, and when we'll see the Easter Bunny again.

I hope all had a Buona Pasqua. We will write again soon. Until then, Ciao.

Lady Godiva in a red beret, storm clouds and a wee bit of puddle jumping

So, just some more pictures of Aidan. She is always on the move and having fun doing things around the house. She especially loves her horse that Grandpa Trout and Grammy Lo got her last Christmas. We were doing some unpacking of the last boxes from the move and Aidan decided to sit around in the red beret from Halloween and ride her horse around the living room... otherwise naked, hence the Lady Godiva reference. Aidan likes to be au naturale around the house anyway, so I let her go. I caught a few shots of her riding through...

Here are some pictures I was able to get right around sunset. It was sheer luck I was able to snap a few because I was outside watering the lawn and saw the color of the storm clouds and ran in for the camera. We get some pretty amazing clouds around here. These are right outside my back yard. There is one of our little playground that Aidan claims as her own and one of the massive soccer and baseball fields that are also right outside our door. Aidan is definitely lucky to have so much space to run around and play.

Now today, we had a relatively nice morning but the afternoon brought on rain. After Aidan woke up from her nap we took her out to play in the puddles. I tried to dress her accordingly, but when they start to jump, that water goes wherever it wants... hence the look of a potty accident. She had fun just running up and down our street in the gutter, jumping in the muddy water. You can tell by the excited look on her face just how much fun she was having.

Sadly, this one is a bit blurry, but the look on her face is too priceless not to share. The next one is just as adorable.

This was too fun to watch and we were out in the rain for a long time. It was worth getting a little dirty and playing in the mud to see her smiling so big. If it wasn't for the fact that I am fighting a cold and I was wearing shoes and not boots, I would have been jumping in the puddles with her.