Italy!

In December, M's mom came downstairs while I was nannying and said "You wouldn't want to go to Italy would you?", and I basically squealed "That is the ONE place I have ALWAYS wanted to go!"...within about a month, our trip was booked, and I was officially going to Italy with M and his family.To say I was excited would be an understatement!
May 13th finally rolled around and we had a 6:30 PM flight out of Denver. The plane ride to Frankfurt was long (9 1/2 hrs), especially with a 13 month old walker...however, M's parents had arranged for a bassinet which was awesome, we walked around a lot, and the iPad and books were entertainment...in Frankfurt we had a 4 1/2 hr layover (which turned into 5 1/2), and we finally arrived in Florence and waited forever for our bags. Once we hit the road though, and saw the amazing Tuscan countryside we all knew the long trip was worth it.
After a night of being extremely exhausted/a bit homesick, I woke up feeling great on Sunday and we spent the morning lounging at the villa, then went food shopping, and had a wonderful dinner with delicious wine...ahh Italy.
The next week was spent perusing the streets of Siena, Monteriggioni, Lucca, San Gimignano, and Florence. We ate delicious food, had wonderful wine, and I made it my personal goal to eat as much gelato as I could! I made my grandmother's ravioli for dinner one night, which was so amazing making a family recipe in Italy. It was such a beautiful place, with wonderful people. I loved it.(And oh yeah, in Florence, M's mom and I spotted the Jersey Shore crew getting haircuts...awesome...poor Florence).
The flight home was just as long, but we made it through, and I was exhausted and jetlagged, but so excited to see my hubby!
This trip was such a wonderful taste of  what Tuscany is like. I can't wait to go back someday and explore it with Tim :)
And now for some pictures! These are all out of order, but that's ok :)

My first gelato, in Siena

Pistaschio and Hazelnut Gelato

Gnocci in Italy = Heaven

Main Piazza in Lucca

Making Grammy's ravioli in Italy

San Gimignano

Piazza Del Campo, Siena

Gorgeous view at the villa

Another beautiful view

The Villa

New England Tough Mudder: Team Awesome!

Last weekend, Tim and I flew back to the East coast so he could participate in "probably the toughest event on the planet" AKA Tough Mudder. Tim and a bunch of friends signed up for it several months ago, and it had been a highly anticipated event with emails of training videos back and forth, crazy training schedules, finding a house for us all to stay in, etc.
With the weekend finally upon us, we headed up to Vermont on Friday afternoon with Tim's sis Sarah and her boyfriend John. Once at the house, we hung out and waited for friends to arrive, had dinner, and sewed Love146 patches on our clothes...then it was off to bed to rest up for the big day!
On Saturday morning, we had a delicious breakfast prepared by Nora & Joe, the Mudders got ready, and we were off to Mt. Snow to see the craziness.
Team Awesome consisted of Tim, his sis Sarah, her boyfriend John, and our friends Joe and Joe. They were amazing, and watching this event was such a blast. It was a very spectator friendly event, and we could basically watch from anywhere that we wanted to.
Some of the highlights of the race included: Gaining 7,000 feet in elevation, swimming through ice cold water, getting really muddy, climbing the glacier, running through fire, crazy monkey bars, electrical wires, and the Berlin Walls. Those crazy kids were champs, and we were so proud of them.
After the race and the complimentary finisher beers, we headed back to the house to shower and grill :) We spent the night relaxing with all of our favorite people.
On Sunday, we had a wonderful breakfast prepared by Peter and Katie, and we had Mother's Day lunch in North Hampton with my parents and brother, and Tim's parents and Li.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend with our families and friends, and we had such a great time! I can't wait to be a spectator when Tim does the Colorado Tough Mudder in June at Beaver Creek!
Here are a bunch of pictures - more on my facebook page!

Entering Mt. Snow area

House we stayed in

Sarah and John sewing on patches

Team Awesome: Joe, Sarah, John, Joe, Tim

Some of the spectators

Sign to enter Tough Mudder

Boa Constrictor

Glacier

Chili Peppers - Ice cold dyed water

Team Awesome - Muddy, Wet, Happy

Funky Monkey

Berlin Walls

Fire

Electrical Wires

Yay Team Awesome!

They did it!

Me and my Tough Mudder

All of us, minus my parents and bro

There were 28 obstacles in all, over the course of 10 miles...basically, those guys are rockstars :)

I'm off to Italy tomorrow with M and his family, so get ready for an Italy post soon! :)

Tread on Trafficking Update

May 10: 3 mile walk, 3.1 mile run
May 11: 0
Hoping to get in at least a 3.1 mile run today!

Love146: Tread on Trafficking

My sis-in-law, Sarah, is working for a really cool company called Love146. Basically, they work to abolish child sex slavery and exploitation around the world. If you would like to check them out, their website is love146.org

So, during the months of May and June 2011, they are doing a fundraiser called Tread on Trafficking - basically people can sign up to raise money for Love146 by logging workout miles. Tim and I, along with other fam and friends decided to sign up to raise money for this worthy cause. We ordered our t-shirts, and are ready to go! My goal is 200 miles for the 2 months, I am off to a slow start, but I intend to reach my goal :)

So, my stats for this month so far are:
May 1 - 1 mile hike
May 2 - 5 miles bike, 3.1 miles run, .5 mile walk
May 3 - 3.1 mile run
May 4 - 1.5 mile walk
May 5 - 3 mile walk
May 6 - 0
May 7 - 1 mile walk
May 8 - 0
May 9 - 1.5 mile walk, 2 mile hike
Total: 21.7 so far....I have a bit to go, but I will do it! :)

Easter 2011

Easter 2011 was much different than Easter 2010.

A quick 2010 recap - Church and brunch with Col & Rod, which was fun and wonderful to spend time with friends...then we headed back to our apartment and watched movies on the computer for the rest of the day. This lead to me being weepy and sad that we weren't with our families and that we were on the other side of the country and yada yada yada. Basically, we had been here for 3 weeks, and I was super homesick.

Fast forward to 2011 - We made Italian Pizzagaina to bring to All Souls, spent the morning at church and at church brunch after with new friends, went to Avery brewery with friends for an Easter beer, and then went to Cassy & Justin's for Easter dinner, where Leah and Cassy whipped up a delicious feast and I made Coconut Key Lime Pie for dessert. We had a wonderful day with friends, we got to talk to our families back home.

While I still missed our families back in CT, this Easter was much easier to be out here, and it was so fun to spend time with our new friends! (It probably made it easier too, since we are heading back to CT next week and get to see everyone!)

Italian Pizzagaina

An update on our lives...

I havn't posted in forever, so I am catching up today. Besides all our visitors, here is what has been going on in our lives:
*Tim passed his certification exam, wahoo!
*We have been getting closer with people from church and it has been so fun and wonderful!
*We are both back into working out several times a week, and we have resumed biking to work a few days a week.
*Both of the kiddos I nanny have started walking - I'm so proud of them :)
*We are heading to CT/VT the first weekend in May for Tim to compete in Tough Mudders at Mt. Snow with a bunch of our friends - I can't wait to see our families and our bestest friends all in one place!
*The weekend after Tough Mudders, I head to Italy with M's family :) SO excited!

I think that is it for the updates...I'll try to post more often in the coming weeks!

Grammy's Ravioli

I've been wanting to make my grandmother's ravioli all winter, and after making calzone last week we had leftover ricotta cheese, so I thought I would take advantage of the rainy/snowy/cold day on Sunday (after a beautiful day of climbing in sunshine and almost 80 degree weather on Saturday!) to make them. When you don't have a pasta roller, making ravioli is time consuming and not super pretty, but we had them for dinner last night and they were delicious anyway! The secret is cinnamon and sugar in the filling - an amazing contrast to the saltier tomato sauce :) Here are some photos of the process and the result:

Rolling out the homemade dough

Adding the filling

the filling

Sealing the ravioli

finished ravioli - not my prettiest one :(

Plate of finished ravioli

plate of finished, cooked, and sauced ravioli :)