Devestation in Italy

A couple of days ago I was saddened to open my email to find a news message from Rick Steves (my travel guru).  Although it is not making news in Canada or the US, there was a huge rain storm/mudslide that has basically wiped out 2 towns in the Cinque Terre area in Italy.  One of the towns that was devestated was Vernazza.  Vernazza is where Trevor and I stayed in Cinque Terre and it is also where we got engaged...right sitting down on the breakwater by the ocean.  There's not much left now.  And I feel so sad.

Vernazza before and after

Breakwater before and after

Beaches before and after

Volunteers clear debris
Note that in this picture, the mud is about 12 feet high in the streets.  The workers are standing at the level of the second story.  The entire first story of these buildings are under the mud.

Businesses along the main street
Every business along the main street was entirely buried.  Again, this is the sign above the first floor of this business.

Harbor piazza

The red building with the arches is the hotel right on the main square at the harbour that Trevor and I stayed at when we were there.

Here's a video of Vernazza before the storm.

And now Vernazza during the flood





This one is from Monterosso (the next town over and also part of the Cinque Terre that we visited)


Keep the people from these villages in your thoughts and prayers as they dig out in the coming months (the town is evacuated at the moment because heavy rains are expected for the next few days and it is not safe to be there).  Rick Steves will be posting an way to donate in the coming days.  It is possible to donate to the Italian Red Cross, but it's a bit tricky with an Italian site.  I will post a link if any of you want to donate (I know some of you have been to Cinque Terre as well).


The rest of the trip!

Friday we went to Centreville.

It was fun.  We got there at 9:30.  The park didn't open until 10:30 so we wandered around the island a bit first.  There was a really nice playground and the boys enjoyed playing there.

Joel climbing the rope bridge

Jen and I on the really fun spring-loaded teeter-totter

Joel and Anderson


We got into the park and immediately the boys started spotting rides they wanted to go on.  Joel spotted a train and didn't want to do anything else before he went on the train.  So we headed there first.  It was great because it took us on a tour of the whole place.  Joel checked out all of the rides and told us which ones he wanted to go on.

Centreville Train

Joel driving a fire truck - ding, ding, ding!

Trev and Joel in the ski-lift type gondola that gave a bird's eye view of the park


Driving a boat

And now a car



We went on some tame rides first.  Fire trucks, race cars.  Joel loved them.  Anderson of course wanted to go on the scarier rides.  So did Joel.  The difference was that Anderson wanted to on them over and over and over while Joel didn't want to go on them again once he got off.  So Joel did the roller coaster, the drop-zone type thing and the flume ride and was terrified of all of them.  For the rest of the day he was basically terrified of all of the rides (even the tame ones) because he was just nervous in general.  Check out how he spent the entire merry-go-round ride!  I tried to convince him that it wasn't a scary one, but he wasn't about to let go of me to find out.

That's Joel in the red shirt with Trev beside him.  Jen 2 seats ahead checking out how Joel is doing.  Compare Joel and Anderson!  Haha!

Okay another Joel versus Anderson.  Joel to the left of Trevor

Anderson on the very left

How Joel spent the entire merry-go-round ride


So we decided that instead of being adventurous and trying new rides since Joel was quite obviously freaked out (this is a kid who makes us hold his hand tight in an elevator because he's scared) we would go back and go on the rides again that he already knew he liked.  So we did lots more fire-trucks and race cars and train rides while Anderson went on the Ferris Wheel and the Haunted House!

This is more like it!

Owen had a fun day too!


Later in the afternoon we went to the splashpad on the island.  The boys had tons of fun chasing each other around and getting wet!

Splashpad!!




Then we took the ferry back to our van and headed to Lauren and Chis's place.  The half hour ride took an hour and a half because of traffic.  Trev and I discussed as we always do how we are so thankful to live somewhere where we never have to deal with traffic like that!

The boys were pretty wiped and they headed to bed shortly after we got there.  Lauren and Chis made us a nice dinner (which I did not get any pictures of...darn) and we caught up for a while before heading to bed.



Saturday was a beautiful, hot day.  Jen and Rich and the boys met us and we went to the Mississauga Waterfront Festival.  There were tons of booths and we enjoyed checking them out.  Joel really liked a little train they had.  We wandered around until we got so hot we couldn't stand it any more.  Then we found some shade and hung out and had some lunch and played.  We headed back to Lauren and Chis's after this and Trevor had the brillant idea of going to get a kiddie pool.  The boys had a fabulous afternoon running around the backyard splashing and screeching.  And the adults had a great time drinking mojitos and watching the kids.  We had a BBQ for dinner and our boys were in bed by 6pm.  We played some bananagrams and watched some Top Gear before heading to bed.

Joel and I on the train...he was being stubborn and refused to smile!

The crazy train that could literally turn 180 degrees around in about a 6 foot radius

All 4 boys piled onto Trevor

Fun in the back yard

Add caption

Lauren and Chis enjoying the pool too!


Sunday we drove home.  By this time EVERYONE (Trevor and I included) were absolutely exhausted.  We wanted to stop at Vaughan Mills so we left around 9:30 and shopped a bit and had lunch there before heading home.  The boys were asleep within 5 minutes of leaving and we had a very peaceful hour and a half until they both woke up.  Cue crabby kids.  Joel whined a lot of the way home and Owen screamed for a lot of it.  He was just beside himself.  If we gave him a toy he would throw it.  Snack?  Throw it.  We tried music, stories.  Nothing worked.  Finally we resigned ourselves to stopping at the French River Trading Post to regroup (even though we just really wanted to get home at that point).  Owen and Joel both calmed down and Joel was good for the rest of the drive, but as soon as we put Owen back in his carseat he screamed most of the way back again.  Sigh.  It felt very good to arrive back at home.

I had booked today off to take the boys to the Laurentian Conservation Area on a field trip with the Best Start Hub.  I was thinking that it would be a disaster since the boys were so overtired.  And again, even though you'd think that overtired kids would sleep in, it's actually the opposite.  Joel was awake at 5:38.  We did our best to convince him to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening.  We put on Treehouse in our room and convinced him to sit quietly and watch TV.  Anyways the field trip was actually pretty fun.  I caught a frog.  We had a scavenger hunt.  Joel made a leaf print.  We went for a short hike.  Both boys fell asleep within minutes of being put down for their naps.  Joel of course had a fairly short nap (an hour and a half).  Owen I woke up after over 3 hours!!

Me and Owen on the hike

I just think this is a cute picture of the boys!

Joel ready to catch a bug or frog or snake!

Check out the little toad Mommy caught!

Joel collecting items for the scavenger hunt

A lady attempted to take a picture of the 2 boys and me and the toad.  This is the best we could do!  If you look really closely, the toad is peaking out of my hands!


I even got some stuff accomplished on my day off!  While the boys napped I got the pool vaccum in, got laundry started, watered my plants outside and trimmed all of our hedges (a big job)!  Tonight I took the boys for a swim since the pool is up to about 76 degrees!  We had fun!

Tonight in the pool
Back to real life tomorrow, but only for a few days since Trevor and I leave for an adults-only trip to the James Taylor concert on Friday!  Horray!


I'm too lazy to add pictures tonight, but I'll be sure to try to get them onto Facebook tomorrow!

Highlights from a day at the zoo!

Not too much to update on today!  We had an awesome day at the zoo!  Beautiful weather!  Joel and Owen really enjoyed themselves and enjoyed playing with their friends Anderson and Taiten.

Highlight for the days:  For Joel - seeing the prarie dogs (from his Diego book) and otters (he got to see them being fed).  For me - Owen's eye clearing up a lot!  Joel riding a camel!  I was so proud!

Baby Canada Geese

Joel and I making monkey faces

Anderson and Joel

Joel, Anderson and Owen riding some elephants

Tait!

A hippo

Owen and a rhino

Rich and Tait

Trev and Joel

Tait, Joel and Anderson

The view from the other side!!

Owen being a goof at lunch time

Treat break!

Tait after eating his oreo ice cream sandwich!

My brave boy riding a camel with Anderson!

More camel

Having fun!

More camel

Buddies!

Owen enjoying the Kids Zoo

Owen and Tait looking at the prarie dogs

Owen going through a tunnel

Owen the bunny


Joel and I in a muskrat house

Me as a turtle

The funniest looking animal...the alpaca!!

Owen back at the hotel