Loving Lake Como and Cantu

Posted March 18, 2014.

Drumroll... because Ellie Marsh is at it again. Okay, here I am!!!!!! 

I know you're excited but, you don't have to keep clapping.

We finally reached Cantu after another one of those long car rides, and here we are at dinner with Mom's old friends. Starting in the front I will name the people I know: Ainsley, Me, Pino, Carla, Michelle, and though I may not know those two in the back well enough to know their names (yes, don't judge me) I do know they are the parents of Filippo (see below). Everyone was very nice. Pino took us all to dinner at this restaurant, and was letting us stay in his apartment which was very nice of him. Carla bought us a bunch of groceries, including a bunch of treats, like Smores puffed marshmallows, Kinder Maxis, and one of our favorite Italian foods...NUTELLA!

(Note from the editor, Michelle: we arrived the evening of Tuesday, January 28th. Pino was the assistant coach in Cantu when I was a nanny for the Mannions back in 1990. He is now the top basketball coach in Europe! Carla is his girlfriend of 10+ years, and we loved her immediately. Sergio is Pino's brother, another friend of mine, and we loved meeting his wife Loredena and their son, Filippo.)

And at the kids side of the table: Ellie, Ainsley, Filippo, Joey and Robbie.

And here we all are except for Robbie who at the time was taking the photo. And last but not least: SCORE- 1 for the adults because I'm happy!

Here we are enjoying the beautiful day in Lake Como. P.S. Don't look directly at my face I was car-sick.

(Another editor's note: This was Thursday, January 30th...on Wednesday, January 29th we spent the morning catching up on homework, and the afternoon visiting my friend Alex, but we forgot to take a photo.)

Another strained smile...

And this one is almost willing.

So is this one.

After the long car ride we all deserved a break and ate at this surprisingly good place I don't remember the name of.

And here we are at an amazing cathedral in Milan. Why they named it after a disney princess...well, don't ask me, I don't know.

I do realize fairly often that in Italy we always were caught with umbrellas, I'm curious who crossed with Mother Nature.

The girls in front of the mall.

In front of the mall are: Ellie, Ainsley, and the girly guys.

Take a look inside.

And take a million photos.

And here's me being just so cute.

And Ainsley too (she looks like a grape I'll just have to call her Grape Girl!).

Sometimes I wish there were seats on the metro but there never are, isn't it weird!!!!

Back in Cantu for now. This my Mom's friend Alex. He is really nice. we talked for almost two hours with him and he bought us pastries and coke! He was really, really, really, REALLY  nice!!!! Like everybody else!

(We stopped by just for a photo, since I'd forgotten to take one the day before. The boys were tired after the day at Lake Como and Milan, so they missed out on the photo, even though they were there for our visit the day before.)

Another photo but I doubt that surprises you anymore.

There always needs to be a photo of everyone so we had to take a selfie.

Last day in Cantu and we had a good dinner to look forward to. (If Carla and Pino ever invite you to dinner say yes!!!!!)

And Carla with me and Ainsley... I'm never going to forget her!!!! She's way too nice!! And, she is a writer! She works at a newspaper, but has also written books! When I told her I wanted to be a writer when I grow up, she gave me a copy of her book, and even said I could write an article for her newspaper!! I haven't done it yet though...maybe if my parents would quit making me do homework (hint, hint)!

Next to me are Carla's sister's daughters they are learning English.

Here's the one of everybody...

And another photo, I don't think my Mom can help herself.

We loved meeting Pino and Carla, I even said they were like a long-lost aunt and uncle! We will miss them!!

The next day we stopped at the basketball arena to say goodbye to Pino and give him the keys to his apartment and some gifts to Pino and Carla to thank them. After all, who knows when we'll see them again! :(

(Friday, January 31st)

And finally another good-bye. I've learned how hard good-byes are but I try not to think about it. We'll never forget you guys (Pino and Carla and Alex and so on and so forth...)

With much love,

Ellie Marsh

Pouring in Pompeii

Posted January 30, 2014.

Our first guest post, by Ellie! She'll tell you all about our road trip to Pompeii, on Monday, January 20, 2014.

Well, here I am. We started our day with breakfast. It turns out our hotel serves a heavenly breakfast and we've been chowing down on it. Joey, Ainsley, and I all think it is the best thing about our hotel because (and I mean literally) the stuff must've been sent directly from heaven.

 As you can see in the picture above I wanted to marry my breakfast but it disappeared before we ever made our vows. I hate to think about what we'll do about breakfast without this place.

Anyway, here is where the story begins. We're taking our rental car, The Beast, for a little spin.

And we have lots of pictures of how the car ride started 

(because we can't seem to pry the camera out of my mom's hands). 

And now we head to Pompeii in a car ride that was like, everlasting. 

Although I have to say after hours (about 3) a miracle happened! We had arrived at last.

The first place we entered was the stadium. This picture makes it look rather rainy, 

but at first we were fine. This is where the bad people were killed. They had lions 

that were caged that they unleashed and sometimes it was just person vs. person.

 And surprisingly... here's another picture of us in the stadium! In this picture though
we were aware that our picture was being taken.

 This is the outside of the stadium, and that's when it started drizzling (and frankly I think we should've just taken it that mother nature didn't want us here because it got a whole lot worse).

 And here are our funny faces. Oh! If you didn't notice, Joey or as he calls himself,
"Cool Guy Joey," is being ridiculously sure that his sun glasses are always on, and
Ainsley is trying to be quite a poser. I guess everybody is a nerd in some way.

Here is Robbie, he climbed those stones sticking out of the wall so he could see what 

was on top of the wall and probably to see over it too. I know because I asked him. 

 Here we have to the left side (behind the grave houses or something let's just call 'em buildings)
the gardens and I apologize that you can't see them. 

 There are the roads. they are formed in hills so the rain goes down and they had
stepping stones so that when you cross the streets you don't get your feet wet.
They also had really high sidewalks and that would also help.

 This is basically what a house looks like for them. No bathroom and
most of them don't even have a kitchen. The poor fellows.

 And here are me and Ainsley. Ainsley is doing her normal pose where her hip is turned
and her head is facing you. She also has that passionate look. Nerdy and cheesy.

 This looks like a house with the slightest of a backyard. Imagine us kids being
trapped in a house so small with no backyard. I can't. The idea is too sad.

 Another picture in front of the house. How did they avoid stepping in the huge puddle? No clue. 

 This is a house. Lots of things were locked which was a disappointment.

 Robbie is hanging out of the window of a house with a big courtyard.

Here's a picture of some of the gates they have that guard the doorways.

 "What is this?" I hear you ask. It's a cast of somebody when the volcano erupted. He or she looks like they are suffocating from toxic gases. With that pleasant thought in mind, lets move on.

In this picture my family is walking past another locked building. 

Seriously are we not allowed to see things?!

 Now here are the stepping stones I was telling you about. And in the situation we were in we figured out they were very helpful. We were still bone soaked though. I have NEVER been more wet.

Here's Ainsley posing again.

In this picture you can see how ruined Pompeii became after the eruption.

Here are Mom and Dad standing in front of the Temple of Jupiter.

Looks like cool guy Joey just transformed into nerd guy Joey!

Sorry, but I'm blocking Joey (not that anybody cares).

 Here's a picture of mom taking a picture of me. 

 Here's a picture of me taken by mom who I was taking a picture of at the same moment.
So this picture and the picture above were both taken at the same time.

Trying to find our way out of this place. Pompeii is a maze.

And here's Ainsley posing again with nerd guy Joey in the background.

We're lost. Trying to find a way out!

 Oh and here's my family. You may not be able to tell in the picture but we were:
freezing, soaked to the bone, hungry, etc.

 Hey look the 2 nerds decided to give it a break!!!!

 All's well that ends well (if it ended well...).

 My hands were frozen and at the restaurant when we ordered he was warming up my hands. He had REALLY warm hands but maybe it's just because I'd been FREEZING!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoyed hearing about our REALLY fun time in Pompeii. 

And truly I wrote this ALL by myself.  

                                             

Yours truly, and most sincerely,

Ellie Marsh