Siracusa (Syracuse) Sicily

We went on an adventure the day after Christmas and boy it was fun. We drove for hours, completely following the Garmin and looking for adventure and new places. New places is what we got. We went geocaching and all around exploring. We left late in the morning and took a long time getting there, we hit Siracusa late in the evening and didn't have batteries for the camera. We will surely go back, it was a beautiful city full of Greek ruins and it was clean and new looking which is very unusual for Sicilian cities.

Christmas Day

Daddy having more fun with the present and not letting Cameron have it.

Cam's best present, automatic Nerf gun.

Pinky's present, which was promptly torn apart in 5 minutes flat.

Looking for the good stuff.

Coming down to check if Santa came.

Before the boy got to it, but after Santa. Don't you remember the version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.."The stockings were hung by the World map with care....!!

Cameron loves living in this time zone, Santa comes earlier. We went to the children's Mass at the NASI base last night. Cameron had a hard time falling asleep. He even tried to trick Santa and the Tooth Fairy when he put his tooth that was pulled a couple weeks ago under his pillow. Man, sneeky little boy.!!

We surely miss having family close especially at this time of year.

Mt. Etna snow day

Snowman in the front yard. The snow iced up a bit.

Pinky's first time in snow

Today we went to Mt. Etna to find the snow. Funny thing, there were hardly any people there. Was it because it was reposo or what? If we were in the San Bernadino mountain of home, you couldn't hardly find a spot to pull to the side of the road without finding your own spot to sled. Cameron went sledding and we even brought a truck bed full of snow home. Did I mention, Mt Etna is an active volcano with lava flowing from it?!

Cameron's First Football Game

Cameron played his first flag football game today. He warmed the bench quite a bit, but he is the youngest and smallest on the team. He had fun though. He is getting better.

Pinky and her Beau

Kisses

Ear nibbling

I'm too good for you, Nero!

BIG DOG!!

We are babysitting, the word baby isn't quite right, Pinky's boyfriend. They look so cute together. For those of you who are thinking we are letting Pinky's boyfriend stay over night, that is not true. He must spend his nights in his own home. We do not allow that kind of behavior in our house LOL.

Caltagirone Christmas

See the steering wheel.

Last night we went to Caltagirone for their Nativity displays. We didn't quite get the "gist"of it. I guess there are grotto's where people/neighborhoods set up Nativity scenes. We walked around for a while, but didn't really find out much. It started hailing and we decided to leave, though as we were leaving we found grotto#5 which had a beautiful display of the Bethlehem Nativity. Also we found a bunch of small Fiats with Nativity scenes in them. It must have been a parade. The pictures are of the Fiats. Of course when you go to Caltagirone you have to go to the stairs, remember back in when they had the stair lighting festival, now they have the Nativity.

Gettin' ready for Christmas

Here are pictures of Cameron decorating the Christmas tree, hanging stockings, and making Christmas cookies. John, Traci we sure miss you, we have had wonderful Christmas' together.

Mistletoe Mile

Mt. Etna with the orange groves.

Puttin' on the speed at the end.

Getting ready to start.

Cameron did the Mistletoe Mile run on base on Saturday. He ran the complete mile and even though he started in the back of the pack he finished in the first group.

Braces off!!

Yes the title is correct. Cameron now has his braces off. There was a little catch though, he was eating soft serve ice cream and a baby tooth broke in half. The dental office wasn't busy, so they took him immediately. They had to pull the tooth and since he was already there and quite sedated, they decided to take the braces off. Now that doesn't mean forever. When he gets a few more permanent teeth in, he will have to have full braces. This just moved a couple permanent teeth so tops and bottoms didn't hit. Thank God for nitrous oxide, it made everything, even digging looking for tooth pieces, much easier to handle, for both of us.