Venice Oct 21, 2017

We have waited a year for this vacation.  We are so excited to be heading to Venice.  Ever since Jermey and I went to Venice for Carnival Feb 2016 you can read about that post here  I have wanted the kids to experience Venice.  We didn't get to show the kids the magic of Carnival but we do did get to explore this beautiful City. 

We are packed and ready to go.  

Chandler rocking Dad's hat.

This is hilarious.  Kayden trying to sleep with the sun and all the luggage.
He managed to sleep for a couple hours.  Impressive.

We were lucky enough to take this vacation with some dear friends.  Dennis & Sarah Kinsman with their four kids Denny, Emily, Jacob, and Benjamin.  Also Matt & Sheri Henderson with their three kids Levi, Conner, and Briggs
Sarah scored this house on Airbnb for all 16 of us.
Each family got their own room/ bathroom and the little boys shared a bedroom they thought that was the coolest thing. 

Our kids were in heaven.  The Airbnb had a lot of kittens and a super cute puppy.
The kids had a blast holding and loving on these animals.  They didn't look super healthy to me.

All the kids loved snuggling and holding the animals. 

Sarah, Sheri and I created a yummy menu for the weekend.   The house didn't have a kitchen.   It was a good thing we planned all our meals and brought everything we needed to cook/serve our food.
The Kinsman's brought a camp stove, and crockpot.  We brought our crockpot and griddle.
  The Henderson's provided Friday's Dinner.  We had tacos/or taco salad for dinner and fruit.
   We defiantly ate like kings.  It was so nice to eat super fresh and healthy each meal.

Dinner and games. 

Here are the Men (Jermey and Dennis) cooking Pancakes, and bacon.  YUMMM

The little boys enjoying breakfast before we head to Venice.

The kids eating a nice and healthy breakfast.  

Jeremy had pre purchased our water taxi tickets to get to Venice.  However,  we had to figure out how to work this
ticket machine it was a little challenging.   

With our tickets in hand We are ready to explore Venice.  Now to find our friends. 

The Henderson's and Kinsman's took the train into Venice.  We were able to drive and parked near the water taxi.
 We caught up with them to ride the Water taxi together into Venice.

One of the main canals into go to Venice.
The day started off a little foggy but got clearer as the day went on. 

Chandler and Denny on the water taxi. 

Bastianclan in the Floating city of Venice. 

Kinsman's  in the Floating city of Venice. 

Henderson's in the Floating city of Venice. 

We are sitting on the cement platform outside St. Marks Basilica
When the sitting police came and told us we couldn't sit here.
It's crazy that you walk and walk all over Venice and you can't sit anywhere unless you "Pay" for the seat at a restaurant. It was Crazy!  

Of course we all had to have Gelato.  It's the best here.  YUMMMM

Here are all of our beautiful Children.
Benjamin, Emily, Briggs, Jacob, Denny, Chandler, Levi, Kayden, and Brooklyn

Beautiful Venice

The Kinsman's wanted to have some yummy pizza so we got to sit with them while they ate.
It was so nice to be able to sit down for a minute.  

I just love this picture of my Amazing Kids.
I sure love them.

Brooklyn (15)
Brooklyn's favorite things about Venice was the glass blowing. 
We got to watch a little demonstration of a guy making a horse. It was awesome!

Kayden 1 week shy of 18
Kayden's favorite part of Venice was The St. Marks Basilica. 

Chandler (12)
Chandler's favorite part was exploring with his friends!

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 We had walked over 16.000 steps
and our feet were tired.  So we opted to sit at this restaurant and listen to the live music and enjoy being in the heart of St.Marks Square.  It was pretty magical.  

We paid 10€ for this coke just to sit.  It was totally worth it so we could sit for a minute. 

We got a couple treats to enjoy with our coke.

We had such a beautiful fun day in Venice.  This floating city is so amazing.  I just love it here.

Jermey and I were in charge of dinner Saturday night.  So we made pulled pork.  It was perfect because the pork cooked
all day while we explored Venice and  when we came home it was ready to shred and eat.  We left a couple hours before the Kinsman's and Henderson's because we drove and didn't have to wait for the train so we were able to cut up all our fresh fruit and fresh veggies so when they got home we could just eat.  Jermey went to the train station and picked up Dennis and Matt so they could get their cars and pick up their families.  Did I mention how much walking we had done today?
After dinner and clean up the kids were ready for bed.  So we put all the kids to bed  and the adults stayed up and played who, what, where, why, and how.  I have never laughed so hard.  It was so fun.  Lots of beautiful memories were made today.