Venice... finally!!

I know this was a long time coming... I'm actually surprised how many pictures we had on our little camera. But all the REALLY good family photos and artsy ones I took are gone forever...

There was this mirrored window and I just thought this was a fun picture.

The gondolier. Typical Venician look.

St. Mark's square was probably our kids favorite time since we were laughing so hard in the rain. Our umbrellas broke a few minutes after this...

There were hundreds of pigeons.

Fun random statue.

Haley got to take a few pictures... oops! And I know what you are thinking. Who is that bearded man I am sitting with?

Much better! Way to go girl... yes, that is B. :)

The three on a bench in Venice. A little chilly.

They are really into statues in Europe.

What else do you do if it's raining and you have fevers? Chase around the marble coffee table of course! I really wanted to steal this rug...

The whole family with the camera propped up on the stroller that did us no good on these crazy stepped bridges!

We saw kids playing soccer everywhere.

The "Old World" style that everyone tries to imitate. But this is real.

The walking step bridges in Venice drove us nuts with our stroller. ug!

This was in the square where we got to look out every morning. The first morning there was a huge running race through it, the second day was a funeral, and the third day was a little festival. (Pics of the festival were on the other camera...of course.)

Funeral procession.

The outside of some houses were like palates for some amazing painters.

The most famous bridge in Venice with us on the water taxi.

Old beautiful building.

This is what I wrote the first night home:

We just took the worst trip we have ever taken. Now, just to clarify, it was Venice and there were a lot of good things about it, but to line up all our trips in a row from Best trip ever! to Can things get any worse?, this trip would be second to last place. Hands. Down. The only worse one what when I was in Monticello almost a year after marrying my husband for his family reunion. This was the first time meeting/getting to know his extended family and I miscarry our first child. I was a wreck. What a GREAT first impression, huh?

But through EVERYTHING that went wrong on our trip to Venice, we had to stop and just seriously laugh our heads off after collapsing on the ground tonight after putting kids to bed because there is no way that you can script how HORRIBLE our trip was. seriously. Horrible! It was like a real life Chevy Chase movie. I took some smiling pictures of us, but let's call a spade a spade. It was crazy. And I even told Brandon on the last day, "I AM being positive. I am positive that this is a really bad trip." Unfortunately, that probably doesn't give you the big picture, but maybe the words of Elder Worthlin might. "Come what may, and love it." We had to just laugh and just shake our heads when the clouds opened up and dumped water on our family while on Saint Mark's Square for the second day in a row. I had to laugh after finding out that our really nice camera is gone... along with most the pictures we took. We lost our receipt that said we bought a plane ticket for Dylan and had to buy another plane ticket for him... all three kids were sick with different kinds of illnesses... motion sickness on the plane was really fun for me (I get it easily) and everyone within smelling distance... we had to run around to get keys and pay for our apartment for two days... it rained most of the time... our umbrellas broke just after buying them... bladder infection... teething child... fungus issue... oh the list can go on and on...carrying a stroller... screaming child on Gondola ride...

Just picture both Maleia and Dylan with fevers (Maleia throwing up and Dylan getting 4 teeth while we were there. Thank goodness for Ibuprofren.) Haley SCREAMING on the Gondola ride, "I AM GOING TO DIE!!!" over and over again, having diarrhea, and having a skin issue that was uncomfortable every time she walked.... okay, so I will stop. We really did try to cancel our trip to no avail.

There is more and more, but I will stop the list and elaborate on a few.

More on the fevers: Maleia had a fever the whole time we were there! It was low grade and she only threw up the day before we left, but the fever was still there. She didn't seem 'sick' per se, but I can tell that she got more tired than usual. Dylan had a fever because he was teething. 3 of 4 teeth cut through while there. The other one was just swollen and ready to pop.

Haley: "Are those his baby teeth or his parent teeth?"

Me: "Most people call them adult teeth, but those are his baby teeth coming through."

Haley: "But you said that only parents should have babies."

Good logic?? Did I mention THREE teeth came through??

Haley and I had a problem intermixing the words Venice and Vienna, so we confused a few people while we were there. (I'm trying to find anything upbeat to put in this post.) Venice really is is gorgeous!!

Last, but DEFINITELY not least. More on the camera. Our Canon Rebel was lost/stolen while we were there. I took some GREAT pictures if I do say so myself and I already miss it... The STUPID STUPID STUPID thing is (and a hint for all ya'll): We do not have any contact information on the bag or camera so if some wonderful person did get it, they wouldn't know how to get it back to us... At least we had our little camera on hand, too. So we got a few pics.
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FUNNY THINGS:

Brandon: Uh-oh! I don't know where we are.
Me: Really? Why?
Brandon: Because we are off the map.

(Later when we were playing hide and seek with the kids.)

Me: Hmm... I can't find Maleia. I wonder where she is.
Maleia: (little voice coming from behing the couch) You can't find me because I am off the map!

Brandon: I can't find my shoes?
Maleia: Maybe they are off the map?

Maleia: (at random intervals during our trip andin an excited voice) Daddy? Are we off the map?
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Haley should be a motivational speaker... When it was raining, kids were whining, and we were trying to find a place to eat, Haley chimed in:

Haley: We can do this. Life is Beautiful and we can do this.
Me: Thanks sweetie. I needed that.
Haley: I know. (sigh) Boy do I know.
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P.S. If I have to carry my stroller over one more bridge I will have to throw it overboard. Is it that hard to have a smooth bridges?
P.P.S. Thank you for letting me vent and not just saying, "But you went to Venice! By golly, be grateful!" I am very grateful for the opportunities that we have. This opportunity happened to suck. (Pardon my French.) This trip is making me stronger just because it didn't kill us. (Believe it or not, I am grateful for that.) Give me a month and I will maybe forget all the bad about the trip and concentrate more on the good, but man, that is that looking pretty slim right now.

**Update: It is still considered a pretty crappy trip, but believe it or not, overall the kids think of it fondly and we are just glad we survived... it could have been worse!