Beach time!!!

For our final stops of the trip we headed to the southern coast of Italy to Sorrento. The first part of the trip was all about touring and walking from sun up until sun down; the second part was all about relaxing and taking in the amazing coastal sites! Sorrento is a gorgeous display of sea cliffs and a luxurious town known for their production of lemons. We had quite the crazy trip to get to Sorrento, but once we arrived we realized it was totally worth it!!! The B&B we stayed at was named Paradise, and it and fully lived up to its name! It was on top of a hill over looking the town of Sorrento, the Gulf of Naples, and the Isle of Capri and Mt. Vesuvius in the distance. The view from our balcony was the most amazing view I have ever experienced...the pictures just don't do it justice. The home was located so high up the hill that our host had to drive us up and down (I won't even try to describe the ride, but just know that each time it was like putting our lives at risk!!!) We spent our time enjoying the charming town, sipping lemon granitas, and taking in the beach!

We took a day trip by jet boat to Capri, the "Island of Dreams". Once we arrived, we hopped on another smaller boat to travel around the island, and then climbed into yet another even smaller boat (max capacity = 5 people) to venture into the Blue Grotto cave. Using a rope our rower pulled us into the cave as we layed in the boat, once in our rowman sang a little tune as he rowed us through the cave lit up with the most amazing blues!!! We spent the rest of the day at a public beach taking in the sun and the local Italians.

Picturesque Tuscany

Our next stop on our Italian Holiday was Tuscany. My only regret of the trip would be not staying here for another day!! I would not necessarily take away our time from any of the other places, but just take a longer trip! Two words - surreal and gorgeous! As far as the eye could see there were rolling hills with vineyards and olive tree groves. It was seriously out of a movie. The place we stayed at was by far my favorite B&B that we booked - Villa Dianella Fucini . It was located about 5 minutes outside of Vinci, Italy. Basically ~30 minutes from Florence and an hour from Siena. So picturesque - seriously in 24 hours we probably took a million pictures! Not only that, but they had an Italian wedding that night, which was so fun to experience! Let's just say they like to party ALL NIGHT! Every time we thought they were leaving they were actually just starting a new activity! Till the wee hours of the morning we would hear a bottle of champagne pop followed by - "Hip Hip" then the whole crowd would yell "Hooray"!! Too fun!
We decided to just stay in and enjoy the grounds that night. We ended up watching a movie on our ipad at a home build in the 1500!!! That just doesn't seem to equate!!! The next day we took a wine tour and enjoyed the rest of our time snacking on bruschetta, prosciutto, and cheese & honey!! At the end we packed our tiny suitcases with as many wine and olive oil bottles that we could to share with our friends and family! (that sure made traveling with the suitcase a little harder!!!)

Bon Apetite!!

Also while in Florence we took a day to become Italian chefs! We met our chef "Laura" (aka: Italian Martha Stewart) at a local market to shop for the ingredients and then walked back to her place to make a meal. The menu consisted of arugula pesto with le tagliatelle in parmesan bowls, fennel crusted pork tenderloin with fresh zucchini, custard tarts with fresh pears, and of course wine! We learned that making homemade pasta is relatively easy and very enjoyable! We found though that we don't have our dough making muscles built up very well!!

This was such a relaxing day being able to get out of the tourist areas and really experience how the locals live. We enjoyed being able to talk with Laura and learning all about Italy from a local's perspective. She asked us her burning questions about Americans and we asked her all that we could think of about Italians! She spoke English relatively well, but there were many laughs when we were having hard time communicating!!!

Florence

Well thus far I have not been very good at posting about our trip, but better late than never right??? So, our second stop was Florence. After an eventful experience of fighting our way through a city wide protest in Rome, which caused all of our possible transportation sources to shut down, we made it to Florence. I am SO glad this was one of our stops! Although I don't necessarily have an all out winner for favorite place that we visited, this was very close to the top! I loved the this city - loved the B&B we stay at, loved the food (pear ravioli please!), loved the shopping (although I sadly couldn't do much due to time and lack of luggage space - oh the Italian leather boots!) the structures were amazing, the city was so clean, and I felt so safe walking around any time of the day. The views were just spectacular and the experiences and sights we saw I will remember forever...Statue of David & the Accedemia, Piazzale Michelangelo, Boboli Gardens, Ponte Vecchio, the St. Maria del Fiore & the Duomo to name a few - A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! Our book (trusty Rick Steve's) called Florence the Renaissance treadmill and that it was! I am not sure I have ever walked so much in my life!!! Here are a few pictures of our time there.

My Texas, My Rangers

It has been Ranger Fever around our house. After a long season of staying up late watching games and attending games in 100+ Texas heat, the post season finally arrived! The only negative is that post-season = low productivity in the Sessler household!!! It has been fun though and we are looking forward to seeing our Rangers take it all!! We are hoping tonight is all that we will need! From watch parties, to tailgates, to being at a few games, we have been trying to take it all in!

GO RANGERS!!!

ALCS Game #2 - Cruz walk-off homer!!!World Series watch party

Ranger Ballpark food

World Series

ROMA

A few weeks ago we departed on a European vacation with some of our closest friends, Brandon & Amber, to explore Italy - it was AMAZING!!! Since we traveled around a bit, I'll break up my posts to show each stop. First stop - Rome! After an "exciting" death defying taxi ride we made it to our Bed & Breakfast with a perfect view of the Colosseum just steps away. We spent the next three days exploring (what felt like every inch) of Rome. The history is so rich and we just couldn't believe that these things that we were witnessing existed thousands of years ago! To scratch the surface, we visited the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, and many beautiful churches. One of the most incredible and surreal experiences was at Vatican City. We took the Scavi Tour underneath St. Peter's Basilica and got to see Peter's tomb and HIS BONES. What an experience to get to be standing just inches away from one of Jesus's disciples, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of the beautiful city of Roma!

Baby Riley

I am a bit behind, since baby Riley arrived yesterday, but I still wanted to share about the shower that we had for her mamma, Amy! Amy is such a dear friend to me and it was so fun getting to shower her with love and help her prepare for her baby girl! Miss Riley is just precious, and we now love her just as much as we do her mommy and daddy!

Sugar & Flour

I have been playing in the flour quite a bit this summer; here are a few recent projects that I have been working on when Sam is outside working in the yard! From birthdays, wedding showers, and gender reveal parties I have had quite the variety lately!!!

Just last week we got to celebrate Ryan's 1st birthday party! He wasn't too much into eating the cake, but he sure had a fun time playing in it!!!

This was my first gender reveal cake and thought it turned out pretty cute!

FYI - It was a BOY

Wedding shower for my sweet bible study leader at church

Happy Mother's Day cake that I made back in May to celebrate my mom and sister-in-law

R-A-I-D-E-R-S '01

Back in June we went to Amarillo to be apart of my 10 year high school reunion. I wasn't really sure what it would be like since Facebook and the internet basically take out any of the "shocker" moments, but we ended up having a great time catching up with friends. 10 years must not be long enough, because as soon as we were all back together, it felt like we never left (except all of the kids running around! I am pretty sure we might have been one of the only couples without kids!). I think from now on I will look forward to these things and treasure these people that played a big role in my life growing up!

Top: Some of the girls from Class of '01 at the luncheon

Bottom: Some of my closest girl friends (then & now) and their hubbies! So blessed that the husbands enjoy each other as much as we do!

Ashley, Megan, Mandy, Berkeley, Jessica, Ashley - too many memories to count with these girls!

I guess I didn't get many pics with the fellas of the class!

BLOOMS

Over the past few years that we have lived in our house Sam has grown to love gardening and frankly anything to do with the yard. Love is actually an understatement because he could be outside 24/7 if he was able. Yes, even in this 100 degree weather we have been experiencing - that doesn't stop him, but only means more water refills! He has worked hard to get the yard where he wants it to be and this year all his hard work has come to fruition and looks amazing!!! He has learned a lot and I know will continue to grow in this new love! Here are a few examples from this Spring and Summer. I can't believe how well things have held strong despite some crazy storms and crazy hot weather, but it all still looks great! We did loose a canopy that we had covering our porch which we were using as shade for many flowers, but other than that things are looking good. We are thinking vegetables next year!!! (All pictures taken by Sam also)

Kwanso Triple Petaled Lilies

We have a lot of these and they multiply ever year -

let us know if you want some, we have plenty to share!

Assorted CalladiumsLantana - this stuff can take over!!!

Elephant ears, red Petunias,and two types of Sweet Potato Vines

One of our many Crapemyrtle trees

Asparagus furn, purple/red Petunias, Sweet Potatoe Vine, Coleus,

and wispies (technical term unknown!)

Hardy Hibiscus

huge blooms that catch my eye every morning

Asparagus fern - aka: Clown Hair!

Grape Vines - recently all the grapes were eaten by birds!

Echinacea -

beautiful flowers that attract lots of butterflies and bees

Pansies from the springTulips

Sam planted ~75 bulbs, so we had quite the showing this spring!!!

Bradford Pear Tree - spring blooms

(down to only two of these after one fell on our house 2 years ago)

Not pictured: beautiful pink Hydrangea (having a hard time in this heat), Tea Rose bush, daisies, various herbs/garlic, Four O'Clocks, Bloodgood Japanese Maple tree, Carolina Jasmine, Snowball Bush (Viburnum), Some Hostas, and many more that I don't know the name of!!!