Europe Extravaganza! Ethanol Caregiving Part 1: Aunt Denise and Coco

Catching up today on some of our older posts that were due to be published . . . this is the first of two posts related to our often referenced, but now expanded, pool of caregivers that have allowed Pai and Dad to take the occassional long weekend away (historically).  With the European trip with my folks, we were down a set of our pool and we were very fortunate to have been able to call in Godmother/Aunt Denise and Coco to watch the boys for the first weekend of a very long 10 day trip.

Denise and Coco are the perfect tag team from the perspective of the wider Brigade . . . Pai and Dad have always loved and admired Denise's mothering skills and the boys have been 100% enamored with Coco since the first time she brought her adorable grin and affections into their lives.  Ethan and Noel could quite literally follow Coco around in imitation for hours and she's always been an incredibly receptive admiree for their affections.

The only downside of their long weekend of caregiving is that we didn't have many pictures come out of the experience . . . so we'll go with what we've got!

First up is an impressive sight . . . the boys have never been big spaghetti eaters for Dad and Pai, preferring tortellini in our experience.  Somehow (Coco's preference) the super caregiving tandem managed to introduce this as a dinner option and have it acccepted.  The proof is in Noel's ridiculously covered face - clearly a hit!

No different with Ethan . . . looks like he couldn't force it into his face quickly enough . . .

Post-dinner carbohydrate crash & TV time with Coco . . . no details on what exactly happened to Noel's pants, but luckily he managed to be discreet for this pic.

Gramma and Papa's 50th Wedding Anniversary Europe Extravaganza!

2013 has definitely been a year of celebrations which triggered a year of travel.  The first big trip was a 2-week trip to Europe in celebration of Gramma and Papa's 50th anniversary.  50 years is an incredibly impressive achievement and we needed an equally impressive trip to match it.  We started off with a handful of days in Rome before heading to Florence and Venice (Papa only), followed by Paris and London. 

 

Lots of good memories and an incredibly successful trip - one that I think we'll all remember for a lifetime . . .

Rome:  First stop at the Colloseum, which was incredibly impressive. 

                                                 

Rome:  Love this pic - stopping at the Pantheon

Rome:  The gorgeous (and overpopulated) Trevi Fountain

Rome:  Surviving our Vatican tour . . . zzzzzzzzzzzz

Florence:  Great family shot on the Ponte Vecchio

Florence:  Gramma and Papa tuckered out on the city tour while Dad and Pai soldiered on!

Florence:  Great pic of a son with his sweet Mother

Paris:  Dad has been to the city several times, so he took advantage of the chance for a catnap, much to the entertainment of Pai.

 

Paris:  Most of Paris was seen from a car, so we are definitely light on pictures with human beings - but a great pic of the Tower.