ITALY!!!!

It is the moment you have all been waiting for: the ITALY blog has arrived!!! Anytime I blog a vacation or a huge event I always have a really hard time condensing the information, and this time it has been even harder.  I have actually started this blog 3 times scrapped the whole thing and started all over. This trip was so wonderful and meant so much to us that it has made it very challenging for me to summarize it into 1 blog. My sister in-law, Megan, kept a travel journal while we were on our trip which was a great idea! She then turned the journal into a blog, another great idea! Since we took almost 2,000 pictures I have decided to give you 7 of our  favorite pictures from each place we visited.  So away we go . . .

 Day 1- Venice/Venezia

Canals, Flooded Squares, Dollywood Naps and the long road to Rome

 

Off the back of the Water Taxi

 

Here I am in the Flooded San Marco Square

 

 San Marco Cathedral

 

On our Gondola Ride

 

 Beautiful!!

Our FAVORITE picture from Venice!

Our wonderful hosts! (San Marco finally drained out)

 

 

Day 2- ROME on My Birthday!!!

British friends, buses, trains, The Vatican, 1st pizza in Italy, The Colosseum, Spanish Steps by accident, and the  Trevi Fountain.

Riding the train in Rome- it was the best way to get from place to place.

Sweet family!

Everything in the Vatican is a work of art. This is just one of the beautiful ceilings!

St. Peter’s

The Colosseum

Creepy Italian Trees

 

At the Trevi Fountain

Okay- this is the 8th picture for Rome but I really liked this one!

Day 3- Pompeii

Dirty Naples, going to the volcano, Jupiter’s Temple, preserved bodies, trees to hug, 5 poops, and gypsy kids.

The EPIC vineyard picture at Pompeii

2 cuties!

The guys at Jupiter’s Temple

Mt. Vesuvius

One of the bodies

Sometimes you gotta just hug a tree!

Oaks x 4

Day 4- Pisa & Lucca

Supporting driving decisions, seeing the Amalfi Coast, the Golden Arches, Willie the Sparrow, Camp Darby, rain and farts at the Tower, blue skies, a fall in the mud, carousel ride, scary walk in the dark and . . .”I’ve got cereal on my butt!” (14 pics because we have 2 places)

Our faithful driver- he did a great job!

Yes , we ate at McDonald’s in Italy

At the Leaning Tower

Rain means cute umbrella pics!

The Duomo- post rain with pretty skies

I love this pic and I am not really sure why?

Chris Oaks- a self portrait

At Lucca- it is a city completely surrounded by a wall

Standing on the Wall

 

Someone took a little mud tumble

Riding the carousel

Back at the wall

Walking with Uncle Nick

The walls of Lucca at night

Day 5- Heading to Aviano

Cold shower for me, the van rocks, BLUE, Taco Bell, Winery for some tasting, MUSCATO, Shoe Shopping,  BFed, Chris “rocks” at Rock Band, Ace loves Nick

Getting ready to leave Camp Darby

My friend and I at Aviano

The Winery where we got the Muscato

Wild and Crazy in the van

Dinner at Bfed

Chris schooling Nick at Rock Band

Ace and Nick

Day 6- Piancavallo, Barcis, Polcenigo, Etc.

I can’t order my own pastry, Spaghetti House, Family Photo Shoot day :), really big fish, beautiful mountains and lake, rock picking, rock throwing, who brings an Escalade to Italy, JEOPARDY (Who knows how many pictures this will be, just enjoy).

Pretty cappuccino

These brothers just wanna hug

These brothers just wanna hold hands

At Piancavallo

Part of the Italian Alps

At Barcis- Love them all!!! (One of my FAVORITE pics)

Throwing rocks

Finding rocks

Holding Rocks

Guy picture

Girl Picture- miss you!

Love him!

Mom am I too far away??

Love this!

Going down?

Can we say- EPIC?!

View from the top

On top of the world- well it felt like it anyway

The trusty van!

Polcenigo

Beautiful!

I think the cave system is under there somewhere?

Pretty

The big fish!

Just love this one!

 Another one of my favorites 

Day 7 (the last day in Italy)- Trieste

GPS hates the Autostrada, Topher loses his OJ, Someone did not take his airborne and made someone else sick, Giant Cave, 1,000 Steps! Who picked this?, Tour guide almost didn’t 'make it, Nick attempted to conquer his fear of heights, no pictures allowed had to buy postcards, Gelato lunch, yay!!!, naps and packing, Bierengle, If I eat anymore I am going to have to leave here naked,. squatty potty

Giant Cave with 1,000 steps in Trieste

The exit out of the cave, no pics allowed inside.

The last meal- Bierengle, German restaurant

The 4 of us- we never got to take that picture (my only regret!)

Yikes- It’s the Squatty Potty!!!

Did you think I had forgotten the Green Shirt picture?

I know this blog was A LOT of pictures but to explain this entire trip in a blog would have been impossible. If you can’t tell from the pics we had a FABULOUS time. Italy is beautiful and we saw a ton of a amazing stuff. BUT this trip was more than site seeing for us, it was first and for most an amazing week with family. Family that we had not seen in a year. Nick actually realized on the last day of our trip that it was the longest period of time he had spent with his brother in five years, and it was the longest time that the two  of us had spent with Chris, Megan, and the boys ever. So every moment truly meant so much! All the laughs, inside jokes, and memories will be cherished forever! :)

I leave you with one final picture:

All of us

Chris, Megan, Topher, and Cannon we love you all very much and thank you for such a wonderful trip. We miss you every day and wish we were still there with you! By the way, we are so there for Ireland or a Mediterranean Cruise, just say the word ;)

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You . . .

but not today is The Oaks Italy Adventure. Yes, we are alive and well and home from the most wonderful trip. We have been re-acclimating to life in the States this week. Mostly doing laundry, cleaning, going through souvenirs, adjusting to Eastern time, fighting colds, and organizing close to 2,000 pictures from our trip.

Needless to say every time I sit down to start my blog I become totally overwhelmed so I am going to need at least another week to bring you The Oaks Italy Adventure.  Until I can bring you the full story here are a few pictures to take a look at, just know there are bigger and better things to come!

 

 

 

 

Have I peaked you interest? Stay tuned there is SO MUCH MORE to come!!!!

Raising the Flag

Raising the Flag at Ground Zero after 9/11

I come to you today with a short and sweet blog. The image above is one of the most moving for me from the events of 9/11. For me it symbolized a renewing strength and unity in our nation. Even though we had been dealt a blow we were still Americans and would rise again.

RAISE YOUR FLAG today in remembrance of all those that lost there lives that horrible day 9 years ago and for all those that fought and continue fight for our FREEDOMS!

A Dish Inspired by Star Trek Voyager

Invasion of the super nerd- I have cooked a dished entirely inspired by an episode of Star Trek Voyager. Does this make me truly crazed Trekie? Ummmm . . .maybe but if it does I am certainly okay with that! Now I know some are you are wondering what on earth I could have cooked, and before you ask NO it was not Klingon Blood Wine! I also know that there is another part of you asking- What in the world is Star Trek Voyager?! So lets start there.

Star Trek Voyager was the last GOOD Star Trek series, and I put a large emphasis on GOOD. Don’t even bring that Enterprise show up, some things are just better to be forgotten. Here is a brief synopsis of Voyager via Wikipedia:

Star Trek: Voyager (also referred to as ST:VOY or ST:VGR) is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. The show was created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor and is the fifth incarnation of Star Trek, which began with the 1960s series Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. It was produced for seven seasons, from 1995 to 2001, and is the only Star Trek series with a female captain, Kathryn Janeway, as a lead character. It ran on UPN, making it the first Star Trek series to air on a major network since the original series which aired on NBC. It was the only TV show on UPN to have seven seasons, making it the network's longest running show.

Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while pursuing a renegade Maquis ship.^[1] Both ships' crews merge aboard Voyager to make the estimated 75-year journey home.^[2]

^{For a full synopsis click here.}

^{Okay, so now that you are thoroughly convinced that I am a SUPER TREKIE let me tell you what I made (drum roll please) . . . . Banana Nut Pancakes!!!}

^{During one pivotal episode of Voyager, well actually I don’t know how pivotal this particular episode was but for purposes of the blog it makes it sound more dramatic. So during the pivotal episode B’lana, the half Klingon-half human Chief of Engineering, is feeling particularly angry, which is not unusually. This chick is always mad about something! But this time she over comes her anger and at the end replicates her childhood favorite Banana Pancakes.}

Here is the episode I was telling you about, you have to fast forward to the end to see the infamous Banana Pancakes.

So that Nick and I could also overcome our Klingon anger issues I decided we needed some of our own Banana Panckaes. I searched one of my favorite web-sites Allrecipes until I found a good looking recipe for Banana Nut Pancakes <----click here for recipe or read below:

Banana Nut Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup whipped topping
• 1 cup pancake mix
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 1 medium ripe banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Mix in whipped topping (mixture will be stiff); set aside.
2. In a bowl, combine pancake mix and sugar. Beat egg, milk and oil; add to pancake mix and mix well. Fold in banana and pecans. Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly greased hot griddle; turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes. Cook until second side is golden brown. Serve with cream topping.

In order to save calories I did not make the cream topping, although I do think it would be really yummy. Even without the cream topping the pancakes were FABULOUS! Very easy to make and absolutely delicious. One thing I will have to say is that they were not the most attractive pancakes I ever made. They all came out looking like large wrinkly prunes, which I think had something to do with my pancake flipping technique. Wrinkled or not that were still good!

Having a bad day? Need to over come the Klingon in you? Whip up a nice stack of Banana Nut Pancakes I am sure it will cure whatever ails you!