First week with Gran!

We were all excited that Gran was coming for another visit!  We had lots planned for the two weeks she was going to be here.

On the day she arrived, we went to Leuven for some yummy lunch and a glance at some beautiful architecture. 

On Tuesday I surprised her with a trip to Venice!  The last time she was here we didn't get to do too much because I had just had the baby.  So this time I wanted her to be able to hit a few more countries and see a little more of Europe.

Beautiful Piazza San Marco

Emerson had a fun time hanging out with Gran and I for the day!

We had a lovely glass of wine while sitting in the piazza.  It only cost about $50 for this platter!  We apparently had to pay 6 euros a piece to get to sit down while the band was playing in the background....but it definitely set the mood.

The Rialto

We had a fun day of eating yummy food and walking all through the city.  The buildings and canals are amazing!  We had a little longer stay at the airport due to me not looking at our tickets to make sure what time our flight was and also our flight was delayed and hour.  But we were wore out from walking anyways.  We got home at about 1:00 am after waking up at 4:00am the day before, so it was almost a 24 hour day with no sleep.  That's what you get taking a day trip to Venice!

On Thursday we had a cooking lesson with Narttaya, a Thai chef.  I have been to many parties and even have had her at my house to serve her food.  It is so yummy!!!  We love her!  She comes to your house and cooks everything, serves it, and cleans up!  Can't ask for anything more than that.  

Mom got to be mystery reader for Drake's class.  I think Drake was pretty surprised.  He was acting all shy

Picture with the class!  Drake wouldn't take a pic with just him and Gran, he gets embarrassed when put on the spot sometimes.  He wanted the whole class in the pic!

Beautiful Cote d'Azur for the weekend!

Nice
Mom knew about this trip because it was getting planned before the summer.  It was so nice to be in warm, sunny weather!!!  The French Riviera was gorgeous!!!

Love the colors and the laundry!!

Mom and my friend Brandi under the palm trees that we were so happy to see!

View from the top of a lot of stairs that we climbed!! :)  We were climbing castle hill to look at the beautiful waterfall (that of course I didn't get a pic of).

My friend Mackenzie (who planned this great trip) told me to take a pic with my iphone in panoramic mode...this turned out to be a pretty cool pic!

Our driver stopped here on our way to Monaco, to show us this hotel.  He said you can google it to reserve a room but they don't have to do any other advertising.  I think it just has like 12 rooms or something.  It's called Cap Estel.  My next birthday party???

Monte Carlo (which I learned is like a city in Monaco).  Monaco is the 2nd smallest country in the world, next to Vatican city (I learned that from my guide in Rome.  People who live within the Vatican walls have their own passport because it is a different country). The famous casino is on the left and Hotel de Paris on the right.

Opera House

I want one!!  There were so many huge yachts in the bay.  We were all thinking about sneaking on one but didn't ;)

Mackenzie and Tiffany at the starting line of the Grand Prix!!

The next day we wandered around the town where we stayed...Villefranche-sur-Mer.  There was a market going on and it was a beautiful town.

Cute girlies down below!!

These cacti were pretty neat..people had written their names on the leaves. Ouch!

Lovely view for our lunch!

This was our hotel....Hotel La Flore.  It was so cute!  The rooms were normal Euro rooms but the views were breathtaking and the manager was so helpful with everything.  Mackenzie did a great job with this one!

Pics below are from our photog Mackenzie...she does amazing pics with no effort at all!  I guess that's why she's a photographer and I'm not!!  :)

Beautiful friends!  It was the joke of the weekend that I was Snow White with my 7 seven dwarfs (one of which is behind the camera).  Cutest dwarfs I've ever seen! haha

Brussels girls!!

One of the views from the hotel.  We had to wait for our driver so the hotel manager set us up outside with a bottle of champagne.  Awesome!

All the gals!  We all had a great time together!
Micki (Shayna's mom), Allison, Shayna, Brandi, Mom, Me, Mackenzie, and Tiffany (Mackenzie's friend from TX)