ciao!

ciao, peeps!

greetings from italy!

kalei and i are having the best time - bethany & company are making sure we are culturally enriched. this post covers the first couple of days we've been here -more posts to follow, i promise.

we flew into milan on saturday morning (10 am their time, 3 am central time). we blew thru passport control and customs (hey, if no one's going to be at customs, we're not going to complain - they might've confiscated bethany's six boxes of zip-locs!) after a 2 hour drive to torino, we arrived (alive, thankfully - the "speed limit" on the auto strada we took was about 100 mph - things go fast and cRaZy!) at bethany's house. it's so beautiful!!!!! i want to pry out a few doors and windows to bring home - i'll let you know if i have any success with that. we unloaded our suitcases and headed out into the town. our first stop was an outdoor mall - found james' gift - score! - then onto the piazza di vittoria in the heart of torino.
here's a look at the buildings surrounding the square:

disney xd had a set-up that day and the kids had fun trying out skateboarding, breakdancing, wii skiing, etc.

we had our first gelato! (i say first because, hello, we are getting it again - soon!) as you can see, it's so good kalei doesn't want to pause for pictures while consuming it.

on sunday, general conference didn't come on till 6 pm, so we checked out some parks.

this one had a war memorial. feel free to zoom in on the carvings. interesting. josh, what does "fervent rotae, fervent animi" mean?

this park had a fun zip line. go, kalei, go!

the next park had a fountain dedicated to the twelve months. kalei's april was almost modest - way to go, aprile!

near the fountain was a castle built in the 1880s to resemble a 15th century castle. it was open to walk thru, so of course we took advantage of the photo ops.

we walked thru yet another park on the way back to the car, and snapped this lovely picture. we are so excited to be here!! more pics later!!