Wednesday, July 31, 2019

July 2019: Italia!

July has been a packed month!  We were busy with dogs and horses.  I went back to South Africa to collect Gio from camp.  And then we had a lovely 3 weeks in Italy....


First a few Honey pics.  I try to send her family a photo or two every day as I know they miss her terribly.  Here are a few of my favorites from July....
She will take affection from anyone, including perfect strangers she meets at Karura!

She is obsessed with our hamster George and often choses to nap near him. I do not let her stay in there alone with him. I am not sure if the obsession is "I love him so much!" or "I want to eat him!"
Maria likes to help me groom her....


Another successful day of stealing Jagger's ball at every opportunity.
Visiting George....


Maria continued to ride every day...

Hmmmm...this might not end well....
Excited for another riding lesson!
Back in South Africa to meet Gio's camp bus!
He loved his two weeks at Sugar Bay.


Before we flew back to Nairobi Gio got to see one of his very favorite friends from our Pretoria days.

Maria took her job of caring for George very seriously while Gio was a camp!

Gio and I brought back 590 (used) tennis balls from South Africa.  They are hard to find in Kenya (and new ones are $5/ball!) so now we have enough to last us a long time! Should keep our ball-obsessed dogs happy for a while.

Massage time!

We went to check out the Middle School construction at school.  Gio is not happy that the temporary Middle School classrooms are being built where he used to have recess.

A huge drawback of going on holiday is leaving behind our pets.  A last snuggle with Bruno before we head to Italy.

Dressed for our overnight flight to Europe.

One of our first stops in Italy was to have a dog tag made for Gioia.  We are so excited for our new puppy!

Traveling is tiring...

...awake again and off on an evening walk.  The white house on the left is ours!

Paolo and Gio headed off on a 4 day hike in the Dolomites with a group of friends.  Maria and I enjoyed some girl-time including dinner out to enjoy her favorite Italian dish- cappalletti.

And we had some fun at a ropes course nearby....



We love to visit a shop in town whose owners have this lovely dog. He and Maria had daily snuggles.


Elbrus (yes, it is a mountaineering shop!).



Meanwhile, back in Nairobi....
I have a dog-walker who takes our gang to Karura every day when we are traveling.  Bruno was thrilled on this morning when he ran into his best friend Apollo!

Gio and Paolo returned.  The kids joined a town camp and had fun back at the ropes course place...



A photo from our breeder.  Gioia (left) is getting huge!  She arrives in Nairobi August 3rd.

Dog walker's photo of Jagger in mid-air catching a ball.

We had a very hot week so enjoyed a few days at the pool.

Evening walk without pants (I told you it was hot!).

Day camp at the pool doing some crafts.

Car service AND child care!

Off to the amusement park Gardaland in Verona.

Made it!
Maria's favorite ride of the day!

Gio and I did all of the rollercoasters.  He was very brave considering he had never been on one before this day.  This one had so many warning signs that Gio got a bit worried (no metal implants, no hearing aids, no recent surgeries, no back or neck problems, etc...).  But he decided he wanted to finish the list and so off we went!

This one was probably my favorite- Oblivion!


Proof we did this one!

Ending a very hot and fun day with a unicorn ice cream cone...

It was their first time at an amusement park and definitely not their last.  Gio and I had fun doing all of the roller coasters and Paolo had fun avoiding them by spending much of the day at Peppa Pig World!


Friday we fly back to Nairobi to begin a busy August.  We are eager for Gioia's arrival on Saturday, Maria's 6th birthday on the 7th and school beginning (YEAH!!) on August 14th.  And then a big birthday bash for Maria and her friends at the end of the month.  We wish you all could be there!



xoxo.  Clara