Lake Garda and Heading to Germany

I know I said this last time, but I am going to say it again.  Lake Garda is a very special place to me.  next time we need to stay a little longer and my brother and his family need to join us.  

We walked to dinner and found a nice spot right by the water.

Our dinner spot

Time please slow down just a little.....Hannah looks so grown up (and some days she acts like she is a full blown teenager)

Being silly with little sister

We walked over to the water while waiting on our food and fed the ducks and swans

It was a really pretty spot

The sunset that night was gorgeous

The next morning we went back top the beach for a bit before going on a speed boat tour.  It was a really clear day and you could see all the mountains surrounding the lake.

My dad would have really enjoyed our little excursion to Lake Garda.  

The speed boat tour was fun (except for our kids fighting the entire time over where they would sit).  Lake Garda is best enjoyed by boat.

We rode over to Sirmione Castle

Selfie didn't work out that great

We rode through the castle

This selfie worked out a little bit better

The town of Sirmione

Jamaica Beach

Of course we had to get more gelato that night....I had never seen Red Bull gelato before

The next morning we packed up headed to the airport.  Scott had to go to Spain for a work trip and my mom and me and the kids headed to Cologne.

Waiting on our taxi in front of the hotel.

One more last view of the lake

The kids were happy to be at my moms house and made themselves at home right away.  The next day they didn't want to do anything, but just hang out at the house and play.  It had been a whirlwind up to this point, so it was nice to just have a day with nothing to do.

Scott flew on a Budget airline down to Spain and booked first class.  This is the picture he sent me with the caption "if this is first class I don't want to know what economy looks like".  haha!

We had beautiful weather the entire trip.  It only rained one time in 4 weeks!

It was actually a little too hot.

After taking a day to rest, we headed to the Rhein River the next afternoon to play.  We packed a little picnic, played on the playground and by the river.

The water was so low, because it had been so hot and no rain.

Venice and Lake Garda

On our first full day in Italy we decided to spend the morning at the hotel property.  The pool was really nice and they had lots of activities for the kids.  Evan played soccer forever while we went swimming.  Evan loved that pretty much anywhere we went he would find some kids to play soccer with.  If you ask him his favorite part of our month in Europe he would say playing soccer:)

They tried some archery too

And a fun playground

These two pictures were taken from the shuttle boat going into Venice

We booked an hour tour by water taxi for the afternoon.  This tour was perfect.  We went down the small canals and the guide told us lot of fun facts about Venice.  It was neat to see some of the everyday boats in Venice....... we went by an ambulance boat, the trash boat, the grocery delivery boat and a funeral boat.

Pictures just don't do it justice. 

It was hot, so after an hour on the water we were ready to get into some shade.

We found a cute spot by the water for dinner

Can you see Hannah up on the bridge?

And Nora?

They took turns walking up on the bridge while we waited on our food.

After dinner we walked around some more.

Just trying to get one family picture....

There it is.....

By the end of the day you could tell exactly everything Evan ate all day......a white shirt is not ideal for him:)

I had told the kids before we left that they can only have two gelato every day......they made sure that happened every day!

At night Scott and I went up to the rooftop pool and bar for a drink.  It was absolutely beautiful up there with amazing views of Venice.



The drinks were amazing too

View of the hotel


The next morning we made our way to lake Garda by train.  It is only a 1 1/2 hour train ride.

Our hotel was only .5 miles away from the train station, so we decided to walk.  There was just a little bit of complaining that it's hot and the luggage is so heavy and i'ts so far.....haha!
But we made it.
Our hotel was right on the lake.



Beautiful views of the lake

Lake Garda is one of my favorite places on Earth.  I have so many childhood memories from coming here every summer.  It was really special to finally show Scott and the kids.  It was also very fun to have my mom with us......we were able to reminisce a lot and talk about my dad.  It was one of his favorite places as well.  He loved coming here with the boat every year!
We walked down to the beach.




And enjoyed some more gelato before renting a pedal boat for an hour.  We had fun on the boat.  The water was so clear.



We were there over the weekend and the beach gets very crowded with locals.  This lake is best enjoyed by boat.
More from Lake Garda next time.