Sorry for the lack of posts

I just wanted to apologize to my fanatic followers for not posting on here lately. I have been bogged down by the swarms of pictures from Italy I still have to post, and as life continues here back in the States since my return, my pictures are piling up in that alley as well. I have decided that I will start posting again regularly starting with my events this weekend, and drop posts for the past couple weeks. Just to let you know, our friends Bim and Hannah came to visit two weekends ago, and we traveled to Kentucky last weekend to meet up with Mom, Dad and Mozie for the forth. It rained alot. We are going to a friends wedding this weekend, so hopefully I will have a fun and upbeat post for you next week. Sorry once again for letting down my fans (and by fans, I mean Dad) and I will do better from now on. Promise :)

Rome

Our first stop in Italy was Rome. Our purpose there was purely to be tourists. Rome is a crazy city because it has that big city feel, except there are ancient ruins everywhere. Just sitting amongst the city. There is pretty much no need to know Italian in Rome, everyone speaks English. We had a guided tour of the city our first day, from 9-5. We saw pretty much everything, and learned more than my brain can contain. On the second day, we had a choice of what we wanted to go where we wanted to go. We decided to go inside of the Colosseum and to the Sistine Chapel and to the top of St. Peters Basilica. Rome was awesome. Here are pictures.

Outside of Circus Maximus. There is a lot of history here that you may want to google if your interested.

Group picture outside of the Colosseum

Just me outside of the Colosseum

The Colosseum from the inside

Spiral ramp at the Vatican

Inside of Vatican City

The dome at St. Peter´s Basilica

Example of how all walls look inside of St. Peters

Dead pope inside of St. Peters

Inside of St Peters Cathedral

Spanish steps

Sistine Chapel

Inside the Pantheon

Piazza Novana

Roman garden

Rome from the top of St Peters

So there was a quick tour of Rome. I could talk for hours about it if you wanted to. We also went to Bologna, Venice, Parma, Milan, and Florence so I have quite a few posts to go. Plus I took over 500 pictures, so I have a lot of sorting out to do.

Return from Italy!

You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. Well I am sorry, but I have been in Italy for two weeks. I have about 500 pictures to sort through and share, and I am feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. So I have decided to ease my way back to the website by just updating you on what I have been up to since my return.

Well I have been back from Italy a grand total of about 60 hours. I am exhausted. I thought it would be a good idea to ignore my tiredness and try to go on like I was never gone. Ian picked my up from the airport with these flowers (did I mention that I love him?)


And I came home to a spotless clean apartment and freshly laundered sheets. I went out on our porch and saw my plants look like this...


They are fruiting!!! And...my hummingbirds have returned.

The day I got back, I went to a bachlorette party for my friend Sabrina. It was kind of a surprise party for her, so here she is after our unexpected attack.


And she has a pet ferret. Cool.


We decided to take advantage of yesterday, being the second longest day of the year, and take a night hike. It was a good idea especially because we got to see a lot of wild life that we do not usually see. For example, we ran into an area where there were about 5 owls. Because it was dusk my camera had a horrible time trying to capture any pictures of them, but with a little manipulation with my photo editor here at home, I am able to share this with you...


This owl stared at me for about five minutes before flying away. We were impressed at first, and then concerned that maybe owls will attack humans? or dogs? So we moved on.

Here are a few more photos of the hike. Not high quality since we were working with a difficult balance of sunlight and darkness.


Well, I think that I will start to post pictures from one day at a time. Just check back every once in a while every few days and hopefully things will start progressing. I miss everyone and if I have not talked to you since I have returned, be expecting a call! And now, a nap.

Memorial Day Mayhem

Oh Memorial Day. Where to begin? We came home for the holiday in order to meet up with Ian's old roommates and have a little float on the river. To keep in the outdoorsy spirit, we also decided that we should camp out. This was all very last minute, and it being a holiday and all...all the camp grounds were booked. Fear not, because we, the Huff family, live in a pretty good spot when it comes to feeling outdoorsy and playing in the river. We invited the whole gang to Mom and Dad's house, had everyone set up a tent, and mimicked camping right there in the back yard. We ordered a bunch of river tubes off of the internet, took a canoe, and a couple of kayaks, and headed to the river. Oh, we also brought booze. Some of us practiced moderation, some of us did not. There are some pretty good stories from this weekend that Ian would be happy to share with you pertaining to boozing, but I will not go there. It was a nice reunion, we had a lot of fun (some of us more than others) and all in all I think we would do it again. We would like to thank Mom and Dad for letting us use their property and for being such wonderful hosts, and OP for letting us use his kayaks and canoe. Now...here come the pictures.

Getting our gear together to put in the river

Excited to let the floating commence

We're in!

And we're off...

And after all is said and done, we are all still here (except Pat who is probably in the bathroom during this picture and me who is hiding behind the camera)

Special thanks to Mom for being the guest photographer for this edition. I'll be posting soon with some info on my Italy trip. This will happen as soon as I receive my info. Any time now...

Rainbow!!!

So this weekend we looked out our window and here is what we saw!

Ian says there is probably an easy way to put those two pictures together so you can see its one big rainbow...but...I don´t feel like figuring it out.

We had a boring weekend. The first one we have spent just the two of us for awhile. We got my breaks on my car fixed so they stop squeaking. We rearranged some furniture. We went to a movie and dinner. Enjoyable. We´ll be home for Memorial Day so we´ll probably see you soon!

Birthdays and brewfests (and Mother's Day)

My little brother is finally 21. I convinced the family to come to Hokieville to celebrate at a good old fashion brewfest featuring bluegrass music and local breweries. I must say, we had a good time. It was at the Mountain Lake resort (where they filmed Dirty Dancing) so there was a little something for everyone who went. When we got home we had a nice little cookout and even some ice cream cake. We also got a Mother's Day celebration in while everyone was here. Every year we do a little breakfast in bed thing for Mom and she is just happier than anything. Kalow and Klayton took off on Sunday but Mom and Dad stuck around. In fact, they got to check out the food science building and the duck pond on Sunday, what fun! We took bread to feed the ducks, which usually is fun and eventful but on this Sunday I think the ducks may have already eaten. It was a pretty unsucessful feading. Monday was Ian's birthday and we had a mini-celebration in the morning before he left for work and Mom and Dad left for home. All in all, I think we had fun. It was a real bummer that Mandi and Molly couldn't make it, but there is always next year.

Here it is...Mountain Lake

Klayton kicking off the celebration with his first beer. He had a couple more after this, too.

Mom and Dad were having so much fun that they even danced!

Mother's Day! Here is her breakfast

And here we are presenting her with her breakfast in bed

Ducks at the Duck Pond

Dad and dogs at the Duck Pond

Here is Ian at age 23. Still a cutie pie? I think so...

Wine and Family

We kicked May off with a visit from Judy and Grammy. They came to visit for the weekend to celebrate Ian's birthday a little early and to just enjoy getting a way from home for a while. We even talked Tim and Janet into coming in from Richmond to hang out with us while Judy and Grammy were here. The main event was the first annual Fork and Cork festival happening here in Hokieville. It was actually really nice. I think there were fourteen different wineries from around the area were represented, plus food and art was available to enjoy as well. I really enjoyed the wine, but the funnel cake we had before we left stands out in my mind as well :) Ian also got some early birthday shopping in while the family was in town, and we went out to eat for breakfast TWICE. I couldn't have been happier. We are looking forward to repeating the again this weekend, only this time it will be the Huff's, and we are going to a beer festival instead of a wine festival. Cheers!

Here is a good picture if Ian weren't making a stupid face. Grammy, Judy, and Ian at the Fork and Cork festival

And here is a good picture if I weren't making a stupid face. Me, Grammy, Judy, Tim and Janet at the Fork and Cork festival

We had big plans to go hiking on Sunday, but the weather washed us out. In fact, it is still raining. Let's hope things get better by next Saturday!