My Italian Adventure Part 1

How blessed we are to get occasional visits from supporting pastors and we were super-excited to have the pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Burnet, Texas; Jimmy Frazier and his wife Christy and 3 kids (including the young lady our middle son Josh is courting) join us in our part of the world. 

Well our adventure started in the amazing city of Venice. Talk about top 10 on most bucket lists, Venice is amazing. Venice is very near to Croatia and actually some of modern day Croatian coast once belonged to Italy. 

Anyhow, after finding FINALLY finding parking space we took off to see Venice with one of the few modes of transportation...our feet. 

BTW, the view from the top of our parking garage was amazing. 

I love all the balconies and flowers. 

Bryan, the oldest Frazier boy looks like he was staged as he eye-balled all the goodies. 

I seriously wanted a meringue but there was no way I was paying 5 Euro for one. 

We took some time to have some Italian Gelato and they said (I'm not an ice cream kinda gal) it was delish!

This guy tickled me! Check out the length of his shirt and his convenient hand placement. Too funny. 

Did you know that Venice also has a leaning tower? Well, there it is. I imagine most things in the watery city leans one way or another. 

Super-love all the Venician glass. 

 

The buildings were to die for. I can just imagine living in one of those quaint little colored cottages. 

Oh yea and the gondolas were awesome. We didn't take a ride this time but we did have the privilege of riding in one 12 years ago. Amazing. 

Check out the peppers in the market, lovely. 

The Venician masks and art in Venice were amazing. I could have hung around those shops for hours.

Hannah enjoying some shopping. 

Love the variety of windows in this place. 

I loved the vines growing along this building but I super-love the man in this photo.  

sinply...lovely

We finally made it to St. Marks square and it was worth the hours of walking. The one bummer is that it was very crowded. 

 

The architecture was amazing. It was surreal to be standing by the buildings I have seen in so many movies. I just felt like jotting... TORI WAS HERE, on the side of that buildeing but I thought, nah!

Here we are on St. Marks square. 

Venice really was amazing and totally worth the trip. 

Soon, maybe even tomorrow, Part 2 of my Italian Adventure with the beautiful Italian countryside, Pisa and the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

Addio miei amici!!

Sweet 16 Photos

We have some incredible sights here in Croatia and one of them is a former Hungarian castle just north of us. Anyhow, we headed out there and took some photos of our sweet 16 year old.

Hannah is a lovely girl both inside and out. She's a joy to parent. Anyhoo, here's some of my amateur photography.

Anyhow, love my girl and love being her mom. 

No more Picnik??? Say it isn't so!

I'm officially heart broken! I got this email today and it's changed my world. Picnik is closing!!! I'm in shock.

There are some cool things going on with Picnik despite the closure. It's free, the premium Picnik is free and wait...they are refunding everyone's membership! What? Getting money back that I didn't have to beg for? AWESOME!

Any how, run over there and take advantage of Picnik's incredible generosity. PICNIK RULES

Official Announcement: Picnik is closing

Since joining Google in 2010, we have been creating editing magic in Google products while continuing to keep Picnik awesome. But now we get to focus on even awesomer things. Picnik will be closing on April 19, 2012.

Your photos liberated
Amazing photos are created in Picnik, so we have launched a new feature, Picnik Takeout, that easily downloads your photos to your desktop in convenient zip files. You may also elect to copy your photos to Google+ where you can store and share your creations. You may request your photos at any time and use this handy tool as many times as you like until our closing date of April 19, 2012. Learn more.

Premium Refunds
To our primo Picnik Premium members, we'll begin processing a full refund of your current membership fee within a week of this announcement. By "in full" we mean the whole darn thing. Yep, this means even if you are on your very last day of an annual membership, we will refund you the entire $24.95. Just because we want to say thanks.

Now the Good News - Free Premium for ALL!
To express our gratitude for your support over the past 5 years, Picnik Premium is free for everyone! Use Picnik in all of its premium glory, for free, from now until our actual closing day. Touch-up, Textures, Advanced, and more are all free for you to use!

We have been incredibly proud of building a product that is used and beloved by so many of you. We continue to be amazed and humbled by the photos you create and we are immensely grateful for all of your support, creativity, and passion.

We are excited by the photo-editing fun we have already brought to Google products, like Google+, where you can find many of your favorite Picnik effects in Creative Kit. We encourage you to visit Google+ and give it a whirl.

Please visit the Help Hub for more information on our wind down, and check the Picnik blog for updated information on our April closure.

It's been awesome,
Team Picnik

Ohio + Autumn = Magical

The name -- of it -- is "Autumn" 

-- by Emily Dickinson

The name -- of it -- is "Autumn" --

The hue -- of it -- is Blood --

An Artery -- upon the Hill --

A Vein -- along the Road --

Great Globules -- in the Alleys --

And Oh, the Shower of Stain --

When Winds -- upset the Basin --

And spill the Scarlet Rain --

It sprinkles Bonnets -- far below --

It gathers ruddy Pools --

Then -- eddies like a Rose -- away --

Upon Vermilion Wheels --

 We are loving the Autumn in Ohio. The colors are amazing and the feeling in the air is a bit magical. I love Autumn! It has almost always been my favorite season. The leaves putting on their color show and the wind helping them to rain down is just incredible. I'm so glad we are getting to see Autumn in Ohio, love it!

 I had such a good time walking down this little lane with my family. Enjoying the beautiful color show God puts on for us this time of year. 

We are leaving Ohio on Friday morning headed to one more conference in Iowa before we head back to Texas. I'm so excited to get back to Texas and see our oldest son Cody. We have been on this road trip for 3 months and I miss my kid. I'm actually doing great on the road without him, which has really surprised me but I still can't wait to see him. Also we'll be packing up all the Bible and things for the container and loading them up and shipping them the end of this month. One our things are gone we only have 4 more weeks to wait. I'm so excited.
By the time we get home winter should be in full swing. I can't wait!!!