Good News From A Far Country

This Sunday my husband returned home after being in Italy for a week. He was there for a conference so his trip was nothing to be envious of, but he did get to take a tour of Venice the last day he was there. When I think of Venice, this is the only thing that pops into my mind....
Yes, the gondolas along the canals. He toured the city with 6 other friends and they inquired about taking a ride. Can you believe that a ride in a gondola cost 120 Euros? That's about $155 U.S. Even split 7 ways, that was too much to spend on, what my husband called, "A ride in a canoe." I'm glad that he was perfectly content to wait for his friends and just take pictures. What a blessing it is to have a frugal (but not cheap) husband!
He brought a souvenir home for me as well. I didn't know it, but the people of Venice are known for the masks that they make. This is the one he picked up for me....

Last night a friend of my husband came into town, so we took him out to dinner at a restaurant in the Old Town. All of the buildings are from medieval times and so many of the restaurants feature a medieval dining experience. We went to a place called Peppersack....
The food and atmosphere were both very nice and at one point in the evening they even staged a sword fight! That was pretty fun to watch.

And to top everything off, the kids had a nice surprise come in the mail on Monday....
Bicycles! We were expecting these to take about a month to arrive, but they made it here in about 2 weeks instead. They are very excited to begin learning how to ride :)