Venice and Murano

Good Monday morning everyone!

Boy, I was not ready for this week to start, but it is here, and I have a busy one ahead of me!!
How was everyone's weekend?

We dropped my parents off at the airport Saturday afternoon, of course I was sad to see them leave, but I will be seeing them in December! I also attended a baby shower for our friend Shannon who is due in November and later that evening went to a birthday party for our friend Josh. Sunday we spent the day relaxing and watching movies. Since it totally feels like fall here now..... my FAVORITE time of year ever, I made my FAVORITE chili. I can't wait to start baking and cooking for fall. I'm craving everything pumpkin right now and plan on spending a lot of time in the kitchen this week. I did grab some new fall decor for the house and can't wait to set it out. Other than that, it's time to get back into the swing of things. After visitors leave, there's always so much to be done!

A big thanks to all of the wonderful comments about my pictures! I LOVE taking photographs and love sharing them. So I hope you enjoy more from our trip to Italy.

ITALY DAY 2:
After our day in Venice we decided to make a short day trip over to Murano. My mom was dying to see some Murano glass and we wanted to check out the town. It was one of my favorite places while we visited Italy. Such a cute town, no vehicles, only boats. We stopped by a wonderful glass shop and bought some things for family. While we were inside we met the owner and he took us upstairs to another area of the store, where he showed us some amazing pieces that cost more than my house. But it was still so awesome to see them. He then told us about a great restaurant that only locals eat at. It was adorable and quaint, and the food was incredible! Oh and of course we had our afternoon glass of wine ;)

Here are some pictures from Murano:

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

After Murano we headed back to Venice to celebrate my step dad's birthday! About a year and a half ago, Steve had a severe stroke and we were told that he only had a 3% chance of living. Well so much for the three percent, now he's traveling all over the world and enjoying life!

My mom thought it would great to take a gondola ride to celebrate Steve's birthday. We grabbed a bottle of wine and spent a QUICK 35 minutes enjoying the ride. The scenery was incredible. Here are a just few pictures:

We spent the rest of the evening walking around Venice and of course grabbed some gelato to help experience Italy.

Stop by tomorrow for pictures from our 4 nights in Florence.

Have a wonderful week!!