What have we been up to in Siena?

The kids and I have busied ourselves by doing our favorite things. We only have one week in Siena and we made a list of the things they want to do here so we make sure to fit them all in. One thing the kids needed to do was to return to the zip line park. They were pleased to see that many more pieces of equipment have been added.

We've also met some new friends. The Salisbury family is another Novartis family who was relocated to Siena from South Carolina. They live with us at Borgo Villa Risi. The children, Sam, Anna and Grace get along well with Anna and Christopher while Denise and I have many stories of the bizarre and wonderful experiences that Americans have in Siena. Denise benefited from the fact that we have a serious milk drinker in Christopher as she will now be able to find the right kind of milk in the grocery store. Her kids have refused the shelf-stable milk and we were able to tell her where the fresh milk is stashed away in the dairy section. And Denise has helped me by pointing out the book store that stocks children's books in English. We seem to have an equal number of nightmare stories to tell about doing laundry here. Denise will be here until June 2012 and is envious of the fact that when we return home in a little more than a week we will have access to a tumble dryer and that our wash cycle will be less than 2 hours. Wash is one of the challenges of living in Siena. :)

Here is a picture of Anna and Christopher with Anna and Grace Salisbury at the park.

Christopher has really enjoyed having an older boy around. Sam Salisbury is 9 and Christopher thinks he is fantastic. Almost all of his time in Siena has been spent with girls since it seems like all of our local friends have daughters. Sam even brought his Star Wars figurines to Siena so Christopher's droids have other characters with whom to play.

Yesterday's adventure was a day trip to Castiglione dells Pescaia on the Mediterranean Sea. It's a bit of a drive, but the kids needed a beach day and this is one of their favorite beaches here.

The waves here are pretty big and the kids like jumping right into them. They also spent a lot of time hunting for butterfly clam shells in the sand. It's kind of like finding butterfly clam shells in Bonita Springs, but the shells are all larger and blackish-silver here. Also, there are not nearly as many so the kids feel like they've done really well when they find three or four that are still in tact.

Only two more days in Siena and then we are off to our next adventure...Elba. We are busy planning our days on the island.

Jaime...I think a belly shot is unlikely, especially since I do most of the picture taking. Perhaps there will end up being a picture of me on the blog some time after tomorrow since Wade will be finished working. We'll see...