Beautiful Spring!

I found winter in Italy to be really hard. It was dark and rainy almost every day for about four months. I was taken by surprise that it affected me so much; I mean, I'm from Michigan (and Illinois and Wisconsin). Winter in all of those states is long, dark, and cold.

But something about being here made it worse. Maybe because my apartment itself is sort of dark - without sunlight it felt like a cave. Maybe because we don't have a car and so Colton and I often were unable to leave the house (because who wants to walk around in 40 degree, rainy weather?).

But the long, dark winter has made spring so much sweeter! It's beautiful here!

Flowers are in bloom everywhere and the sky is often a cloudless blue. This is a beautiful tree in my back yard!

Leaves reappearing! :)

Cool flowers that sprung up from out of nowhere in our yard.

I bought two azalea bushes - one this color and one lighter pink. We hope to get two more, plus some flowers to plant in pots.

Last weekend we were able to host a party for our American and Italian friends. Because the weather is so gorgeous, everyone stayed outside the entire time! Colton had a great time playing for hours in the yard.

Can you spot him chasing his little soccer ball?

Colton was so proud of himself when he learned to sit on his ball!

Oops! He fell off. :)

It's so great to have room to play!

Our teammate, Matt, loves playing rough with Colton. Colton loves it, too.

Cristiano, our Italian teammate, is also great with Colton! What a lucky little boy!

Colton liked picnicing with Cristiano, Sarah, and Sabrina.

Ah, sweet spring! We're so glad you are here. :)