Skocjan Caves, Slovenia

These caves are located about 1 1/2 hr drive from where we live near Divaca, Slovenia. It's amazing that after just a short drive, you are in another country! We still don't have a camera, so all these are scanned photos, but really a regular camera could not do this place justice. Plus, you aren't allowed to take pictures inside although our tour guide was very lenient towards those in our group with cameras.This is just one of the many giant formations inside the cave. We saw just about every type of rock formation there is (not that I have any real knowledge, but there was such a variety in these caves). There was even one area where the rock looked like flowing water that has suddenly turned to rock.
This is the bridge you cross over this giant ravine with a river running through the bottom. This part of the cave was so enormous, it was breathtaking. In the picture you can make out a little water down at the bottom, but there was much more water there when we visited since it has been so wet lately. The guide talked about a flood in 1965 when the river filled that part of the cave all the way up to the top. I can't even imagine how much water there would have to be in order to do that.
These are some water pools that have formed in one section of the cave near the exit.
This is the exit of the cave. Much bigger than where we entered. Right outside the mouth of the cave, the vegetation is so green I felt I was in some tropical part of the world. This was probably one of the neatest places we visited.

Neuschwanstein Castle

While the all the T families are all going to be going to the Magic Kingdom next Feb, we decided to go to the castle Walt Disney based his castle on. It is located near Fussen in southwest Bavaria in Germany. We accompanied D on a TDY to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and stopped by here on our way back home. Our digital camera actually broke on on way to Germany, so we don't have as many pictures as we would like. We ended up buy a disposable camera for this trip, but we have scanned some photos from a book we bought to give you an idea of what it looks like. It's pretty obvious which is which.

The castle is set on the top of a pretty steep hill. We took a horse-drawn carriage up to the top. The boys thought that was great, and I thought it was amazing that the driver fit all 5 of us into the front seat in a space big enough for only 2.

This is right outside the main doors. These doors lead into the front courtyard.

Pictures aren't allowed inside the castle--like everywhere we've been in Europe--but we did get this picture on the other side of the gift shop. It's in one of the unfinished corridors. Surprisingly, most of this castle's interior is unfinished.
So, of course we are at this really cool place, and all I and A care about is the snow!

Sledding in Piancavallo

I has been sad all winter long that it doesn't snow where we live. So we had to bring the boys to the snow. Here we are in Piancavallo for a day of sledding. Luckily, it's only a 30 min drive from where we live. It was the perfect day for it since the snow was packed down and the sun was out and we were all very warm.

I is in the red coat and A in the blue. The sleds had steering wheels, and the boys used this to full advantage to go all over the hill.

Here D got talked into pulling the sleds back up the hill, which we did way too many times.

This is I in his mock sled accident. He loved falling off his sled at the end of his runs.

Here's V and all the boys at the top of the hill!

A was so cute pulling his sled around.

Lake Barcis

On a not so cold day in January, we headed up into the mountains to Lake Barcis. It is known for its water which is a very interesting shade of blue. It's nestled right in the Dolomite mountains and only 40 min from home.

K is starting to get used to being in his backpack, since we've been toting him around all over the place in it.

Here is K all bundled for the day out.

Here we are close to where the cache location was. We wanted to come out here anyway, but why not take in a cache while we're at it.

Venice in November

On a really nice day in November, we heading down to Venice for our second trip down there. It was a Monday, which was great because there were no lines anywhere. Here is Saint Marc's Basilica. It is a beautiful church and all the artwork is in mosaic. Like all areas in Europe, we couldn't take pictures of the inside, but here are some shots of the outside.

With all the beautiful artwork of saints and beautiful things outside this building, we found the random sqwat man with the wine jug a little curious and out of place.

We had to get a shot on one of the many bridges in Venice. If you look closely, those are gondolas packed up for the night.