Anna's duet concert

A few weeks ago, Anna played in a duet concert for piano.  The videos I took are horrible but you can hear what a good job they did!  Her and Tiffany, the other girl that she played with, went to the last few minutes of each others classes for a few weeks before the concert.  They had a lot of fun together.

Anna got pierced!

Anna decided that she was ready to get her ears pierced.  She started to ask about it often so I got her an appointment and she did it!  She was very brave about it.  I held her hands while they pierced her and she barely flinched.  She said it hurt less than she thought it would.  So far she's had no problems!

I did some research and decided that I'd rather her get the piercing done by a needle than a piercing gun.  So, instead of going to the mall as we originally planned, we went to a piercing studio in Ann Arbor. It was very nice. They were very nice and took her through the whole process of what would be done and how to take care of her ears afterwards.  It was also very clean and we went in a separate room where Disney music was playing while it was being done.  Good for her personality because she wouldn't want to be on display in front of a bunch of people for something like this.  Cool experience.  Her ears didn't even look red at all afterwards and we haven't had any issues yet at all.  

Two piercers were there so both ears could be done at the same time.  

She picked out these opal earrings.  They are very pretty!  She loves them.  They're cool because they have a flat back so they won't bother her while she's sleeping.  

Back to School

This school year is off to a good start.  The kids have teachers they like and friends in their classes.  

Lukey and Anna's parents go to Croatia

We walked from the cruise port to Old Town, Dubrovnik.  It was a lovely walk.  

Parts of Game of Thrones were filmed in Dubrovnik.  A lot of the Kings Landing scenes.  This is Lovrijenac Fortress, the Red Keep, and the site of the Battle of Blackwater.

This fountain might be part of Game of Thrones.  Not sure. 

The Old Town area was pretty cool.  It was surrounded by walls that we walked through.  People live in here.  And there's shops, farmers markets, etc.

The nearby island of Lokrum is Qarth from GoT.

The walk of shame stairs from Game of Thrones.

A view of Old Town from Lovrijenac Fortress. 

Lukey and Anna's parents go to Greece

CORFU, GREECE

On Corfu, we took a bus to Paleokastritsa beach. One of the loveliest beaches we've ever seen!  We got spinach pies and beer from a store across the street.  It was pretty amazing.  One of the best parts of the week. 

The water was so clear that no matter how deep you were standing in it you could see the bottom and your feet totally clearly.

From the boat.  Robin really liked this island.

The Old Fortress of Corfu

 SANTORINI, GREECE

Santorini is one of the coolest places in the world!  Everyone should see it.  When you walk through the town of Oia, its hard to believe it even exists.  

We hiked from where the boat docked up a trail of donkeys to Fira, then to Oia.  It was a big hike.  About 7 miles probably, including steps and hills and cliffs.  There were some great views though.

When we got to Oia we found a restaurant and had the best beer of our lives (mostly because we were exhausted) and greek salad, saganaki and zucchini balls.  This meal was so perfect that we recreated it after we got home.  The view from the restaurant was great!

To get up from the boat docks, you can either take a cable car, donkey, or walk along with the donkeys.  We walked.  We had to dodge a lot of donkeys and donkey poo. It was a romantic way to spend our anniversary!

MYKONOS, GREECE 

We spent the day in Mykonos walking around town and going to the beach.  The town was pretty cool because it all looked like this.  We also had a chicken gyro that was excellent.  

The beach was lovely. 

A view of the beach we went to, Agios Ioannis.

Lukey and Anna's parents go to Montenegro

Cruising into Kotor, Montenegro.  Very cool ride to get to Kotor for the last 60 miles.

A view from our boat driving through the fjords (technically a ria coast).  Doesn't do it justice.  Very cool. We spent most of our time on one of the upper decks when hanging out by the pool because we'd get good views of what we were driving by, we could see the whole pool and band and the bartenders at the top of the boat were the best.  We also sat in the pool a lot.

The view from our room.  Having a balcony was great.  We'd finish each night with a glass of wine or other drink on the balcony after we did our rounds of the bars. 

The highlight of Kotor was the cat museum! There were a lot of cats walking around the town so they figured they might as well take care of them.  The museum was one euro to get into and was basically pictures, stamps, etc. of cats.  The proceeds go to taking care of the cats.

We also hiked the mountain of San Giovanni.  I made it most of the way up then decided it was too scary.  Tim made it to the top.

Tim's view from the fortress, Tvrđave Kotora.  That's our boat down there.

Kotor, Montenegro.

The switchbacks show the hike we did.