The Dobie Brothers

Meet Rupert Thorium Unruh
and Cooper Cobalt Radics!

So...what did we do in Sardinia?

First and foremost....Marisa learned how to swim!!! Here she is showing how it's done. She worked very hard at it from the very first day, she was very courageous and never considered quitting an option. She made advances every day, and all of a sudden there she was!....swimming!!!! If she tackles life's hurdles with the same courage, consistency, determination and positive attitude she'll do very well indeed!

Julia and Marisa learned how to make "pippiolini" castles. "Pippiolini" is the Italian word for "wet sand that you let dribble trough your fingers".

Not only did she swim...she swam with fins!!

Julia and Evan snorkeled like pros, here is Julia showing her stuff!! Don't the fins go on the feet?

Granita time!!!! Uhm, uhm, good!!! And, if I remember correctly, only 5 euros each!!!

One of the worst nightmares for the kids was being bitten by jelly fish, a good chunk of time at the beach was spent reassuring them that there was no danger close to the shore. Still fear persisted and several times Marisa denied herself the pleasure of swimming because of this. We told them several times that the jelly fish were far away, where the water was really deep and not where they were swimming, and we were proven right since we never saw a "straggler" until we took a pedal boat and visited "the deep"!

Here we are, Zsolt is pedaling his little heart out, it was really beautiful, quiet, sunny, the clearest water......

Marisa is hard at work again, sculpting a teddy bear; she was always busy in one way or another, I don't remember her sitting idle at all!

We looked for shells in and out of the water, got quite a nice collection.

When papa,joined the sculpting you could always count on something big and interesting! This particular one I'm sure is still at the beach in CHIA because Marisa would not leave the beach until we built a protective wall around it, so that the tide would not reclaim it. We protected it sooo well that I'm sure it's still there!

Evan sculpted this wonderful reproduction of the Sardinian peacock, the "Pavoncella". I am particularly fond of this bird and I had the blacksmith laser cut this design in both the entrance and car gate. But I did not stop there, the ceramist make my light fixtures and sconces with the same design. Evan did a wonderful job in sculpting it very faithfully to the Sardinian folk standard.

Julia was hurt that Evan did not include her in the working on the peacock, so she created her own sculpture, and quite a cute one at that!

OK, I' m speechless..

Got milk?

This is a REAL CAR! A Fiat 500.

As you can see, there was a lot of sculpting going on..
...and on!
We did a lot of looking for a spot where to "plant" the umbrella and ourselves! Michelle can tell you quite a story about a "lady" who was furious because Michelle was "taking away her sun" by using one of the few free spots in the free beach!!!!!

We visited a real castle, with a real count which gave us the tour. This is an original armor...



...a real stockade...

...the top of the castle...a turret on each corner...

We did all kind of cool things, fun things, crazy thing....and we have the pictures.....

...to prove it!!!!
We watched the moon over the gulf....
...played ping pong.....


...drank water from antique town watering holes.... There was a time when this was all there was for the whole town to get their water supply. I remember when I was a little kid and my grandmother's town upgraded to one of these "town faucet's"....all of a sudden it was so much easier to get the drinking water, all you needed was an amphora jug balanced on your head, go fill it, bring it back home, and you are done....until tomorrow!!!
We looked for fish....
...played more ping pong....
...looked for shells in the sand....
.....YMCA!!!!....
Went shopping at the "Rinascente" This has always been a chic store to shop in, it has changed somewhat, but it is still very chic.
We watched fireworks....this ones were at a stadium where we watched a Folkloristic dance. There were groups representing several countries, and it was very interesting seeing all the different dances and costumes.

While Marisa builds, Julia and Evan play.
Marisa's turtle, I think it is just as good as the big one at Chia!
A good part of the vacation was spent this way...
....and this way!
Here is Patrizia, Patrizia, Ale, Michelle on the paddle boat at Villasimius.
Another view of the Patrizias, Michelle, Julia, Evan, Tony and Maria Teresa.
Marisa learned very quickly to float, and what a good floater she was! Look at the style...10! Form...10! Buoyancy....10!!!
And swimming was not the only hobby/sport at which she excelled, look at her knitting!!!
This is one of the Folkloristic groups dancing a sward dance, it was very interesting, in fact many of the dances were very fascinating.
When we ran out of things to do... we had sand spa baths!
This was a big project, major project...it took several hours to complete.
they worked....
...and work....
.....and worked on it!
Marisa loved playing ball with mommy....
...and she was good at it!
Floating on Tony's mattress was a big thing, lots of fun spent that way!
But some of us preferred snoozing to expending energy in the sun!
While grandpapa is sleeping, Marisa and the kids take out the kite...

More ball playing.

Whao, what a shot!
Is she into it or not, what do you think?
No time for fun, back to work must water the sand!


Finally they got the kite in the air, it flew so high I thought we might loose it. It was a beautiful site.
Much fun was had, now it is time to wrap it up and move to other fun stuff!