The actual holiDAY is Aug. 15th, but lucky for them, they can celebrate for a month. The holiday itself celebrates The Virgin Mary's ascention into heaven. This is one of the most celebrated holiday's in Italy only next to Christmas and Easter.
Needless to say, the beaches are packed and the roads to the beaches are insane!!!!! Reamer had a 3 day weekend before he had to leave for his month long training, so we wanted to relax at the beach. We knew what we were getting into and decided it was worth the hassle to be able to relax at the beach for a few days!
We decided to go to a beach that is near Vicenza (Jesolo Beach) and usually would only take about 1 hour to get there. But because we picked the actual Holiday weekend, it took about 3 hours to get there. On the way to the beach, you must drive on a 2-lane road for about 25 kilometers. This normally wouldn't take long at all, but when there are tons of people trying to get to the beach, this becomes more difficult. Reamer and I couldn't believe how insane these people are when it comes to driving. Traffic would be stopped and people would try to pass oneanother with huge semitrucks speeding toward them on the other side of the road. They would literally come seconds from a head on collision just to move ahead one place in the traffic. And don't even get me started on the motorcycles/scooters!!! These people seriously have a death wish! We couldn't believe the crazy things that they would do just to be able to reach the beach a little bit sooner!
Anyways, we finally made it to the beach and happily found a nice little spot to enjoy the water and the sun. We walked around the beach town and had a great dinner. The town was in celebration mode with stages set up for performers, carnival rides, and everyone walking around and shopping etc. They even celebrated with fireworks! What a great day! We wanted to spend the night, but after calling tons of places during the day, we were unable to find a hotel on the beach. We decided to drive about 20 mins away and got a hotel there! We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard! It was so nice and just like an American Hotel! It was wonderful!
We went back to the beach and bought awesome rafts so that we could just lounge in the water for the day. We also rented beach chairs too! (a pregnant lady has to be comfy!) We seriously had a wonderful day. Neither of us wanted to leave!
I think that these Italians have the right idea. Why can't we take an entire month off of work just to relax! I really think that we need to adopt this tradition! We really wanted to tell the army that we were observing the Italian culture and Reamer would not be back until the end of the month! Unfortunately this wasn't possible, so he is gone for training in Germany until the end of September! Booo!! Sure do wish that we could have stayed at the beach instead!
(I will try to do a better job of updating this blog... Sorry I have been so slack about it!)
We left for the "good ole US of A" for block leave and went to spend some time with the Argo Family. Amy got married on July 5th to our friend Mike Muskus! It was a beautiful wedding! She was an absolutly beautiful bride! Reamer's sister Jennifer and her family came from Colorado and we got to spend time with the whole clan! After the wedding, we spent most of our time at the lake just relaxing. So much fun.
The day before we were headed back to Italia, my parents had a good-bye bbq! My family and our friends came to see us before we had to go home. It was a bittersweet reunion because it was way too short! It almost made me miss everyone even more! It was so nice to see everyone and eat some of my parents amazing food! (Reamer enjoyed the meal too)!!!
We arrived back in Itlay and now we are preparing the nursery! Luckily most of our baby furniture arrived so now all we have to do is paint and decorate! So exciting! 
Air-Conditioning is another thing that I am seriously missing!! It's starting to get pretty hot outside and after riding my bike around with 100 lbs (I'm exaggerating) in my bookbag, I am hot when I get home. In the States you walk into your home and immediately feel cool air when you open the door that hits you in the face. Here it seems that the inside is sometimes hotter than the outside. If I open all of my doors and windows and turn on the fans, it cools off, but it still isn't the same as central air-conditioning!!! We always said that when it got hot, we would buy a portable airconditioner, but now that it is hot, we have no car to take us shopping for this big item!!! What Bad Luck! 
Our laptop is broken, which means that we must use our old computer (it is so old that it has floppy disks portales). You can only imagine how slow it is. We are going to look for a new laptop when we are in the States in July, but until then, I'm stuck on the slowest machine ever!!!!!!!!! But at least we have this computer so that we can take our time and buy a good new computer. 
I have gotten used to the fact that I can only have one appliance running at a time, (or else the fuse will blow). But I feel that it is worth mentioning in this blog because it sort of goes along with the theme. Also, the fact that to do one load of laundry takes about 5 hours! (and it's a pretty small load too!) But these are things that I have already adapted to.