Zach

My brother sent me a picture of him making wine with Brenda and as I was having a wave of homesickness last Saturday I perched him on the dashboard of the car to make me smile. I love this picture of Zach. It could possibly be my favorite one. It is so hard to get him to smile for a camera and sometimes you need to be sneaky, but here he is looking right at the camera and giving a thumbs up...I don't think I've ever seen him give thumbs up before. It makes me very happy to see him happy. So, as you know from an earlier post he has become the driving mascot, always cheering us on, we've started talking to him and taking him places with us (think the gnome in the movie Amelie). He's really fun to have along.

This morning he had coffee with us at Zagara's:

He really liked it.

He even helped us figure out how to get to Pisa:

He had lots of fun doing that too.

(Maybe you're starting to see the trend here. He's a super positive person....or at least his photo is, and the voice we give it...heehee!)

This afternoon on our drive back from Pisa (Zach had to stay in the car for that one, we needed someone to guard it) we stopped in a tiny town to climb up a whole bunch of steps to a tower that had the most beautiful view of the valley. We thought Zach would really enjoy it so we brought him along!

He attempted the steps:

But we figured it would take days before we actually got to the top, so I carried him. Brenda suggested putting him in her purse so he didn't get blown away, but I knew he would like to see the walk up too, so I carried him infront of me.

He and I sat on the wall overlooking the valley:

Ma, this is definately one to hang over the fireplace.

Then he and Brenda enjoyed lying in the shade of the tower on the green, green grass together:

You could also climb up the tower itself to get an even better view but Brenda and I were far to hot. Zach really wanted to go.

But he was fine when we said no.

Right now Zach is sleeping in the car, once again guarding it, until tomorrow when we all go to Zagara's for pizza. He's really looking forward to it...the thumb up and the almost dimple say it all.