Our new baby

Mason Crawford Gallaher was born on August 10, 2011. He weighed 7 lbs. and 5 oz. and was 21 inches long. We picked him up from the hospital on August 12 and our world has forever changed! We are truly blessed beyond measure! "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." Psalm 118:23

Words cannot express the depth of love we have for our precious baby boy. Here are some of the first few pictures we have of him...

This was Mason when they first rolled him into our room

Our first time meeting him! As Preston has labeled this photo...Love at first sight

Blonde hair and big blue eyes

Proud Daddy with baby Mason

Mason's first car ride, leaving the hospital

Italy: Day 11 - Milan

Our last day in Italy, we were scheduled to take a train from Siena to Milan. We only had 1 day to spend in Milan so I had pre-purchased a "hop-on hop-off city bus tour" to see the highlights of the city. This was set for 2:30 p.m., as soon as were supposed to arrive in Milan. We had made it the whole trip with no problems with the train conductors striking. The only day we had a pre-paid tour scheduled, the train conductors went on strike! We scrambled around at the Siena train station and eventually bought bus tickets to Florence, and fortunately once we got to Florence, there was 1 train still running to Milan... We get to Milan, realize we have no euros for a taxi, so we run circles around the train station in frustration, but we finally get euros. We BARELY made it to our tour..arriving at 2:25!!! But we made it!

Preston with his handy dandy tour gear

The Duomo Cathedral in Milan - the 2nd largest cathedral in the world

Beautiful statues and architecture

The very first Prada

A castle we toured

We got to see Leonardo Da Vinci's original Last Supper in it's original location - the refectory wall of the former dominican monastery of Santa Maria Della Grazie...one of the coolest things we've ever seen.

And finally, Preston's favorite breakfast, one last time - Nutella Croissant

Italy: Days 9 & 10 - Siena

View of the Piazza del Campo, looking down from atop the bell tower

Arriving at our hotel, one of our top two favorites from our trip

Our room, with a garden/countryside view

View of the Tuscan countryside looking out from our window

The gardens of our hotel, below our window

Seating in the gardens

Steinway concert piano in salon, donated by Miss Helen Frick

Piazza del Campo, where the famous Palio (horse race between Contrada) occurs

Torre del Mangia

Sign of one of the Conrada

Our favorite restaurant/dining experience of the entire trip!  San Guiseppe

Twilight in Siena

Early morning views out our window

View of Siena from the bell tower

Looking out our window our last morning there

Italy: Days 7 & 8 - Florence

After the Cinque Terre, we headed down to Florence, or as it was referred to there, Firenze. Florence was a beautiful city with lots to do. It had a completely different feel to it - more "artsy" than the other places we visited. We went to the Accademia, where we saw Michaelangelo's David, and we also toured the Uffizi gallery, which is one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the Western world. We also toured the Galileo museum which contained a lot of the tools used by the brilliant inventor and other contemporaries of his time. There's also the Duomo and the Ponte Vecchio, other things for which Florence is famous. Another thing for which we will always remember Florence for is Grom, THE best gelato ever. I think we visited there twice a day every day! We stayed at a nice place called Residenza Giotto, where we could view the Duomo out of our balcony window. It was located right next door to Gucci :) That was another thing we thought was pretty cool - seeing all those high fashion designer stores mixed right in there along with all the ancient architecture. Here are some of the Florence pics...

View of the Duomo and the cathedral complex, from our balcony at Residenza Giotto

Interior ceiling of the Duomo

We climbed up to the top of the Duomo. It wasn't for anyone claustrophobic, that's for sure.

Views of the city from the top of the Duomo

Going back down...

Ponte Vecchio, the oldest and most famous bridge in Florence

Close up of the shops built on the bridge

Our view as we ate our breakfast on our hotel balcony

Preston enjoying his morning cappuccino

Ponte Vecchio and Arno River

Campanile de Giotto

Another of Florence's bridges across the Arno River

Looking back at Florence from the Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace (which was once the seat of the Medici family)

The gardens were filled with the most beautiful peonies

Piazza della Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio

Piazza della Repubblica

Grom, our FAVORITE gelato place. It was so good! I don't even like ice cream, but I loved the gelato from Grom

Piazza della Repubblica

Storm clouds rolling in

The Baptistry is an octagon shaped building best known for it's bronze doors, which exquisitely depict scenes from the Bible

They put bars up around the bronze doors at night

Carousel on the Piazza della Repubblica

Duomo at night