2015: Our Year In Review

2015 has been quite a year! It has been filled lots of laughter, a few tears, and  a whole lot of exploring. We were fortunate enough to visit 7 new countries! It has been pretty amazing, so here it is in review for you all to see!

Switerland Day 4 & 5: Hiking and Playing in the Snow

     Since our girls day around Zermatt got cut short the previous day, Kelsey and I woke up early and walked around the city. It was so easy not having to push a stroller and taking care of the babes while capturing pictures.

Switzlerland Day 2 & 3: Sunnegga, Blauherd, and Rothorn

   Our second day in Switzerland started off pretty slow. We let the guys sleep in while we made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. After we ate, we took our time figuring out what we were going to do for the day.

We had a clear view of the tip of the Matterhorn today.

Switzerland Day 1: Driving to Zermatt

    Since we decided not to go home to Texas for the holidays this year, we needed to find somewhere to go for our Christmas vacation. After much debating, we decided to go to Zermatt, Switzerland with our friends from December 18-22.  Zermatt is a lovely ski town located in the Swiss Alps. Athough neither Aaron or I ski, we though it would be a relaxing vacation filled with lots of snowball fights and playing in the snow. Sounds perfect, huh? 

     We picked out a place to stay a few weeks ago and pretty much winged the entire trip. It became very obvious on our drive there when we put the address into our GPS and nothing came up. Turns out Zermatt is a walking town and driving is not open to the public. Only battery powered cars are allowed to prevent air pollution.  {I'm smiling and silently laughing as I write about this because that was just a little important piece of information that would have been good to know. Had I done my research, I would have easily known that. Whoopsies!} Since we couldn't drive in Zermatt, we had to park our car in Tasch- 3 miles away, take a shuttle to Zermatt, and then take an electric car to our hotel. With all our bags, it was a pain having to switch cars so many times! I should also mention that on top of that, the driver taking us to our hotel misunderstood us and took us to the wrong hotel at first.

 Left: All buckled in. Hoho even joined us! Right: Goodbye Italy. Hello Switzerland!

England Day 3 & 4:Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford

     On our third day in England, we took a day tour of Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. We were really excited for today and made it on the bus just in time. Connor was one of the few kids on the bus, so I was a little nervous about how loud he would be. He had his moments, but was pretty good throughout the day.

Christmas Festivities

     I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone. We have had a really fun month reading a new Christmas story each night and finding Hoho The Elf in a new place each morning. Hoho even joined us on our family vacation to Switzerland! How special is that?!? Here's what he's been up to the last month....

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! This is a copy of our holiday card from this year. I accidentally didn't order enough when I placed my first order, and never received my second order even though I placed it the day after. {{I keep forgetting to call them because of the time difference, but will definitely be calling tomorrow.}} We have had a wonderful day, and I hope you did too! I can't wait to blog all about it and catch up from our London and Switzerland trips.

XOXO,

Jenn

England Day 2: Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace

      What a difference a day makes. On our second day in England, Connor was finally back to his normal self and we were all ready to explore London! We picked up breakfast {donuts and yogurt} and lunch {sandwiches and snacks} at the grocery store and piled it into the stroller. We ate our breakfast as we walked to the tube station since we were running a little late.

 Playing before we leave our flat.

England Day 1: London

     One place that I have always wanted to visit is London. Being that we live in Europe and are only a 2 1/2 hour plane ride away, it's been on our list of places to see while we are living here.Over the long Thanksgiving weekend we were able to check this destination off our list! 

    The trip started off to a bad start. The morning of {Thanksgiving Day -11/26} we left our house at about 6am. Not even 10 minutes into the drive and Connor started throwing up in the car. We pulled over, changed his clothes, and got back on the road. I didn't think much of it until 20 minutes later when it happened again and I realized that Connor caught the stomach bug Aaron had a couple days before. He got sick just about every 20-30 minutes until we got on the plane. We were nervous they weren't going to let us on the plane, but nobody said anything to us.

Waiting at the airport. He had these bursts of energy in between getting sick.

Hoho The Elf

     We had a special visitor from the North Pole cook up a delicious breakfast for us this morning. When Connor saw his new elf and all the food surrounding him, he was so excited! He immediately put a muffin, donut, mini pancake, slice of bacon, and apple slice on his plate with the biggest smile on his face. 

Christmas Book Countdown

    Hello December! We are very happy that you are here! This year we are super happy to be starting a new tradition: a Christmas book countdown. Over the last month I have been adding to our existing collection so that we could have 24 books to read every night until Christmas morning. On Christmas morning we will read one final book, The Christmas Baby by Marion Dane Bauer.

Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving,

 From our Family to yours!

Marriage Retreat in Germany

    Aaron and I had a wonderful opportunity to go on a marriage retreat with his work this past weekend in Germany. As soon as we heard there was a retreat coming up, I told him to sign us up! We went on one before I had Connor and we loved it, so it was about time we went on another. Our wonderful friends Morgan and Levi offered to keep Connor for the weekend so we could enjoy our weekend without chasing after him. At first we weren't sure about leaving him, but then we decided it would be a good idea to focus on just the two of us. Plus, they are great with him and he loves them!   

Connor's First Dentist Visit

    Connor had his first dentist visit today and he did awesome! I started prepping him yesterday by telling him we were going to see the dentist and they were going to look at his teeth. He didn't act scared and seemed  fine. He did say "no check up" repeatedly today, but I think he got the dentist confused with his regular doctor. 

     When we arrived at the clinic, I checked in and Connor watched Curious George at the kid table. 

Girls Day in Verona

    Last week a couple of my girlfriends and I made a girls trip to Verona. {Sorry Connor, but you had to tag along!} From getting lost within the first five minutes of driving, the sight of us running after Connor in his stroller as it was rolling down the driveway, and us taking about 30 pictures on the side of the road in front of the Americani sign so we could get one just right, I think it's safe to say we shared a bunch of laughs and had a ton of fun!

  Our first stop was to visit Frantoio Bonamini, a family run olive mill that has been running for 50 years. We started at their olive oil shop and then took a tour of the olive mill.

Sick Toddler + Daddy Gone = Lots of Cuddles for Mommy

   To be 100% honest, the last week has sucked! The only good part was all the extra cuddles I've been getting. Not only did Aaron have to go out of town for work, but Connor has been sick the ENTIRE week. He just got over a respiratory infection a couple weeks ago and he already got sick again. Gotta' love preschool!

 ^^ Just a little bit of what I've been dealing with.

Halloween 2015

     After months of planning for Halloween, it has already come and gone {tear}. You're probably wondering why I started planning for it months ago, but it's because I had to make sure everything I ordered online arrived in time. Plus I didn't want to wait until the last minute to build Connor's prop, a 1930's era biplane. Last Halloween we waited until the night before to build Connor's gondola and it wasn't as nice as we wanted for it to look, so this year we knew we didn't want to rush.

    This year Connor was an aviator flying around in a cardboard biplane, and Aaron and I were both clouds with a little sunshine. When I picked our theme, I quickly created a secret Pinterest board to collect ideas.

Touring Padova & An Antique Market In Between

    We had quite an exciting and busy weekend spent almost entirely with our friends Matt and Kelsey. On Saturday we explored/went shopping in Padova. We went once before when Chrissy and Ryan came to visit, but we didn't see much. We planned on seeing a whole lot more this time, but we chose to have a long lunch and ended up shopping instead. ;)

Tot School: Letter E & Color Purple

    After taking a week off from tot school at home, we were back at it this week. Connor was very much into learning this week and even asked to do tot school a couple times. This week we focused on the Letter E and the Color Purple. I haven't been really good at doing it in the past, but each day I tried to focus on a theme. Some Letter E foods that we ate this week were eggs, enchiladas, and edimame. Some toys we played with were play eggs, toy elephant, googly eyes, and envelopes (I put a lot of the activity pieces in them for Connor to take out). 

Pumpkin Patch {Italian Style}

     What signifies fall? Fall is when the leaves change colors, cooler temperatures arrive, we celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving, warm coffee and cider trump anything cold, the scent of apple pumpkin candles fill my house, and the time to visit pumpkin patches with my family. Fall is my favorite season of the year!

     To get in the fall spirit, I have been lighting my fall candles daily! They smell soooo good, but that won't cut it. We needed to do something more. I had been hearing a lot about a "pumpkin patch" not too far from where we live. Since we didn't take Connor last year, we had to go this year even though I heard it wasn't like the traditional American pumpkin patch. You know, with all the fun games, yummy food, corn mazes, hayrides, and a field full of pumpkins.

     When we drove up to the address, I was impressed. No, they didn't have all those things I was used to seeing at a pumpkin patch in America, but they did have a ton of pumpkins! And a great variety at that.

Let the pumpkin picking begin.

Pappy & Omi's Visit {Plus My Birthday Dinner}

     Last Friday Pappy and Omi came to visit us. They didn't have anywhere or anything specific that they wanted to do during their visit besides spend time with Connor... and us. That made for a very relaxed few days with them. 

      As soon as they got in on Friday morning, they took a nap. Traveling overseas and getting used to the time change is hard! Connor wasn't home from school, so it was perfect. When Aaron got home with him, he was asleep too. Pappy, Omi, and Connor napped for a couple hours. When they  woke up Connor was so excited to have company. Pappy gave him a toy plane he bought him, and it quickly became his favorite toy.

 Playing with his new loud and obnoxious airplane!

Tot School: Letter D & Color Brown

   This week was all about the Letter D and color brown! We had fun playing with dinosaurs, our dogs, dominoes, and dice. We also ate our fair share of donuts and dots.

Germany: Garmisch

    Thank goodness for finally getting sleep on our second night at the hotel. The first night I was up multiple times and really uncomfortable, but our second night was much better... until Connor woke us up at 7:15 {I really wish my kid would sleep in once in a while!}. While we were getting dressed and packing, the guys let the boys run off some energy in the open area outside our room.  They had quite a but of fun running around and jumping off "the cliff" as Aaron called it. 

Germany: Drive to Garmisch and Oktoberfest

    Since we live in Italy, it only made sense that we would go to Germany {more specifically Oktoberfest} at least once. Since we missed it last year, we decided this year we would go. And how perfectly that our trip started on Aaron's birthday?! We have been planning it for months, and it finally happened this past weekend. Connor had school in the morning, so after I picked him up we went to our friend Morgan and Levi's house.

 He decided to just sit in the middle of the parking lot while we were walking to my car. He must have had a long day at school. I had to snap a picture because he kept holding onto my hand and that doesn't happened everyday these days.

Happy Birthday...

.... to my sweet, wonderful, and loving hubby

I hope you have a fabulous birthday weekend and enjoy the cupcakes Connor and I made you!

I can't forget to wish my new nephew Dominic a happy late birthday. He was born on September 30 and he is absolutely perfect! I can't wait to meet him in January!

Tot School: Letter C & Color Pink

     This marks our third week doing tot school at home, and Connor and I are both enjoying it. Since Connor started preschool this week, we had to fit it in after nap time on a couple of days. This week we focused on the Letter C and color pink. Our snacks for the week included clementines, cantaloupe, cupcakes, cheese, and crackers. Some objects/toys that we played with were cars, candles, cotton balls, and crayons.

Connor's First Day of Preschool

    Connor finally started toddler preschool today. He only goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:30 to 11:30, but I think that's plenty.  He has been ready for quite a while now, so today was an exciting day for us.  We started a yearly tradition of taking his first day of school picture this morning. He was a good sport and smiled for me until I could get the perfect picture! 

Tot School: Letter B & Color Blue

    I am a proud momma because we have had a successful second week of tot school. It was a busier week for us because we did more running around in the mornings, but we still made it work. We even got a call from the learning center on post that a slot had opened up for Connor to start his part time toddler preschool. He is going to start on Monday and go three days a week for three hours. Not too long, but it will give him some socialization and structure. I am going to continue to do tot school at home as well, but just move it later in the day after nap time.  

      This week Connor learned about the Letter B and the color blue. We had a lot of stuff to play with {balls, blocks, balloons, beans, bow tie pasta, band-aids} and snacks to eat {blueberries, bananas, blueberry muffins, bones- pretzels with marshmallows on each side dipped in white chocolate, and bandaids- crackers with cream cheese in the middle and red jelly on top}. It was a fun week, especially for Connor since his favorite color is blue.

Strada Delle 52 Gallerie

     Ever since we moved to Italy, I have heard that 52 tunnels is a must see. Aaron has been 4 times now and loved each and every time. I have been putting it off because let's face it, it isn't easy. It's just over 4 miles long and up a mountain! Then you have to go down it. That didn't sound like a fun time to me, but I had to try it just once and today was the day. We got there at about 9:30am and started our hike at about 10. I was excited, nervous, and tired just thinking about what I had ahead of me!

 About to start our hike!

Tot School: Letter A & Color Red

   Yay for it being Friday! I am really looking forward to this weekend. We are going on a hike to 52 tunnels tomorrow. I'm really excited and nervous, but I'll save that for another post. We have had a fun first week of tot school over here. Connor is on the wait list for part time toddler day care,  but I wanted to do some teaching with him in the mean time. I decided to start spending about 30 minutes every morning doing age appropriate lessons with him {i.e. the pajamas and messy bed head in every picture}. Some last longer depending how interested he is. Nothing hard, just fun and a way to get his little mind active by learning new things. This week we learned all about the Letter A and the color red.

Grape Harvest Party

    On Sunday we went to our first grape harvest since living in Italy. Aaron was gone last year during the harvesting time, so thankfully he was home this year. When I saw that our favorite winery {Le Pignole} was having a harvest party, I knew we had to go! I was nervous because the weather forecast called for rain during the entire party, but we braved the storm and went anyways.

 Playing with daddy.

Universal Exhibition 2015

    A couple weekends ago we went to the Universal Exhibition in Milan. It's a huge event with over 140 countries participating. It is held every 5 years for a six month period. Each country has their own pavilion that they are free to decorate and setup how they wish, as long as they follow the theme for that year. The theme this year was Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. I am not going to go into  much detail, but you can read all about it here. 

    Since there was so much for us to see, we left first thing in the morning. We dropped our dogs off with a friend and were on our way to Milan by 6:30 am. We decided to make an entire day out of it instead of wasting money and staying the night in a hotel.

 We picked up donuts on the way.

Busy Bags

   First of all, I am happy to say that my hubby came back home yesterday after being gone almost a month. We missed him so much. Connor didn't want to let him out of his sight! 

    While he was away, I had a lot of free time on my hands while Connor was napping or asleep. I found some neat busy bag ideas on Pinterest for Connor. All of them seemed easy to make and made great learning activities that could keep him entertained. I placed an order on Amazon for craft supplies (popsicle sticks, laminator, velcro, play doh and accessories) and sent my mom to get other stuff for me (paper paint samples, more velcro, and clothespins). I waited 10 days for all my stuff to come in, and yesterday when I checked the mail I had 7 boxes waiting for me {they weren't all for Connor}! So while Aaron was at work, I got started on Connor's busy bags!

Bookworm

   I love to read, and thankfully that gene got passed on to Connor. Right now he is all about the same couple books, so yesterday I decided to mix things up a little and take him to the library to pick out a few new books to read. We got there a few minutes before they opened, but that didn't stop Connor from waiting by the door and checking it every few seconds to see if it was unlocked.

Fun In The Sun

     Connor had a fun play date with his best friend Holden today. We made blueberry muffins before they came over so they could have breakfast at our house. They are our favorite!

     Connor helped me make them today. :)

Nonstop

     This little boy of mine, who I love with all my heart, keeps me on my toes. He never sits still these days! His little imagination is constantly running and thinking of things to do. The messes are endless because he goes from one thing to another. He likes to walk by himself, get dirty,  and play rough like boys do. Well, I have been trying to come up with things for him to do so he doesn't get bored playing with the same stuff everyday and so he can get his energy out. I ordered a few things online and can't wait to get it in the mail.

     Yesterday, Morgan and Levi spent a good half of the day with us. We played with dominoes and the small trains it came with, play-doh, and watercolors for hours. They were all toys that he hasn't played with before or in a while.  Then we went outside while Levi surprised me by mowing our lawn {we have such awesome friends!}. While he mowed it, Connor ran around in the field behind out house with the dogs.

 "Wait for me girls!"

Well That Was Easy

    In my last post, I talked about how I started potty training Connor and it was going great. Now that it has been eight days since we started, I am happy to say that he is doing fantastic. It was way easier then I ever expected and he has caught on so fast. We have even left the house twice since my last post and Connor wore big boy undies both times.

While I got ready, Connor sat on his potty for a good 20 minutes using the restroom. Typical boy...

Two Milestones in Two Weeks

     And just like that, we go from having a baby to a "big boy." All in a matter of two weeks! I think I might go ahead and cry now...

    It all started a couple weeks ago when we decided to turn Connor's crib into a toddler bed. He was getting too heavy for me to pick up out of his crib, and seemed to be at a good age for the transition. We told him we were going to give him a big boy bed, but he had no idea what that meant. So Aaron started taking it apart, and Connor kept getting in his way had fun helping! 

 Learning from the best.

Trip to Padova & Evening at the River

   We didn't have much planned for Chrissy and Ryan's last days in Italy {Wednesday 7/15 and Thursday 7/16}. They wanted to take it easy and just spend time with us.

     On Wednesday, we woke up late. Well everyone except for Aaron since he had to work. We had a long, fun night wine tasting the night before, so we needed to take it easy. We met Aaron at his work for lunch and then came back home so Connor could take his usual nap. When Aaron got home that afternoon, we drove to downtown Padova {aka Padua}. Instead of taking Chrissy and Ryan to downtown Vicenza, we took them to Padova since our town is a commune of it. It was Aaron's and my first time going, and I am so glad we went because it was beautiful. Later we found out that we didn't even see some of the main attractions.

Tiny church near the parking garage.

Wine Tasting and Lots of Pizza

     Aaron got off work at about 9am on Tuesday morning. He was super tired, but didn't want to waste any time sleeping. We were originally going to go to Padova, but Aaron had some things he had to take care of on post. We took Chrissy and Ryan with us and then took them to the mall. They found a bunch of great deals at H&M! After shopping for a couple hours, we went home so we could all get a nap. Chrissy watched Connor while Aaron, Ryan, and I took a nap. When we woke up, it was time to get ready for our wine and pizza tasting at Le Pignole Winery. We had been there once before in the winter and had the best time, so we knew we had to take Chrissy and Ryan.

 The vineyard.

Venice, Asiago, & Marostica with Chrissy & Ryan

    We have been having some major computer issues over here, so I am super late posting these next few blogs, however I really want to remember these moments, so better late then never. :)

    My sister-in-law, Chrissy, and her boyfriend, Ryan, came to visit us a couple weeks ago {7/12}.  We picked them up at the airport in the morning and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing in Venice.

Waiting for Auntie Sissy and Uncle Ryan to come. You can see them walking out the door in the picture on the right.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Disembarkation In Venice

    Unfortunately it was time for our cruise to come to an end on Sunday June 28th. We had to be out of our room by 8, but weren't able to get off the ship until 10:20, so we stayed in our room until the last minute. We were able to see us port in Venice and get a few pictures.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Kotor, Montenegro

    Our last place to visit before our cruise came to an end was Kotor, Montenegro. I did a little research on it before we left, but decided we would just explore on our own. There was no need to pay for another excursion and we had a wonderful time doing things at our own pace.

 We could see Kotor from our room early in the morning.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Corfu, Greece

       I was so excited about today because it was going to be a beach day! Yay. We had only had one so far on the cruise, so another one was calling my name. We went to the excursion office and ended up getting tickets for one that included a couple hours at the beach and a couple hours in the city. It was perfect because we could do it all.

     We got ready and had a big breakfast in the buffet dining room. Then we came back to our room and waited to meet with our excursion group {which wasn't until 12:45}.

 He was writing and saying all his friends names.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Piraeus {Athens}, Greece

    {Piraeus is where the port is located, but it's very close to Athens}

      We Aaron and I woke up early today because we had to meet with our excursion group at 8. Aaron was able to workout and get ready all in the time it took me to get ready and our bag packed for the day. Connor must have been exhausted because he was the first to go to sleep last night and the last to wake up this morning.

   All sprawled out.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Santorini, Greece

{This, by far is going to be my favorite post because it was my favorite place to visit}

    Today was the day I was most excited about for our trip. When I would think of Greece, yes I would think about the important historical sites, but I couldn't wait to go to Santorini.  Those beautiful white buildings with blue domes where calling my name! 

     We had an excursion planned for today, so we had to make sure to be up in time to meet with our group at 8am. As I was getting ready, I started to see the island with a church on top. We were arriving and Santorini was in sight.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Katakolon, Greece

    Aaron woke up extra early on our third day so he could workout {he made me look bad because I didn't workout once}. Connor and I decided to sleep in and then have Aaron bring us breakfast to the room. It was really nice eating it on our balcony and seeing different island on our way to Katakolon.

Island of Cephalonia that we saw when we woke up.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Bari, Italy

    We slept so well our first night on the boat. We hardly felt the boat rock and we woke up to the sound of the waves since we slept with the balcony door open. It was great! Connor even woke up in a really good mood. We got dressed and then went to eat breakfast at the buffet. They had just about every breakfast food you could imagine.  After breakfast, Aaron and Connor went swimming. We weren't planning on swimming in the morning, but since we weren't scheduled to arrive in Bari until noon, Aaron thought it would be fun. Since I was already dressed for the day, I took pictures and relaxed.

Eastern Mediterranean Cruise: Embarkation From Venice

     I can't believe that after months of planning and looking forward to our family vacation, it's already come and gone! We had a blast on our 7 night cruise through the Mediterranean and I can't wait to share our experiences. I took tons of pictures, so I will do a post for each day like I do for all our vacation trips. 

     On our first day {6/21- Father's Day}, our friend dropped us off at the port in Venice at about 11am. Our check in time wasn't until 1, but we wanted to be there extra early since we had no idea where to go or what to expect. We dropped our luggage off first, and then went to check in. They gave us a priority boarding ticket since we had a small child with us {Thank you Connor!}. We showed our paperwork and passports, took our id pictures, and then went through security. We were done with everything and walking on the ship about 25 minutes after starting the check in process. It was fairly simple and we were so lucky to not have to wait in any long lines.

Our ship! Since we were so close to the ship, I couldn't get a picture of the entire boat.

Father's Day

Thank you for being a perfect father to our son, Aaron.

Happy Happy Father's Day to all you amazing dads out there, especially to my wonderful father, father-in-law, grandpas {my grandpa in Texas, my Welo in heaven, and Aaron's grandpa in Minnesota}, and of course my amazing husband! All of you are so special and I am so happy to have you all in mine and Connor's life. We love ya'll tremendously and hope you enjoy your special day. Many hugs and kisses are being sent your way! 

Cocktail Party {and Other Stuff}

      I have been MIA lately, but we have been busy. Aaron finally went back to work after recovering for a month after his surgery. It was so nice having him home with me all the time {he might say otherwise ;)}. The day after he went back to work, the brigade held a cocktail party/dinner out. It was so fun to get dressed out and have a nice evening out with my husband.

 My hot date!