Greenville, SC Day 6 to 9

Day 6: August 1, 2018 

      Today was a rainy day. We started by taking the kids to open gymnastics. Connor liked everything about it. The foam pit, the bars, the rope swing... Olivia just liked being able to crawl everywhere. Ever since Connor was a baby and picked up hand, foot, and mouth disease from playing in a public play area, it freaks me out to let Olivia play in a place where there are tons of kids. I let her anyways and just washed her hands really well afterwards. The girls got tired about 30 minutes in, so we left a little earlier and let Connor stay with Levi. We took them to Chick-fil-A and then went home where we put them down for naps and then let them play afterwards.

Greenville, SC Day 1 to 3

    This summer has been one trip after another for us. We decided to end our summer travels by making a trip to South Carolina to visit our best friends Morgan and Levi, and our goddaughter Olive! We had so much spending time with them and playing with the kids.

Day 1: July 27, 2018 

    Today was Olivia's first time on an airplane. We got to our gate just in time for them to start boarding. I took Olivia to see the airplane in the window and she was so excited. She got mad at me when I had to put her back in the baby carrier so we could get on the airplane.

 Waiting to get on our plane.

DFW, Texas to Spicer, Minnesota: Summer Vacation Part 1

     At the end of June / beginning of July Aaron took a little less than two weeks off work so we could go to Minnesota for his grandparents 60th Anniversary celebration. Being that he missed their 50th, he wasn't going to miss this one. We had so much fun with family and relaxing on the lake. Because we were there for so long, I'm going to separate it into three different blog posts.

June 28, 2017

    When Aaron got off work, which was earlier then we expected, we drove to Pappy's house. As soon as we got there we went swimming until dinner time. For dinner we ate sushi, our favorite! We stayed up really late talking with Chrissy and decided at the last minute that we would try and fly to Minnesota the next day because flights weren't looking great for Friday {life of a standby passenger}.

Goodbye Italy, Hello Texas!

     Aaron and I were both so ready to move back to Texas, so it is no surprise that we hardly slept the night before our flight. Connor was wide awake from the moment we woke him up that morning. I think he was really excited too. We had to leave the hotel by 3am so that Connor and I could catch the shuttle to the airport. Aaron went with a friend and he took both the dogs and all of our luggage. By the time Connor and I arrived, he was already waiting in line to check in. It went mostly smoothly, and the dogs were pretty nervous, but we got them checked in and my worries subsided some.

North Texas Visit

      At the beginning of January, Connor and I went to Texas for a month long visit. Aaron had training in Germany, so just the two of us went. Getting to Texas made for an extremely long day for us: a 3 hour drive to the airport in Milan, 2 hour wait at the airport, 10 1/2 hour flight to Miami, a 4 hour layover, an almost 3 hour flight to DFW, and 1 1/2 hours at the airport waiting for a lost piece of luggage}. We were so tired when we finally got home that night!

 Our long day of travel....

Day 16-18 In Texas: Last Days in Texas and Traveling Home

Day 16: Monday 12/29

    Today was our last full day in Texas. We ate breakfast at Pappy and Carol's house and then went to Buy Buy Baby to pick out a new jogging stroller for Connor. The one we have is horrible on the streets in Italy, so we wanted one with rubber tires. Afterwards, we dropped Carol off back at home and went back to Chrissy and Ryan's house. We picked up grandma and went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in Southlake. It was the last place on our list to go to before we left the states. We did a little shopping after and then went back to the house. 

Rockin' my shades.

Day 1-3 In Texas: Airplanes, Suprises, and Pictures With Santa

Day 1: Sunday 12/14   

     Early in the morning before the sun even came up, Aaron, Connor and I drove to Malpensa Airport in Milan. Aaron and I decided it would be best for Connor and me to leave a few days early because the flights were starting to fill up. Our chances of getting on a flight as a standby passenger would be much better on 12/14 then 12/18 {when Aaron got off for winter break and was planning on flying}. 

     My wonderful father-in-law offered to fly to Milan to help me with Connor on the long flight. Our plan was to meet him at the airport and he would help me check my bags and go through security. Well, that sort of changed when his flight to Milan was delayed by 5 hours! Aaron helped me get all of our bags to the ticket counter, but I had to wait in the line for the next 2 hours to get checked in and put on a different flight. Our original flight was going to JFK and there were several unsold seats and we were pretty much guaranteed a seat on that plane, but we weren't going to be able to make it since Pappy wasn't going to land in Milan on time. Our only other option {since there are only 2 flights to the US out of Milan a day} was to fly to Miami. The flight was delayed 2 hours, and we were told we probably wouldn't make it because it was so full. I had them take our luggage anyways and as I was on my way to security, here comes pappy to the rescue! He saw just how much work it is to go through security with a baby! We walked what seemed like 5 miles to the gate, and waited for them to call our names.

 Watching the airplanes go by.

Traveling to Italy

    I am so glad we finally made it to Italy! The trip here was exhausting, but exciting. I will start with Monday morning. Connor kept us up throughout the night (surprise, surprise) so we were tired when our alarm went off. We got ready and packed up our many suitcases. Aaron's friend from work picked us up and we checked out of the hotel. We dropped off our friends car that we borrowed for a few weeks and said goodbye to our good friend Karen and her son, Connor's best friend.

 Playing with his friend just one last time.