Vacay in the USA

I met up with the girls in the USA towards the end of July.  They had been in the states since the end of June so it was nice to see them once again.  We drove to KY to spend some time with my family and then back to VA to see Shannon's family before departing back to Italy. I don't know where all the time went but the time that we did had was great.

Here are a few pix:

The highlight of the vacay was probably all the animals the girls were able to see and play with.... with puppies being ultimate highlight!  It must have been puppy season back in VA because everyone had puppies! The girls would play with them for hours... although the puppies wished it was only for a few minutes. 

Poor puppy. 

We logged some decent miles in the car while traveling from VA to KY and back to VA.  We did get to see some beautiful countryside and we didn't have to use our aggressive driving like we do in Italy. In fact, we really had to throttle ourselves back and make sure we followed the driving rules in the USA.  

In KY, we went to the Beauty and the Beast play. We had front row seats too! 

Grandma got them all dressed up in Belle attire. 

We spent a little bit of time fishing at my mom and dad's lake.  They didn't want to get to close to the fish that were caught and were more interested in the night crawlers that we used as bait. 

A trophy Bass.

E taking notes from Grampa.

Another highlight was our day at Kentucky Kingdom. I have always had fond memories of many days at the KY Kingdom, going there almost every summer as a kid.  The girls (and grandparents) had a blast going on all the rides, the waterpark and eating good food. 

We were the lasts ones to exit the park, but before we left we had to make sure we sampled the dippin dots. 

We spent some invaluable time with the Great Grandparents too. The kids especially liked Great Grandpa's magic tricks. 

And, LC lost two more teeth over the summer brining the total lost teeth to seven. 

We didn't take too many pictures back in the USA, but that doesn't mean we didn't have any fun. We will keep the memories for years to come. The girls are already asking when we are going to go back to the states on another vacation.  We had to get back because we had to make preps for the kids' school.

But before school started we thought we would have some more fun. We rented some boats with some friends of ours to travel out to the islands that are near by. I still can't believe they allowed us to rent these boats, but as they say in Italia, Va benne (its all good)...

We did a few laps around the islands Procida and Ischia. 

And stopped in various coves to admire the scenery and swim. 

But the best part was driving around the islands, enjoying the cooler temps and swimming in the crystal clear water.

The girls loved riding in the bow and catching waves!

We even found a few caves to explore...

Summer is quickly coming to a end.... 

LC had her back-to-school block party last week where we found out what class she is in and she found out which friends were in her class. She was happy with the results and we were happy to find out that she was selected for the Italian Immersion program at school. The block party was fun, it had food vendors, bands and this scary Italian ferris wheel.

But we rode it hoped for the best. 

And over this past weekend, the girls participated in the Mud Run that was held on base. Here they are showing off medals.

Monday rolled around and it was the first day of first grade... she did pretty well -- although she was a bit clingy and cried a bit... but she said she had fun!