Closing out the Summer

As I mentioned in the previous post, we made it back to the USA for 3 weeks this year. I was a little shocked my command allowed me to take 3 weeks off, but I took it none the less. We flew into Raleigh-Durham, NC and spent the first week and a half with Shannon's folks. It was wonderful to see everyone and watch the kids play with their cousins. They had a great time having sleep overs, playing outside and staying up late. The highlight of our time in VA was the girls' trip to get their ears pierced. LC had been talking about it for the previous 2 months but I thought she would wave off at the last minute. Grammy and Shannon took her to the mall and she sat in the chair like a big kid and got it done. Then Ellis decided to get hers done too! So brave and I was shocked. They have healed nicely and LC has already changed hers out a few times. After our time in VA, we drove over to KY to see my folks. We had a great time in KY and were able to see Sonya, Ben and all the cousins, too. Mom and dad went from 2 people to 12 people in a matter of 24 hours. The kids all slumbered downstairs in the basement and loved playing and sleeping with each other. We enjoyed time with the great-grand parents and took a trip to see Noah's Ark and a trip to a pool. Then it was back to VA to fly back to Italy.

We spent the last few weeks in Italy getting ready for school and playing at the pool. The temps have been awful so a lot of our time as been in doors, unfortunately.

Then on 27 AUG, it was back to school for LC. She started 2nd grade and is also in the Italian immersion program. E will start the following week, on 4 SEP, and was also selected for the Italian immersion program. We went to E's Kinder orientation class to get all the details of her year.  We also sat down with the teacher for a one-on-one where she went over somethings and did am evaluation on E. Ellis blew us away! She was able to read all but a few of the kindergarten sight words, count to 100, say all her sounds, and read all but a few upper and lowercase letters. The teacher said she is going to make E a student teacher and that she won't have to teach her much this year. Needless to say, we were proud parents!

Here are a few photos for the past few weeks.  I just realized that we didn't take too many photos while we were home... so here is what we got:

Here is the picture that was taken after LC and E got their ears pierced! So brave! They both chose turquoise stones. 

E modeling her ears....

We also found out that E is allergic to cats. Grammy and Papa had new kittens that E couldn't put down for the first few hours we were there.... we started to notice her eyes getting poofy and red. Eventually we put two and two together and realized she had been putting cats on her head, hugging them and had them all in her face over the past day... Poor thing cause she loves cats.... This was a picture of her puffy eyes, however, they were much worse than this. This was taken after taking some medications and a night of sleep.

The girls love face paint. We went to Papa's bands performance in Appomattox, VA and had a great time with the crafts and activities. 

We had uneventful drives from VA to KY and back but had to make plenty of pit stops for potty breaks and stretching. This was a rest stop in KY. 

We were able to spend some time with the great grandparents as well. They kept asking great grandpa to perform some of his magic tricks! 

We drove up to see the Ark experience while in KY. It was pretty impressive and if you get the opportunity to visit, then go! 

Its a life-sized ark with neat and informative exhibits inside and out.  

This was the petting zoo outside the ark. 

 All the kids got slushies afterwards to help cool down from the heat of the Kentucky Summer.

Then it was on to Chik-fil-a for dinner and hanging out with the Cow. 

Our neighbor, who works with me, asked if we could watch their Goldendoodle while they went away for the weekend. The girls had an absolute ball going over and playing with Ollie, walking him and taking care of him. 

LC, Ollie, and E. 

As mentioned above, E had heft Kindergarten orientation earlier this week. We met the teachers and some friends and saw her desk. Here she is sitting at her assigned seat. 

And here is out 2nd grader! She is growing way too fast.  She was excited to go to school and see all her old friends and meet her teacher.

And that is about if for the summer. The temps are still awfully hot but school is back in session (E starts on Tuesday).  Hope everyone had nice summers too. 

A little catch-up

Please excuse the extended delay.... We've been busy bees diving into summer with a trip to Sorrento,  finishing school and other fun things.... Before we dive into our recent trips to N. Italy and the USA, here are a few pix that we've been meaning to share:

E won 1st place in coloring contest. It was something her participated in with 3 other schools in the area. It was a coloring competition for the local JFC Naples base. Here was E getting recognized and receiving her prize. They thought "Ellis" was a boy's name, so they gave her the red (boys) bag w/ a boys lego set and a soccer ball. She didn't notice and was humble in her victory. 

This is E's class showing off their Van Gogh paintings. They studied Van Gogh for a few days and concluded the instruction with replicas of his artwork. \

E graduated from her international school. Is she would have stayed at the same school, she would have went on to the 1st grade. But we are taking her out and putting her into the DoD School to remain aligned with her peers. We all loved her International School and friends and she will keep these memories forever. 

E w/ her diploma. 

For Memorial Day this year we drove down to Sorrento.  We hit the beaches, walked around town and ate lots of gelato. 

The water temperature was just right and we had all the beaches to ourselves. The tourists had yet to arrive on the Amalfi coast so we had everything to ourselves. 

The area was quite picturesque with neat little shops and restaurants in the various coves.

We ate an awesome dinner one evening on the Mediterraean Sea. It was delicious sea food and pastas overlooking Mt Vesuvius and the Naples bay. 

And on the walk home, we were able to watch the sun set. 

The girls headed out to go swimming and beach combing. 

Sardines must have been in season because all the local restaurants were advertising and pushing sardines. We  decided to give them a try and they did not disappoint! 

We took another boating trip prior to our good friends moving.  We drove out to Ischia, anchored and swam in the super-blue water. 

This is our finny kid's last day of first grade! 

Gelato is the perfect way to celebrate the end of school and the start of summer!

**More to follow over the next couple of days to include our trip to Northern Italy and Switzerland. 

Spring Break 2018 in Soctland

We decided to try something different for Spring Break this year.  We rented a couple campers with some friends and road-tripped it around Scotland. We flew into Edinburgh, picked up the campers and hit the road. We saw a lot of awesome country side, ate some good Scottish food, went to a CrossFit gym for a work out and put 700 miles on brand new campers. It was quite the experience, far different then the hotel/bnb living we typically do while traveling. I think the kids got a kick out of it more than Shannon and I. The camper was a bit small, and the weather was cold enough where the kids couldn't just stay outside all day. Overall, another great trip in the books. Here are some photos!

A few weekend before our trip to Scotland we ventured out to Matera and Alberobello. It is on the "heel" to Italy. Matera is known for its caves and also where Passion of the Christ was filmed. It is also a UNESCO World Heritige site since it has been inhabited since the 10th millennium BC. 

We then went to Alberobello. This town is known for their "Trulli Houses" which are uniquely shaped homes. 

And then it we took a visit to the Safari park where you drive your car through all the roads amongst all the animals. 

You are not supposed to feed the animals, but in Italy that means you are not supposed to feed the animals *wink wink*. So of course, we brought hot dog buns.  The animals think every car that drives by has a hand out so they all come up to your car and if your window is open, they reach inside. The girls were a little freaked out by this and stayed in the back when the windows were down. We saw Zebras, giraffes, camels, elephants, mountain sheep and a lot more. 

They also have a zoo and an amusement park, so after the drive we went inside to see the other animals and sights. 

The base hosted another Easter Egg-stravaganza where the kids loaded up on candy for the next few years. They also met the Easter bunny. 

Alright, here we are, off to Scotland. The kids loved every minute of it because they had friends to play with everywhere we went. Our good friends have 3 boys that are similar in age so the kids were essentially on auto pilot throughout the trip. 

We had a day in Edinburgh. The first order of business was to find the local Crossfit Gym. We had a nice workout, met some nice people and got some recommendations on what to go see. We didn't stay too long because we were itching to get on the road in the rigs. It was also a bit chilly (35-40 deg) and constantly raining or drizzling. We saw the Edinburgh Castle and all the old architecture. We parked the rigs at the park and ride by the airport and took the train in.

We had a 1.5 hour drive up to Stirling where we stayed the night. Stirling has a notable castle as well as the William Wallace memorial (in the background). 

Here's the rig. Brand spanking new. Only had 7 miles on it when we picked it up. It was tough to get the hang of driving this pig.... its big, slow and driving in Scotland is on the left side of the road while the steering wheel is on the right side of the car.... oh, and it was a manual transmission too. The Japanese roads back in the day made for a quick transition. The rig had bunk beds in the back and a pull down bed that dropped from the ceiling. The kids thought it was the coolest thing! We had walkie talkies to communicate between rigs... pretty awesome. 

This is William Wallace's monument. It has stairs that go all the way to the top.

And inside was his sword!

We could have made stops every 5 minutes to take pictures and soak in the beautiful countryside.

We saw a lot of snow and even encountered some white out conditions through some of the passes. 

I remember being bitter cold in the photo. We hopped out quickly to take a pix and it was back in the car. The topography reminded me a lot of Alaska actually. 

This was our next stop in Glencoe. This was collectively all of our favorite place. Just a beautiful place completely surrounded in mountains.  

The kids enjoyed throwing rocks into the lake (but not at the swans)

The next morning we decided to take a hike around Glencoe. We parked the rigs and hit the trails. It started out cold with snow.....

But by the end of the hike, the sky cleared

The following day we took another hike towards some water falls.  
The hike was supposed to be short but we kept saying "lets go a little further." It ended up being a few hours. But, we did get to see the water falls. 

E with a little gnome house she found. 

The next stop was in Fort William. 

The next day we decided to drive the Isle of Skye. We heard good things and heard the scenery was unmatched. Little did we know the roads were single lane only and covered in pot holes. Luckily, the nice people of Scotland always let the two rigs pass through. 

We stopped here for a picnic stop. 

The next day it was to Doune to see the Castle. This was the number one priority for Shannon and Amanda. They have been reading the Outlander series and this is where it was filmed. 

The last night was also spent in Doune. 

This was back at Naples where we participated in the super hero "run". We kind of tricked the girls into the full 5K.. they were excited at first, especially since they got to wear costumes, but pooped out.

More memories were made in Scotland and the camping was something different. Don't know if we would do it again in something that small but that added to the experience.