We just got to Italy Wednesday and we are all exhausted! It is 6 hours ahead of Ohio and we are feeling it today. I was pretty much a zombie all morning and then after taking 2 naps felt much better but now its 1 am and I (as well as Quinn and Finley) can't sleep!! (Edit to this post- the kids were all awake until 4:30 AM).
I am really behind on blogging (I am talking still need to finish our February Disneyland trip behind) but I want to try and blog these first few weeks in Italy as they happen so I can really talk about how things are instead of trying to remember in 6 months. As I am writing this Finley is attacking my computer making this about impossible and reminding me why I never get anything done!!
We left my parents house on Tuesday afternoon and took a shuttle down to the airport because we had so much stuff it was going to be the easiest option. Telling everybody "see you later" was very difficult and I was so sad when Elliot started crying. We love being at home with family but we are excited about our new home and new adventures to come. Finley screamed the entire hour drive to the airport and our driver was so over it by time we got there.
Checking in was a process. Since we are essentially homeless during this move for about 2 months and with 5 people in our family plus the fact that I don't know what packing lightly means, we had a lot of stuff! In total we had 10 suitcases for checked luggage, 3 car seats plus a pack and play, the stroller (with 3 kids) and 7 carry on bags (computer bag, camera bag, Quinn's backpack, SAMMY, etc.). It was nuts! I know for our next trip home, that my carry on amount needs to be limited dramatically and we will just have to go without things while traveling! The looks we were getting while checking in were hilarious. Everything went smoothly and the nice man waived the fee for bringing Sammy with us which was amazing. We had one last meal at Chick-fil-a for a while and then it was time to get on the airplane. We had 5 seats which was nice because we had 2 by the window and then the whole center row. The kids took over the window seats and were troopers! The flight really wasn't that bad at all, I was expecting much worse. We had dinner and breakfast served and that helped to break up the flight time. We learned next time we can request children's meals ahead of time for them, this time we did not and they just ate (or really didn't eat) the adult plates. It was only 7 hours and 40 minutes total and we got to watch the sunset on our flight and then a few hours later watch the sunrise again. Finley slept the most out of all of us with Leo and Quinn both sleeping for maybe 1-2 hours total. When we landed, Leo looked out the window and said "Utah", I guess most of the time when we fly we do land in Utah, it made us all laugh.
We had a 4 hour layover in Paris which I am so glad about because that airport is confusing! We had to find the way to our next gate which proved to be a challenge. My favorite part of the airport was Leo getting on one of the moving walkways for the first time. He saw Quinn doing it so he had to also but then as soon as he got close to it he was too nervous. I went and helped him and he was smiling ear to ear, he said "look daddy!" It was so sweet. We found out during our time at the airport that the elevators are SMALL. I mean so small that we had to go in shifts because with our stroller and one adult it was maxed out. While in one of the many elevator rides Leo pushed the call button and they answered in French, I just yelled "accident, sorry, sorry!", I am sure they were thinking "stupid american!" The other thing that was entertaining during our travel time was getting everybody taken care of in the bathroom department. We found a nice family bathroom and were probably in there for 30 minutes by time everybody got changed, Dave and I changed our clothes because we felt gross and then having to give Sammy water (we couldn't feed him because we forgot his food- whoops!) and let him run around for a little bit. The airport was really nice and the kids enjoyed their first Kinder eggs while in Europe. Our gate ended up getting changed so we had to find our way to another gate.
The second flight was very short (about an hour) and easy (both big kids finally slept). I am impressed with how they handled the day of traveling, they really did better than I did. Finley made friends with the lady behind us and was smiling at her the whole flight. We got some pretty good sandwiches and coke (that didn't taste like American coke) and next thing I knew we were in Italy.
We got off the plane and our stroller had been checked so we had to go without it until we got to the luggage carousels. We were not really sure where things would be coming out and we were all exhausted. A nice man gave us some directions and I waited by the large items to come out (car seats and stroller) and Leo and Dave grabbed the 10 suitcases as they came out. We marked them with bright orange duct tape which was very helpful in quickly identifying which ones were ours. Leo started yelling each time he saw the orange tape. So after we gathered everything Dave got the carts and started loading them, we ended up with 3 push carts and the stroller. The way security is, our sponsor (Tim) could not come and help us with luggage so we had to push it all out to where he and our shuttle driver were waiting for us. The only option we had was to have Q push the stroller and she was a champ. We were cracking up, she couldn't see anything but just pushed along and did a great job.
Sammy in that bag cracked me up the whole time, he did really great too. I was carrying Finley in the Ergo at this point so no babies were harmed in the chaos of the Venice airport. :)
We found Tim and our driver and quickly loaded up the cars and headed to a different part of the airport to get Charlie. I don't think our driver fully understood that this would be happening and I think he was rather unhappy about it. It took over 30 minutes to get him through customs and then they ended up charging us 60 Euro because they had to "hold him" for longer than they had planned. But they were the ones making us do the paperwork!!! However, after driving to Indianapolis and then Detroit, Charlie was finally with us in Italy and everybody was happy (expect our shuttle driver!).
Our driver drove about 100 miles per hour (I am not making that up) the whole way up to base. I was so nervous that we were going to crash. My first thoughts on Italy were that it looked just like I had imagined. As we drove down the highway there were old looking villas and vineyards everywhere and the mountains are beautiful. Leo looked out the window while we were driving and said "look, mountains!"
We checked into base and got in our room around 5 in the afternoon. It was a crazy long day/days and we were happy to be all together. The pharmacy had put together a basket of snacks for us with milk in the fridge and it was so nice to have those already in the room plus our friends the Tolmans brought us some items also! The kids ate cereal right away and we finished the evening with walking over to the BX for some essentials and dinner. Getting adjusted to the time change has been a challenge but that is for another post. Ciao!
Relaxing on the pull out couch in TLF.
Italy is good, life is good.
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