Zipping Through the Fall Season

So this fall on one of those long 4 day weekends the boys had we decided to do something extra fun. Originally we were going to spend one day at Six Flags with friends, drive to a camp ground and camp, hit up one of the local caves and hike around, camp another night and then off to Zipline in another part of the state. However, with a monster head cold that I ended up with we decided to downsize the plan a bit...which was good because a pretty nasty storm came through and it would not have been very fun. So we streamlined it with a day at Six Flags, coming home, and then driving out to Zipline and Eco Zipline Tours in Missouri.

Race Day, Getting Dirty

 Back in September a group of the spouses in J's squadron decided it would be fun to put some of all our running to a challenge. So after a little research and discussion we decided to try out a 5K Dirty Girl sponsored race about an hour away.

 

First Day...3 Months Late

Ok, I know I am a little late getting these up, but posting all those from the Europe trip took longer then I originally intended. It was worth it though, remembering what we did and saw...it just took a lot of time sorting, posting and adding words.

So 3 months ago the boys had their first day of school, August 12 a little early...but this momma was ready for it! Love my boys, but I was done fighting them over keeping their brains active and it was time for more structured learning.

N-Prek, J-4th, and M-5th

Day 10, 11 and 12: The Final 3 days

After a quick trip on the train from Rome to Naples we were fortunate enough to meet up with our good friends from the past couple of assignments. They were kind enough to play tour guides and opened their house up to us. The boys may have been a little upset that we were staying with them and their wonderful kiddos...the kids that they miss dearly. They may have forgiven us a little when we were able to Face Time with them and also hooked them up with an instagram account to share photos and videos back and forth.

Day 9: All Roads Lead to Rome

So after a restful night sleep at the hotel, we woke up the next morning had our complimentary breakfast on the terrace top over looking the city and formed a game plan for the day. There was another American couple doing the same...using the Rick Steves' guide as well...everywhere you turn you see someone with that book!

We decided to start off with one of the walks on the Rick Steves' play lists (not sure which since in order to clear up space on the phone I deleted all the tours and we also gave our Italy book to our good friends who played host to us when we were in Naples). But I do know that we started at the Spanish Steps and walked past Palazzo Senatorio (Rome's City Hall), and various other parks and monuments to various leaders of Rome. 

Day 8: Vatican City

After spending the day in Florence, we woke up and once again found ourselves repacking the suitcases and making our way back to the train station. We bought two tickets, found some lunch and hopped onto the train to Roma, thats Rome to all of you non-Italian speakers. Over our trip we spent a lot of time on trains and spent the extra money to take the express trains over the local service trains that stop at almost every small town along the way, with limited time we decided that time out weighed the cost of a couple upgrades.

When traveling to Italy in particular you have to do a little research on what days and times the attractions are actually open to the public; some places close mid afternoon, some places are closed on Mondays. We knew we had to get to Rome as early as possible to drop off our bags and hike over to Vatican City, if we didn't get tickets before 4 we wouldn't get to go in at all while there since it was scheduled to be closed the following day.

Day 7: Lean on in to see Italy

So after moving to a hotel closer to the Paris Orly Airport, we slept for a couple of hours in a huge room with a nonfunctioning air conditioning unit....at least we got Hilton points I guess. At 4am we were hitting the shuttle (while others were checking in for the night), and making our way to check into  our Easy Jet flight to Pisa, Italy. For those that haven't traveled to Europe beware of their super stingy luggage restrictions, we planned ahead and had gotten smaller carry-ons (which you are only allowed ONE ITEM) and paid for one checked bag. After boarding and taking off it was a quick flight to our destination, we passed through customs quickly, swapped out our SIM card on the pay as you go phone we bought in London and flagged down a cabbie to take us on a quick tour.

For thirty quick minutes we had the taxi driver take us to the touristy part of town, he zipped around pointing and talking in broken English...mostly Italian...at buildings and other points of interest in Pisa.