Jet lag sucks. 

Jet lag with 2 kids is a sick form of torture.

We recently returned from a 7-day Italian vacation, and I've been struggling to pick up the pieces of my life, but MAN was it worth it. Alex and I haven't been on a proper vacation (as in a no-work, child-free vacation) since Bobby was born, so this trip was well overdue. We are pretty seasoned, masochistic travelers, so we Alex decided to plan a trip with three connections. It ended up being an awfully dramatic travel. The plan was to travel from Florida to Houston, Houston to Munich, Munich to Rome, and then take a train from Rome to Montepulciano the following day. Why do I go along with these plans?

We had gotten settled into our big international flight from Houston to Munich, and I had taken a fat Ambien, whenever I stirred to a strange noise. We peered out the window and saw that our plane was dumping gas from the wing. 

Apparently there was a mechanical malfunction, and we had to dump gas and turn around--slightly terrifying. Then we had to run (I'm tripping balls from the sleeping pills that I had taken before) through the airport to try to get on a plane to London and get our luggage re-routed. That worked out just in the nick of time, not a moment to spare. We got re-settled in, and then sat on the ground for about an hour to wait for them to change three tires. This whole thing has made me quite leery of air-travel. I don't like to know how much scary machinery is just waiting to go bad out of nowhere. 

After a blearly, hazy flight to London, we took a flight to Frankfurt that I only vaguely recall being on. And then finally we got our flight to Rome. It was too late to hop on the train into the city, so we had to take a pricy cab, but it was worth the money. 32 hours later, we finally fell asleep on the hardest bed known to man. Those Italians love a firm mattress. 

We woke up the next morning and visited all of our favorite spots in Rome--we had lunch in front of the Coliseum, visited the Forum (that college Latin isn't going to put itself to use),  smooched at the Pantheon, got worn down by an overly persistent street peddler into buying a selfie stick, and hunted for the best gelato in the city. 

Later that evening we took a train into the Tuscan countryside to a little village called Montepulciano, where we stayed with my in-laws for several days. I slept for 17 hours, two days in a row. I've been waiting to do that for 2 years. 

 It rained a lot during the first few days, so we enjoyed some lazy downtime reading, napping, and eating. Oh, the eating. I ate carbs at every meal, and then had dessert. At. Every. Meal. I don't know what I was thinking trying to give up desserts before a trip to Italy.

 

After the rain passed, we did lots of walking up and down the cobblestones, combing through the village's little alleyways and hilly, winding streets. I re-discovered parts of my legs I forgot existed. 

Just getting some ideas for when I have teenagers.

My parents, who must be on some mission from God, generously kept the children for us. We FaceTimed with the beasties every night, and I missed them desperately. I've never been away from them for longer than a weekend, so it made my heart ache, but they were completely content at their grandparents' house (no doubt due to about 84,000 new toys and excessive sugar consumption). That's what grandparents are for, though, and we owe my parents their own Tuscan vacation. They're going to have to settle with the Limoncello we brought back for them. Sorta the same. 

Meanwhile at Grandma's..

After five days roaming the Tuscan countryside, we took the train back to Rome and spent a day at the Vatican and eating 3 servings of gelato. And public fondling.

Because that never gets old.

Then we started our trek back, which--due to poor European airtraffic planning and bad weather in Houston (oh, and the fact that we decided to make 3 damn connections)--took forever. I was trying my hardest to keep myself awake and beat jet lag, so I stayed awake the entire trip home, reading 2.5 books and watching 4 movies in one day. Nobody ever said I wasn't efficient.

Since returning, I have enjoyed sleeping on our amazing king-sized Tempurpedic mattress and getting the max amount of snuggles possible from my little beasties, who have seemingly sprouted up overnight and returned with way more toys than necessary. 

It was necessary to get some alone time with Alex. We are tight in our day-to-day life, of course, but so much effort goes into the children. It felt amazing to travel alone together and sleep in and enjoy adult conversations without screaming "no!" and "stop that!" and "stop eating hand sanitizer!" I think a trip together every now and then is the best thing a couple can do for their marriage, especially once having babies. It gave us time to enjoy each others' company without any stresses (well, aside from airport security), and it allowed us to miss our babies and really enjoy coming home, as well. I think we will try to do a trip alone together much more frequently from now on. 

If the grandparents haven't been scarred for life.

Scenes From a Weekend

 I don't care what the calendar says; Summer is definitely here. It is hot in Florida, and the best way to keep cool down here are the splash pads. Where were these when we were kids? I remember water parks, but not like this. There are two great ones close to our home, and we will be frequenting them a lot this Summer. I was in the middle of making homemade salted caramel on Friday morning when I decided to take the kids on an impromptu play date at the Children's Park splash pad with a friend. Bobby had a blast running through the different areas with his pals, and Vivi was hilarious toddling around in her little bikini like a priss. She also managed to take a break from being a bikini boss to eat some mulch. Because that's what one-year-olds do.

 I co-hosted a baby shower at my home on Saturday. Hosting parties at your own home with two babies is a tricky endeavor. I had to toss Alex and the kids out the door late Saturday morning to do my last minute cleaning. There's no point in doing that ahead of time because they're just going to mess it up. The shower was a baseball theme, and it turned out really sweet. I created a new cake recipe that may be a new favorite. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate-caramel truffle chunks baked in, filled with alternating layers of caramel cream cheese and chocolate buttercream, held together with a caramel buttercream, and topped with homemade salted caramel. And holy crap, was it amazing. It was decadent and sinful, and I will be sure to post a recipe soon. I ended up making it a naked cake, so there's really no decorating skill needed for this one! And I used the leftover salted caramel to make homemade caramel popcorn. I've never been crazy about caramel popcorn, but apparently that's because I've never had it homemade. It's a whole different ballgame this way, believe me. I'll post a recipe about that sometime soon, as well, because I promise it is worth it!

 Sunday afternoon was beautiful and hot, so we decided to head on down to the splash pad at Destin Commons for a little water fun. I saw the sno-cone truck and had an inkling that Bobby may be obsessed with one, and I was certainly correct. He woofed down the sno-cone and then stood in front of the stand for about 5 minutes afterward, soliciting the vendor. Finally the vendor just gave him another one; I guess he felt sorry for the poor little dude. That goes to show you that if you want something badly enough and your heart is pure, magical things will happen ;)

Daddy taught her the art of the subtle boob grab. Awesome.

We are getting ready to leave on a romantic, childless trip to Italy on Tuesday, and I am getting a little antsy about leaving my sweet babies for 9 days. I know they will be totally fine with my parents, and it's not that I think anything bad will happen...but I've never been away from them for longer than a weekend. Certainly never in a different country. So I'm trying to get all my baby love in before we leave.

 Last night Alex and I sat on our sofa eating Cracker Jacks and watching the Mad Men finale, which was SO GOOD. I must have cried three separate times. I'm sad that the show is over because I have watched it from the very beginning, but it ended perfectly. 

Now we are looking forward to a big Monday filled with errands, doctor visits, and packing for our trip. Hope you have a great week! XO