Europe Day 1: From Inferno to Paradiso

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Kids eating leftover Breakfast food in the hotel room

 Day one of our trip basically consisted of three days melded into one.  We left Salt Lake on the 31^st, stayed overnight in Atlanta and then left for the Milan airport on August 1^st, landing on August 2^nd.  I pray a lot before we take any trips and I prayed so much that the kids would be good on the plane rides and I have to admit we had very little trouble with them.  There was a man behind us trying to have a gospel conversation with the couple next to them, who were born again Christians, and the only thing I caught him saying over the noise of the plane was, “And it’s like Jesus injected steroids, blah, blah….” I couldn’t quite make out the rest of it.  I was really weirded out by that phrase.  Haha. We ended up giving away one of the Books of Mormon we brought with us to give away, so that was good.   The plane ride to Atlanta left in the evening so by the time we reached the airport it was about 9pm our time, which wouldn’t have been so bad but when we reached our hotel, they realized that they didn’t have two pack-n-play cribs and had to spend the next two hours calling around to other hotels to locate some unused cribs and they finally reached us around midnight Utah time or 2am Atlanta time.  We even called them a week in advance and an hour before we got there to make sure they would be available for us on arrival so we could get the kids to bed right away.  It took a long time to get the babies to sleep without cribs and after I complained about how bad the service was they told me we would be “compensated” for our inconvenience.  We’ll just have to see if they make good on their word.  One of the main reasons we stayed at our hotel is because they have a great breakfast there, but in order to get breakfast we had to wake everyone up just before it closed at 9am after the kids had only gotten maybe 6 to 8 hours of sleep and we had maybe 5 hours of sleep, which we thought would be fine since we wanted them to sleep on the flight over to Italy.

After a long flight of free movies we arrived in Italy at 7am.  Henry slept all day!

I was really worried because I can never sleep on planes, especially holding a baby on my lap and I was already exhausted.  After breakfast we spent a couple hours swimming in the indoor pool and hot tub.  It was so cold inside their pool room so we were all huddling together in the luke-warm hot tub.  After the girls were complaining about being cold and we tried to wrap them up in the hand-towel sized towels they provided there, we looked outside and realized that there was a pool outside and, oh yeah, it was August in Atlanta so it’s probably really warm outside, which it was and we spent the last half hour playing outside.

We packed for the long flight over to Milan and left for the airport.  Check in went very smoothly except that Justin’s bike box was sent downstairs before we were able to set things in order so that took a while to sort out, but other than that things went smoothly.  The plane we took over here was very new and had giant screens with unlimited options for shows to watch.  This posed a problem for Henry who gets sucked into shows and will fight sleep just to stay awake to watch a show.  We thought all the kids would be exhausted and fall asleep very quickly, but Henry never slept once, Bea slept the entire time, Vivi slept most of the time and Clementine took about an hour nap and watched shows without sound for the rest of the trip.  We couldn’t believe her!   

The girls and their new friend Gaia

One of the annoying things that happened was that the baby hammock I ordered for the plane didn’t arrive and only the day before we left did I realize that the order had been cancelled. I ended up using my baby wrap to create a hammock that worked extremely well.  I wish I could have taken a photo of it, but maybe I will on the return flight.  I basically tied the hammock to the head rest in front of me(where Bea was sitting) and then connected it to the head rest to the right of me where Lucy was sitting so that it was set diagonally in between us, creating the most space and not really bothering either of us.  Lucy and I shared watching shows on her TV screen and both of us were able to get out since we were in the middle section of seats with Clementine to the left of Lucy.  Turbulence was so nice because it would swing Vivi back and forth which seemed  to keep her happy.  I think it worked better than the original hammock I had ordered because that one was meant to connect to the food tray and go from there down to your stomach, which now days is only about one foot of space and that’s definitely not enough for my large baby.  I did, however, have the luxury of having Bea be in front of me and Lucy beside me, or else it would have impeded others from  exiting.   A really nice American family living in Switzerland sat behind us with their two children named Amadaus(1 yr) and Gaia(3.5 yrs). 

Me and my airport support group, Bryn Migliore.  She was a gem and so beautiful!

 They had been traveling from Costa Rica and realized that they had left their car and house keys in the safe at their hotel and had to spend a couple hours after that super long flight waiting at the airport until they could figure out how to get home.  We also had to stay for a couple hours because we had to wait to rent our car or else we would have to return it too early in 6 days and be penalized for another day.  It all turned out great because since they were stuck and we were stuck, the kids got to play together, eat treats, watch shows and they actually had a fun time hanging out in the airport.  Every situation has a silver lining and I was glad to have been able to help them in a rough situation and her kids helped entertain my kids in the process. 

We were here for a couple hours just trying to survive

When we finally got our nine passenger van we were so ready to hit the road.  We spent the next few hours trying to find the “Quattro Portoni” Buffalo cheese farm.  Henry threw up in a ziplock bag and since nothing came up we realized that we hadn't fed our kids for a while and since Henry hadn't gone to sleep at all on the plane he was in pretty bad shape.  That throw-up baggie was left in there for quite a few days.  We got lost for so long but finally found it and it was well worth the wait.  Justin and I spent about a half hour touring around the farm with the owner and his wife talking about everything from obtaining and raising buffalo to making the products.  

Lucy enjoying her spot in the van.  haha.

 Afterward we had Lucy, Clementine and Violette come in to eat some cheese with us.  Henry and Bea unfortunately had fallen asleep in the car.  These wonderful people took large chunks of cheese and crackers and fed us the most delicious assortment of cheeses.  We ate in a room that was built in the 1600s.  It was one of those rooms that people in America have recreated in restaurants to make it look like it was old, but this place was actually that old and it wasn’t like they were trying to make a beautiful room to eat cheese in.  It was just plain beautiful. 

Alfio and Bruno Gritti with the lovely Elena.  I am looking a little grody.  haha. 

The whole farm is enclosed in four hundred year old buildings.  It's just incredible

Here Bruno is serving us delicious delecacies

Baby Buffalo.  Why can't I bring you home? Stupid USDA

Just born

Elena and Bruno, the owners were so generous and, of course, fell in love with my babies.  They packed up a cooler of delicious yogurt and cheeses for us, told us they would come to Utah to visit and we drove all the way to Levanto which is on the Mediterranean sea and is totally gorgeous.  At this point everyone was starving and just about everyone was crying in the car so we stopped for pizza and pasta for dinner and then headed over to our apartment where my good friend Laurel was waiting for us with her four boys.  Henry is in heaven right now and I wish they would stay with us the entire time!

The giant box of cheese they GAVE us to take home.  Italians are so generous!

They were in LOVE with my babies.  Vivi was so happy.  Meno male.

Buffalo milk yogurt. Smoothest I've ever had.  If we can make this it would be a miracle....someday