I just came across this draft of a post I had planned to make in 2013. I don't know if I forgot to post it or if I made a new draft.....but here's a throwback to 2013........
"After the Morgans flew home, we were surprised how much we missed them. The apartment felt empty, and the boys still had a week out of Kindergarten, and we missed them. We were glad to know that Janice and the Vocanas were coming to visit. It made us less homesick.
Between the Morgan and Stapleton visits, I worked on taking care of doctors/dental visits, church calling assignments, and getting the house in order. I prepped more for our upcoming touring with the family.
Scott had a lot of work to do, and was sent at the last minute to the US for an 8 day long trip. This set him back in his other duties at work that he still had to somehow keep up on, plus made him miss church for the first time....for two weeks in a row. His church calling as the branch president is very time consuming, and it was a lot for him to juggle. With a baby coming in November, there was not really any other time for him to offer to do his business trip. You can send him sympathies his way, if you want. :) The saving grace at least, was that this time around, he was only in one location for the duration, and not 4 different states and 10 flights. Although traveling across the world is always exhausting, it was MUCH better than the last trip, and he was grateful for that.
Janice arrived mid-September and she and Scott flew Ryanair (woot woot for the 25 Euro plane ticket!) to Dublin Ireland. They spend 3 days hiking and enjoyed it immensely....besides the first day of driving. Apparently, driving in Ireland is considered one of the most dangerous things to do. You know that VISA car coverage? Covers you anywhere in the world except Ireland and a list of 4 other places. It's pretty bad!
I still had a 4 week buffer on being flight restricted for my pregnancy, so I had to take advantage of my last chance to fly sans baby/nursing. So, the following week, Janice and I flew on a 14.99 EU Ryanair flight to Pisa Italy. We spent the first day in Pisa, and then made our way to the Cinque Terra for some sightseeing and hiking that evening and the next day. On the 3rd day, we toured Florence and spent the evening there.
Everything went really well. We did the whole trip on foot, bike and train. Without a car, our packs, which were only carrying the very basics were still quite heavy, so we were always relieved to arrive at the hotel and get rid of them and walk around without them.
People were a bit surprised to see a 7-months-pregnant lady backpacking (and hiking) around in the heat. We scored some sympathy points that way, and people were generally pretty kind to us. The best favor of all was that on the last day, I was completely exhausted. We wanted to see inside the Duomo in Florence, but there is no way I could have waited in a line for an hour to get inside. When I asked a security guard, he told me to go directly in the handicapped entrance and we walked straight in with no line. We were delighted!
Although it was hard to etch out the time (thanks Scotty for taking the kids to school/church by yourself!!) I'm glad we got to take advantage of a quick trip somewhere I always wanted to visit. Plus, the best part was that the whole trip cost us each only 185 EU for plane(35 EU)/hotels (120 EU)/trains (30 EU). You can't beat that right?!"
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