Ciao Bella!

In a few weeks the family (and Ben) will be heading to Italy (after a trip to Keith's hometown of Tuscaloosa for his 10 year reunion, then to NYC where Keith and Ben will be working and I will be touring the city with Nicole vanLigtenberg and Belle). If you've read my 43 places and 43 things lists, you know that I love Italy and Italian! I've been to a couple of the bigger/tourist cities in Italy (Rome, Florence, and Pisa), but this trip we're heading to a relaxing area on a lake outside of Milan called Lake Como (or Lago di Como). Nearly everything that I read about this city states that George Cloney has a home there (I think that it's funny that they use that as a selling point), but I've also read and heard many wonderful things about the lake and the cities surrounding it. During our 10 day stay, Jill is going to come down from Oslo to stay with us for most of the time and we're going to setup camp at a villa/apartment on the lake. We plan to spend most of the time relaxing in the cities on the lake, spend a little time in Milan, possibly go skiing in Switzerland, and do "nature" activities like hiking or snorkling (depending on the weather). Keith and Ben are both looking forward to a change of pace from their on-the-go jobs in the big cities and both claim that this trip will involve no work. I can't wait to see Jill "Fancy" Fosness again, and to see the new, skinnier Fancy!

Our flight schedule for this trip is interesting to say the least. It consists of 8 flights! Fortunately we at least get to fly out of Melbourne. The flight back is going to be the worst: We start in Milan to JFK to Atlanta to Melbourne! That is going to be a LONG day! In the past Annabelle has been an angel on flights, but I'm a bit worried about this trip! I can't calm her with a boob like I used to be able to, and now that she can crawl, I'm sure she'll want to get down and play! Hopefully we'll get the bulkhead seats on the Milan trips at least! I'm also worried about all of the stuff that I'm going to need to take. Since we aren't going to a big city (in Europe), I'm a little worried about not taking enough diapers and baby food! I have a feeling that we'll each be taking our 2 checked bags worth, and 2 of our 4 bags will be filled with stuff for Annabelle! Fortunately the weather should not be drastically different in any of our 3 destinations so we're good on the clothes (except that we'll probably need to find a place to wash them). If anyone has any ideas about how I can feed Annabelle for 18 days without bringing 72 (18 days x 4 meals/day) baby food containers, PLEASE let me know! I'm thinking about feeding her mostly cereal and just using the baby food to give it a little taste, but I don't know.

We'll I'm excited to get another stamp in Annabelle's passport and to stroll her along the streets of NYC. I'm sure she'll love seeing her Grandparents again too, and maybe even going to her first UA game. :)