Cub Scout Rocket Day

This last saturday was Brian’s first Cub Scout Rocket Day. All the scouts paid $5 for a rocket and then built and decorated them with help from their parents, and the entire pack got together to launch them. Steve and Brian used to build and launch rockets together in Arizona, so this was not their first experience, and their rocket shot straight up every time and came down intact. The same cannot be said for many of the other rockets, which were coming off the launch pad going all sorts of directions, including right into the crowd, burning the leg of one of our den’s moms. After the first accident, the kids were moved behind a fence, unless they were launching their rocket. Brian was able to launch his 3 times and on the final (and largest engine) launch, it came down and landed in a very tall nearby tree. Steve and Brian were bummed they didn’t get it back but overall, they had lots of fun and are looking forward to the Pinewood Derby in January! 

2013 Jet Pictures

It’s that time of year again, time for our annual Jet Pictures! This time, our talented photographer was Kirby “Fuel” Sanford and he did a great job over 3 days, sometimes in the pouring rain, taking all the squadron families’ pictures. And we also did a wives photo shoot this year! One of these years, we are going to get both kids in the intake for a photo. This year, Emily came at Steve like a spider monkey when he tried to put her in it. The intake is like the Santa Claus of the jet, you just never know if they will want their picture with it until it’s go time!

The Amalfi Coast {Day 3}

On Day 3, we drove into the town of Amalfi, parked the car and explored a little bit. Then we decided to take the public bus along the Amalfi Coast drive (instead of braving it ourselves). We hopped onboard and headed in the direction of Positano. We were absolutely amazed at the curvy, narrow road and the bus driver’s ability to maneuver a full-size city bus through tight streets and hairpin turns against impatient opposing traffic, all on the face of a sheer cliff. The ride itself was the adventure of the day. When we finally made it to Positano, we took another bus town into the cliff side town and found a cute café for a light lunch. Then we hiked back up to the main road, stopping to take some pictures behind us of the amazing town. We boarded the bus back to Amalfi just as a rainstorm started dumping down on us. The rain was moving towards Amalfi so when we arrived, we stopped in a café for ice cream, did a little Lemoncello shopping and then headed back to our rental house. That night for dinner we drove one town up the cliff and found an unassuming little pizzeria with the best mushroom ravioli I’ve ever had! It was a family-owned little place and the desserts were homemade and insanely good. You just never know when you will surprised by some delicious Italian food! Luckily it happens to us quite often!

The Amalfi Coast {Day 2}

Since Day Two of our trip was supposed to be the last day without rain, we decided it would be our Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii day. We got an early start, hoping to beat the clouds to the summit. But Emily had a car sickness related eruption of her own on our way to the volcano. We did what we could roadside to stop the flow and clean what could be cleaned with a roll of paper towels and some wipes from my purse. Then we found an open (but luckily empty) restaurant where Steve was able to manage a better car cleaning and I was able to wash Emily’s clothes in the restroom sink while she sat in just her rain coat. Luckily, the day was warm and sunny at that point, so Emily wasn’t cold and her clothes dried a little in the sun. We finally made it up the mountain, with no more sickness, and then hiked about 20 minutes up to the crater summit. We didn’t beat the clouds though and we couldn’t even see five feet into the crater. But we were there, so it counts! Brian is obsessed with volcanoes, the reason for this whole trip really, so he was beside himself with joy at actually hiking up to the summit of the infamous Mount Vesuvius! Emily was excited but her excitement was tempered by her nonstop fear that the volcano would erupt with us on it. Steve and I had never summited Mount Vesuvius before so we were happy to bring the kids to hike it, but our happiness was tempered by the vomit soaking into the car seat of our car. 

After we came down from the volcano, we headed south to the ruins of Pompeii, which was buried in ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. The town was buried by hot ash and rocks, after the volcano exploded 12-20 miles into the sky. Because it was buried, the town was extremely well-preserved and great example of a town in Roman times. Steve and I visited Pompeii on our Italy trip in 2004 and spent all afternoon there then. We spent 3 hours at Pompeii with the kids on this trip and while seeing a 2,000 year old Roman town is incredibly interesting to us, it kind of went over the kids’ heads. And while they enjoyed climbing around on the ruins, I don’t think they can wrap their brain around how old the town is and how amazing it is to be able to see a Roman town so well preserved. Maybe we can come back when they are older and have read all about it in history class!

The Amalfi Coast {Day 1}

This last weekend was a 3-day holiday weekend for Steve for Veteran’s Day and Brian had 5 days off school, so we decided to waste the days away on the Amalfi Coast. We rented a beautiful apartment in the cliff side village of Furore, situated between Amalfi and Positano. We spent thursday morning packing, loading the car, and then attending Brian’s first parent-teacher conference of 1st grade (rave reviews by the way: he’s smart, nice, and cute). We were finally able to hit the road about noon and it took every second of the daylight hours and into the night to arrive at our weekend getaway at about 830 pm. We grabbed a late dinner at a nice restaurant right next to our rental and then threw ourselves into bed at 11pm. The first full day, the kids were up with the sun, so we all got up and going, and headed into Sorrento, where we immediately caught a ferry to Capri to see the famous blue grotto! Except, it wasn’t meant to be, the Blue Grotto was closed for high tide, which we would have know had we chosen to pre-plan this trip. Opps, lately I’ve been more into a go-with-flow approach to trip planning and this was one time it came back to bite us. But the day was gorgeous and sunny and warm compared to our chilly Northern Italy weather, so we hopped aboard a bus and walking tour of the island. We stopped at many viewpoints for pictures, explored the two towns, Capri and Ana Capri, toured the August Gardens and saw the Fire Cliffs of Capri. Next time, however, we check tide schedules! (Pictures above: our rental in Furore. Below: Sorrento from the ferry and the road in Sorrento down to the marina. The rest of the pictures are on Capri)

Mount Vesuvius from Capri. We would be summiting this the next day at noon!

Halloween-ish

So Halloween-ish came and went again. I call it Halloween-ish because we don’t actually do anything on October 31st. No trick-or-treating from house to house. The schools (both off and on base) don’t allow dressing up. But, the weekend after real Halloween, the base does put on a pretty cool Halloween-themed block party with all sorts of fun for the kids and lots of trunk-or-treating, so they did get to dress up and get way too much candy. Brian is clearly Obi Wan Kanobi (I had to google how to spell that). He’s clearly not Luke Skywalker (“Mom, Luke’s not cool!”) or that other guy, Hans Solo (“Mom! Hans Solo is not even a Jedi, gesh!”). And Emily was happy to just pull some Princess dress from her dress-up collection on the day of and call herself Princess Leia, although I think that’s Sleeping Beauty’s dress. Needless to say, Star Wars is super cool in our house right now!

The Aviano Blue Sharks

Brian’s Soccer season just finished up last month. His team was the Aviano Blue Sharks and he loved playing. He learned a lot about soccer strategy this season, but just never really got up the nerve to break into the group of kicking children to chase down the ball. He says he enjoyed it and wants to play again next year and we think as he learns more about the game, and gains confidence playing, he’ll love it since he loves the running part. We had fun watching him all season and the highlight was the last game, which was Blue Sharks vs. Parents. Let’s just say I found out that Steve doesn’t believe in going easy on children and scored on the kids several times to, as he says, “teach them to guard the goal.” Oh man, it was funny to watch.

Cub Scout Campout

Brian is officially a Bobcat Patch wearing Tiger Den Cub Scout! And Mommy and Daddy are officially the busiest they have ever been. Between sports and two different schools and Cub Scouts and traveling, it seems like we always have something going on. Brian has 3-4 den activities per month and then at least one pack activity, Cub Scouts alone is keeping us busy. Last month, Steve and Brian had their first Cub Scout campout, about 20 minutes from our house. Emily and I went home to sleep in real beds after the camp fire ended. Brian and his Den earned their Bobcat Patches (it goes on upside down as you can see below). They also performed a cute skit and we all got to watch the Boy Scouts perform a Flag Retirement Ceremony, which I’d never seen before and it was very interesting. We will have another pack campout in the spring and also a possible camping trip in Normandy, France in April. So far Brian is having lots of fun with Scouts.

Prosecco Road

So, another opportunity popped up for a wine tasting bus trip, this time to the Prosecco Road. This area is just west of where we live, Prosecco being the common wine of our region. Prosecco is basically Italy’s answer to Champagne. And since I love a bubbly wine, it’s a favorite of mine. Before this trip, I assumed all Prosecco was the same and I found out I was wrong. There is brut and dry and extra dry and on and on. But I still don’t know the difference. Let’s just say its all good. We were lucky to have a beautiful fall day for our trip and made 3 stops at different wineries along the road and then ended the trip with dinner at an all-you-can-eat Pizzeria.

Brian Habla Español y Baila!

Brian has been taking Spanish at school, starting last year in Kindergarten, and the first and second grade classes get to perform a dance to Spanish music twice a year. He’s been both excited for and nervous about this dancing since he was an audience member last year. The dance performance was amazing. The costumes were great and all the kids were super prepared. Brian did really well and was concentrating on the steps so hard. He has decided after this that he does not like performing for the public! He is catching on to Spanish so fast and now he also attends a “Host Nation” class where he learns Italian. He teaches me something new in both languages daily!