Out with the old, in with the new!

Our landlady’s son, Claudio, brought us this broom recently and told us it is traditional to sweep the entrance to your home on New Year’s Eve to sweep away the last year and welcome the new. There are a few parts of 2013 I’d like to sweep away forever: the death of a fellow Nickel Pilot, “Gaza” Gruenther, and the passing of both of my paternal Grandparents, Bunny and Lefty.

 

We had plenty of fun times as a family in 2013 including tons of skiing, a visit from Steve’s parents, and lots of traveling to include Israel (Steve), California (once just me for my grandpa’s funeral, and the kids and I for most of July), Germany (Spangdahlem, twice to Garmisch, Steve and I to Munich for Bier Rafting, and Steve to Munich for Oktoberfest), Switzerland (skiing in Zermatt), Austria (Salzburg twice, Stubai Galcier for skiing, and Kirchberg in Tirol area for a weeklong ski trip), and of course lots of exploring in Italy: Venice, Pisa, Castelrotto/Dolomites area, Verona twice (once for the Opera and once for wine tasting), nearly a week on the Amalfi Coast, and a week on the island of Sardinia.

Brian will turn 7 in exactly one month. He is doing great in First Grade. He enjoys reading and math and of course recess and PE since he loves to run and play. He’s in his second year of Spanish at school and his first year of Italian and really enjoys learning new languages. At home, his dream day would include building Lego creations and drawing/coloring all day long. He is staying busy with Cub Scouts and played Baseball and Soccer this year. He enjoys skiing as long as the blues are easy (he’s like his mom that way!). He’s laid back and easy going most of the time and really only gets in trouble for pushing his sister’s buttons!

Emily turned 3 in April, with a very no-frills birthday in Zermatt, Switzerland. I didn’t even have room to bring her presents on the trip with us and she never asked for any, she was only concerned that she get cake! This coming year, she will spend her 4th birthday on a cruise to Greece! She’s our little International girl, always singing songs in Italian. She is doing well in Asilo and is learning some of the language. She’s high energy and is passionate about whatever she is feeling. She doesn’t throw fits very often but she is strong willed and clever. She still gets into everything. She’s our kid that we watch to make sure she’s not painting on the walls with glitter glue or cutting her own hair or eating something she found on the ground! She loves intensely though and everyone is her friend (until you get on her bad side, then you are black listed!)

Steve is staying busy with the squadron. He’s a Lt.Col. select and an Assistant Director of Operations. When he’s not working or with the family, and if it’s winter, he’s on the ski slopes. He’s got Brian and I skiing this year, and is working on Emily, who is not quite ready to learn technique but we are just hoping to get her used to the idea, so one day in the future, we will be tearing up the powder as a family. I have future visions of my family fighting over who has to stay behind with slow, old Mom! I’m staying busy with stuff at home, mostly cooking and cleaning and all that jazz. Now that I have most weekday mornings free with both kids in school, I’ve been hitting the gym on base hard and have fallen in love with Spin class.

 

In with the new! We are excited for many things in the upcoming year, which will probably be our last full year in Italy. We are planning out some trips already, including a week long ski trip to Cervinia (the Italian side of the Matterhorn), and a cruise to Greece for Spring Break. Steve will be going TDY to Portugal soon and will pin on Lt.Col. sometime in early summer. We are also hoping for some more visitors! Happy New Years to all of you!

Turkey and Skiing

We spent actual Thanksgiving with our friends, the R Family, enjoying fried Turkey and all the fixings. Then we loaded up the next morning and drove 5 hours to the Stubai Glacier in Austria and spend the rest of the weekend in the beautiful, Austrian winter wonderland. The resort was great, with lessons for Brian, a play place for Emily to hang out in so Steve and I could ski together. It was our first skiing this season, and my first time on actual skis (last year I was on ski blades), so it was a rough day for me. I felt okay in the morning on a few easy blues, and then in the afternoon when Brian was done with his lesson, we got a little too aggressive trying some unknown blues that ended up being too steep and narrow for two beginners. But the scenery was amazing and it was snowing all morning, so the powder was fresh and everyone had fun. Steve skied on day two and then we returned home. It was a short trip but I think we found a great place we’d like to return to for a longer trip someday.

Thanks to the R Family’s oldest daughter, we got a night out with adults, our friends Khan and Tisha, and Darla and Casey.

Castagnata a Scuola

Chestnuts at school! Emily’s Asilo (Italian preschool) held a small performance and chestnut festival back in November. The older class of students performed a song and dance, followed by a dance to a fast-paced classical song from the little ones (Emily’s group), where they flapped their arms like little birds, after much encouraging and demonstration from the teachers. Then the whole group sang a cute song about chestnuts together, which Emily will still sing for us when asked. Then we all ate some roasted chestnuts and enjoyed some dessert treats. As far as the Chestnuts themselves, they are huge here in the fall, with many towns in the mountains holding Chestnut festivals to celebrate the nut. Emily will eat anything, so she enjoys a Chestnut here and there, although every time she asked for another, she called it a “Macadamia nut!” Brian does not enjoy any sort of nut, unless it is well-hidden in chocolate, so Chestnuts are a no-go item for him. I struggle somewhere between “I must eat this to set a good example for my children in trying new things” and “I would eat more of these if they were hidden in chocolate!”

 

Emily is doing great in Asilo. Most mornings she goes in willingly and she is always happy and talkative about her day when I pick her up. She has 3 American friends that she sticks to quite a bit, but the Italian kids always offer her a "Ciao, Emily!" She is learning a little Italian and has the accent down. We joke that her language skills consist of about 90% English, 2% Italian, and 8% gibberish with an Italian accent! I asked her a question in English tonight and she answered me with "Si." She knows most of her colors in Italian (English too of course) and can count to ten in Italian. We are loving that she gets to experience the culture through school while we are here! 

Emily and her amica helping to turn the chestnut roaster thingy.

Above: In any playground, Brian can always be found at the very top. Below: sometime that same week, the mountains behind us got their first snow.

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!