Around 2 pm we had a proper English full roast dinner. There were 7 vegetables, pork shoulder and Yorkshire pudding. It was devine and everyone seemed happy with their dinner. After lunch we sat out on the patio and chatted for a while. In the late afternoon Stuart took Audrey home while I got the kids showered and settled for the evening. Once the kids were in bed, the adults played cards.
Monday morning we got up and called Karen’s dentist to see if we could get an appointment for Millie’s tooth issue. We were able to get in at 11 am and as we suspected we were told she would need it extracted, but for now they gave her antibiotics. The dentist said it could wait until we returned to the UAE.
After her appointment we headed to Hastings to get Millie’s ears pierced for her birthday. About eight of her little girlfriends had their ears pierced throughout this year, and although we had always said she needed to wait until she was 10 to get them pierced, we decided there was nothing magical about being 10. She is actually more responsible about it than I am. She reminds me to clean them three times a day.
The new earrings.
We had a bite of lunch after the ear piercing, and then met Grandma and Jack to see Lion King. What a spectacular film that was. We then met Grandpa for dinner at the Windmill. We returned to the house to remake the beds. We packed up our stuff and headed to London to stay in a hotel for our early flight Tuesday morning. We arrived at the hotel just before 9 pm. We all showered, watched a bit of Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives and then went to sleep.
The alarm went off at 3:30 am, way too early for all of us. We got to the airport before it was open. At 4:30 am they opened the doors but we were told check-in would not start until 5 am and we were told not to get in line. Well, that didn’t set well with Stuart at all. He went to the counter and asked ‘where is priority check-in?’ and the British Airways representative said ‘you can’t line up until 5 am’. To which he responded, ‘that wasn’t my question’. So she pointed to the line. We then, of course, got in the line and she continued to tell us that ‘everyone else is getting in line now because you all are in line’. I said ‘this all makes no sense, we aren’t moving’. Thirteen minutes later we were checked in, then had to wait for 12 minutes until security opened at 5:15 am. Lesson? Don’t book to fly out of a totally shite airport!
Popcorn and sushi, it’s what’s for breakfast.
The flight was relatively uneventful. The kids slept for most of it, thank goodness. Jack was baffled by the fact there were no television screens in front of him. He questioned what he would do for the flight and then fell asleep.
Once we landed and had our bags, which seemed to take forever, we waited for my brother and the rest of the family for about an hour.
Millie insisted on bringing Morgan and Grammie a unicorn head band. They wore it with pride.
When they arrived, we sent them off on the bus and Grammie and Pop came on the train with us to our apartment for the afternoon. The kids looked through the new backpacks Grammie and Pop had brought them. They found all kinds of toys and clothes. Then the card games commenced and laughter was endless.
We went shopping for food at the coop just up the road.
When the team finally arrived at the hotel, we went to dinner with the whole family and then came back to our apartment.
Dinner was delightful. I do love eating outdoors in Italy.
After the family left, Millie had a meltdown because her bedtime has to be precise or she becomes a bit out of control. She would not go to bed and kept pestering Jack. Ugh! Stuart and I played rummy when both kids finally settled down.
We were up on Wednesday and to the hotel so Jack could go to basketball practice with Uncle Russ and the team. We sat and had coffee with Grammie.
We then walked down to the Spanish Steps and did some shopping for a belt for my niece Emily who was unable to make the trip.
The steps we chose not to walk up. Been there, done that.
We decided to walk home after a bit of shopping. On the way back to the apartment Millie decided to spend her money from Grandma and Grandpa on a small bag to carry around. Her backpack proved to be a bit heavy, as she was warned that morning but wouldn’t believe me. She loves to learn lessons the hard way.
I know none of these people in this photo, but there seemed to be filming of some sorts on a side street close to the Spanish Steps.
Me and my first baby! Love Morgan so much.
After we returned to the apartment we decided to go and get some food from the supermarket and have a leisurely lunch at our apartment. It was way better than being in the heat and way cheaper as Grammie paid for it. After lunch, we were allowed to get on the team bus and go to the Forum and Collesium with the team, but because of booked timings, we were only able to go into the Forum. That was fine, as we hadn’t gone to the Collesium when we came to Italy two years ago.
Millie is having difficulty looking at the camera, mainly because she’s stubborn.
Look at the camera, Millie!
Russ, Mitch and Morgan
Although we didn’t get to go into the coliseum this time, we had to still take a picture outside of it.
After the Forum we decided to try to get some gelato. I had a shoe blowout and decided I couldn’t walk too far without issues. So we altered our plan and took the metro back toward our apartment. We then decided to treat the kids to gelato just behind our apartment.
They’ve been good shoes. I’m pretty sure I’ve had these for over 4 years.
Gelato on the Rome streets.
We then came back to the apartment for a rest and to wait for the family and the team to get back from the Colliseum. Morgan messaged me around 6:20 to tell me they were on their way back to the hotel. We decided we would let them all shower and we would meet them in the lobby of the hotel. Jack and Millie showered and put on some other new clothes that Grammie and Pop had brought them.
We went to the hotel and walked with the team to a pizza place not too far away from the hotel. It was good food and we met parents of one of the players. Their names were Rick and Chris. They are actually from Phoenix. We had good conversation. They were very nice and energetic people.
We decided to get some gelato before heading back to our apartment for an after dinner drink of Coke Zero. Once the family had left and gone back to their hotel, we attempted to put the kids to bed. Fortunately they had showers before we went to dinner so they just needed to get jammies on and get into bed. That proved to be much easier said than done. Millie had another full out meltdown. We are thinking there is too much stimuli, too much sugar, and too late evenings. We will need to deal with it for the rest of our time in Italy. She can get back to her schedule a little more after we get back to England.
After Millie finally settled down, Stuart and I played gin rummy and then went to bed. I had somehow contracted a deep chest cough, which made it not easy to get to sleep.
We were up around 8:30 on Thursday morning. We were able to have a leisurely morning because the team had a booked tour of the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. We had done that two years ago and were pretty sure we wouldn’t get tickets the day of, so decided we would meet them around lunch time at the hotel.
Since I had a shoe malfunction, we decided to go out around 10:30 to look for some new shoes. I didn’t have any luck, but we got the kids out so that was good. We bought some more food for lunch for when the family returned from their tour of the Vatican. We went to Carrefore, which is where we shop in the UAE.
We had lunch and then the fam went back to their hotel to rest for a bit before the game that evening.
This was lunch.
We went and had our afternoon gelato and then headed to the bus for the ride to the game. They played at 6 pm and just killed the Italian international team. Afterwards they were served pizza by the pool at the basketball club where they played. When everyone had eaten we headed back to the hotel and then for....you guessed it, gelato. Morgan wasn’t feeling well so she went back to their room. We came back to our apartment for one last night cap of Coke Zero. It was just after 10 when everyone left. The kids had showered when everyone was there, so we sat them in front of Netflix hoping they would fall asleep. At 11 pm I turned the television off. Millie fussed a bit, but then I made Jack move into his bed and I laid down with Millie for a few minutes and she fell asleep. Stuart and I played rummy but he was killing me so I decided it was time to go to bed.
We set our alarms for 7 am in order to get to the rental car place by 9 am. I repacked my bad and each of the kids’ bags. We cleared out the refrigerator and double checked we had everything before leaving the apartment keys on the counter and exiting the building. We had about a 5 minute walk to the train station where the rental cars were.
Waiting for the rental car with all our junk.
We walked to a garage about 2 minutes away and got our car. Our drive to Siena was uneventful, as most drives are. We took a comfort stop about an hour into the journey. I then messaged the family on the coach to see where they were.
We tried to meet up with them for their wine and food tasting. However, I led Stuart on a walking path through Siena, but in our rental car. Oops! Seems that’s frowned upon. If you know my husband, well, then I don’t need to tell you what the tone was in the car. By the time we found the same car park where the bus had dropped them off, we were about 8 minutes behind them. So we decided to have lunch and then meet up with them for their walking tour.
We had our own tasting I suppose.
Wild boar past, is there anything this kid won’t eat?
And will child eat anything but a margherita pizza while in Italy?
The streets in Siena are quaint.
The whole family.
A church outside of the main districts of Siena.
One of the many cathedrals we saw.
Here we are in Piazza del Campo, the place where chariot races used to occur. Now they have the Pialo HorseRaces two days a year.
No day is complete without gelato.
And the ‘rents were rehydrating with Powerade.
We left Siena around 4:30 pm and headed to Florence. The kids were off their but in the car. They had some M&Ms and when I turned around they had licked the clue ones and put ‘war paint’ all over their faces. In hind sight I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but I was too irritated by their extreme immaturity that I couldn’t think about a picture. Because we didn’t bring their iPads on this trip they have had to entertain themselves, so in a sense their behavior is our fault. Ha!
Once we arrived in Florence and checked into the hotel, we sorted out things out and waited for the bus to arrive. When they had checked in we all gathered in the lobby and headed to find a place for dinner. My dad had developed a blister on his toe, so walking was quite painful for in. He was a trouper and kept up with the crew without one complaint.
This was prior to dinner being served. This was quite possibly the best meal I’ve had in Italy, at this stage.
And no evening is complete without a game of Old Maid.
We set our alarm to get up at 7:15 am in order to meet Grammie and Pop for breakfast. We ate at 8 am and then went to our room for a couple of hands of Old Maid. We had decided not to go to the Academia to see the David since we had done that two years. The team also had a walking tour of Florence which we missed as well. However, we met Russ, Julie and Morgan down by the Basilica of Santa Croce.
This is in front of Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore. Such incredible work to produce such a magnificent building.
We spent a couple of hours shopping around in the markets and in different stores. I ended up buying some things for my next Favorites party at my friend DeDe’s house to happen in September when we return to school. I almost bought a linen top, but decided I didn’t have the energy to iron it. Lazy am I!
We met the team for lunch at noon at the Hard Rock Cafe. It’s a must as it is about this time in the trip that the players start to miss being home and may get a bit down. So at least this chain reminds them a bit of home. After lunch, Russ, Julie, Morgan and Pop went back to the hotel.
Grammie and my crew stayed to walk around the city and shop a bit more.
Just before returning to the hotel, we put the kids on the merry go round. It was thundering but not raining, so it made sense to put them on a metal and electrical apparatus. The rain caught up with us and by the time we did start to walk home we got a bit damp. We stopped at the Carrefore to get some food for the game. The game didn’t start until 8 pm so we were pretty sure the meal would be after that and my two kids wouldn’t be able to wait until then.
We came back to the room for about an hour and a half. The kids took a bath and then actually washed themselves with a shower. They then sat down to watch some Netflix on Jack’s phone. They seemed happy enough to do that. Stuart and I turned back to rummy.
Don’t tell my kids I posted this.
We left for the game at 6 pm. The played in a city about 45 minutes away called Montecatini. Of course when we arrived Jack and I were asleep. Once in the gym, Jack wanted to somehow be involved. He stood at the end of the court forever. Then we finally told him to go and rebound for one of the players. So he did. He was thrilled to get to do that.
The UCA Bears killed the Tuscany team. The final score was a lot to very little. It was as if they were playing a team that got together at the YMCA for a noon pick-up game.
We returned to the hotel. Fortunately my kids had already showered. And although they had played at the gym and got a bit sweaty, I didn’t care. Jack decided he needed another shower and then we threw them into bed anyway.
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