Friday, September 11, 2020

Summer adventures

Wow!! It was an interesting summer for sure! All 5 of us were under one roof, Bailey and Camden took online classes and worked all summer, Mia volunteered at a non profit dog daycare/rescue facility, Bryan worked from home, Frank left for Utah to his new home with our awesome friends (we were so sad to see him go, but our friends give him fresh carrot stems from their neighbors garden and hooked him up with a new "rabbit mansion" - so we know he is in very good hands!!), and Kiwi had hours of entertainment lounging by the pool and getting love from anyone who happened to be around - oh and she LOVED barking at the golfers whose golf balls went anywhere near the house. We spent almost every Friday Night at our neighbor "safety meeting" where we would talk about the week events (personal, political, and everything in between). Boy are we going to miss our neighbors when we are in Italy!!! It was definitely a summer to remember!

We had a quick visit in June to Orlando to drop off our car to be shipped and we were able to squeeze in wonderful last minute visits with our friends/family while there. We also went to visit our neighbors up in North Georgia and had a great time! Hiking, boating, swimming, shopping - It was a much needed and appreciated getaway after not traveling for such a long time! Oh and did I mention we had 2 hurricanes in the midst of everything - again - you really couldn't make this stuff up!! I joke that the craziness of Covid has prepared me very well in the lessons of patience that will be required for everyday living in Italy! We honestly had one of the best summers that we could have asked for - one last summer all together in the same house. No one was killed and we all still pretty much like each other - ALOT ;-) I say it was a success for sure!!

Beautiful Lake Rabun

Kiwi was a trooper with all of the change!

We loved our summer accommodation sunrises - a step up from our own house - ha ha!

Did I mention flooding from the Hurricane - yikes!


Luckily no homes were flooded, but it came very close!!

A little turtle friend on my run one morning...



Because of our move, Mia has been doing virtual school - it was so nice for her to finally see her friends!!

We loved North Georgia - so pretty (reminded me a little of Maine!)

Mia's first day of 10th grade (the Mask was just a photo op for memories)


More of Lake Rabun fun...


We LOVED having Bailey home this summer!

It was all fun and games giving corn to the deer...until the Bear came (luckily it was after we left)!!

Love our walks on the beach! We will definitely miss it!

Anything to pass the time! 


My friend invited a few of us to her beautiful home - such an amazing view!

When we moved to the Beach, I wasn't really a beach person - I definitely "get it" now and it gives us happiness to know that we will move back here after our time in Italy.

Fun times with great friends! 

We celebrated our 25th Anniversary - we thought we'd be in Venice, but a morning walk on the beach was pretty nice too! 



I adore these guys!!!


Beautiful Destin!

Camden turned 20!! I can hardly believe it! He was so excited to get his scuba diving certification for his birthday. Lots of fun adventures ahead!  

A little excitement with a snakeskin outside the door - yikes!!

This epitomized 2020 - If you look close, you can see a small wedding. I saw this right before a storm rolled in. It is such a beautiful event with a dark and horrible sky in the background. Kind of like our summer! Lots to be thankful for - even in a storm!

 

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Another little hiccup in our adventure...

Well, it has been a while since I last wrote and quite a bit has changed. After life opened up in Florida at the end of May, we were able to submit our Visa applications, schedule movers, plane tickets, hotels, rental cars, re-sign contracts for new tenants etc. We had been warned that the Visa's might take up to a month, so we gave ourselves plenty of time and scheduled our flight 2 months out (which would actually be today - July 18th). The logistics of everything has been quite a puzzle. We live in a tourist town, with Summer being the peak season (I know - who would have thought anyone would want to go to Florida in the summer -right?). Definitely not easy to plan with regard to skyrocket prices and everything. Our neighbors have become like family and offered us their house to stay at after our house got packed out and the new tenants moved in on July 1. 

Well, things took a turn for the worse last week when we were informed that the state department is about 12 weeks behind - yikes!! Oh and did I mention that once we arrive in Italy, we will have to Quarantine for 14 days (not just a fun little self quarantine, but a real quarantine, where they bring you food and you do not leave the house!) Our household goods and car are crossing the ocean as we speak, and we still have no idea when we might be looking to re-book tickets. Thank goodness our neighbors have been so amazing and accommodating and we can stay here a while longer. Oh and Bailey going to school in Canada has been a whole thing too with crossing borders and quarantining. She will opt for online this year and stay here with Camden. Never a dull moment! 



We still had some fun times this summer! Living at the beach is pretty great!


Way too much time on our hands :-)

We loved seeing part of our China family!

Great fun on the boat!

All packed up and ready to move...

My friend and I did an Italian Class all Spring/Summer (and I still can't speak a lick :-))


More Beach time!


More fun "safety meetings"

Boat fun!


Kiwi and Frank saying goodbye :-( Sadly, the airlines changed the rules since we came back from Germany and Frank is no longer able to fly to Europe. Our friends literally drove across the country to come and pick him up and bring him back to their home in Utah. 

Pool time

Mia's famous Chocolate Chip double decker cookie cake :-)



We had to stick this on the back of our car so we wouldn't get horn honks on crazy 98 when Mia was driving!

More safety meetings!

Good times with great friends

Poor Kiwi (look at that pitiful face) didn't even have her insert to her dog bed (it got shipped with the movers). We had to stick a pillow inside to fluff it up a bit!


Friday, May 15, 2020

We're moving to Italy!! - oh wait.. there has been a little hiccup in our new adventure

Back in December, Bryan got a job offer in Italy. We were all set to go... The movers were supposed to pack us up in late March. Our house was rented out for April 1st. We were supposed to fly out with a one way ticket on April 27th (even Kiwi had her ticket for the flight).  Wow! If you would have told me in January that our move to Italy would be on hold because of a worldwide Health Pandemic, I would have told you that you were crazy! And the idea that the area that we are moving to was one of the hardest and fastest hit places in the world, makes the idea even harder to comprehend.

I was going to start this blog after we arrived in Italy, but since I have so much free time on my hands and since my family enjoys looking back at these blogs with great happiness, I thought why not begin at the very beginning of this adventure - hiccups and all!

The state of our recent life looks something like this....Bailey and her best friend came here from Quebec for Spring break at the beginning of March. They were here a week and had a great time and then flew back up to Canada to finish their Spring Semester. The plan was that in April, Bailey would fly directly to Venice for the Summer. Instead, not even a week after her spring break, Bailey was back home in Florida, taking online classes through her University until the end of the school year. Camden also had his Spring break planned in March, inviting two of his friends from Germany, and one from Georgia to our Condo for the week. The day before his friends from Germany were supposed to fly out, the President announced a European travel ban and then sadly it became a quick no go for his Spring break guests. His one friend from Georgia still came and they had a fun time, but I was a nervous wreck, knowing that he and his friends were probably not social distancing quite up to my standards. ;-). Meanwhile, Mia's friend and her family were supposed to arrive for a long weekend of goodbyes before we moved... everything began to shutdown and we cancelled that plan with great sadness. Five days before our movers were to arrive, we got a standard e-mail saying all moves are on hold for 60 days - yikes! A bit of a hiccup for sure!!!

And so here we are in our house waiting in limbo, with a new temporary move out date that might be changed at any time, and a visa that has yet to come back due to the closures in Italy. We are in our own beds though (for now), in a house all together and certainly can't complain. The weather has been amazing and the tourists have all been kicked out, so it has actually been a dream. Bailey finished school up last week, Camden finishes next week, and Mia still has a few weeks to go. Bryan is working from home and we are having a lot of fun with our neighbors at our semi nightly "safety meetings" where we all sit outside 6 feet apart enjoying one another's tales of what has become our quite boring lives! We are all healthy, content, and together!




At the beginning of all of this mess... this was my friends' son in Germany working for the Red Cross at the Hospital

My friend and I doing our "Italian Class" 6 feet apart :-)

This trooper has been so great during all of the craziness!!

This was comical - a moving truck showed up even though we had already cancelled! Talk about panic - we were quite surprised! 

It was so great to have Bailey home!

Our "safety meetings" were the best!

In the midst of Covid - we had a forest fire up the road from us - and so sadly 32 homes were destroyed :-(

The calm before the tourists came back!!

Facetime, Zoom, Whatsap, and Skype saved the day! It was so awesome to be able to stay in touch!


At the very beginning of the shut down, Camden stayed at the Condo because he was the only one having to go to work each day. He would come over each afternoon to visit - one day he surprised us with Culver's custard!! :-)

One benefit of our move being delayed is that Mia got her Driver's Permit!

Love this guy!!


Mia baked all summer - her Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake was by far my favorite!

We practiced driving a lot...

Our awesome friends single handedly saved the neighborhood by providing masks (both N-95's and homemade as seen here), wipes, hand sanitizer, and practically anything else you can imagine. They even had Oxygen Concentrators on reserve in case any of the neighbors needed them!! 



The beautiful flowers still grew (I smile because the lady that owned our home before us was an amazing gardener and her flowers still pop up all year long)

The week before life changed drastically - little did we know Bailey would be back in a week and we wouldn't be moving until the end of September!