Trip of a Lifetime: Three Weeks in Europe with a Baby

We literally have thousands of pictures from our trip so it would be pretty impossible to post them all in here.  I need to make book or something to document all of the picture worthy moments.  So I won't post too many pictures and instead, I will just try to recap and give more in depth details here...for my memory's sake.

Traveling through Europe is something that I've dreamed of for as long as I can remember.  I was fortunate enough to participate in study abroad and was able live and travel through Spain for 4 months, but I didn't get to do much more travel outside of Spain.  I've been dying to return to this magical continent for years.  So after our crazy MBA years (in which Brody traveled all of the time) we had acquired enough frequent flier miles to fly to Europe for free and we had time off before Brody started working, we decided there was no better time than the present.  When would we ever have 3 weeks of straight vacation again?  And because we are either crazy or overprotective, we decided that we had to take Madeleine with us.  She was a free lap child, so she didn't add much cost to bring her along.  

Here is the run down of our travels. 

--Red eye flight to London--spent a few hours in London and really didn't see much, but we were just proud of ourselves for making it into the city.  I was so exhausted because I didn't sleep a wink on the plane, so London wasn't too enjoyable for me.  

--Flight to Milan, Italy and drove down to Bologna.  We didn't see much of this city because we were recovering from jet lag for most of our time there.  We did enjoy some delicious pizza and some fun/difficult experiences trying to communicate with non English speakers. 

--On to Tuscany!  We LOVED Tuscany.  Definitely a highlight of our trip and probably our favorite. We stayed in this awesome house in a cute village, nestled in Tuscan country side.  It was incredibly picturesque. Madeleine tasted her first gelato there and fell in love.  She begged for gelato at every stop after this.  

We made it to Florence the next day (after M puked everywhere in the car due to the windy roads).  I, of course, did not have any extra clothes for her so we had to stop at a boutique (the only children's store we could find) and buy some over priced baby yoga pants.  At least they are cute and at least we got to see the Cathedral in Florence.  It was pretty beautiful but full of millions of tourists.  

--After Tuscany, we were off to take our cruise.  We had a bit of drama getting on our boat because we got lost looking for the port and well its a long story, but the whole process took way longer than we expected.  We were literally the last people on the boat and we almost had to leave Brody behind.  The port authorities were yelling at me, telling me that we had to go, and then Brody appeared at the last moment possible.  It was just a little stressful...lol 

--Cruise stops:  Santorini Greece, Ephesus Turkey, Istanbul Turkey, Cephalonia Greece, Split Croatia, and finally Venice.

--Our favorite cruise port was Istanbul.  This city has the most beautiful architecture, delicious food and candy.  Santorini is breathtaking as well.  The stark contrast of whitewashed buildings at top the cliffs next to the blue of the ocean is pretty amazing.  A sight that I won't ever forget.  Venice was also amazing.  Such a cool city.  The buildings and waterways are pretty spectacular and the gelato here was to die for!

--After the cruise we hit up Lake Como in Northern Italy and stayed in another old, cute house.  We were steps from the water.  The views here are spectacular as well.  We definitely saw some amazing scenery on this trip. 

--Switzerland was our next stop.  This country had amazing chocolate, bratzwurst, bread and their roads/infastructure was pretty admirable.  The country side there was so quaint. I felt like I was on the set of the Sound of Music.  

Finally, our trip ended in Milan, Italy.  The Duomo there was actually one of my favorites of the whole trip.  We ate and shopped in the gorgeous and iconic mall.  We even ate gelato at a gelataria that has been open since the 1800s.  

Then we boarded our plane and we were home.  It was definitely a trip of a lifetime.  I am having a hard time recapping it all and putting all the experiences into words.  Madeleine did very well and is now a seasoned traveler.  I am so grateful that we were able to experience all of this as a family.  Now we have to get back to real life! 

Final Week in Ann Arbor

This is a bit out of order because I am a little intimidated of blogging about Europe...so I'll just skip that for now and move on to our move.

So we returned from Europe on a Saturday afternoon and exactly one week later we all left for Utah.  (we are in Utah until the end of July, when we will head out to California) It took a few days to completely recover from jet lag, and we still had sooo much to do.  Packing takes FOREVER, especially with a toddler who likes to throw things like your keys into boxes.  We literally spent 3 hours one day looking for our car keys that ended up in a box along with picture frames and knickknacks.  Along with all the packing, we also wanted to be able to say our goodbyes to all of our good friends that we made in Ann Arbor. 

It sucks that I had to leave after I finally felt that I had a great group of girls to hang out with.  Thankfully I didn't have to say goodbye to everyone because I get to see some of them in Utah this summer.  I will always be grateful to these girls for making my transition to motherhood easier and helping me survive the horrible Michigan winters and bonded with me while all of our husbands were gone! Ann Arbor is where I became a mom...so it will always hold a special place in my heart.  I will miss it...but not too much when I am sitting in sunny California :) 

Goodbye BBQ

GNO with some of my favorites

But back to the move.  My parents graciously came to help out.  I probably would have died without their help.  My mom watched Madeleine and cleaned my entire apartment! They even took me to the airport at the crack of dawn on Saturday (so Brody could sleep in before he left on his drive across the country).  They are the best!  We packed up our stuff in PODlike boxes and they are already shipped and sitting in storage in California!  

Madeleine loved the bubble wrap

And I'll finish the post with this picture of Madeleine eating a pickle at Brody's favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor, Zingerman's Deli.  He will definitely miss this place.  

Brody Graduates!

Finally the day came.  It was two crazy years of stress, worry, lots of homework, tests, group meetings and a some fun!  I am pretty proud of Brody for putting in all the hours and hard work!  It has payed off and we are already starting to reap the rewards!  

We had a sitter for graduation so I was able to sit and enjoy the experience without chasing a baby.  It was a cold night (of course) but I was determined to wear the dress I purchased specifically for graduation.  Too bad I froze.  We didn't do too much afterwards because we needed to go pick up Madeleine.  Instead of going out, we ran to the grocery store and picked up some Ben and Jerry's to share to celebrate.  (don't worry we had a party with friends a couple days before and we definitely visited a bunch of Ann Arbor's finest restaurants before and after graduation).

And as soon as graduation was over, we were off to Europe!