Last Steps:

I'm not sure everyone knows, but this has been our last year in Slavutich and it has been one of bittersweet steps.  The understanding that this is our last year has brought a different perspective….it has even impacted the girls, who know that every passing day can never be relived here in Slavutich (our home).  As Nichole had put it, “we’ll never have another April 20^th (living in Ukraine) and we’ve all been a little somber with the idea of these “last steps” walking through town.  Although, we are looking forward to reuniting with our friends and family in the USA and having a more “convenient” life style; it makes the time we have in Ukraine with the friends here (who have become like family) all the more precious.  This has been an amazing period in our life that we will treasure forever; it’s hard to believe that it’s nearing the end.  Our planned return is the first of August!

Kuchanovka and Marina’s Country House:

We had a holiday for May Day and we took advantage by doing some local sightseeing.  Marina and Gena took us to the city of Nyezhen and Kuchanovka: Nyezhen is where Marina went to University to become an English teacher and the village of Kuchanovka has an old “palace” originally built in the late 16^th century by two brothers.  It was a long day of traveling, but it was a very interesting to see another part of Ukraine.  Really it wasn’t much different then what we see locally in Slavutich and Chernigov, but it was a fun adventure.

This is hand written text

It was a one day trip and we spent the next two nights out at Marina’s dacha – where she continued to spoil us cooking us meals and not letting us do much “work”.  We spent our time basking in the sun reading books and watching the children play in the mud and have their toes nibbled on by Gena’s little fish in the pond.  The girls also, did some fishing, Ry caught her very first fish “all by herself” she cast the line, watched the bobber, pulled on the pole and then brought the fish to shore, Gena then unhooked the fish and Ry took it over to the bucket, for safe keeping….she wasn’t too thrilled when Gena released all the fish, I think she was hoping to clean and cook one.  The girls also collected frogs…we should have told them to kiss one and see if it turned into a prince =)

8 is GREAT!

Rylie informed us how wonderful February is; it’s Deacon’s birthday, Ethan’s birthday, Aunt Becky’s birthday, Valentine’s Day, and her birthday!  Yep, a great month.  We especially love that it’s Rylie’s birthday!  On her actual birthday (landed on a Thursday), she opted for the day off of school, so we played games, watched movies, and spoiled her with her choice of breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with ice cream sundaes for dessert (cake is on Sunday with friends).  It was a very nice day.   

 

We celebrated Rylie’s 8^th birthday with friends from town and ballet class at Columbino’s.  She had a pizza party with several games dedicated to a Lalaloopsy theme and opened more gifts.  The party was a hit and we thank Marina and Rita for helping the local Ukrainian kids have a good time by interpreting everything for us!  Rylie loves celebrating with people and her chocolate and strawberry 3-tierred cake was a hit!

Burnin' Love

February was filled with a lot of sweets and a lot of love!  We managed our 3^rd Valentine party with the French students and local Ukrainian kids.  This year the girls even got to use Valentine cards from the States instead of tediously making each one by hand (thanks Mom Grall and Mr. Robert)!   

The party was a big hit, and Rylie won 3 out of 4 games, but she graciously allowed the 2^nd place kids to take the first place prize.  Friends, candy and games made our Valentine’s Day fun.  Our morning had started with a balloon and small gifts for the girls with giant heart pancakes, homemade strawberry sauce, chocolate sauce and whip cream.  We ended the day with good ol’ American style burritos (refried beans, tortillas I made from scratch, and Tillamook medium cheddar from our friend Robert).  It was the cheese that made the burritos!  I decided to surprise the girls with hot chocolate and churros like we had in Spain.  It went pretty well, but my improvising on the churros started out badly, the size of dough tubes were too large and trapped to much water which eventually exploded and sent hot oil all over the kitchen and Tony and I.  Even with our fast reflexes I ended up with 2 burns on my face, one on my ear and neck.  It has been a couple of weeks and I’m glad to report the burns are completely healed and the scarring I believe will go away in time.  I even managed to save our two shirts and one pair of jeans that were completely splattered in oil.  The holiday was great except I didn’t care for experiencing the new meaning to “burnin’ love”!

The best part of V-Day was Rylie’s love notes she wrote on the board.  One of the notes said, “V-day is the time to love each other. You don't have to pick someone to love, you're supposed to love everyone!”  Well said Rylie Anne.

Going home finally! What?

Note: always keep spare clothes in your carry on…we didn’t and we spent three days in the same clothes, apparently the airlines don’t like to retrieve bags on cancelled flights and I didn’t think it was going to be three long days in the same pair of pants, shirt, socks…well you get the picture.  We were notified the night before that we had an 8:30am pickup for the airport and that our flight would be leaving about noon.   We enjoyed a delicious breakfast, packed and headed to the airport.  We went to the ticket agents and they inform us that our boarding passes and seats are still valid and that all we have to do is show up for the flight….flight gets delayed till 2:00pm then 3:00pm then finally we hear boarding call at nearly 4:00pm – we head to the gate give the gate keepers our tickets…problem!  The airlines bumped us to the 7:30pm flight!  Those that know me, what happens next will be shocking….I claim temporary insanity.  I lost it; I started yelling at the gate agents (who started being rude first..which put me over the edge) to the point security decided to come watch the event unfold.  The ticket agent couldn’t explain why or what happened but the best they could offer me is a ten-euro meal voucher for each of us….have you been in an airport that’s enough for a slice of toast!  I can’t really control my anger and frustration at that point and I storm off to keep myself from going to jail.  I needed every bit of that extra four hours to calm back down.  Finally we get on the plane, after another fifty-minute delay land in Kiev after midnight and after our normally three hour drive extended due to snow conditions turns into four and half hours we finally make it home.  Only I have to get up in a few hours to go into work; whoever said, “If you’re not exhausted from your vacation, you didn’t really have a vacation”…..I’d like to punch that dude.

We’re turning this plane around:

This is actualy painted to
make the room look bigger

Chocolate bunny anyone?!

As you can imagine although we had a nice and well, interesting time in Italy, after all the issues and starvation, we were glad to be heading back home to Slavutich and having the weekend to recover from our big adventure.  Well, we should have known better…all was going fantastic, we got to the Naples airport no issues, great flight to Munich, had a long layover but we were well planned and had snacks and treats, water and everything we needed.  Boarded, took off, smooth ride….announcement “ladies and gentlemen, there is a blizzard occurring in Kiev and the airport has been closed….we are returning to Munich”….you gotta be kidding me (this is a late flight too).  We have to circle for a while because we have too much fuel to land; once we finally land we are all herded to the service center and put on a bus to our hotel.  Nice hotel, the kids pass out exhausted, we have a great breakfast and find out our plane has been canceled for the day so we head into Munich for the afternoon.  Great city and probably turned into one of our highlights because the day went smooth for once on this trip.

A week without dinner:

Happy Birthday Ton!

Survival Food

Alright, We’re in Italy and as you can imagine there is no shortage of delicious food!  However, it’s all good as long as you leave enough time to eat; all week long, we were late getting to our hotel, getting lost, catching trains, buses etc… well after Capri and many other crazy excursions we missed dinners all week…we’ve been surviving on a good breakfast, and then pastries and gelato throughout the day.  This day (second to last day) we decided to relax on the beach and head into town around 4pm see a local castle, grab a hearty dinner and turn in for an early night with good rest.  We scheduled an 8pm shuttle back to the hotel, figuring we would grab dinner at 6ish…The castle didn’t work out (no buses).  Just rolling with the change in plans, we grabbed some gelato and some fresh bread, Italian cheeses and meats to snack on while we enjoyed a sea view sitting in the park…the weather turned fast.  It started pouring rain…we packed up our picnic and ate it on the run we decided to do a little shopping to kill time and then look for our restaurant….guess what at 6pm we get on a wild goose chase trying to find a top rated restaurant finding it only after being soaked to the bone…then to find out they don’t open until 7:30pm….I already know that’s not going to work out, so we head off to find another restaurant…same thing…the town’s restaurants don’t open until 7:30pm…I got a good idea..I’ll just call and tell the shuttle to pick us up later…won’t work, first no cell coverage then no space left on the shuttle at the later time.  Even further soaked the girls are starving and whining so Nichole and I go to the nearest open “fast food” pizza shop and let the girls pick something.  Nichole and I can’t stomach it and decide not to eat….another night without food.

The excursion we didn’t want:

 

Recuperation

This is about our trip to Capri.  The weather hadn’t been all that cooperative and to see the Blue Grotto (in Capri) the weather has to be nearly perfect so we picked the best day to attempt our visit to the Island of Capri and the Blue Grotto.  It takes about an hour to get to Sorrento from our hotel by shuttle and train and then another thirty-five minute high speed hydrofoil ferry ride to Capri.  Ellie and I are sitting together near the front of the boat in the lower deck and Rylie and Nichole are somewhere in the back of the boat (lower deck).  Within the first five minutes of departure, people are laughing and squealing because it feels like we are riding a crazy roller coaster about that same time the crew starts coming around with “barf bags” I know that’s not a good sign especially for Rylie and me.  I use all the tricks I know and tell Ellie what she needs to do to help stave off sea sickness….ten minutes into the trip, the crowd is no longer laughing and we start seeing hands raising in the air for the bags….then it starts, by fifteen minutes into the ride people are hurling into the bags, I’m hanging on by a thread and Ellie is burying her head into my side….then about twenty minutes in, Ellie asks for a bag not hardly a second passes that I got the bag open she lets loose (the mint gelato wasn’t a good idea before the trip) – at that, I have to take my attention off keeping myself together and help Ellie, now the smell the sounds and another big wave comes….there I go into my own bag.  Once we dock and people are trying to get off, there is a garbage can filled with “baggies” and most people are not too eager to move.  I think about a third of the boat couldn’t hold it and another seventy-five percent was on the verge… 



Us heading to the Blue Grotto

In Capri the intent was to take a boat around the island and see the Blue Grotto…that was quickly dismissed and instead we rested for about an hour before we took a winding bus ride to Anacapri where we could head to the Blue Grotto on foot…of course we were told the Blue Grotto was closed but we attempted to walk to it to salvage what we could (we were told it was a mile and half) well after walking for forty-five minutes we gave up (and running out of time) took a bus back to the city center…the only thing we could do at that point is take a chair lift to the top of the Island for some breath taking views and fresh air before we had to head back to get on the what Rylie called the “barf boat”.  We were not too excited about the return trip!  All went well, we got the top deck open air of a slower boat and the winds calmed down so no issues (except it was freezing cold).





Ah, Fresh Air

Beautiful Sunset

Next we had to get home to Salerno…of course as luck would have it, distracted about our plans for dinner as our appetite returned, we missed our stop in Pompeii to transfer trains…when we realized it, we jumped off the train a little too quickly; once we were off and started to look around it was apparent we made a mistake…the place does not look at all friendly (actually the opposite) and it’s not really a station but a “stop” along the way.  There is no one to ask directions, it’s late, dark and we are definitely lost.  All we can do is pray another train will be coming by and stopping soon (we didn’t care which direction).  Another train comes by after about fifteen minutes of near panic on Nichole and mine part.  We have two stops to go to Pompeii…at the first stop there’s an usually long delay then we begin again….the next stop we jump off and we’re confused it’s not Pompeii about ready to freak out we ask a local what happened and where in the world we are.  He kindly informs us that the train was a “green” line and went a different direction….he shows us which track to get on and that we actually have to wait two stops to hit Pompeii on the next train that will be arriving in twenty-five minutes.  Now mind you, this is after a long day traveling to Capri, having little to no food and its late…Nichole and I start getting that giggle that’s between we’ve gone insane and freak out.  The girls are really wondering if we’re ok and what we’re laughing about, when someone on the platform starts burping a song…which puts us all into a belly laugh.  The train comes, we jump on sure enough the second stop is Pompeii, we jump off, but when we look around, it’s not either of the two train stations that we’ve used…apparently Pompeii has at least three train stations….we have about five minutes to catch the last train out of Pompeii for Salerno and about a ten minute walk to the other train station…we get quick directions and we’re off….we get there and the doors are locked we are definitely late..I remember there’s an entrance around the side and we get onto the platform, out of breath, positive we have missed our train we ask a local how we might get to Salerno (we didn’t see any taxis)…there happens to be one last train to Salerno!  In another twenty-five minutes we get on the last train for Salerno and arrive without any further hiccups (not exactly true but insignificant in comparison) – I called the hotel while in route and the shuttle driver kindly waited an extra thirty minutes from our scheduled pick up for us to arrive…needless to say, when we saw him we were so relived to be going home safe and sound….even if it meant no dinner for the day.