We've Made It!

We made it to Italy and all is well! I thought I'd write a quick post about our travels here... In short, not too shabby!

We woke up at an early 4:30am (technically, I was up at 4:00, but we all know I'm not a sleeper) got the last few chores done in the apartment, packed the cab, and headed for the airport. We brought just a few things ;)


Nate would tell you that half of the luggage was for my shoes, but that's just not true. Only about 1/4 was (j/k..but I will say, I've already worn like 5 different pairs). After a couple of mishaps including security issues (Nate set off a chemical alarm - we blame moving) and finding out that our three tickets got changed last minute by the rookie check-in guy so that all we were all seated in separate seats (yes, including my one year old), we were a little worried the rest of our 24+ hours of traveling were going to be looking this way. Luckily, we were wrong.

First off, traveling MVP goes to Landon. He was SUCH a trooper. He didn't have a single freak out. It's like he realized that everyone was just supposed to stay in their seats. If there was a close second for MVP, it would be Barney. We told ourselves that we would let Landon watch Barney and Elmo as much as he wanted on the plane so that we could just get through it, and Landon was so engrossed in Barney, he was a happy camper. Of course, when in the airports (San Diego, Houston, Frankfurt, Naples) we let him run it out and run he did. He was all over the place, but we were happy to oblige him because better on the ground than in the air. His favorite airport was Frankfurt because of the moving walkways that elevated a couple feet for no particular reason and the little kiddy play area.

Here is our man at Houston, fitting right in:


Sleeping on the flight to Frankfurt:


Loved seeing these little toes next to me:


Our longest flight was Houston to Frankfurt, but none of us got too much sleep. So the funniest part of the trip was the last flight from Frankfurt to Naples. Landon fell asleep before the plane even took off (probably due to the extreme energy exertion at the airport- how's that for an alliteration?!). I asked Nate if I could try laying my head down on his lap since I seem to only be able to sleep horizontally, and was out. And sometime soon after Nate followed suit. I would have loved if someone would have gotten a picture of the three passed out Butlers, but I just have to be happy with the visual. We woke up an hour later to my tray down and three sandwiches waiting for us (Thanks Luftansa!)

We arrived in Naples in good spirits and not too tired. We were welcomed by our good friends, the Baughmans, who came to help with luggage and to escort us to our hotel so we didn't have to be tired and lost in a new city.

We hung out, showered up and headed to their place for a bit before heading to dinner around 8:30pm (Italians eat dinner late). My first Neapolitan pizza:


We wanted to adjust to the time by staying up as long as we could and it worked. Landon nodded off at dinner in his stroller and Nate was just about to do the same with some very loooooong blinks and some bloodshot eyes. But when we finally got home and went to bed we were rewarded with 10 hours of sleep and feeling refreshed the next day. All in all, I have to say, the trip went as well or even better than expected. Woohoo!

**Oops, post ended up being longer than expected.

Next up: Home Away from Home