Italy and Norway girls trip 2013 (Part 1)

I am so blessed. Truly blessed. I had the opportunity to go to Italy and Norway back at the end of March into April. I met up with by best college girlfriend, Dory, at JFK airport and we flew to Milan together in business class, no less! There really is no other way to do a transcon flight! :)

 

We arrived in Milan at about 7 am, which was waaay too early! We were both sound asleep and they woke us to ask if we wanted breakfast, that we would be landing soon. Dory ate, as they had an amazing sounding omelet, but I just went back to sleep as long as I could! 

We got our bags and took a cab to our friend Priya's flat. We then decided we should go ahead and head straight to the train station, as we had plans to go to Cinque Terre that day. We missed the first train as all the seats were full being that it was Easter weekend, but were able to get seats on the next train. While we waited in the station I was so jet lagged that I passed out on a table in a very noisy cafe. If you know me you know that I am a huge germaphobe and also can't really sleep anywhere so you know I was tired!

We got on our train and I slept pretty much the whole 3 hour ride there. We arrived in Monterosso and it was everything I thought it would be and more. It had rained the entire train ride and had stopped just before we arrived and the clouds were still low making for a stunning scene.

We made our way to our apartment, which turned out to not be at all what we thought we were getting! We had specifically not inquired on the one we wound up in because it only had a bath and it was slanted up against a wall. Well, such is life. The same people owned the one we thought we were getting owned this one too and thought it was best since there was 3 of us. At least we had a clean place to stay with a pretty view. (photos taken the next morning, btw)

 

 

Our apartment was at the very top of these steps!! I think I counted 165 total!

We got settled in the apartment and got showered in the sideways shower/bath and headed out to a great restaurant that a nice girl on the train had recommended.  

We headed back to the apartment and fell asleep so quickly!

 The beds were about the worst I've ever slept on. The first night we didn't notice because we were so tired from the jet lag that we fell sound asleep, but the following 2 nights were rough. We started calling it our concrete slab of a bed. It was that bad ha!

The next day (Easter Sunday) we got up and met up with some of Priya's friends from Milan who were also in Cinque Terre. We had a nice breakfast on the beach with them.

After breakfast the 3 of us decided to try to hike to Vernazza (the next town over) but because of recent rains, the trail was closed. We wound up hiking up a road for a couple of hours that was not getting us anywhere but allowed for some amazing views. 

 

You can see how high up we were from these shots. It was well worth the hike, but we decided to grab a bus back down the hill! We got back into town, had some gelatto and explored a pretty church and the town.

We then ran into Priya's school friends again and decided to take the train over to Vernazza and have a little lunch. It was such a pretty place and a great pasta lunch with some yummy white wine.

Took this shot below for Adam and Sadie. Her middle name is Makaira, which means Blue Marlin. 

 

After lunch Dory, Priya and myself started to hike back to Monterosso via the trail that was technically closed. Priya turned back after a bit to meet her friends to go town hopping, while Dory and I continued on. It was the most amazing hike with incredible views. We were in awe at every turn!

Below is a photo of one of the many homes that was destroyed during the mudslides and floods that occurred here in October of 2011. Very sad to see. They are still rebuilding.

 

 The views just got more amazing the more we hiked.

 

As you can see, the sun began to set so we started the hike back to Vernazza, where we began. I wanted to get "the shot" of the town, and I did!

After getting "the shot" we headed all the way back down to the town of Vernazza and went to the train station so we could catch the train back to Monterosso. After catching the train, we stopped in a place right along the water and had a wonderful late dinner. Of course, we had some amazing Italian red wine!

(Dory in a cell phone shot at dinner)

We made our way back to our concrete slab beds and tried to get some sleep. :)

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post in a couple of days!

Sadie's birth story

I seriously can't believe I am planning Sadie's 4th birthday party.....it all seems like yesterday. While I was pregnant with her I joined babycenter.com, which is a popular website for expectant moms. I found the story I posted on the October 2009 birth announcement board. I am glad I wrote it because it is cool to see my words from the week after her birth!

Here it is!

Baby's Name:Sadie Makaira
Date of Birth:September 29, 2009
Original Due Date:October 13, 2009
Weeks Pregnant:38 exactly
Weight:7.1
Height:20 1/2
Went to my normal appt on Tuesday and I knew that the doc was going to tell me I would be delivering that day since he'd almost induced me the previous Tuesday. So, husband came with me to the doc and we brought the bags and everything. Sure enough, blood pressure was sky high, he checked my cervix and I was not a bit dilated and the baby was still breech so he said we'd be doing a c-section that night. He sent us to the hospital and they put me on an iv with magnesium. It was awful!!!! At 5:30 we went in the operating room and at 5:57 she was born. In the recovery room I started shaking like crazy and they had to give me some Demerol and that helped. I had to stay on the magnesium for 48 hours which was awful. Friday I went home even though my blood pressure was still high, but they put me on some meds. Well, Saturday I checked it and it was through the roof, so wound up back in the hospital for a couple more days and finally came home again on Monday. My doctor said that this happens with the blood pressure to about one patient a year. I will be on meds most likely for about 6 weeks and then will be back to normal I am sure. The baby is so perfect in every way and we could not be happier.

It is crazy to look back. I had had a difficult pregnancy, being that I was sick for all nine months and as soon as I hit the 3rd trimester I had to be put on modified bedrest because my blood pressure got high. I never had pre-eclampsia, which is more common. I only had pregnancy induced hypertension. So, at about 31 weeks I was told I could no longer work, and I went to the doctor for vists and NST's (Non stress tests) twice a week. I also had to take my blood pressure at home. One thing I was allowed to do was go to the pool. This was great seeing as it was August (in Arizona!) when I was put off work. I couldn't swim laps or anything but I at least was allowed to go stretch in the pool. The upside was that I had a great tan! :) I don't think I realized at the time how scary it all was, which was probably good! When I went to the ER on that Saturday evening after having her, my blood pressure was 212/121. Scary! I will never ever forget that night for as long as I live. My mom had just gone back up to Payson (about a 2 hour drive from Phoenix) and I needed Adam to be with me as they were re-admitting me. We called my friend, Genea, and she came and stayed the night with Sadie. You know you have an amazing friend when you can leave your 5 day old baby with them. I mean, talk about friendship! I still have the paper where she wrote down feedings and changings while she stayed there. We were so lucky to have Sadie in such good hands! Genea is still to this day one of my closest friends. 
The days and weeks following her birth were very hard. I remember it well. I wanted so badly to exclusively breast feed and being on the magnesium for those 2 days after her birth made me so out of it that I did the unthinkable: I let them give her formula in the hospital. Not that I didn't feed her, but I was just so out of it that I just could not even stay awake. We got home and I mostly nursed, but in recovering from the c-section, being on pain meds and high doses of blood pressure meds made me often times let Adam get up with her in the night and just give her formula. We had my mom and then Adam's mom there helping us and regardless of that they are moms themselves and that they are family, I am a very private person and wanted privacy when feeding. Looking back, even though it's been almost 4 years I still have so much regret. I wish I would have tried so much harder and had the guts to say to my family, "as much as I love you and am glad you are here, I need privacy while I feed her." When anyone besides Adam would come around when I was feeding her I would stop because I didn't want anyone watching. I wound up breast feeding for 4 months until my supply finally dried up. I had been getting maybe 6 oz a day if I was lucky. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad she got what she got, but the guilt I have from not trying harder is still there. I have had so many friends that have said great encouraging things to me about feeding for the time I did, but I still can't get past the guilt. When I see these moms that had such an easy labor and had the easiest time feeding, I'm not going to lie, I am jealous. I wanted that so badly, but Sadie got used to the bottle and there really was no looking back once that happened. One of the pieces of advice I always give new mom friends is to not be afraid to ask for help and to not be afraid to tell people that you want privacy. At the end of the day, I have to remember I have a perfectly healthy and happy almost 4 year old, and that is the most important. If my story of regret helps one mom try harder or my advice helps one mom then that is good. Annnd if we ever have another, I know what to do differently the 2nd go round. Mom guilt will be part of life no matter what your circumstances. I am sure there are plenty of moms out there that had no trouble exclusively breast feeding that have guilt about something that I might not...just part of being a mom.
Now back to planning Sadie's 4th birthday party-a purple painting party. :)
 

Viggo and Nora are here!

We have been so excited for our cousin Viggo and his sweet girlfriend, Nora, to come visit us from Norway. I was there in April so it was fun to see where they lived and now have them here seeing Texas! Today we went to a winery. I had looked up to see which ones were open and in the near (within an hour) and I only found one. It was down in Rusk, and they had a very cute website, so we thought, "why not?"
We pulled up the dirt road and got out to take a couple of photos. We thought it was such a cute little road leading up to the winery!

We got back in and pulled up to the winery. It did not look like any winery that I have EVER been to.

There was a goat right out front and droppings everywhere. It was a huge shock, to say the least! We got inside and Sadie began playing with a cat, and a nice young man started pouring us several different wines to try. I being the germ-a-phobe that I am, kinda freaked out to say the least when Sadie was crawling on the floor and when we saw how dirty the sink was.

 However, we found a very yummy lime wine and a blackberry wine.

 

It was a memorable day to say the LEAST!