More pictures from our first week in Sicily.

Here are more pictures from our flight to Italy and from our first week here.  It took a while to upload the pictures onto this blog.  I'll update it later to let you know more about these pictures.  I need to get back to class.

Our first days in Sicily.

We got to Italy on Wednesday evening.  Our flight went fine.  It was nice to be on a charter flight with all military members and their families.  The boys slept most of the time.  Tom and I had a hard time getting any sleep though, and Tom started not feeling very well.  We arrived in Italy and while we were waiting for all of our luggage in the terminal in Catania (not a military airport.), DJ decided to push open a door which was clearly blocked off and had a big green "emergency only" sign on it (granted, it was in Italian).  Alarms and lights went off everywhere.  These Italian security guys were rushing all over, getting on their radios to let everyone know it was a mistake.  DJ was pretty embarrassed.  The Paudler boys are here.

The first night we were here, we were exhausted and sleep deprived.  Tom had a fever and was throwing up.  I had to take care of Lincoln and Noah, who had a hard first night of adjusting to the new time zone (6 hour difference).  I had a little bit of a melt down in the middle of the night.  It was a tough first night.

On Friday morning at 7:30am, we started our Indoc classes.  It's a two week, all day course on base.  They teach us about the base, culture in Sicily, driving, housing, etc.  They provide child care for the kids.  The boys did great at the Youth Center and Child Development Center.

Today (Saturday) everyone is feeling healthy and better rested.  We rented a car and went exploring the island.  It's breathtaking.  I wish I had more time to post more pictures but the internet is soooo slow.  Here are a few for now.  We went to Acicostella, a quaint fishing village in Sicily.  We're considering living there.  We barely made it to the pizzaria before they closed at 1pm.  Yes, everything closes here at 1pm and then reopens at 4pm.  It's a ghost town between those hours.  Kind of crazy.  There are about 7 Acis and they are all fishing towns on the water.  We'd love to live in one of them if we can find the right place.  It would be about a 30 minute drive to work, but Tom thinks it's worth it.  Now that we're here, we both are convinced that we want to live in town.   

An unscheduled stop in Washington DC.

We were frustrated and stressed to find out that some mistakes were made in getting our Visas.  When they submitted our applications, they made a mistake and put down that we didn't need them until July 15th.  The problem - we're scheduled to leave on July 7th.  We ended up having to stop in DC on our way back from Florida.  We stayed Sunday night in DC and walked about a mile to the Italian Embassy on Monday morning.  We were worried, but in the end, we got our Visas!  We'll be leaving tonight (Tuesday).  I'm in the hotel room in Norfolk, VA with Noah and Lincoln, while Tom and DJ are turning in our car to be shipped overseas.  They should be back soon.  Then we'll get ready to head to the terminal about 5:30pm.  We're taking a charter plane and we're leaving tonight.  We'll be arriving in Sicily about 4:30pm on Wednesday (Italy time zone).     

On our way to DC (again).

Embassy Suites in Washington DC.  DJ requested the highest floor, and he got it.  We were on the 9th floor.  

Fish pond inside the hotel.

Our 4th of July in South Carolina.

On Saturday, the 4th of July, we drove about 8 hours from Florida to South Carolina (on our way to Norfolk, VA where we're leaving for Italy on Tuesday).  Our 2 week family vacation to Florida was officially done.  Even though we were exhausted from driving all day, we were still planning on finding a place to see fireworks.  It would be our last time in the United States for the next 3-4 years.  Then, as we were driving to our hotel, we kept passing by police cars at every exit.  A little later we heard on the news that a serial killer was wanted in South Carolina.  It was all over the news.  With that said, we decided to stay in for the night and pass on fireworks.  I ended up finding some on the internet for the boys to watch.  The boys were passed out in bed by 8:30pm.  

Disney World (and Sea World) part 2

A few more pictures from our Disney week and our day at Sea World.  One of my favorites is the last one.  After all the walking we did, Tom captured a sweet moment on our camera.  Frank rubbing Linda's feet.