Note: This was written last night (Sunday), but didn’t get posted. Whoops.

Today (somehow) marks two weeks since we arrived in Sicily. It’s been a bit of a blur with everything we’ve had to do and there have definitely been some “why the hell are we doing this, again?” moments, but all in all I think it is already clear that we made the right decision.

Helping us with that, of course, is the day trips we’ve been taking and the fact that we just booked our trip to Naples and Rome next month. How frustrated can I be with a dryer (why on EARTH does it take so long?) when places like this are a hop, skip and a jump away?

Siracusa

view from Taormina

We spent Saturday in Siracusa, an amazing town about an hour south of where we are now. I absolutely loved it, and will do a separate post because it is late and I’m tired.

Anyway, Friday we hit up an Autumnfest event that the base was hosting. The kids got to wear their Halloween costumes, go trick or treating, watch a juggler and play in various inflatable bounce houses. I was insanely impressed with Owen because he insisted on going through this enormous inflatable obstacle course thing, which included a looooooong climb up a huge mountain. Given we have some history with this sort of thing, I was prepared to be fairly annoyed when he bailed at the last minute (ala Jumpin’ Joeys in Bloomington) after waiting in the long line. I guess turning 4, however, has given him some new confidence because he DESTROYED the thing. Not a moment of hesitation.

Today was fairly low-key, with some shopping, a trip to the park and afternoon naps. Chris and I really feel like we could embrace the idea of “riposo” (afternoon naps — things tend to close in the afternoons. Like siesta time in Spain). Our children, on the other hand, need a lot of convincing.

We went out to dinner and to our delight ended up deciding it was our favorite place so far. This is actually fairly impressive given the following circumstances:

-Owen dropped a glass on the floor, and it obviously shattered into 10,000 pieces
-Chris tried to open some kebab sauce and it exploded all over his hands and my face
-Between the two of us, Chris and I spilled wine on the table three times

I have absolutely no idea how FIONA is the only one who didn’t wreak havoc on the place.

Chris feels it is important to note that we did not allow Fiona to eat the wine-soaked pasta

But honestly? We had a great time. The kids were in good moods, less crazy than usual AND both ate (you people with picky eaters know this is big). Of course, they did eat a considerable amount of grated Parmesan cheese for some reason but that one we (I) decided to classify as “not important enough to intervene” and “hey, calcium!” Our waiters were chatty and, as you can imagine, very understanding of our many mishaps. Mostly, we just laughed. A lot, at everything. (Like me accidentally ordering waaaaay too much food again). And it really wasn’t entirely because of the wine, though I suspect our waiters might have suspected otherwise. All in all, a great night.