Well, we made it! And in one piece, though the airline did lose one of our car seats (luckily we brought three for various boring reasons).

Our flights did not end up being too bad, though we had our doubts about how things were going to go when we got to the airport and Fiona was already in a super defiant mood.

Who, me?

We ended up bringing six suitcases (one each for clothing, one for toys, one for some random other stuff), plus all the car seats, the diaper bag and a carry-on bag each. It seemed like a pretty reasonable amount of luggage for an overseas move, but we *may* have underestimated how much trouble it would be to move so much baggage on our own with the kids to supervise. My in-laws saved the situation by helping us get it into the Indy airport though, and our AMAZING sponsor and his wife helped us on the Sicily end.

We brought Fiona’s carseat and I’m glad we did, but dragging that thing through three airports (in a giant backpack-type bag) was … less than ideal. I’m going to have to try and think of a better solution, but thus far I can’t figure out what that would be — other than waiting for her to be grown up enough to not try and race around the plane if she isn’t restrained.

We had three flights and one long layover in Detroit, and honestly the kids did really well. Both were SO EXCITED about takeoff from Indianapolis, and Fiona would not stop laughing like it was the funniest damn thing ever. I had their backpacks stuffed with new toys and snacks, and then for the Detroit to Rome leg there were TVs on the back of the seats with a lot of cartoons to choose from. Owen was super impressed, as was Fiona for a reasonably long time.

They basically ate constantly the entire trip

Owen was an absolute angel child, with only some mild whining to open his new toys at inopportune times to complain of. He watched his shows, fell asleep and stayed asleep most of flight. Fiona required a bit more entertainment and only slept for a few hours, but she did really well too up until that last hour when her patience wore a little thin. It wasn’t as bad as we feared though!

We did almost miss our connection to Catania, thanks to a very short layover, long odyssey through the Rome airport (bus and walking) and some boarding pass issues. We were the last ones on the (packed, sardine-style) bus to get to the plane, which was special because I had a gigantic carseat strapped to my back. Also, Fiona was screaming most of the time at that point. I can’t imagine how glad people were to see us join the plane!

But anyway, we arrived on time and safe and sound. Our amazing sponsors picked us and all our junk up from the airport, drove us to our hotel, stocked us up with food, gas coupons, a working phone, GPS system, maps they created for us and more. I really don’t know what we would have done without them!

breakfast area at our hotel (the nice view)

Not much to report from our first day, since all we really did was take a walk and go to bed. And I have a couple of kids who don’t want to be in bed at the moment, so I’m off to deal with that. Cross your fingers they sleep some more!