W37 of Y6

Father's Day 2020

We actually DID celebrate Fathers Day before Jeremy left but no one took pictures!  

Paintball

The boys were both invited to a paintball bday party.  I was kind of curious how they would accommodate for COVID there. 

They didn't really....  there was not a lot of social distancing.

Rosalina Beach

The weather has gotten warm!  I took the kids to a beach close to Venice.  It was such a nice getaway!

W36 of Y6

Whitney got to attend a bday party with so many of her good friends this week! 

Jeremy moved into an apartment in France this week.  He decided that since he has to telework that he could literally work from anywhere so... why not France.  He is going to work on improving his French (even though he is basically already fluent).

W35 of Y6

A little more normalcy this week!

With things slowly returning to normal, we decided to try our luck at a restaurant.  

We even got to swim in our friend's pool while Aiden was dog sitting for her! :) 

W34 of Y6

Returning to (the new) normal

This week was the first week that we all felt like things were starting to normalize a little.

Whitney went to a birthday party that may have pushed the rules just a little

These girls really loved seeing each other again.  It was badly needed!

Class of 2020 Graduation 

The long discussed, debated, awaited graduation ceremony for the senior class barely took place on Saturday.  I say "barely" because all the way up to Friday, it almost got cancelled.  The school Principal called all the parents personally TWICE during the week with new dates/times.  The Italians were not happy with us for doing this but, in the end, decided to turn a blind eye to it.  Even though many restrictions have been lifted, and the malls and restaurants are once again crowded with people on top of each other, ceremonies of any kind are still restricted.  That means people are not able to get married or have funerals.  The Italians don't do graduation ceremonies so they really could not understand the importance of this ceremony.  However, our military leaders really felt strongly that the kids needed this ceremony for closure in order to start the next phase of their lives.  After the ceremony, I agree.

The ceremony was a little strange.  No one was allowed to have phones in the building.  Only 2 parents could attend with 1 graduate (at first it was only 1 parent).  Each family unit sat together (more than 6 feet away from the other families).  When they called your name, the graduate would walk up and take a diploma off the table and then stand in the center of the stage with the Principal and the General standing on each side behind them (6 feet away) and then they sat back down with their parents.  It was definitely a unique graduation ceremony!  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share of the event. 

This will give you an idea of where/how everyone was sitting

We went to a nice steak house for dinner afterwards to celebrate

Connor's first Florentine steak!

W33 of Y6

Senior Recognition

Connor's senior year was definitely unusual... to say the least. 

In an effort to recognize the seniors as graduation approaches the PTSA made these pictures of all the kids and put them up in front of the high school.   

This was Connor's first time coming back to the base or seeing his High School in 3 months.

This was such a nice thing to do for the kids.  It's not much but it was something!

We enjoyed lunch at banditos afterwards to celebrate.  Doesn't Connor look thrilled? lol!

W24-32 of Y6

Hiatus

This has been the longest break that I've taken from my blog since I started it in 2008.  Over the last 9 weeks our lives have been so different, every day has been the same, and the future has never felt more uncertain.  Quarantine brought out the best and worst in all of us.  We are all looking forward to some normalcy soon.  

Things are starting to slowly come back to life in Italy. Very, very slowly though.  The kids are pretty much done with school (virtually). There are still classes but no more assignments will be given out.  This allows them to make up missing assignments before the official last day of school.  However, the teachers already said that they will use the better of the 2 grades between quarter 3 and quarter 4 so now none of the kids are motivated to do anything else this quarter. 

Jeremy is officially working from home for the foreseeable future and I have been tasked to assist with the recovery process for services to be approved to start being open on the post.  This requires me to go into work nearly every day. 

Mother's Day 2020

The day before Mother's Day the Italian Prime Minister put out a decree allowing people to leave their homes for non-essential reasons.  This allowed us to be able to go to the lake, enjoy a short hike, and have a picnic!  We needed this so much!!!

Whitney's a teenager!!!

Whitney had a less than normal 13th birthday but was a good sport about it!

She requested cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast!

She wanted vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, and vanilla ice cream! :)

She definitely got a little spoiled for her birthday to make up for not having a party

I love you baby girl!!

We celebrated the rest of the night by watching Trolls

 Memorial Day weekend

Before Memorial Day weekend we got permission to travel for leisure within our region.  Luckily for us, we live in the Veneto region which includes so many wonderful locations... such as, Lake Garda.

We haven't done a pic like this in a long time!

It was a little foggy as we arrived to the Lake but it was still such a beautiful sight to see!

Once again, Jeremy totally scored the absolute best house for our weekend getaway!

Aiden and I found this little tunnel by our rental house that led us right to the beach

You can't tell but we are on bikes!  Our house was right next to the best bike path that went all the way around the lake.  We couldn't go the whole way because half of the lake is in the Lombardy region.  But we thoroughly enjoyed riding and walking along the lake where we could all weekend long!

It was amazing, and also a little bit creepy, to see Lake Garda this time of year without tourists.  The lake is packed almost year round but especially this time of year.   

Our house had the best views and the perfect weather had us outside every waking moment

Much deserved and needed relaxation!

Hanging out with my baby girl!

Exploring the town

Playing Mother May I!

Views from my morning walks - one of my favorite parts of the weekend.

This was a much needed escape for all of us.