I am back….AGAIN!

I know it has been a hot minute since I have posted. It isn’t that I am drowning in photos to process Africa (although I kinda am), I went on another trip! I am going to give you the low-down on where we went, but photos will have to wait until I finish the Africa photos. I am working almost daily on our Africa photos, but I am weeding through 4000 photos taken.

So the latest trip! We were home for a little less than 3 weeks. We had a big rush on fire calls the first week we were back. Then Lily had her 4 wisdom teeth removed. She asked the dentist if she could keep them, so she did! She will proudly show anyone who asks to see them. She didn’t have any complications, for which we were very thankful. About 10 days after her surgery, we packed up our bags and flew down to Kansas City. We can’t thank Michelle Messina and Zac, Wanda, and Ed Oslica enough for their roles in our short 48 hour stay. Michelle picked us and all our luggage up from the airport and handed over Lily’s car (which had been staying at her house over the summer). We got a tour of her new home….it is adorable and such a beautiful fit for her…. plus it is a much shorter drive with less traffic now that her job has moved to a new location. It is a win/win for her. The Oslicas showed up with their pickups to help us get furniture from Michelle and then from some of her neighbors we bought to help furnish Lily’s new place. We bought a duplex near the KCAI campus. It is a 98-year-old house that has been gutted on the inside and totally redone. The flooring is original, but there is a new kitchen, bathrooms, etc, in the half on the first floor and Lily’s half on the top floor. We have a bit of work to do on the outside, but we have that under contract to be done. The bottom floor is rented out. The top floor has Lily, her best friend from high school and roommate from last year (as Lily puts it…she is her Zac….Joe’s best friend). There is then a master bedroom with its own full bathroom that we will eventually rent out to female traveling medical professionals. We were in KC for 48 hours and needed to furnish the whole top floor. The Oslicas were a huge help. Family that isn’t blood…they were amazing. Then Joe’s brothers at the Olathe Fire Department came by the next day to help carry more furniture up the narrow, steep stairs. Three captains showed up and in 30 minutes had it all done. What a relief and how thankful we were for their help! Lily is all moved in, furniture is all in place, and she is in the second week of her sophomore year. I am happy she is in a safe neighborhood and has a place to call home for as long as she needs it. No more getting kicked out of the dorms for holidays!

We left Lily in her place in KC and flew to D.C. for Rich’s brother’s change of command. He has been the garrison commander for the last 2 years at Fort Belvoir, VA. He will now move on to working across the hall from his wife in the Pentagon (if you have any idea how incredibly large the pentagon is, that is quite a feat to be working so close together!). As he was decompressing after a year of basically being the mayor of a large town, we joined them on a wonderful overseas trip. So the actors in play were Joe and Heather (my brother- and sister-in-law), Tammie and Casey (my sister-in-law and her son, who is 30 – and was close with our Joe, his cousin), and Rich and myself. The six of us took off in the evening from D.C. and flew to Rome, Italy through the night. We then flew to Catania, Sicily, where we drove to Taormina to stay a couple of days prior to heading to Messina, Sicily to board the MSC World Europa, a brand-new mega ship that I am not sure I saw a third of whilst on board. We spent a week on board and went to Malta (a new country for both Rich and me) – Barcelona, Spain – Marseilles, France (a new country for me and my 50th country visited….on our 33rd wedding anniversary!) – then two stops in Italy – Genoa and Naples – before heading back to Messina, Sicily and getting off the ship. We toured Messina and a few other areas that were in the Godfather movies and went to Catania. Tammie and Casey flew out the next morning. Rich dropped them off at the airport and picked up a rental car and the remaining four of us took off for an adventure around Sicily for about 6 days. We spent time in Agrigento, Marsala, Syracuse, Palermo, Cefalu, Vulcano Island and Messina. We had a really good time with lots of adventure stories to go along with our trip. I learned a lot about Sicily and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food! We flew back to D.C. for 24 hours then flew back to Montana last week. So, we have been busy catching up with work, our firefighting hall and home. I am trying to spend a few hours a day chipping away at my Africa photos and will post them on the blog in batches of where we were in Africa. Then I will move on to Sicily. I actually took more photos with my phone as it was really hot and I didn’t want to be carrying a heavy bag around, but I will share some photos on that trip as well.

We did celebrate Lily’s 18th adoption day on August 31st. I can’t believe it has been so long since we picked her up in China! To quote Lily, “That’s a lot of years!” She is in her 2nd week of school at KCAI and seems to like her classes and her teachers. We love that she has been our daughter for over 18 years now.

We are also trying to enjoy the last dregs of summer here in Montana. We pretty much missed the whole summer with travel. We came back from Sicily (and hot and humid temps there) to a winter weather advisory. The mountains got about a foot of snow, but we had cool temps and rain. The warm weather is back now and even though the temps are still in the 80’s here, we are seeing trees that are starting to show their red and yellow leaves already. It is hard to be inside when the weather is so wonderful. Tallinn keeps reminding me that my happy spot is on the front porch in my rocking chair with him at my feet enjoying the breeze.