Krakow, Poland via Aviano, Italy

Trying to catch up now that the dust has settled a little from our move. The movers picked up our household goods after we got back from Michigan. After a week of all the fun that is moving, we tied up the inevitable loose ends (most of 'em) in DC and hopped on a flight with a one-year old and six pieces of luggage to fly to Venice, Italy, where (after filling out paperwork for lost luggage) we travelled with said one-year old and five pieces of luggage, 1.5 hours north, through torrents of Italian rain, to Aviano, Italy. Once there, we looked over the green country side, the pretty houses, and, in the near distance the southern reaches of the Alps and said, with a sigh... "damn, we're tired".

But seriously, it was a really cool little trip. The purpose was to in-process at the air base there, since those are the organizations that will support me administratively while I'm in Krakow. The work stuff didn't take too long fortunately, and we were able to visit some old friends and colleagues who are stationed at Aviano now. We also took a train ride down to Venice one day, but, like the Griswalds going to Wallyworld, when we got there, it was closed. (IE, the water taxi wasn't running for the next three hours). :(

All in all, very fun, and a good chance to see a place that we may be stationed in the future -- who knows?!

I don't have much picture-wise -- I guess I was too jet-lagged, but here's one of me and JR riding in a taxi. (Cars are a lot smaller in Europe.)

Mother's Day, 2011 edition

Happy Mother's Day!

Jill celebrated her second Mother's Day today. And like the first one, her mom was visiting us. Here's a re-staging of the photo from last year, complete with azaleas. So much has happened in a year, and it's gone by so fast..

Cherry Blossoms

This one's a little old, but I thought the picture was worth posting. We visited the tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms when they were in their peak bloom about a month ago. It was a Tuesday afternoon and it was still B-U-S-Y! Can't imagine what it's like on a weekend. But it was pretty, at least. And there were roasted candied almonds involved, which is always a plus..

1st Birthday!!

It's been a crazy past two weeks, with JR celebrating a birthday here in Virginia and then traveling to Tulsa for another party -- oh, the life of a social all-star. And then he spent a week with Grandma Parker while Jill and I took our familiarization trip to Krakow (separate post, standby..) Then back here, and before you know it, it's Mother's Day (another post.. wow.)

So.. here are a few pics of the little guy on his first birthday.

He had a birthday party at a city rec center.

Then on his birthday we took a trip to the zoo.

Finally he had a party with friends and family in Tulsa. What a week!!! Can't blame a kid for diving into a cupcake after all that, right??

She loves me...

Here's JR playing "loves me, loves me not". Fun game. Lasts about 5 seconds with this guy..

I think this is his "she loves me not" look.

Tunnel crawling

Here's a pretty cool video from the playground this past weekend. The weather was beautiful and JR tried out some of the playground equipment for the first time. The tunnel was a big hit -- for mom and dad as much as for JR, I think.

How JR spent an hour...

...while Dad was watching him.

Note: No babies or food items were harmed during the production of this blog post.