Italy and Guilt

View from the Hotel Regina where we stayed

This past week James and I were able to spend the week on Lake Como in Italy. It was amazingly beautiful. James and I love to travel. We love to travel alone. We love to travel with friends. We love to travel with our kids. And we love to drive to our destinations as well. We love to see new places and the history of those places. We are not ones to just go and sit around the pool at the hotel or even just sit on the beach. We want to do stuff. When we knew we were moving to Poland one of our big things was that we wanted to experience Europe as much as we can. We KNOW we are here for ministry but we also have a unique opportunity to travel to countries we wouldn't otherwise be able to.

Sun didn't cooperate but we are cute!

Three of our teammate couples have or will be taking quick trips to Italy without children. We just go here and I didn't expect us to do the same anytime soon but our amazing team leader made an offer to watch Macie for us while Ella and her older 2 were at Green School. So I started looking into travels and found cheap airfare to Milan, Italy. We booked our trip for 3 nights and found a nice hotel thanks to other team members that had stayed their before. We were actually a couple hours north of Milan by train so rather than run ourselves ragged trying to see everything we could, as we would normally do, we would just hang around the lake area. It was perfect. We had such a restful time. We enjoyed each others company and good food.

The streets are so narrow!

So nice to wear summer clothes!

Guilt...I left my children 4 months into coming on the field. Was that ok? Do we look like we are slacking because we are already getting away? Ugh!! There were several hangs up that happened before we left. 1)We couldn't rent a car because we didn't have a credit card...we did great with trains and buses. No problem after all. 2)As we are waiting for the kids to board the buses before Green School Ella threw up all over the ground. Really? What do we do? Is she sick? Is she nervous. Aagh! It was agonizing. Our friends were very sweet and encouraged us to go on and they would keep Ella if she needed to come home...she was fine and never got sick again. But I worried quite a bit. 3)My carry on luggage that should have been free cost about $50 to check because the gate girl said it wouldn't fit. Grr!!...on the way home I prayed that it would pass by someone else's standards...no problem. Saved $50. I missed my kids like crazy and was ready to have come home yesterday. We had a great time but I am not in need of a get away without my kids for a while.

A street of shops in Bellagio.

Arriving in Bellagio