The Streits

Olivia has recently become very interested in weddings and the idea of getting married. Her Uncle Jason recently got engaged and she (and Ashton) were asked to be flower girls at their wedding next spring. This has resulted in lots of questions from Olivia regarding the topic. Last week, I pulled out the wedding video from when Geoff and I got married 12 years ago for the girls to watch and they loved it!

A few nights ago, Olivia frustratingly told me she wanted to get married right now. I explained to her that you have to be older because when you get married, you don't live with Mommy and Daddy anymore but your new husband. She gave this some thought, for about 2 seconds, and then moved on to something else.

Well, yesterday Olivia thoughtfully approached me and asked why you couldn't live with your mommy and daddy anymore when you get married. When I explained that's just the way it worked, she confusingly said "But I'm going to marry Daddy!". :)

1,020 days. 34 months. That's the last time that Geoff and I together spent more than 18 hours away from our children. It last happened on our house hunting trip to London way back here. We have traveled A LOT since then but all those trips have all been with the girls or solo trips. To say we were desperate for an escape away from our girls to spend some quality time together was a major understatement. With Baby #3 on the way and an anticipated year of breastfeeding said baby upon his arrival, we had one chance to make it happen this summer or that number of days would drastically increase before we had the opportunity again.

Without grandparents nearby to babysit, we called upon our nanny to take care of the girls for the weekend. Once childcare was covered, the next step was deciding where we wanted to go. So many options! Ultimately we chose Southern Italy and the Amafli Coast because we knew it's a destination we would never go to with the girls. It did not disappoint!

We stayed three nights in the town of Sorrento and spent the days exploring the surrounding area. On our first day there, we hopped on a ferry out of Sorrento and headed to the island of Capri. Our first activity upon arrival was a boat tour around the island. Capri is a small island with the tour only taking about an hour. It was definitely a great way to see the island's dramatic coastline and gorgeous coves and grottos.

Nestled in the coves and grottos along the coastline was the most amazing turquoise water. The pictures below really don't do it justice. The surrounding water was deep blue like in the photo above but then when the boat pulled into these coves, there below you was this incredible aqua colored water. It was so clear I spotted jellyfish floating deep alongside the boat. The most famous grotto on Capri is the Blue Grotto, which you can only access through a 3 ft high opening by laying completely flat on a little row boat. Unfortunately, by the time of our boat tour, the tide had risen and the little opening wasn't accessible. Next time....

The famous Faraglioni rock formations

Heading up to Mount Solaro, the highest point on the island

These views - oh my!

The Amalfi Coast in the distance

After a day in Capri, our next day was spent in another can't miss destination - the amazing Amalfi Coast. One thing we we knew we wanted to do on our trip was some hiking because it's something we usually have to skip with little people in tow. When researching the Amalfi Coast before our trip, I came across a hike called the "path of gods", a trail that hugs the rugged coastline and advertised as giving you exceptional views. Sounded perfect for us!

To get to the trailhead, we took a bus from Sorrento to a little village along the Amalfi Coast. We could have taken the bus a bit further to the town of Amalfi and then waited for another bus to take us to the trailhead which was way up at the top of the mountain, but the bus schedules didn't quite match up and we would have had to wait at least hour for the second bus. So instead we got off the bus a village early and decided to hike up the mountain to the trail. Sounded manageable from the hotel room when we were planning it!

It turned out to be a rough climb up for a 23 weeks pregnant lady! It was endless stairs/path going straight up the mountain in the warm, late morning/early afternoon sun. I like to think I'm in decent shape in my pregnancy - I exercise regularly and have had zero issues so far - but in hindsight I wouldn't attempt that climb again and I had sore legs and swollen feet for several days afterwards. Accordingly to the tracker on my phone, it said we climbed the equivalent of 187 flights of stairs and covered about 12 miles for the day!

Heading up, up up

Finally on the real trail...and flatter terrain!

Can you say breathtaking?!?

Descending into the picture perfect Italian town of Positano

On our last day in Italy, our flight back to London didn't leave Naples until 10:30 in the evening. So after a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, we spent a little bit of time exploring the surrounding streets in Sorrento and shopping. What a nice change it was to walk into shops and only worry about myself knocking breakable stuff off the shelves instead of four other little, curious hands.

After checking out of our hotel, we got in our rental car to start the drive back towards the Naples airport. Along the way was the ancient Roman city ruins of Pompeii, so we stopped to check it out.

The site where the ruins are is massive. It spends over acres and acres. We spent about three hours at the location and barely covered the site. Most of the ruins are in really good shape and have been well preserved given they are over 2,000 years old.