Off Like A Herd of Arthritic Turtles

By the time you read this we will be on the first leg of our journey to Shmitally after several days of fending off high fevers and zippers on suitcases that won't zip and lying to the dogs about how long we'll be gone (don't worry, fuzzheads, we're leaving you with some company).  I have no idea how much access to the internet we'll have while we're away--there may be some, but probably not the constant connection to wifi I am used to, so I may not be able to live blog the entire trip. I KNOW. Here's a hanky. 

But I thought I'd let you know where we're going and what we may be doing and then fill in the blanks as I can with pictures and commentary later on as I can.  This is assuming that my camera lens won't be completely smeared with pasta sauce and olive oil ( highly likely, I won't lie).

These first two days (Tuesday and Wednesday) are travel days.  When we were making our flight reservations, we remembered what it was like going overseas the last time we went: that almost 24 hours of straight travel, long lines in customs and being absolutely stupid with exhaustion. Then I looked over at Hopper who was literally upside down on the couch simultaneously watching TV, kicking the wall and putting jello in his ear while Rowan kept trying to pry the buttons off the remote control with his teeth and I thought: hmmmm, maybe we should try a different tack. So, the plan is for us to fly to New York City,run the children around Manhattan all day spend the night Tuesday, run them around again Wednesday and then get on an evening flight to Florence, one that preferrably leaves shortly before their bedtime.  This also allows us break up the travel a little and also to meet up with the grandparents in New York so we can all leave on the same flight to Italy together rather than trying to take separate flights and somehow finding each other in an airport where none of us speak the language (besides Porca Vacca! which remains my one and only learned Italian phrase).

One of the things people ask me is if I'm going to try and "drug" the kids before we get on our flight. "Drug" is such an ugly term. I mean, I'm not going to be giving them pot brownies or anything (unless you have any??....KIDDING).  Will I give them some Benadryl?  I will have some on hand if needed, yes. A parenting website I read recommended that you give them a test dosage before you travel to see what their reaction is because some kids get drowsy and some kids have the exact opposite effect.  I tried it twice. Hopper dozed off both times. Rowan...not so much. Porca Vacca!  So, while I will have the benadryl with me, truth is, I'm mainly relying on tiring their little culos out before we hit the airport.    Our flight to Amsterdam is about 7 1/2 hours then a layover then on to Florence which we will be hitting somewhere around 4:30am our time, but they're 7 hours ahead, so it will be almost noon when we get there. I'm not really expecting Thursday to be that good of a day to be honest. We'll see how it goes.
Update: I got a call at 4:30 pm on Monday that our initial flight out of Austin was cancelled. Panic and much handflapping ensued. I spoke to a nice man somewhere in India and was put on hold for exactly 38 minutes. But we're rescheduled..as far as I know. I will jump through a phone line and karate chop someone if I have to.