Traveling to Zurich and Milan

I decided to do a travel journal for our European vacation so that I would be able to remember everything that happened and for people to partake in our adventure.  I'll try to a day by day blog post for each day. So here is day 1 which begins September 23, 2012.

We left our house in Northwest Arkansas to catch our flight before the sun even came up.  Our friends Greg and Becky picked us up at 5:30 in the morning to take us to the airport.  We left our regional airport at 7:00 and so began our vacation.  We landed in Dallas with plenty of time to catch our next flight to JFK.  Once we got to New York we had 4 hours to eat lunch and relax before our flight to Zurich.  We went to our gate and our plane was already at the gate.  We then found an Irish Pub to eat lunch at, which the food was absolutely disgusting!  After lunch we headed back over to our gate and watched them load the plane and charged our phones.  When it came time to board the plane they made an announcement saying there was a gate change, which was half way around the airport!  After walking all the way around the airport to our new gate we found out that our flight was delayed.  We finally left New York after our flight was delayed for an hour and a half.  We later found out that the plane we were supposed to get on had technical problems. This meant we only had 30 minutes to make it to our train in Zurich!!

Waiting for our flight to leave from XNA.

Self portrait from the plane.

Views from the airplane.

 When we landed in Zurich it was raining and we barely had enough time to grab our bags and make it through immigration.  We ran through the subway station to find the commuter train to take us to the train station.  We boarded the train with just a few minutes to spare before it left for Milan.  Unfortunately we didn’t know where first class was and we sat in second class.   We discovered many things about the trains after this, you can do WHATEVER you want to do on the train and sitting second class is awful!!! After this train we never rode in second class again!  So if you plan on taking the trains in Europe it’s well worth paying extra to sit in first class.

Pictures taken from the train.  I didn't take many because I got a little motion sick so I had to go to sleep.

Once we got into Milan we left the train station and tried to find our hotel.  We meet a really nice Italian man who told us that our hotel was just right outside the train station.  We couldn’t find it and it didn’t help that it was raining.  So we found a taxi driver and asked him if he knew where Hotel Atlantic was?  He said that he did but it was just easier for us to walk to it.  Thankfully he pointed out where our hotel was and it was within a 2 minute walk.  After we checked in we went to our room and we found out that it was one of the executive rooms with a private balcony.  We freshened up and asked the hotel manager how to find the shopping district.  There are several shopping districts in Milan so we headed to the closest one to us.  We found out that Fashion Week was going on in Milan.  We got to see a couple of photo shots and film shots going on in the city.  We picked a local pizza place for dinner and had the best gelato we had during our entire trip!

Our room was very nice!!

Walking around Milan.

Photo shot for Fashion Week.

First pizza in Italy!

Best gelato!!!!!

Run for the Grapes

A couple of weeks ago Chris finished his second 5K.  He did the Run for the Grapes 5K and he finished around 31mins.  I'm so proud of how hard he has been working at running and losing weight.  He has lost almost 50 pounds and has gone done three shirt sizes and pant sizes.  I know that Chris is an inspiration to a lot of people.  He is even trying to get me to run some.  Although I'm not very good at it at all.  He wants me to run in the Turkey Trot in November.  We'll see if I'm able to do it by then.  Good job babe, I'm so proud of you!!!!

He never wants to take a serious picture!

And they're off!!

Crossing the finish line!

July Photo Recap

I can't believe it's almost September already, but where did July and August go?  It just flew by so
quickly that I'm just going to post random photos of what happened during the month of July. This year for 4th of July we decided to watch the fireworks put on at Arvest Ballpark from across the street.

Also during the month of July we had our good friends from Germany come stay with us for a week.  It was really nice to be able to visit with them and I also nailed down our Italy Itinerary.  We are letting them plan the second week of our Germany trip.

Poor Eli was tuckered out from a full day of shopping with the girls.

Our church hosted a night at Arvest Ballpark benefiting Christopher's House.  So Strike came by church to sell some tickets, so of course we had to have our pictures taken with him.

Chris's first 5K

Chris completed his first 5K this past Saturday!!  I'm so proud of how hard he has been working for this.  I know when he first finished he was disappointed in himself for not finishing quicker that he thought he should.  But now he knows that a few weeks ago that he wouldn't have been able to do one at all!  He already has his next one planned for August 11th.  I'm so proud of you babe!!  Here is his blog entry:

This past Saturday I tackled what I’ve been training for since Easter. I ran my first 5K. It was harder than I thought it would be, we’ve been running 2 miles with ease. I thought I would be able to just knock the last mile out. I was wrong. I got through mile 1 no problems, then I saw the mile 2 sign, it hit me, the big mental wall. My body told me that it was time to stop because 2 miles is where we stop. I tried fighting through it, but I was just stopped. If Vaden hadn’t been there to push me the last mile I wouldn’t have made it. My entire life I’ve played team sports, if you failed somebody else was always there to pick you up. In running it’s all you against the clock. I’m struggling with that, I’ve never had to break through the mental wall. I learned valuable lessons for my next 5K. I had set a goal of 36 minutes, but I finished in 39. I was really disappointed in myself at first, but I shouldn’t be. On Good Friday I couldn’t jog to the end of our street without wanting to die. Today I ran 3.1 miles.

After the race I started thinking about why I’m tackling this whole process. I don’t want to go be the fastest person out there. I don’t want to have the perfect runners body. I want to be able to, in 15 years, play with my kids and nephews, Camden and Jakob. I want to be the uncle that is able to still run with them at 45 years old. My Uncle Ugly died at 45 years old, when I think about that being only 14 years from now it hits me that everything I’m doing today will pay off in the future. I may never win a 5K, I may never finish in the top 10, I will do everything I can to make sure I see Jakob, Camden and my kids graduate, get married, and have kids. I’ll run another 5K soon, a 10K in the spring, and tough mudder next winter. I’ll run them for my family not for myself!

College World Series

When we found out that the Razorbacks were going to be playing in the College World Series we decided we needed to go Omaha and support them!  We debated it for awhile and I'm so glad that we finally decided to go because we had an absolute blast.  I wish that we had more time to spend there but everyone to go back to work today.  We left Saturday morning at 4 in the morning and we got to Omaha around 10:00.  When we made it there it started raining and we weren't able to go see the old College World Series Stadium, Rosenblatt.  They wouldn't let anyone in since it was storming and we didn't have time to wait around for it to stop.  We got some pictures from the outside but I'm a little sad we didn't get to go in.  I've always wanted to go to Rosenblatt stadium and it's really sad that they are going to be demolishing it in a few days.

Beautiful sunrise on our way to Omahog

Bridge right outside of Kansas City

Rosenblatt Stadium

After we got done viewing Rosenblatt we headed over to the new stadium and found some parking underneath an overpass.  Since it was still raining we went to a local sports bar and got some really good food.  By the time we were finished with lunch it had thankfully stopped raining and we were able to go to the fan zone and then to the game.  The new stadium is really nice and our seats were awesome.  We paid more to have seats in the shade but I'm so thankful that we did.  I walked around a little bit during the game and it was so hot in the sun.

Bases loaded!

The view from our seats.

There were close to 24,000 people in attendance and the majority of them were Razorback fans.

The two Greg's who we went with.

I'm so glad that the Razorbacks won their first game and we play again tonight against South Carolina.  I'm hoping that we can pull out another win!  I can now say that I've been to the College World Series before!  After the game we went to a local Italian steakhouse and eat some really yummy food and then drove back to our hotel room which was two hours away.  We made one last stop at Rosenblatt to say goodbye to Omaha and the College World Series. WPS!

Rosenblatt Stadium at sunset.

I think this is how we all felt on the way home!

Fat Kid 2 months

It’s been 2 months since I began eating better and laying around less. It’s been a success so far, I’m down 28 lbs, and clothes I bought 6 years ago and never wore are now fitting. I ran 2 miles yesterday and only stopped 1 time. I would have stopped 3 times but Vaden made me keep going. I’m going to be doing a 5K on June 23rd, I’ve set a goal to complete it in under 40 minutes. For those who are 5K veterans that may be slow, however, for me that will be the most length and time I’ve ever run. I still have a goal in mind of losing 45 more lbs, and completing Tough Mudder next October. What is Tough Mudder read this. I want to be where she is. I’m not in this to be a health nut, or quit eating what I like to eat. I’m doing this so I can be around to see my kids and nephews grow up. I want them to look at me and see that it is possible to do it, but also not want to be in the position I was in to have to lose 80 lbs to get there. Hopefully I am able to keep the lbs coming off, complete my 5K, and be writing a post in 16 months about finishing Tough Mudder, wearing my orange headband, getting my tattoo, and drinking an ice cold beer.