Aiello "Tour of Grandparents 2009" Completed.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay. Not sure where the time went - but as of today (July 24) the girls and I are back in Okinawa and our little family was reunited on the 22nd at the Naha airport where Brad picked us up. (1 day before our 1 year anniversary in Okinawa!) The jet lag is still looming over our heads, but a couple of more days and I am sure we will be back to normal.

Before I get back to the Colorado trip (and then the rest of our trip in the States). I wanted to make sure and comment on the amazing trip we had all around. The love and support that we felt firsthand from our family and friends was truly astounding. As every trip goes, there was not enough time to connect with everyone that we wanted to, however, we are thankful we did get to see so many people. The highlight for the girls was definitely seeing ALL of their 7 grandparents and getting to catch up with each and every one of their cousins. They are all growing so fast.

SO - THANK YOU. Thank you to all of you who housed us, fed us, drove us, spent time with us, called us, played with us, loved us or just were with us. Thank you for being supportive in so many ways of Brad's deployment and our being so far from home. It does not go unnoticed.

I miss you all already. There isn't much more to say than that. One of the greatest things about the military lifestyle is that we have learned to adapt and make home wherever we are. We have met amazing friends and lived in wonderful places. However, being with those who know you best (or who at least know your history best) gives you some comfort that is unlike anything else. My favorite times (aside from watching my children be loved by so many people) were those where I got to know you better - where you are now. We all continuously evolve and change and to be able to have the opportunity to see that firsthand is awe inspiring.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing yourselves with us and being you. We love you.

Colorado Part 2

We enjoyed every minute of Colorado. We had the opportunity to spend time with so many wonderful people.

A highlight was visiting with our closest family friends Jennifer and Connor (whose Daddy Duncan was actually IN Iraq with Brad this entire deployment and gets home in September...) For those of you who don't know the story: Brad in Duncan have known one another since when Brad was in North Carolina (before Kelly) and they introduced Jen and I when we lived in California. We have been fabulous friends ever since (and she was my birth coach with Olivia when Brad and Duncan were gone to Iraq in 2003). Special friends for sure.

With Duncan gone this year, Jennifer decided to homestead in Colorado where Duncan's family and her mom and grandmother live). SO, we got the opportunity to spend some time with them too! Here is from our first night with them. We went to check out Connor's Tae Kwon Do class and then to dinner - here our our two whispering behind the menu... so cute!

Connor getting some hugs from the Aiello girls.

Bathtime for 3?

The drive to Red Rocks.

As we drove into the park I think Olivia said something like "What are we going to see there? Some Red Rocks?" (yes, something like that...)

Alessandra holding up some really big rocks.

"splorin some caves

No more photos please.

As we pulled into the parking lot of the amphitheater we noted a large number of Government vehicles in the lot. Once we parked we started noticing the large number of Marines exiting the amphitheatre. Our kids were in shock by the number of familiar uniforms. They were all there for a Change of Command. ( a profound and somewhat overwhelming emotional experience for those of us married to our Marines who were away for the time being).

Lovely Red Rocks

You can see more photos taken by Jennifer here: http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=3qn0sf69.btvefvmh&x=0&y=f85cow&localeid=en_US

She brought out the "big guns" (really nice camera with a big lens) and took some great shots.

The girls enjoyed "performing" on the stage. They kept trying to coax Connor into it, he wasn't going for it.

The whole gang.

Muscle shots...

Jen with the kids

After a great couple of days with Jen and Connor (minus Connor and Alessandra not becoming the best of friends), we headed back to Dad and Suzann's.

Alessandra and Susu

Spent some time with Kimm, Paul, Oscar and August

(and funny enough, Oscar was all excited to play with Olivia, but I think I found he and Alessandra playing together more often).

Oscar, Alessandra and Olivia

By the bridge in Boulder

August popping his head into the photo. We needed a 4 cousin's shot.

A shot of Olivia at lunch. It made me laugh.

Jen and I also had a "date night" where Dad and Suzann watched O and A and her mom watched Connor. We went to dinner in Denver (amazing food by the way..) and spent some time eating chocolate cake and drinking wine. A great way to spend an evening.

Here we are the next day when Jen dropped me off at my sister's house.

And, here is a photo of Kimm and I outside of her house.

Can't wait to go back to Colorado! Good people, good food and good fun.

Colorado - Part 1

Happy Belated Independence Day. My plan was to blog all week last week and catch you up on all of our greatest adventures. It's safe to say, that I am a bit behind. HOWEVER, here is a look at what we did on our first part of our trip to Colorado.

The first part of our 10 days in the Mile High area were shared with David, Shannon and Kiefer (who flew on the same flight with us out of Columbus) and also brought in my brother Patrick (who lives in Tucson). Not sure if you knew this, but my Dad and Suzann live in the Lafayette area and my sister Kimm and her lovely family (Paul, Oscar and August) live in Boulder.

The above is a mealtime shared by cousins. Kiefer (1.5) is in front left in the booster, the Olivia (6), the Oscar (3.5) across from her and then Alessandra. You would have thought they were together all of the time.

We spent some time over and Auntie Kimm and Uncle Paul's house. They have a great trampoline that wore out the girls many times over. Here are my jumping beans.

I forgot to turn this photo to the side (I will try and correct it later) but it was super cute of Olivia and Oscar

Alessandra's MO throughout this trip to Colorado was to get into the bath with whomever was bathing at the time (she does love the water). Here she is on a visit over to Kimm and Paul's during Oscar's bath time. Apparently it is just way more fun to bathe with others. (maybe it is just that they have cooler toys than we do).

What would a trip to Denver be without a trip to the Denver Zoo? We hit the zoo with the whole family. It was a lot of fun and if you are ever in the area - check it out!

Olivia, Alessandra and Oscar (with Kimm) checking out the chimps.

We took the train around the zoo area (a short ride, but for our transportation buffs in the family, a trip to the zoo would not be complete without it). Oscar and Olivia are in the back seat, Susu (Suzann) and Kimm next, Alessandra (with space for me) and David and Kiefer in the forefront. Good times.

Oscar and Olivia

Alessandra on the train (with her monkey kids meal lunch box)

The girls and I outside of the zoo with their purple/pink monkey's Uncle Dave got for them.

The best part about being with family is just being together. Here is Uncle Dave helping Alessandra with a glider.

Here is a photo of Susu with August (the youngest of the crew at 1) and Olivia (who adores her job in this family of being eldest cousin)

Here is Grandpa with Alessandra making funny faces.

A little shot of driving on the road towards Boulder... lovely.

Uncle Paul reading to the gang one afternoon/evening.

OH YES, and what would a trip be without a trip the the Urgent Care (Olivia has visited one everywhere we have been to). Her visit this time was for a bout with Strep Throat. Here we are goofing around in the exam room waiting for the test results.

Test results: Positive = 2 shots of antibiotics in the heiney. Which equals 1 Popsicle and 1 ice cream.

Here are some shot with Uncle Pat!

Uncle Pat, Susu and Grandpa (or Suzann and Dick as their names might actually be)

A little family shot. Pat, Kelly, David and Shannon (in the back)

Alessandra, Olivia and Kiefer in the front.

Tune back soon for more of our adventures in Colorado. We saw Jennifer and Connor and had more fun!

The Ice Cream Saga

So in preparation for our trip to Colorado, David (my bro) and I decided that we would "need" to take our dad some Graeter's Ice Cream. (Graeters is the best ice cream EVER and it started in my dad's hometown of Cincinnati). He checked into the airlines regulations on Dry Ice and we decided to take the plunge.

Equipped with 6 pints of fantastic ice cream we made our way to the airport. Feeling good about it, I popped my cooler up on the counter where the nice lady told me "you can't take this on the plane" - to which I exclaimed "WHAT??, I HAVE to" She proceeded to tell me that Dry Ice was allowed, but it needed to be in a vented cooler.

We asked if we could vent the Styrofoam with holes (the answer was no) and other ideas. Feeling grumpy about it, we checked our baggage and I headed to the USO (one nice perk about being military). The nice lady there tried to help us, but we realized quickly that the post office and local Fed Ex were already closed (it was Saturday afternoon). SO, after a long process we decided to leave the ice cream with the USO. (and I made sure to mention that the guy in there that had just gotten back from Iraq got first dibs).

All in all, the outcome was good, but still sad we never made it to Colorado with the hometown treat. :)