Our visit home

As I hope you can imagine, whenever we come back to the US from Italy we are so busy trying to visit with friends and family and attempting to cram in as much as possible before we go back. Sometimes we do it, but usually we can never see and do everything we want to before heading back. This visit back is no different. We would love to see everyone at least once but the reality is, it just isn't possible. Sometimes it is just a quick hello if we do see you. We would love to spend more quality time with everyone if we even get to see you at all, but is it really hard. We hope you understand our situation....That being said, we have been busy since we came back for the holidays and here here is a rundown of what we have been up to. Christmas week we spent with my family in Monticello. We saw both my brothers briefly(about a day) before they had to head back to work or school. We have spend more time with my mom, dad and sister Sydney, and Nolan has loved every minute of visiting with everyone. This past week we drove(20 hours each way YIKES!!) to Florida to spend the week with Matt's family over New Years. I was dreading the drive with Nolan but we drove through the night which made it a little more bearable for him. He actually did really great and I am so proud of him for being such a trooper. Florida was good, warm the first 2 days and then cold(the temperature hit a record low while we were there). We still enjoyed ourselves and it was still nice to go to the beach even though we were wearing pants and long sleeves. We also visited part of Matt's family while we were there, his dad's cousin Bob and his wife Sherry. They were so good to us and let us go fishing at their place and took us manatee watching right outside their house. We actually saw a group of about 3 or 4 manatee which was really neat. We really enjoyed ourselves and wanted to thank them again for the good time-I know you are reading this Bob! :) We also got to listen to Matt's cousin Rich Hardesty perform at a local restaurant on New Years Eve which was nice that it worked out that were were in the same town he was performing. This week we are back in Indiana. Matt is working at Fairfield this week and Nolan and I have been busy with errands, visiting with people, and doctors appointments(we still prefer to be seen by our doctors here in the US). We still have a bunch of shopping to do for friends in Italy that have helped us so much along the way since we have moved. Tonight I am expecting a visit from the man from the moving company who has been storing our things in Chicago. He is bringing me all our baby stuff and they finally found my missing maternity clothes(thanks goodness). I needed them desperately. Tomorrow we leave for LaPorte so we can spend one evening with his family before Matt leaves for his flight back to Italy. Nolan and I originally were supposed to be leaving as well, but I knew with us being so busy I would not be nearly ready to go back yet. Still more visiting to do and lots and lots of shopping for items we cannot buy in Italy. It will be mostly food items, medicine, hair products, face wash, make-up, etc....I am not sure how we will get it all back(not enough luggage room) but we when we get to that point I am hoping we can figure it out. Sorry this is so long, but thanks for hanging in there and reading it all. I will try to post some pictures in the a few days from these past few weeks. See you soon!