Exploring our area

Not to be a downer, but I would say that the last two days of this week for me have been the hardest so far. I won't go into great detail, but I think the kids and I finally reached a point of feeling the reality of the fact that this is where we're going to be for the next few weeks and the "honeymoon" feeling sort of wearing off. Don't get me wrong...we are still so grateful and blessed to be doing this, but the reality is that there will be hard times and I am praying we'll all grow in those times too. Cami and Ellie both told me on different occasions that they wanted to go home, so that was hard. I think we were able to recover a little bit by talking about all the fun that we've had so far and the fun that is yet to come. I think we also did well by making it a priority to get out of the flat yesterday and enjoy the weather.

Yesterday was probably the warmest and nicest day we've had since we arrived here--very mild and sunny! We spent the first half of the day having a nice brunch, cleaning, and resting.
In the afternoon, we ventured out to try out the Massa mall (called Carrefour) which Mark equates with a little bit higher-end Beaverton Mall (the original mall itself, not the nicer additions to Cedar Hills Crossing). They have a giant super store, much like a Walmart, within the mall as well as many clothing stores and other typical mall-type stores. We went into the largest super store and were a little overwhelmed by the number of people shopping there (should have expected that on a Saturday). The kids felt at home there with a nice toy section where they recognized several of their favorite characters. I found the women's clothing section and bought a maternity skirt for my already-expanding belly (see picture below).

After the mall, we headed to check out Mark's office in Carrara. The kids had a great time seeing where dad sits when he's at work during the week and I did too.

Next, we drove on to explore Marina di Carrara more. Mark didn't realize there was so much in the city near his office and we found a nice big park with play equipment for the kids to play on. Everyone else had the same idea we had because everyone in the city, it seemed, was out with their children enjoying the weather. It was so nice for the kids to get out and get some exercise and it gave Mark and I great relief and pleasure to see them having such a great time playing with the other Italian children and just getting to do one of their favorite things from back home. We'll definitely be doing that more while we're here!

Last on our list was letting the kids get their feet in the sand at one of the beaches near where we're living, so we drove back down to Marina di Massa to accomplish that goal. First, we walked up the pier to watch the fishermen catch fish with their giant yellow nets. The kids really got a kick out of that! Once again, Maisie charmed the crowd :).

The beach was nice and the kids were so happy to play in the sand and watch the sea water rolling up toward them. Maisie hasn't played in sand since last summer when we were at Wayne & Marnie's condo at Cannon Beach.