Grandma and Grandpa Autrey (mom’s parents) were coming to stay with mom and dad for my birth. Thinking ahead, they had scheduled their flight to arrive two weeks before my due date to help out in the house and get things ready for my arrival...I beat them here! SURPRISE!

This in mind, mom and dad checked with all the doctors about traveling with a small infant (that would be me!) and were given the thumbs up. Yeah! Freedom for all of us after a month of hospitals for me and a month and a half of hospitals and worry for mom and dad.

Mom and dad chose to do the close tourist things, but that was far enough for us. We started out by going to Milan to pick up the Grandparents. For the real “vacation” we started with Pisa (4-hr drive).

Off we went. We arrived in Pisa in the early afternoon and checked into a hotel. The hotel manager was so paranoid about having me and noise I can make in this small hotel, that we were relegated to the basement rooms, while Grandma and Grandpa got an upstairs room. The rest is almost comical. We went to our room to get some dinner for me (aka “need some privacy please”), and a fresh diaper (I needed that more!). Dad was going into the bathroom when a drip of water fell onto his head. On the way back into the room, he noticed a very large puddle of water near the bathroom door. Humm, this isn't good. They reported it to the manager, who moved us to another room. They really weren't upset, we just felt with a newborn (me) a musty room just wasn't the place for us. So off we toddle to another room to meet our needs.

After settling into our rooms and relaxing for a bit we all loaded into the car and headed out to see the sites. For those who have never been to Pisa, you are probably thinking that this is just not a possibility. Well, it’s a very small “tourist” section. Maybe 2 small city blocks long with a baptistery, a chapel, and the leaning tower. You can enter the first two, but the tower is off limits (bummer). There are also a few museums around, but they are small and only take an hour or so of wandering to see it all. We did the usual “OOOS” and “AWHS” over the tower and visited one of the museums, then went out to dinner. What a boring family, eh?

The next day was the biggie – we were going back through Florence to see that city. Florence is a very large city and it’s just wonderful – we went back many more times. We wandered the city center, saw the Basilica, the Baptistery there, and all the sights we could find. Dad decided that he would climb to the top of the Basilica (a before picture) a feat that I just wasn’t up to yet (nor was mom!) and my 60 year old Grandma, and 64 year Grandpa weren’t either!! We sat outside and watched the world go by while I got some lunch (ya gotta love feed on demand!). Boy, I never thought we would get such looks from people. I guess they couldn’t figure out how our family had made it to Europe with me and still be traveling : ) I was still really small and most Europeans don’t bring their children in public for months and months. Well, I WAS almost two months old – I was just small for my age : )

That wasn’t the extent of our travels with Grandma and Grandpa Autrey, but the most distant (and the only pictures mom has scanned at this point Ha!) Ok, so there are more pictures from that time frame, but not of our travels! Here is one of me Elizabeth NOT enjoying my bath at all! : )

When I was about 4 months mom and dad took a trip to England. We managed to get a military hop to Mildenhall and meet up with their friend Chris (this was the first time I had met him – he was really great to me – Hi Uncle Chris!!). From there we rented a car and drove to London to see the sights! I even got her chance to play in Trafalgar Square with all the other children of London – what fun!! Of course I would have preferred to be naked or at least stripped to a diaper for this – come on dad, let me swim…

Here is where mom tosses in one of those totally gratuitous naked pictures to embarrass me later in life!! This is me (*blush*) at about 5 months I do love being naked! : )

At 6 months old, my Grandma Ashwood was able to come over and see me! She even got to be here for my first Halloween party for our New Parents Support Group. These are all my cool buddies and their mom’s. We get together every week to play and get our mom’s out of the house.

More traveling, traveling, traveling with Grandma! We went to a nearby port town of Trieste and visited the castle there,

and to Rome to see the sights. There are many more photos of Rome, and mom is working on getting them scanned in – soon, soon!! Then the story will unfold and there will be lots more here. I don’t think we missed many sights in Rome and I loved every minute of it. My poor bottom sure took a beating though, with those dang cobble stones – youch!

Too soon it was time for my Grandma to leave…so we took this last picture…can’t tell we like each other, can you??

This is a picture of my First Christmas Party (once again, with New Parents Support Group clan!) We even had snow for the party! By the way, the snow was another first.

Well, that’s it for this page…as if that’s not enough!! Enjoy and look for more changes coming soon!