Vacanze

So...finally we begin this summer break with a trip!!!
My family & I just came back from a short weekend trip to Arizona because my childhood friend Isabel, from Italy, was getting sealed in the Mesa temple with a returned missionary who served in Italy. It was great to be able to attend her sealing, I really never thought when I left Italy 14 years ago that I would be present at her wedding...but funny how things work out! 

We went with my parents, siblings and grandma and rented a house with a swimming pool. It was great to just relax the day after the wedding and to dress Aria in her swimming suite for the first time and seeing her in the water :) 

The driving went really well, it was fun, and Aria was super good for 11 hours, well the last hour each way she did get really tired and sick of being in her car seat...poor girl.

Something crazy and scary and funny that I will never forget, happened when we got to Glendale and were trying to find this house we rented for the weekend.  So, never really trust mapquest because those directions just might get you lost. That is what I learned on this trip. All the directions were correct up to the part when we got to the city. The directions basically told us to go the opposite direction of where this house was, and so we drove...it must have been 20 minutes the opposite direction. And at about 9:30 pm, all in the dark, it was pretty scary where we ended up. We (Fer & I, and Katy) called it the "ghetto".

Here we were at night, in a city we didn't know, lost, with a baby, (a crying baby), stopped at a gas station who knows where. We weren't really scared, just frustrated that we were lost, until a freaky lady jumped on our car... Well, we were at this gas station, I was talking on the phone with my mom I think it was, trying to figure out where we were (they had found the place with the GPS on their phone), and during this time Fer was driving around the gas station trying to look at what roads we were on.

Then all of a sudden, Fer stops the car, I turn my head around to face the front of the car, and scream! There was an old and skinny raggedy looking lady that popped out of nowhere and was trying to tell us to open our doors and let her in. Ahhhhh!! I screamed at Fer, (poor guy) and told him to hurry and get us out of there (even though he was trying to do that already). Good thing we left fast, and she stopped bothering us.

 So then we decided to just park in front of the gas station, where there were more lights and were it was probably safer. (We were still trying to figure out where we were). P.S. while we were there we saw that crazy lady walking up the street, hitchhiking, trying to find a ride.

While we were parked in front of the gas station Aria was still crying, and so Fer takes her out of the car to just hold her upright to see if she calmed down, which she did a little. But as Fer was doing that outside (close to the car) two teenagers, I think they were Hispanic, (not that it matters :) ), came up to Fer (who was holding the baby), and asked him if he could buy them "grape juice" (don't know if this is a code for something else)...freaky!!!!!!!!!! He said no, they then stood by our car, looking around, and so we got Aria back inside, and we decided to leave that parking spot and just drive around that gas station. It was scary...it seemed like everywhere we turned it wasn't safe, and Aria kept on crying as we put her back in her car seat... STRESSFUL!!!

Anyways, about an hour and a half later we finally got to that house, and were so tired we all went right to bed! From there everything was great, the day after we attended the sealing of Isabel and Joel, their luncheon, and reception. The day after we spent the Sunday at the pool, and Monday we left again to come home. Oh...forgot something...on the way there...I got my first ticket! Nothing to be proud of, I know, but oh well! At least I can say it was my first ticket in 6 1/2 years that I have had my license...pretty good I think...

What more should I expect? A trip with the Bonfanti family always involves lots of driving, us getting lost, getting tickets, and most of the times getting mad :) But, it's a trip nonetheless!!

So this was our first trip of the summer, Aria's first trip ever, and Mexico is waiting for us in a week and a half! Hooray!

Here is a picture of Aria in her swimming suite :) and...have a great weekend!!