The adventure begins (a little back-tracking for fun)

Going through our Italy pics, I found a few that captured the often undocumented side of traveling. We headed off for Europe in late September of 2009, just after discovering I was pregnant. Little did I know, even that early on, how I'd already be feeling the effects.

Here we have my daily afternoon snooze. Poor Ben would either be cooped up in the hotel room, pouring over our Lonely Planet travel guide, planning our evening adventures

or pacing around the property, snapping artistic close-up pictures of grape vines and bidding his time 'til I woke up.

Even with the afternoon naps and early bedtime, we did a ton of walking, and I needed frequent breaks. Ben was such a good sport waiting for me to regain my strength for another gelatto.

Cured meats were out for me, but Ben certainly benefited- more meat for him! (note the delicious prosciutto I had to hand over from my plate). I couldn't stand the smell of meat, which left me waiting outside various meat shops while Ben went to procure yet another log of salami.

I couldn't believe how thirsty I was all the time. Luckily, Rome has these fabulous public fountains all over the place with cool, clean water. Yum! After we left Rome, I insisted we lug around gallon jugs of water in the car. Wish we had a photo of that.

Susie, my mother-in-law, claims she could tell I had that pregnancy "glow" in this picture, but honestly, I was just pooped and needed to rest...again!

All in all, an amazing trip and I'm so glad we took it. I think it will be quite some time before I look like me again, tho'.

So for the meanwhile, we continue to wait in anticipation for the amnio results...