Oh, to live the life of a gypsy.  Or a carnie.  Or a diplomat.  They are really similar if you think about it.

In the month since my last post, we’ve been a bit busy.  We finally moved to our permanent house (yay!).  Which means that our internet was down for a week.  We also got our household effects that we haven’t seen since mid June of last year (big YAY!).  Which means there is a crap-ton of things to put away, and a lot of, “Why in the world do we still have this?”  *There are a few perks to living simply for eleven months*  Not to mention all the things that we either wish we had packed, or thought we had packed and didn’t.  Oh, and did I mention that when we packed out last summer, we thought we were going to be moving to the west coast of Africa?  Not Central Europe.  So, instead of skis and scarves, we have a plethora of beach towels and sand toys.    Thankfully, we were able to use them last weekend.  (How’s that for a lead-in?!)

One of the great things about living in another country as a diplomat is that we celebrate all the American federal holidays, and the Bosnian ones.  That allows for us to vacation during times that would be very busy in the US, but not so much in Europe.  For Memorial Day, we decided to do just that.  Up until now, the only real outing we had made was our trip to Mostar.  So, when the opportunity presented itself to go to Croatia for the weekend, we jumped on it!  And for added fun, we went with our awesome friends, who are also Texans I might add, The Denneys.  You can read Karen’s blog post about our trip here.

Before I start, let me say, this post is not for those with a weak stomach.  Like, for example, if you were Wyatt, you wouldn’t want to read this.  You’re about to see why.

We left Friday afternoon for the 6-8 hour drive (yep, it’s that big of a window when you are traveling with 4 grown ups and 5 kids).  The kids were champs and we made it across the border into Croatia before we had to stop for dinner.  We found a quaint little restaurant that served pasta for the kids, and PORK for the parents.  Did you hear me?  I said PORK!  P-O-R-K!!!  The first sign we were out of Bosnia and into Croatia.  As we were getting ready to leave, Wyatt did a little complaining that his tummy hurt, but I let it pass, since he was not bad enough to turn down the snickerdoodle cupcakes that Karen brought.  In hindsight, I should have paid closer attention.

We drove several more hours and made it to our final destination, Zadar, Croatia. When I say we made it, I mean we made it to the city itself.  It was pouring rain and 10:00pm, so we had to do a little searching for our hotel.  In the meantime, Wyatt’s tummy was getting worse.  So, in a fit of desperation, I quickly dumped the snacks out of the snack bag onto my feet and tossed the bag back to him, just in time for exactly 2/3 of the vomit to make it in.  We weren’t so lucky with the other 1/3.  Oh, and the bag?  It maybe had a few holes in it.  So, for the next 20 minutes, we drove around in the freezing rain with my hand out the window holding a bag of puke.  All the while, trying to hand wipes back to the back seat to clean up the other 1/3.  Never before have I wished to be Elastagirl from The Incredibles like I did that night.  So, we were off to a rough start.  But when we pulled up to our hotel, things began to brighten up.  The fresh air may have helped a bit too.

Our hotel was awesome!  It’s called the Falkensteiner Funimation Borik.  I know, it sounds cheesy, but it was great!  All inclusive, on the beach, swimming pools and a kids play area.  You can’t beat that!  It would have been better if the weather had cooperated more, but we still figured out how to have fun!

The indoor play area was the first place we explored.  It didn’t disappoint!

Then we walked around the beach outside the hotel.

We were able to squeeze in some swimming before the rain moved it.  Tristan has become a much stronger swimmer lately.  And with floaties, Wyatt is a regular Michael Phelps!

This is where the Roberts’ vacation merged with the Griswold’s.  After a good long swim, Wyatt started fading fast.  We thought he was just tired, but we were wrong.  Boy, were we wrong.  We still aren’t positive what happened, but he either ate something bad, or more than likely came in contact with something VERY bad.  I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just say that we spent a very long, painful night together.  This was definitely not the trip to pack light.  We ran out of underwear for him by midnight.  Poor baby!

Things didn’t improve in the morning, so we had the hotel call in a doctor to look at him.  The doctor agreed with us that he probably had some kind of bacterial infection, but he was definitely dehydrated.  And in our adventurous spirit and desire to experience all that each country has to offer, it was time to check out a Croatian hospital!  I joke, but it really was scary at the time.  And besides being a great guy, Byron is also a Bosnian (or if you happen to be in Croatia, a Croatian speaker) so he was kind enough to go with Brady and Wyatt to the hospital to translate.  What a blessing that was!  He was even there to hear the nurse grumble under her breath, “No wonder he’s sick.  He doesn’t have any socks on.”  Welcome to the Balkans!

Unfortunately for Brady and Wyatt, they spent the next five hours at the hospital getting the IV.  We did our best to have fun while they were gone.

Karen is my absolute favorite person in Sarajevo!  We have so much in common and always have fun together!  It was a real treat to learn that she loves to take pictures too!

Before the rain started, we tried to squeeze in a family photo shoot for the Denneys.  I was only able to get a few of the boys.  Family pics, to be continued!

So, Brady and Wyatt got back, and Wyatt looked like a whole different boy!  IV’s are amazing things!  We did our best to make the most of the night and enjoy the rest of our trip.  The next morning was check out, but we did manage to squeeze in a couple of games of ping pong first!

After breakfast and check out, we decided to see what Zadar really had to offer!  And thankfully, Wyatt’s stomach cramps held off (mostly) during our day trip downtown.  First stop: Ice cream. At 10:00am.  ‘Cause that’s how we roll.

When traveling with this many children, one of whom was violently ill the day before, we have learned that the only way to succeed with a smile is to divide and conquer!  So, the dads took the big boys up to the top of an The Cathedral of Anastasia and Karen and I had the littles.  While we waited we listened to the sweetest street performer and his scooter-drawn trailer!  The babies loved it!

After a couple of songs, he asked us to move the strollers up by him and handed me HIS camera, and asked me to take his picture.  He said he wanted to put it on the cover of his next CD!

If you look closely, you’ll see Brady’s pink salmon shirt at the top of the bell tower.

After the boys had their turn, we ditched the babies and Karen and I took our cameras up the bell tower.  Here are some of the images I captured.

After our picture taking extravaganza, we met up with the rest of our crew at the sea organ.  I hadn’t done much research on Zadar before we left, so I didn’t know what it was.  Basically, someone way smarter than me figured out a way to make the waves make a sort of whistle as they hit the shore.  It really is a sort of creepy but strangely beautiful sound.  Of course, the boys loved yelling into the holes that the sound comes out of to hear their own “special melodies!”

We also coerced them all into taking some more pictures!

Then we found a park to burn some energy at.

 

Karen and I often joke (sort of joke, but really hope) that Cullen and Lyla will eventually get married.  It’ll make Christmases so much easier on us, and after all, isn’t it about us?  Well, I’m thinking that Cullen is going to have to learn not to steal Lyla’s toys before the wedding, or we may have more episodes like this:

 

Zadar is one of those places that isn’t as well known as say Split or Dubrovnik.  But it truly was the perfect weekend getaway for us (minus the ER trip!)