Hiding With Her Twin Babies
Chapter 45

The children are excited as they pack their bags to Africa for the first time. They have never seen animals in their natural habitat, and to them, it is exciting. Jennie smiles as she hears them talk about seeing elephants, lions, hippos and other animals. They can also not wait to see the Victoria waterfalls. They will have to go through the border of Zimbabwe to see it, but Dante and Jennie want them to experience that, and they will do whatever they have to to make the children remember the days they spend in Botswana and Zimbabwe.

“Did you know the locals know Victoria Falls as Mosi-oa-Tunya — “The Smoke That Thunders,” Jayden says. He is the one that has read up the most about their trip, and he loves when Jayda and Jack listen to him when he talks about Botswana and Zimbabwe.

“Really? It sounds like something out of an adventure movie, like Indiana Jones,” Jack says.

“I know, right?” Jayden says he wants to tell them more, but Jennie reminds them that they have to get up early the following morning to be ready to fly to Botswana. They will use their private jet and has permission to land at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, which is nine miles outside Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. They will stay a few days in Gaborone and spend days shopping and looking around the capital city.

The flight is long, and the two couples, Jen and Logan and Jennie and Dante, with the children, decide to take it easy on the first day in Botswana and rest at their hotel in Gaborone. However, on the second day, the children are getting restless. So the adults take them to Manyana Village, a small village outside Gaborone. First, they visit the Manyana rock paintings – the most visited rock painting site in the Gaborone area. The pictures are spread over five separate areas of rock cliff face. Images include giraffe, antelope, human figures and geometric designs, which date from between 1100 and 1700AD.

After that, they visit Kolobeng – The site of David Livingstone’s third and final mission station was Kolobeng, approximately 20 km west of Gaborone, past Gabane. Here he built the house and church where he and his wife Mary would work to convert the local Bakwena to Christianity. Their daughter Elizabeth, who died at six weeks, is buried here. What remains now is the house’s foundation, but the history is impressive, and the children enjoy listening to the tour guide.

Lastly, they go for a Donkey Cart ride into the village to visit the Livingstone Tree. The children enjoy this part of their day trip the most. They had never experienced anything like that and enjoyed the ride. After that, they went back to Gaborone and went shopping. The day was tiring, and after eating, the children wanted to rest a bit near the hotel’s swimming pool. The rest of the day, the family rest as they decided to visit some game reserves around Gaborone and the children could not wait to see the animals. Finally, they went to the Lion park resort on their third day, where the children enjoyed themselves. It is an amusement and theme park. They visit the monuments and art galleries. Then it is time for them to go to Kasane. They drive through Botswana and see the Kalahari desert, with some tour guides to Kasane. They sleep over in many little towns and lodges along the way. Africa is beautiful, and once you visit Africa, it is in your b***d.

When they reach Kasane, they go on a day tour to Victoria Falls, and they have to pass through the borders of Botswana and Zimbabwe. The Falls are beautiful, and the trio does not want to leave, but soon they get hungry, and they all go to a restaurant to eat some food and then walk around and visit the local markets. They go home later the day, and the children, Logan and Jen, stay at the lodge while Jen and Dante celebrate the end of the day as the sun sinks into the Chobe River on a 3-hour guided sunset cruise. It is the first time they are alone on their holiday, but they are not worried about it as the children enjoy their honeymoon as much as they do.

“I love you, Mrs Casella,” Dante says as he leans over and k****s her.

“I love you, Mr Casella,” Jennie whispers back to Dante. Dante and Jennie enjoy their night while the children and their grandparents enjoy eating local foods. The time goes by too fast for the two couples and children, and the day they have to go back to Gabarone comes too quickly. This time they fly with a friend of Dante back to Gaborone in a small aircraft and can see the Kalahari desert from the sky. They all know they will have to leave this beautiful country soon and go back home. The children are not pleased as they know they will have to go back to school one of these days, but it is the twins’ birthday soon, and they are looking forward to that. Jack’s birthday is only a couple of weeks after theirs so they will have two parties in a short time.

A couple of days after they get back home, they show all their friends and family the photos of their holiday and how big the elephants, lions and other animals are. Enzo, Andrei and Bernardo would love to go to Africa one day, and they promise each other they will make a trip there one day with their loved ones. Logan and Jen can not stop talking about how wonderful it was. They are gathered at Jen and Logan’s house.

“You went on honeymoon with your children,” Mabel says, shaking her head.

“Well, it is not their real honeymoon,” Jen whispers to Mabel and shows her the tickets she books Jennie and Dante to Paris. Mabel smiles as she knows her mother knows Jennie will not be able to decline, and Jen and Logan will have all the time they want to spend with the trio, as everyone calls the little Casellas by now.

“You are sneaky, mom,” Mabel says with a smile.

“I have bought Enzo and Rose tickets to the Bahamas for their honeymoon as they had not had a honeymoon yet, and she is not three months pregnant, yet so they can enjoy it while little Tammy stays with your father and me,” Jen says, and Mabel again can only shake her head. She knows her mother will buy everyone tickets somewhere for their honeymoon, and she wonders where her mother will send her and Bernardo. Mabel sighs as Bernardo still has to ask her to marry him, and she does not know when that will happen. Angy and Andrei are also not engaged yet, and she wonders when Andrei will ask her sister to marry him. Mabel looks at her family, that are all looking at the family holiday photos as she refuses to call them honeymoon photos. A couple does not take a whole family with them on their honeymoon. Luckily her mother is thinking like her and will make Jennie and Dante take a romantic honeymoon on their own.

Jen decides to wait until the twins’ birthday before giving Jennie and Dante and Enzo and Rose their fully booked honeymoon tickets. She knows Jennie will not be too thrilled to be away from her children, but she will have to learn to not always be with them. Besides, poor Dante did not have much alone time with Jennie since they were married. She loves her grandchildren, but she knows a husband and wife need to be alone sometimes to get even closer to each other. Jennie is smiling as she shows the photos to Angy and Andrei. They all watch the videos together, and Jen makes sure to feed the children and make them sleepy so they can stay over and Jennie and Dante can have a night alone tonight. When Jennie and Dante get up to go home, the trio is asleep, and Jen does not want them to wake them up to take them home.

“You two go home. They can sleep here with us tonight,” Jen says. Dante smiles as he knows his mother wants him and Jennie to be alone, and he appreciates it. He wants some alone time with Jennie. He loves his children as much as Jennie does, but sometimes he feels neglected by Jennie as she always puts the children first in everything. Dante wants to be her number one for only a couple of nights a month, and he decides her will talk to Jennie about it when they get home. They need to have a weekend a month for only the two of them and let the children stay with their grandparents. Jennie will have to let go of the children for a bit as they need to stop being so attached to her all the time. Jayda does not even want to eat before her mother gets home, and Dante had his hands full with the trio when Jennie was working long hours and came home late.

“Well, looks like we have the night to ourselves,” Jennie says and lays her head on Dante’s shoulder. Dante loves her so much and wishes sometimes she would let the children stay a holiday at their grandparents so they can go away and have some alone time. For eight years, he has been searching for her, and he wants to be selfish sometimes and be number one in her life.

“I think we should do it more often. The children are almost eight, and I think they can stay with my parents for a few days so we can have alone time,” Dante says.

“I do not like being away from them, Dante. But, I can not live without them close to me,” Jennie says.

“They will be fine for a few days, and besides, your parents have asked if they can come and visit them in Russia. You can not baby them all the time, Jennie,” Dante says.

“I know, but they are still so young. They are my babies, and what if they need me?” Jennie asks.

“What if I need you? I want to spend some alone time with you,” Dante says, and Jennie can see that he feels neglected. She knows she will have to let go of her children for holidays and give Dante more attention. She knows Dante is right. She is selfish and does not want to share her children with their grandparents. She knows Boris and Loraine miss them and would love to spend more time with them.

“Fine, the next school holiday, they can go and visit my parents, but when they need us, we will fly and go fetch them,” Jennie says. She smiles at Dante and k****s him on the cheek.

“Well, Donna Casella, tonight you are mine, and you will not get a lot of sleep,” Dante says with a naughty smile. It is the weekend, so Jennie does not have to work. They can sleep in tomorrow morning. The holiday with the children was fun, but both are tired after a long time away from home. They did so much stuff while away they hardly got any rest.

“I am going to spend more time with you. You are right. The children are getting older, and we will need alone time. I neglected you, my love, and I am sorry,” Jennie says.

“Don’t be sorry. It is because you are a great mother and wants to be near our children all the time. It was only you three for a long time before Jack, and I walked into your lives. I am glad you expected us as part of your little family and that we will be together forever. We will also have a lot of alone time when the children leave the house one day,” Dante says.

“You do not want more children?” Jennie asks.

“I don’t know. We can try for another baby if you want,” Dante says with his naughty smile.

“I don’t know if I have the energy to raise another baby,” Jennie admit. Dante smiles. He also feels the same, but it is not only his decision.

“Maybe we are getting too old to have other children,” Dante teases.

“Hey, we are not too old. I just don’t know if we should have another baby since the twins and Jack are almost eight now, and how will they handle another baby?” Jennie asks.

“Let’s not worry about that now,” Dante says as he pulls up to the house and opens the door for Jennie. He picks her up and carries her to their room as they walk in.