Rome!

This has been a long time in coming. Rome was almost a year ago. Yet, I still need to take the time and talk about it... because I LOVED ROME!

I was there just over a week, and most of the days I spent by myself while Jon was working. This means that I walked everywhere, went to a lot of museums and churches, and got lost frequently (direction is not my forte). I saw so much, and took so many pictures it is ridiculous. So here is a whirlwind tour of Rome for you.

Jon and I at the Colosseum. The Colosseum is cool. It's old and fascinating. Lets see... what else can I say about it?... its the Colosseum for crying out loud... and I was there.

This is me in front of the Pantheon. It is huge, and it has a hole in the ceiling that gives the Pantheon the boast that they have the biggest pillar in Rome... a pillar of light. Very crowded, but hey it's cool too, I can't blame everyone for wanting to see it.

These are the Baths of Caracalla. I loved this place. Peaceful, huge ruins that still had things like colored mosaics on the ground. They were fascinating. (I of course took all the self-guided audio tours whenever I went to a historical site/museum... because I'm a geek, and because I hate looking at stuff when I don't know anything about it... that's boring)

I took a whole day and just hit the churches in Rome. Each one I went into was breathtaking, and every one was breathtaking in a slightly different way.

Amazingly intricate detailing in this one...

This is a completely freestanding organ...

I had never seed so many different types of stone and marble....

There was a lot of interesting decor choices... a knight in one church ..... skulls, skeletons, and crossbones was the theme of another

This church had the head of John the Baptist as a relic.... the whole idea of relics was new to me. I guess I always knew about them, but just never thought about it. The idea of relics is now fully understood after Rome. We saw St Peter's chains, wood from the baby Jesus' manger, entire popes preserved and "on display" (for lack of a better term) under glass, all with altars and/or pews where you could pray and leave an offering. It was very different.

Saint Paul's Outside the Wall was the BIGGEST church I had ever seen (I hadn't seen the Vatican yet). It also had circular mosaics all around the church of all the popes that have ever been... and there have been a lot of popes.

Other things we saw in Rome...

This is the Trevi Fountain. It is pretty, and we saw it almost every night, because our favorite gelato place was just around the corner.... good memories.

The Ferrari museum/shop. Jon had to go in. Obviously.

And then Jon and I did go the Vatican together.

The museum was huge, and it had a whole lot of statues (which we had just seen a ton of) yet it didn't stop us from looking at almost all of them.

Jon found Gimli...

And raced chariots...

And then we hiked up the dome to the top.

Yes I am standing up straight. And Jon is a relatively skinny person. It was a tight fit.

This is us at the top.

So we had an incredible time in Rome. We saw just about everything, and yet the list continues of things we would like to see, or would like to see again.

I was one in a million tourists, so although I felt out of place, I really wasn't. And, I only got hopelessly lost once; but just so you know... even at 11:00 at night (and the subways shut down at 11:30) you can find people who will help you get where you need to be. And they are nice even if they don't speak ANY English and the only Italian you speak is made up from Spanish words you remember.

Needless to say, I would go back. In a heartbeat.

Lake Shasta

Fun, Family, and a HILARIOUS 2 Year Old

So, this past July we spent a few days on a houseboat on Lake Shasta. I just ran into the pictures again, and thought they were worth sharing. This is the houseboat. It was big, and nice, and you could run the AC during the day (a life-saver because there were record highs that whole week in CA). Needless to say we spent a lot of time in the water.

Here is Kyra who learned to swim with a lifejacket, all by herself, thanks to the patience and caring of her daddy. They were best buds all week long.

Here is Grandma Jill and Kyra on the boat.

And here they are practicing the thumbs up sign (meaning of course ... go faster).

And then we get to Kyra's favorite part of Lake Shasta... tubing.

Kyra and Daddy once again. She was perfectly calm and very comfortable being towed behind the boat.

This picture of her with her thumb straight up in the air is priceless, and oh so accurate. She wanted to go FASTER on EVERYTHING. Faster swimming in the water, faster on the boat, and especially faster on the tube.

This picture is of Kyra going quite fast enough.

This is what happens when Kyra didn't get to go as fast as she wanted. She just laid her head down on the tube, and acted bored. You gotta love the drama.

Funny Faces

Kyra and Jon have a funny face game they play. Dad pulls a funny face and then Kyra pulls a funny face. Actually I should say that Kyra pulls a silly face. Anytime you call Kyra "funny" she says "No, I'n not funny, I'n silly... Dad's funny."
In my opinion... they're both.

The Texas State Fair

Ah... the smell of Corney dogs and fried food and barnyard animals. Wow.... it's amazing that we love the fair and continue to go back, but we do. Kyra had a great time.

The "Little Hands on the Farm" exhibit was so much fun. In this area she gets to plant, and collect fruit from the trees, and eggs from the hens, and milk from the cows, and drive a tractor, and then 'sell' it all back to get a treat at the end. It's geared toward kids ages 3-6, but even being young she caught on to the tasks pretty well and loved every minute.



The petting zoo was a riot to watch. Had she been able, she would have taken all 50 goats home with her. She had little fear of any of the animals. She fed the bison, and petted the sheep, and the pigs, and kangaroos, but by far her favorite were the goats. She gave them hugs and talked to them and petted and fed and followed her favorites around the pen. She was so stinkin' cute!








On the way through the fairgrounds Kyra found a water fountain. We could have spent all day at the water fountain. I have to take a moment here to thank Jen (my sister-in-law) for the good advice early-on to always have an extra outfit in the diper bag. It came in handy this day. And I'm so glad I could let her run without worrying what the devil she was going to wear when she was done. She spent a good half an hour in the water, and when I say in the water I mean in the middle of the fountain, she is no bench sitter. If you can be more wet than drenched that's what she was, but look at the joy on her face. You can't buy that.

After our fun in the fountain we headed over to the butterfly exhibit. Kyra loves butterflies, but found that the poster of a butterfly that she could put her hands all over was much more fun to play with and look at than those elusive fluttery things in the air. She calls the orange and black butterflies "Monicas."


Bye...

The House that Jon Built...

After putting up all the shelving in the living room and in Jon's office we had quite a few flat boxes left over... so Jon and Kyra put them to use.

Kyra loves her little castle, and Jon loves building it for her (again and again ... it is still standing 3 weeks later despite being re-located a number of times). The house also has a number of stickers, and crayon decor that add to its fabulousness (if that's a word).

They sure do have fun together.

Amsterdam

It's been a while since we got back, but Europe was great and I never did share any pics with anyone. So, here are a few of Amsterdam. We spent time in Rome and Paris as well, but those pics aren't on my computer, so I'll have to upload those another time.

We loved Amsterdam, and what a shock it was going from the noisy, busy, super touristy, (yet still lovely) Rome, to a city that is basically silent because everyone rides bikes. Even the public "train" system runs on electricity so it is basically silent. It's easy to get run over Amsterdam.

This is a bike parking garage. The bikes were so packed in I don't know how people got thier bikes (or selves) in or out.

Here we are (self-portrait style) in front of the New Church on the Dam Square. And the next is us in front of the Royal Palace, also on the Dam square.

I probably walked through the Dam Square 4-6 times a day, because it was in the middle of where I was going, and because I get lost a lot and end up walking the opposite direction I think I'm going (it's a miracle I made it home).

This is us in front of the entrance to the mall (I love Europe).

And another of us in front of one of the many, beautiful, canals. The history of Amsterdam is fascinating (I spent 90% of my time in museums while Jon was working... boring to many, I know, but it's what I love). By the by, in pictures it looks like Jon and I spent all our time together, the reality is I had a few days in each city pretty much to myself, we just only took pictures with the two of us.

We did take a canal tour together, and here are a few pics. Our favorite is the brick house boat. You don't see that every day (or really consider it to be a good idea -- but it seems to have worked out just fine).

Keukenhof (The Tulip Gardens)

April was an amazing time to be in the Netherlands. All the tulips and spring bulbs were in bloom. It was beautiful... just take a look....