Smorgasborg

The last week has been full of fun things- the way summer should be! Too many things to give them each an individual post- so I'm throwing them all together here.

First up- 4th of July

Ryan was the grill master 

We are lucky enough to have a pool for our apartment building

Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. Swimming, BBQ, fireworks. Last year we flew back to the US on 4th of July, so we didn't do much celebrating. This year I wanted it to feel like 4th of July, so we decided to have a big BBQ at our house with friends. My friend Angie came over with her kids and we swam all afternoon, and then that evening we invited the other Americans that work on the temple to come over for BBQ.

And we can't forget our Sister Missionaries! 

I was quite impressed with what we were able to put
together with our limited resources.

Everyone gathered around the table

Kate, Ellika and Charly

Next on the list- A day downtown. Angie lives in downtown, so we drive to her house and then walk/bus to the sites. This day we walked to the Colosseum and had a picnic lunch at a park across the street. 

Clark and Owen

Lunch time! (wow- thats a cheesy smile!)

Not a bad view from the park

Gelato is a must when you're walking around downtown

We visited the San Pietro in Vincoli church. ( St. Peter in Chains) Supposedly these are the chains that Peter was chained with in Jerusalem. How all these artifacts fromJerusalem made it to Rome - I have no idea.

Also in the church is this sculpture of Moses by Michelangelo 

After our afternoon downtown we rushed home for Kate and Clark's Italian lesson.
They are doing tutoring with Flaminia two days a week

This is a little view of some of the shops lit up at night.

Friday night Ryan and I went out with Brian and Angie for a date night. During the summer, along one strip of the Lungo Tevere (Tiber River) there are shops and restaurants set up and open in the evenings. We walked up and down looking at all the little shops and finally settled down to eat at a hamburger place.  There was also live music.

Saturday we drove to the Cascata delle Marmore. It is a man made waterfall, made by the ancient Romans and it one of the tallest waterfalls in Italy and the tallest man-made waterfall in Europe. It was beautiful! And the perfect way to spend a hot summer day. The mist coming off the waterfall kept us cool all day.

Oh, did I mention the Merx family was with us again? They are pretty much family now. Traveling with friends makes it funner for everyone!

We did a silly picture because I can't get JR to do a serious one at all

We made the 800 stair step climb to the top. 

Had to add a picture of our favorite expat family

They stop the flow of the waterfall from 1pm-3pm, so here's
a before and after.

It was so beautiful! I could not get enough of it!

There was a fish pond down at the bottom and we had to stop and feed the fish whatever was left from our lunch.

Last but not least we took another little trip down town to see the canon firing. Its been a tradition since the 1800's - they shoot the canon everyday exactly at noon, to alert the churches to ring their bells. It was a HOT day and we were sweating buckets, but it was fun to watch! We had a picnic lunch and of course had another stop for gelato on our walk back home. 

Thanks Angie for getting us out of the house and putting up with my rowdy bunch! We feel lucky to have such good friends to adventure with!!

First Week of Our Summer in Rome

Last day of school

The first question anyone asks me is "where are you going for the summer?" And my answer - "we're staying in Rome!" And I couldn't be more happy about it. I feel like it took us a whole year to get settled into life here, so, we are finally getting out there and exploring Italy. I very much wanted to stay in Rome this summer, so I can start crossing things off our bucket list.

Charly with her preschool teacher Ms Andrews. JR thinks he is in Charly's class and wanted in on the picture too

The last week of school and the first week of summer is filled with birthday parties. Anyone with a summer birthday has their party at the end of the school year- so we went to lots of parties. 

Clark with Alon and Goni

 We also celebrated Father's Day. In Italy, Father's Day is in March on San Guseppe day. (St. Joseph, father of Jesus) So lucky for Ryan, he gets two Fathers Day.
Thanks to help of my sister Nancy, Ryan got redvines, his favorite pens and a new backpack.

I also managed to get a 12 pack of Dr Pepper

Clark's best friend Alon spent the day at our house.

This week as also been full of swimming! We are lucky enough to have a pool for our apartment building, and even though its freezing, we still swam! We also started swimming lessons two days a week.

It's hard to see, but the sculpture behind them is a turtle

 Saturday we went to the Parco dei Mostri , or The Monster Park. All these sculptures were made in the 1500's. From what I understand, there was a prince who commissioned sculptors to created this 'park' for his wife. It was fun to walk around and see all the different ancient sculptures.

"Fluffy" the 3 headed dog

This is the most famous sculpture - L'Orco. It's a representation of the king of the underworld, symbolizing being swallowed up by death.

Why is it so cute to see a little boy passed out ?!