Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our Flag

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Happy Veterans Day!

I just have a quick, cute story I wanted to share from earlier this week.

On Tuesday I took the kids to the Pediatrician for Ryan's 18 month wellness checkup. The office is at the new hospital. As we were walking up Rylee (4) noticed the big American Flag that was flying on the flag pole in front of the entrance to the hospital. She got VERY excited and started saying (very loudly) "Oh Mom, Look! It's my FAVORITE flag!!! It's the America's Flag Mom! Oooooh....I LOVE that flag!!!" As we walked up the sidewalk and approached the valet parking area, there was an older gentleman and he had tears in his eyes. He told me that if the rising generation were more like her (my Rylee) he wouldn't be near as worried.

Rylee has a strong bond with the Flag. My mom designed a Title of Liberty Flag (http://www.latterdaybanners.com) that she is promoting to fly with the American Flag. Rylee loves getting both flags from her and displaying them in her room and waving them around. I look forward to as she gets a little older and we can teach about our great nation, our freedoms and the great men and women (and their families) who sacrifice so much for us.

I am so thankful for our veterans, for all those who served, are serving and who will serve to protect our Rights, Freedoms and our Constitution. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Thank You. God Bless America!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

HaLLoWeeN FUN!

I LOVE Halloween! We have so much fun! It felt like we celebrated for weeks and I loved every moment. There is something about the crispness of fall in the air and the light in your kids' eyes that just makes the holidays so dang fun!
ImageWe started off with a friend party. I love my community! All the gals are super sweet and sooo creative! Amy had the funnest Halloween party and it was so nice to let the kiddos have fun and to visit with so many awesome women!

A few weeks before Halloween we got together with some good friends from highschool- Malinda and Camie and we decorated Halloween Sugar Cookies! I spaced and forgot my camera, but Malinda has some pictures of it up on her blog! We had a lot of fun, and I am thinking we need to make some more for Christmas, because let's face it, I make some dang good cookies, and they never last long enough =) Plus we have lots of fun getting together with friends!

ImageImageImageThe Monday before Halloween our neighborhood had a really fun get together.

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On Wednesday night we carved our pumpkins!

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Friday morning Rylee had her preschool party

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Friday Afternoon my Sister Kim came into town and we took the kids out to the Staheli Family Farm!
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My family all came into town Friday night. We were up until after 2 am playing games, visiting, eating TONS of snacks (don't forget the Pepsi!), and just having a lot of fun!

On Saturday, Cody and I took the kids over to see his Grandpa Chamberlain. It's been a tradition of ours every Halloween to take the kids over in their costumes. Loraine and Corine love seeing them, and they always have a $2 bill and some candy on hand.
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That night we took the kids Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood. My family came with us! It was so fun to see the kids go door to door. Ryan would try to go into all the houses and it brought back memories of Rylee doing the same thing in past years. Rylee got TONS and TONS of compliments on her costume. I loved the way she would light up and come and tell me someone else loved it. =) I sure love my kids, and I cherish these fun times and memories we are able to share.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Our last days in Rome

We were on our own for our last few days in Rome. Before going we had called the travel agency and asked where we should go and if it was worth venturing out our last days. They told us that Rome was HUGE and most people spent weeks there. They said we would have plenty to do in the town, and that we still would only see a fraction of it. So, we didn't really plan to venture out, and we sure wished we would have!

We aren't really THAT into art, sculptures, architecture, etc. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE what we saw, but after seeing 3 or 4 churches we were good. We didn't need to see all 1200. So, we really wished we would have ventured out more, because after a couple days we felt like we had seen the "highlights" of Rome.

The first couple of days on our own were great. We did a TON of walking (don't worry, I'd learned to wear tennis shoes!), and we saw some amazing sites!

ImageThe Trevi Fountain was one of our favorite sites! We came here a few times. We threw our coins in and made our wishes. They also had the BEST ice-cream "gelato" shop nearby. It was always so busy though! It was funny, one night we came down and there were some teenage boy who made signs asking for "Pretty Girls Only: Hug or Kiss from Hot Boys" They entertained the crowd for quite a while and had everyone laughing pretty good.

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ImageThe Spanish Steps weren't as impressive as I was thinking they would be. They always look so beautiful in pictures and movies- maybe we were just there the wrong time of year? But at least we can say that we have climbed them!
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ImageView out from the steps- another VERY popular area
ImageOur next stop was the Piazza de Popollo. This area was HUGE and a lot less crowded than most of the other sites we saw. There were some beautiful fountains and sculptures.
ImageWe came across a lot more graffiti. I think I am starting to see the art form of it =)
ImageWe came across a nice, very shaded park that had the most phenomenal views!
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ImageIt was our "tradition" to explore during the early morning/afternoon, until about 3:00 and then head back to our hotel for a nap, and then head back out to enjoy the night life.
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ImageThere were street musicians everywhere! I loved it! It really set the atmosphere, and there was some really good talent! After the first few days I told Cody I was sad that I hadn't seen an accordion player yet (that kind of symbolized Italy to me). Our last night we finally saw one, but I didn't get a picture.
ImageWe also got to check out the Pantheon. This was a temple built in honor of all the Olympian gods. It was built between 27 and 25 A.D. It was given to Pope Boniface IV in 608 AD and turned into a Christian Church.
ImageMuch of the outside has been remodeled, but the inside has been completely preserved.
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ImageMore walking!

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ImageOops, we had pictures from 2 cameras, and I didn't get the one of me off of Cody's in time to add to our Blog Board!
ImageNIGHT LIFE!

We did get brave one day and used their public transportation (subway and city bus) to venture about an hour out to a town called Tivoli.

ImageEntering the Subway. We were a little nervous, as we were told these were the main area for "gypsies" and where tourists needed to be careful.
ImageI think our hardest thing was purchasing the Metro tickets! Haha... and then trying to figure out which Line to take to get where. All in all it wasn't too bad though.

ImageWelcome to Tivoli! A quaint little town in the countryside. Cody was hoping for more of a mountain location, but it was still quite a different from Rome.

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Our main site to see in Tivoli was the Villa De' Este. It was beautiful! We spent a couple hours walking the grounds.
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And that pretty much sums up our trip! We really had a wonderful time and feel so blessed and lucky to have been able to have had this amazing opportunity. We can't give enough thanks to our wonderful parents who took such great care of kids while we were gone. Thank YOU! We were able to video conference with them each night. It was sure great to see Rylee and Ryan. We really did miss them. A few of my favorite moments from our chats: One night Rylee asked why we couldn't just come out of the screen and give her a hug....awwww... man did I want to! (especially to avoid our 21 hour head-ache of a flight home- but I won't bore you with those details!). Ryan would constantly blow up kisses. I sure love my kids! It was nice to get home and HUG them! And oh so nice to come home to a clean house! Thanks again parents for all you did. We sure couldn't have made it without you guys!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ancient Rome- Our Favorite Day!

The next day was probably our favorite! It was our tour of Ancient Rome. We were greeted that morning at our hotel by our guide- Leticia. She knew everything about ancient Rome, and she was fluent in 6 languages. The first part of our tour was done from our air conditioned car! A very nice break from the miles of walking in the heat we had done our first few days.

Our first stop was at the ancient Circus Maximus. We were given detailed descriptions on the games and entertainment that were provided here- mainly chariot races. It could accommodate up to 300,000 spectators. It was presumed that the upper rows were made of wood and it was recorded that at one time there was a collapse that killed 1,112 people. It was used until 549 AD.
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Then we drove the through the city and had various ancient ruins and temples pointed out. The majority of these buildings were built in 3 B.C. It's just amazing to me.
ImageTrajan's Markets- this was thought to be the headquarters of the imperial procurator, who managed the Forum of Trajan. The Forum of Trajan was devoted to functions like celebrations and displays.

ImageThis was Hercules's Temple. It was built in 3 A.D.

ImageThe 'Mouth of Truth' this stone was made famous in a movie (I can't remember which though, I had never head of it) , but in the movie, if you put your arm in there and told a lie, your arm would get cut off. It's popular for tourists to put their hands in =)

ImageThis was the view of the Roman Forum from the back streets we were able to drive on. We walked down through the forum a little later, but this was a great view of the Temples of Saturn and Concord. The Temple os Satrun was built in 497 AD and the Temple of Concord was built in 367 B.C. It was frequently repaired and completely reconstructed by Tiberius.

ImageMore of the Forum from the top view

This back street that we were on drove around to Rome's Government Buildings.

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Their were protest banners hung around the buildings. This boy had been imprisoned and Rome was protesting to get his released. These two staircases were carved by Michaelangelo.

ImageThe Theater of Marcellus- It was begun by Caesar and completed by Augustus in 11 BC. It could seat 15,000 spectators. It was one of the only permanent theaters built in Rome. Most were only made of wood.
ImageNext we drove down and walked through the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum was the commercial, religious, political and legal center of the city.
ImageThe Arch of Septimius Severus, erected in 202 AD to commemorate the emperor who extended the boundaries of the Empire as far as Mesopotamia.
ImageA view of the back of the Temple of Saturn. You can see where it was severely damaged by fire centuries ago.
ImageThe Basilica Julia, the most well preserved building in the Forum
ImageIn one of the temples, they had this neat display room with actual sculptures, marble flooring and amazing relics found during the excavating.
ImageThe Arc di Tito- A Victory Arch for one of the Emperors
ImageThis Temple of Venus. It was huge, it went from the Roman Forum to the Colosseum.
ImageThe Arch of Constantine. This was the last monument added to the Great Square of the Colosseum. It was erected in 312 AD by the Senate and People of Rome in honor of the Emperor.
ImageOne of our biggest highlights- the Colosseum! More than 100,000 cubic meters of travertine were used. Even the metal pins that held the blocks together weighed more than 300 tons. It was started by Vespasian about 70 AD and opened by Titus 10 years later. The ceremonies and games went on for 100 days and some 5000 wild animals were put to death during that time.
The arches at ground level were numbered and acted as assigned seating. Each sector was reserved for a particular class of citizens. Places on top were for the least important. Everyone got in for free. The Colosseum could accommodate 70,000 people. The last show that was known to be held was in 523, it was only wild animal hunts. Gladiator fighting was abolished in 438 AD.
Under the arena was a complex system of passages and room. They contained facilities and stored stage equipment for the shows. A rope and pulley kind of elevator was used to bring men, scenery and animals onto the fighting area. On one occasion the system was used to bring 100 lions into the arena at the same time.
The gladiators had their own barracks to enter the arena, it was an underground passageway.
It's so appalling to me how long the gladiator "games" went on for and the thousands that were killed. What made it even more sick, is according to our guide, these games were the people's lunch and dinner shows! How could you eat while something like that was going on? So disturbing!

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ImageYou can get the idea where the floor is (the outcropping at the other end) Imagine that covering the entire center. Then in all the underground caverns you can see, there were animals, and scenery that would come up through the floor. Pretty amazing what they thought to do for entertainment.
ImageWhile we were there they had some really cool exhibits. These are not actual costumes from the Gladiator days, but they were believed to have worn stuff like this. Our guide was telling us how often they would wear big helmets, etc. so their fans could recognize them. But also, if you look at the way they were paired to fight. The armor was always biased to favor one opponent over the other. For instance, a breast plate vs. none, a larger shield, a longer sword, a mastered weapon, etc.
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ImageCody and I at the Colosseum.
So, we thought we had the most awesome tour guide. (Don't get me wrong, she was very nice and knowledgeable). But, she carried my camera around a lot and took tons of pictures of Cody and I together. We were so excited that we were going to have a lot of pictures of the 2 of us! Well, I had my camera on Automatic and all she had to do was point and click right? Well I guess that was too hard, because out of the I swear 50+ pictures she took of Cody and I, this was the only one on the camera! She must not have been pushing the button down all the way. Dang! Why didn't I ever check? And we even gave her a really nice tip!
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ImageThis day was so amazing to me. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to go and experience history! It was great spending this time with my wonderful husband. Love you Babe!