Our visit to Rome

Kyle and I had such a great visit to Rome for two days with Lisa and Zach! We left Vika with Brian (and she got to spend one day with her "auntie" Nancy) and we took the two hour train ride to Rome. It took a little longer to get settled into our B&B than we expected. That had something to do with us buying our Roma Passes, stopping for snacks, eating at McD's then finding our way on the metro to our stop and walking the rest of the way to the B&B. As you can already tell food became a big part of trip. Kyle ate more than I've ever seen him eat! We took a whole grocery bag of snacks and in 24 hours they were gone - plus we ate three meals a day and had gelato twice a day!

Or course, we saw the main highlights of Rome - the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, The Pantheon, Vatican City, and a few smaller sites; the Cat Ruins/Sanctuary, and The Crypt at Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception church which is full decorated from floor to ceiling with the bones of 400 monks. That was Zach's big request - to see the church with the bones. Both the boys were amazing as they walked and walked and walked. We only had to stop and give them foot massages (peeuww! smelly!) once.

We walked to the top of St. Peter's Dome - 320 stairs up (after the elevator). That was a challenge for Lisa and I as the boys decided to race and ran pretty much the whole way. We gave it our best shot but we didn't quite keep up. As soon as we got to the top the boys wanted to have a drink and snacks (nevermind that we'd just finished breakfast). Lisa and I wanted a full body massage and a bed! (and a shower!). I believe while we were at the top we actually have two snack breaks!

We walked A LOT, rode the metro and the bus - and we still didn't get to see everything that we wanted to see. Hopefully that means that our wish we made when we threw our coins into the Trevi Fountain (to return) will come true!

Zach and Lisa's visit

We had such a fabulous visit with Zach and Lisa! We wore ourselves out - and the boys always seemed to find more energy, especially if gelato was involved. I think Zach tried more than 20 flavours! We saw lots of the sights both locally and in Rome and we also did some shopping. Lucky for the boys Brian would watch them so more often than not when shopping was involved. But then again, gelato can go a long way when kids are waiting for their moms to finish shopping. (It's "rewarding", not "bribing", right?) I believe after 3 malls ( tow of them shopped twice each), two markets and the shops in Rome, Sorento and Naples Lisa left with 5 pairs of shoes, 3 purses (all counterfeit designer bags of course), one hat, one sweater dress, at least 4 tops/sweaters, one skirt, multiple tights, three belts and more I'm sure!

We spent about 5 hours one day at Pompei. I think Zach really enjoyed it, for at least two reasons. One, that it is close to Mt, Vesuvius. The other, that it gave him endless opportunities to persue his quest to defy gravity! He seems to be born to have his feet off the ground! He would jump off of or leap frog over just about everything. This was a really lesson to Kyle! Kyle realized on more than one occasion just how much shorter than Zach he is! However, that didn't slow him down when it came to keeping up with Zach! Check out the slideshow of our day at Pompei!

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My favourtie Kyle-ism yet!

I have so many things to post about but they'll all have to wait. (I seriously need to get some slideshows together of Zach and Lisa's visit! What a great time!) But right now I need to post about one of the biggest smiles Kyle has given me in a long time!

Kyle and Zach were out digging in the yard and Kyle runs to the door calling me, "MOM! Come and see what I found! A treasure! Come and look!" I run to meet him at the door and he presents to me a broken shard of terracotta pottery that he has unburied. "Look mom! Harry Pottery!" He exclaims.

I wasn't sure I heard him right, but I did! He was so proud about finding Harry Pottery in the dirt!

Just to confirm it we went through it all again the next day as we were exploring Pompei with Lisa and Zach when Kyle found another shard of broken pottery.

Now Kyle doesn't really know who Harry Potter is as we've never exposed him to the books or movies. However, I'm sure he's heard the name as Brian and I will make reference to the books and maybe to a Quiditch broom or such. Nevertheless I absolutely love what his imagination does and I hope I remember "Harry Pottery" for a very long time - and smile every time!

For my scrappy friends

Here's a new scrap blog:

http://lovebugscrapbooking.wordpress.com/

Feel free to check it out and if you do, let them know you found it through me!

A conversation with Kyle

I've had to fill in a couple of small blanks in this conversation, but only because I wasn't there for the original conversation. Kyle was out for a walk with our Italian/American friend Mary Grace. As they were talking and walking the topic of what Kyle was going to do when he grew up. Kyle expressed his desire to shoot up to the stars. He would like to be a cannon ball when he grows up so he can go to the stars. But there's a problem because he'd have to find a school that teaches how to be a cannon ball. But once he learns he'll be able to go to any star he wants.

He also told me he couldn't go to school yesterday because he was going to go in a rocket. When I told him we didn't have a rocket he told me I could go buy him one. I told him I was a little short on the 2 billion dollars needed to buy a rocket so I thought he should go to school. He said, "That's OK. I'll wait."