European Adventure: Rome

I guess Rome wanted to welcome us in a big way. This wall was right next to our hotel.

I think Rome might have been Chase's favorite. It is an incredible city, with amazing history, art, and architecture on every corner. We ate some amazing food, including gelato twice daily, and fully enjoyed walking our feet to the bone as we crossed and re-crossed the city on a daily basis.

A lot of the art can be enjoyed in situ, i.e. in the place for which it was originally intended. And as a bonus you can actually take pictures in the churches in which they reside, while you cannot in most of the museums.

A few examples include Bernini's St. Theresa in Ecstasy

 Bernini's elephant statue, topped by an obelisk, topped by a cross (to indicate Christianity's triumph over paganism)

And Michelangelo's Moses. This one was particularly striking--I wish the photograph could capture it.

 There are also lots of fun fountains around Italy:

Outside the Pantheon, enjoying our first gelato (of many).

 Gorgeous and brilliant ancient architecture:

 This would be Chase's "Are you seriously taking another picture?" face.

Trevi Fountain: amazing

 Spanish steps: fun place to hang out til midnight. No one seems to go to bed in Italy. It suited me just fine.

 Colosseum

 I may or may not have grown faint and had to sit down while listening to Rick Steve's very tame rendition of the Gladiator fights. I never said I was tough.

Roman Forum--where Julius Caesar's body was burned after his assassination.

 Sights walking around Rome:

 Vatican:

 We saw the Sistine chapel, among other treasures in the Vatican museum

 St. Peter's Basilica (um, huge does not begin to describe it)

 Michelangelo's Pieta

 All the artwork in St. Peter's are mosaics, not paintings, so they've lasted through all the years.

 Looking down from the base of the dome.

Climbing to the top

And there it is:

 Swiss guards

 The Borghese gallery. Probably my favorite museum of the whole trip, but no pictures allowed.

So I googled a few images. The museum is pretty much a shrine to Bernini, but there are other incredible works of art there, too, trust me.



And just for a second, notice this relief from the Roman era, repaired by Bernini's father. In person it truly looks as though he's being thrown off the horse on top of you (it's right below the ceiling). I have never seen a relief that's so practically a sculpture, and it is amazing. Those Romans were incredible artists.

There were some funny moments in Rome, like when we arrived at the airport, and the guy didn't even bother looking at our passports, much less stamping them. I thought that seemed weird, and when we flew out of Switzerland they thought so too--until we said we flew into Rome, and then they just rolled their eyes and let us through. Italians are warm and friendly and fabulous...but maybe not so concerned with protocol and keeping to a schedule. Ü

We also attended an opera review that made me cry it was so beautiful, were very much annoyed by all the guys trying to sell roses on the street, and enjoyed accordion music that was probably only done for the tourists, but that's okay because it made me happy.

Rome was incredible.

European Adventure: London

Mid-way through June, Chase and I dropped Livia and Jane off at my parent's home in Southern California and hopped a plane to London.

London makes my heart happy. 

We actually only had an 8 hour layover in London before our flight to Rome (which was our real destination), but I wanted so badly to show Chase a little of my favorite city, so we dashed out for a quick look around town.

Our first stop was supposed to be a quick walk past Buckingham Palace. Imagine our surprise when we popped out of the tube and found this crowd waiting for us. The television crews were what really tipped us off that something was going on, so we hung around awhile and, surprise! Queen Elizabeth was driven right past us in her car. Apparently we were lucky enough to arrive on her birthday, just as the celebration was beginning. Seriously, what are the chances?

I was feeling pretty good about the fact that we saw her drive by, and since we were so incredibly far away from the palace and couldn't see anything, we decided to move on with our brief tour.

As we tried to weave our way through the crowd, suddenly the main road opened up and we found ourselves marching down it, towards the palace. At this point, we were still just hoping to find a way to exit the mad throng, but I was glad Chase got to get a little closer to the palace, and snapped a picture of him. Just as I was taking the picture, I heard the lady behind me tell her child to hurry and run to the gate to get a good view. What? Something was going to happen right now? Still clueless, we decided to hurry and get a front row seat, just in case.

A few minutes later...oh, hello there, Royal Family!

So that was fun. And then they did a whole bunch of military flyovers (do you see how close those planes are to each other?) and the band played, and it felt very grand and English.

We didn't have too much time after all that, but we wound our way towards Parliament and Westminster Abbey, and were caught in a sudden downpour. We hadn't brought umbrellas on this trip. Even at this point I thought this would be our only rainstorm, so we didn't bother buying one. Ha!

 We spent our remaining hour in the National Gallery and hurried back to Heathrow. We didn't see most of the things in my carefully planned out route around London, but I found I didn't mind too much. I don't think I could have worked out that experience at Buckingham Palace better if I'd tried!

Changes

The past month has been incredibly busy for us, and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

But first, we've had a couple big changes this month.

I'll begin with the most vitally important:

I cut my hair!

Really though, my hair had been quite long before this cut--long enough that I was able to donate it. So that has been a fun change!

The next change is pretty secondary, but y'know, I guess Chase deserves to make an appearance on her every once in awhile...

He got a new job:

Truthfully, I'm very excited for him. I'm also thrilled to know that we'll be staying in the bay area for awhile longer. 

Hooray for change!

Beach trip

I did not fulfill my goal of getting in the ocean on this occasion. NorCal water is freezing! But we did enjoy watching a pod of dolphins swim just off the coast line.

Let's go fly a kite

11. Fly a kite

Check out the expressions on their faces. Can you tell they loved it?

Also completed, but with no photographic proof:

88. Buy a hat and wear it

90. Try Zumba five times

Conversations with Livvy

Golden moments from the last six months:

“Next time you’re pregnant, Mom, I’ll tell you you’re fat so you know to go to the hospital. Because maybe you wouldn’t notice, so I’ll tell you.”

Me: Livia, eat your broccoli.

Livia: But Mom, they’re friends! I can’t take them away from each other!

Me: Well, they can be friends in your stomach.

Livia: No, because they’ll die! They won’t have enough oxygen!

(After sitting on the floor watching a show)

L: My back hurts. I’m getting too old to sit on the floor for so long!

Livia: Jane’s a fan of cantaloupe. I’m a fan of watermelon and projects and shows.

Chase: What’s mom a fan of?

Livia: Clean.

M: You won’t get married until you’re grown up.

L: ‘til I’m 11?

M: No, more like 20.

L: That’s in 16 years!

M: How did you know that? Did you just guess??

L: No, I’m just quick at figuring things out.

M: What do you think Jesus would do if his mother asked him to help clean up?

L: He would do it.

M: And who should we be like?

L: Ourselves.

L: I’m so glad I was born into this family. When I was in your tummy I was dreaming and dreaming that I would have a mom that looked just like you…but I was dreaming you’d have different rules so I could do whatever I want and eat sugar all day, and get into mischief and eat tic-tacs.

Modern art

"Do you know why I did that big mess, Mom? Because it's supposed to be art."

-Livia, June 2013