Rainbow

Brady has been working on this for weeks!  It's so cool to watch these guys in the process of mastering something that's important to them.

Rain can't stop them

We had something like 9 straight days of rain here.  It got to the point where if it wasn't an actual torrential downpour, the kids wanted to be outside even in the cool misty drizzly rain.  I'm not sure we'd make it in Seattle...

Kids and cats

Isn't this how you watch your older sibling's soccer game?

Jingle the cat

Jingle's favorite place to sleep.  Notice how impossible it is to see her there when you come down the stairs, particularly if your hands are full.  GAH!

 

Another favorite place to sleep...she'll curl right up on the kids for as long as they are still.

At least sometimes she does use her actual cat furniture!

Brady and Teddy

We met up with Brian, Rebecca, and kids after graduation.  We had dinner and took a stroll through campus.  It was a beautiful evening, and the kids loved playing together.  

MBA graduation!

We made it!  Well, more accurately, James made it through his executive MBA program with flying colors.  He finished at the top of his class, which is quite an accomplishment given everything we had going on over the last 19 months.  

The Griffin made appearances at a Firday night graduation party and at the reception after the ceremony.

The kids had HUGE smiles on their faces when they announced James as the graduate at the top of the class.  They were so proud of him. 

 The fife and drum corps escorted the graduates in and out of the room.  Nice touch.  

Pool days

I didn't snap nearly as many pictures at the pool this summer as a probably should have.  These monkeys made me laugh, though, with their self-constructed snack fort...

Not a bad way to start the day!

James took the kids to school this morning.  As they were pulling in, they watched this hot air balloon land in the street just in front of the school.  

James' 40th bday and graduation party

How did this happen?  We had a birthday/graduation party for James at a local restaurant and I only have FOUR PICTURES?  It's hard to play hostess and photographer at the same time!

 

 

 

Mediterranean Cruise - Towel animals

The kids love the towel animals that the cabin steward creates every evening.  Rudy insisted that we photograph each one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mediterranean Cruise - how you see vacation when you have a recent MBA

Even if we hadn’t been watching the news, the receipts we’d been collecting would have told the story of the stock market roller coaster happening while we were gone.  The first week when stocks were booming and the Dow was around 17,500 we were getting $1.119 to a Euro.  When US stocks started reacting to the news out of China and closed below 16,000 we were getting $1.171 to a Euro.  By the time we left and things had started to settle down and the Dow closed at 16,654 on 8/27 the exchange rate was $1.136 to a Euro.

Mediterranean Cruise, Day 15 - Journey home

We boarded our plane in Rome and left on time headed to Charlotte.  The boys sat together right behind James and me; we had a bulkhead seat so the flight was relatively pleasant.  Toward the end of the flight, I turned around to talk to Rudy.  He'd been watching TV for almost 10 straight hours (catching up on lost screen time for the past 2 weeks!) and his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.  It's like he didn't blink the entire flight.

We landed in CLT and soon learned that our last leg flight was delayed, and then cancelled.  We were able to get rerouted to another airport closer to home, but that added an extra layer of planning to figure out how to get home (since the car wasn't there).  

And then that flight was delayed...and delayed again.  These guys were real troopers, and kept a good attitude but we were WIPED!

We finally made it to our house about 12:30 on Friday morning.  (Much thanks to poor Andy for picking us up at the airport and then delivering us home.)  Still pretty beat, we got some sleep and headed into a crazy few days.  Friday work for James and a visit to the boys' new school for the kids and I, and then James' birthday/graduation party on Saturday, and then first day of school on Monday.  Rough transition.  When I told Ellen about a little meltdown Brady had on Monday night, she said she couldn't really blame him since 4 days ago the poor kid was eating 3 gelatos a day in Europe and now he has to set an alarm and go to school!

Mediterranean Cruise, Day 14 - Last day in Rome

We got off to a slow start b/c we didn’t have a plan.  Rudy worked on his journal and we checked email, etc.  We finally set off around 11:00.  Mom couldn’t walk and we didn’t want to cab so we split up.  We rode the metro to Circus Maximus and walked to Tiber Island and met Mom and Dad there.  The Circus was the largest entertainment complex ever built and held several hundred thousand people.  After we met mom and dad we wandered around the Trastavere and got lunch at a family restaurant.  Angelo, the old owner who spoke no English, took a particular interest in Rudy and showed him how to eat spaghetti and wanted him to pay the bill.  It was pretty funny.  We walked to a pyramid, somebody’s tomb, then metroed back.  Stopped for gelato, then back to the hotel for siesta.  -James

We had talked about trying to do a day trip on our last day in Rome - Assisi, Bracciano, Orvieto - but we decided that might be pushing a little too much.  The concierge at the hotel recommended the Trastavere as a pleasant neighborhood to stroll, so that became the plan!

Circus Maximus:

The cars in Trastavere weren't quite up to snuff with those in Monaco!

Today we got off to a slower start.  We were lounging around in the lobby for a while.  I worked on my journal.  Then we went to the metro and got on then we got off and walked to the Circus Maximus then we walked over the Tiber on a bridge to the Trestavere.  Then we got lunch at the best restaurant ever and I got taught how to eat spaghetti in Italy.  Then we got gelato.  -Rudy

Relaxing lunch at Trattoria Da Paolo...what James didn't tell you in his journal was about his inadvertent dessert order.  Angelo spoke very little English, but James and I were able to understand most of what he was trying to tell us.  For example, I ordered his recommended the figs and prosciutto for lunch.  James was starting to get a little cocky with his language skills.  Angelo came around and asked if we wanted tiramisu.  James thought he said no and asked for the check.  After Angelo left, we all told James that he'd just ordered us dessert.  "No, no!  I told him no dessert and he asked if we wanted one check or two, so I said one."  He wouldn't believe us that he'd actually just ordered not two, but only one, tiramisu.  We all got a good laugh when Angelo came out a few minutes later with a bowl of tiramisu!  Granted, I don't love tiramisu but this stuff was delicious, so it was a good mistake to make!

Brady had looked at the map and really wanted to see a gate from the ancient Roman wall that was illustrated on the map.  We hiked way down to it...and it was rather unimpressive.  A fragment of the wall, with cars driving through it.  Granted - our expectations of antiquity were pretty high by now too, but Brady was MAD!

We walked a little further, and this gate appeased him somewhat!

Pyramid of Cestius, built as a tomb for Gaius Cestius around 18 BC.  One thing we read said that the proportions mimic those of the Egyptian pyramids; we all thought it looked way "pointier" than images we've seen of the Egyptian structures.  Later, I read that it may have been modeled after Nubian pyramids, which Cestius would have seen on a military campaign.

We took the metro back and got off at the train station (about 3 blocks from the hotel), rather than going through the hassle of switching trains to get to the metro stop right across from the hotel.  We tried to get gelato, but the nasty employee would only let us have one taste for the WHOLE FAMILY!  Rudy was unimpressed with his taste and the guy was rude, so we moved on.  Kathy and Tony already had their gelato, so they headed back to the hotel.  Once we had ours, I wanted to take a slightly different route to walk past this building I kept seeing at the end of the street.  It was a worthy excursion!

The Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore was built in the early 5th century.  We learned later that it has a unique status, in that it is in Italy and not the territory of the Vatican.  However, the Holy See owns the basilica and Italy must "concede to it the immunity granted by International Law to the headquarters of the diplomatic agents of foreign states."  The columns in the nave are likely repurposed from an ancient building; some are marble and some are granite.  The gold on the ceiling is said to have been brought back by Christopher Columbus and then presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish pope.  Fascinating

The mosaics are incredible, especially considering that they were created about 600 years before those in Monreale!

We enjoyed some downtime back at the hotel during the hottest part of the day.  The boys watched some soccer and caught up on some journaling; James and I got some packing done for our flight home.  As evening approached, we decided it was time again to enjoy Rome at night.   The concierge had recommended Tempio di Micenate for dinner.  Since all of the reviews we read seemed to indicate that everything was about a 3.5 star, we decided this would be perfectly acceptable.  It was - it was a lovely evening and we enjoyed splitting our pasta and pizzas.  We had a leisurely dinner, chatting about a variety of things and enjoying just being together and being on vacation.  

With a little bit of fuel in our bellies, we now had the energy for one evening stroll.  We wandered our way over to the Colosseum.  The kids even had the energy for some windsprints and footraces on the way!

Perfection.

This time, we kept walking down the street instead of heading back.

The Roman Forum, lit up at night.  

Looking across the street at the Imperial Forum:

The boys were quite taken with this spray paint artist, and came home with two of their own masterpieces:

We kept going down to the "typewriter building."  It's not lit from the back, so I made the kids look down the street until we were front and center before they could turn and see it all lit up.   I love the moon in the background.   

From there, we strolled over to Trajan's Column and then up through the Imperial Forum.

10.5 miles today and not a single complaint from the boys! 

James and I both loved Rome this visit.  We're not sure what was different...we enjoyed it last time, but it felt more comfortable, more doable this time around.  Definitely a good way to end the vacation!