Thursday, June 25, 2009

When in Rome...

I am finally posting our last Europe post.  Hopefully we can do this again, we all had a great time!

On to the Rome pics...


This was our view just around the corner from our hotel



The Spanish Steps



Make a wish in this fountain and when it comes true, you have to return to Rome



The boys in front of the fountain



Later that night, the group all made wishes



The Ohlmer sisters waiting to get in to Vatican City



One of the many courtyards




you're not supposed to take pictures in the Sistine Chapel (which I didn't do...thanks though, Kyle!) but I'm glad a few ended up on my camera





A Swiss Guard



The window that is open is the Pope's window.  He kicked us out the night before.  We were looking around and his light was on.  While we were there, the police came and ushered everyone off the grounds and when we looked up, his light had turned off.  I guess when he's ready for bed, everyone has to leave!  Not many people can say they've been kicked out by the Pope.



The middle window is where the Pope comes out and addresses everyone



Shea with a couple of priests



After we were done at The Vatican, we ventured on over to the Colosseum


TJ



Kyle inside the Colosseum



The Dubberstein boys



Group shot



TJ and Me



Zach was very interested what the guide had to say



The place is massive.  The people look so tiny!!


That was it, the next morning we got on a plane and came home.  As happy as I was to see my boys, I still could have stayed and seen so much more!  I hope we all get to go back soon.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

pics from the past few days

We are all home now and trying to catch up on sleep.  I know there are a lot of pictures left to post so I will try and post what I have and catch up...


On our drive to Pisa, Shea and Courtney held their breath through every.single.tunnel!  And to let you know, there were A LOT of tunnels driving in Italy!



PISA


Leaning Tower





FLORENCE

Michaelangelo's Tomb




The place where he's actually buried



Galileo's Tomb



The biggest Church in Italy (St. Peter's is bigger but it's in Vatican City which is a country of it's own)




All of these statues are the original.  The only statue that is not is The David because he was moved in to a museum.  We went and saw it, but we were not allowed to take pictures



We went to a leather store in Italy and they had the kids model the jackets for everyone.


Emily



Logan



Jake and Shea



TJ and Me in Italy



View of Florence



Our group in Florence




TJ and Me



Some of the girls with Luca and Francisco



The Dubberstein Boys


Pictures of Rome to come...

Sunday, June 21, 2009

I promise...tomorrow!

We are in Florence but we have to pay to use the internet and it's not cheap. We're talking about 8 Euros for a half hour. Ridiculous! We'll be in Rome tomorrow so hopefully I'll get more photos tomorrow.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

A Day Behind

I am a day behind on posting because we were on an overnight train last night to Nice and obviously with out internet.  There are two posts below so be sure and scroll down...

Nice, France and Monaco

In order to get to Nice, we had to take an overnight train.  We were lucky enough to know all the people in our "compartment" but it was still an experience...


The boys playing cards, waiting for our train



Getting ready to load the train



Our bunk, all six of us
(Me, TJ, Ryan, Gavin, Michelle, and Suzanne)



Getting off the train the next morning, not a happy bunch


We didn't really have any time to clean up from the train ride since our hotel rooms weren't ready but we started our day anyway.  We might not have been very pretty, but the view from Monaco really was



Monaco, for those who don't know, is a small little country all to itself outside of Nice

The group



Shea with our Italian bus driver



TJ and me with the Monaco view behind us



The Dubberstein Boys



The *new* Senior group


After Monaco, we went to the beach in Nice.  They don't have sand in Nice, only stones on their beaches (they obviously don't think they need bikini tops either).  Instead of burying me in sand, TJ decided to try burying me in rocks



The kids jumping in the French Riviera



and since we couldn't write our boys' name in the sand, we spelled them out in rock





We're off to Florence in the morning so let's hope the internet is better there...