Travel days...

 After our last pizza stop, we went to drop off our car.  Another sad moment as lots of fun things happened in that car or because we had the car I guess.  It was a great car!  Automatic everything and the GPS saved us more than a few times.  This is the journey summary that we took right before dropping the car off.  We put just about every single one of those kilometers on it.  Never in my life I have I driven (or rode) in a car that long in 2 1/2 months!  Pretty crazy.

 Our kids were amazing helpers.  I am so blessed to have them as my children.  Each one of them would take their backpack, Anthony and Lydia would pull a suitcase and Jenna would push Owen in the stroller while I carried the car seat and pulled a suitcase and Jake would carry 2 more bags (and this was packing light)!  We were quite the line of people and bags getting ready to check into our flights.

 Our day was long and tiring.  We got on our first flight at 9:15pm after the kids should have already been in bed.  We flew to Amsterdam and went to a hotel to sleep for a few hours.  Woke up to eat breakfast and head back to the airport.  Our flight from Amsterdam left at 11:20 and we flew to Abu Dhabi, had an hour layover (but had to stay on the plane) and then we flew to Bahrain.  It was around 10pm that we made it to Bahrain, then you have to go through immigration and show them your visa, find our rental car, drive to the hotel and check in there.  Needless to say, we got to bed LATE last night and are completely exhausted today.  We forced ourselves to get up to get breakfast this morning and will hopefully go to bed early tonight.

We are glad we had a safe, but long journey.  We are excited to start our new adventure here in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

One last pizza stop ...

Our list of lasts were sad to check off in Italy.  We completely enjoyed our time in Italy, through the ups and downs.  We learned things I hope we never forget. We met people we will never forget.  The experiences we had were something we will never forget.

It has been an amazing 2 1/2 months...now onto the Kingdom of Bahrain for a whole NEW adventure.

Rome's Homeaway...

 We loved our little homeaway in Rome.  It was in an unbelievable location, you forgot you were actually in Rome!  The hosts were so wonderful and we enjoyed our time there!

St. Peter's Basilica ...

It is pretty amazing to be able to see some of the most famous places, this one was one of them.  It was truly an amazing HUGE church.  The square was very, very neat too!  So much history has taken place here.  Today was another day where I wish I could have gone back in time a little while or even had one of the columns start talking :).  Because of St. Peter's being closed yesterday, we got up to hit the square early hoping to avoid a long line, well just about everyone must have thought that too because there was already a massive line when we got there.  Thankfully it moved fast and when we got in and looked back the line was even longer than when we got in it.  It actually worked out nice time wise because we got to witness the changing of the Swiss Guard right as we got through the security gates.  Pretty fun stuff!

 Above is pictured Michelangelo's Pietre.  It is a picture of Mary holding Jesus's body.  It was quite an amazing statue.  It is behind bullet proof glass because someone came at it with a hammer once and they didn't want that to happen again.

St. Peter's basilica is truly huge.  It is the biggest church in the Christian world.  All the research we did before we went actually point to some pretty cool things.  They actually try to make it feel smaller than it really is as a welcoming to help you feel at home here.  It is completely huge and feels that way, but for how big it is, it isn't actually an overwhelming huge...if that makes sense. From the entry to the very back of the duomo is 2 football fields long and all the way up to the top of the dome is one football field long.  Just ginormous.

 This is a statue of St. Peter holding the keys which were given to him by Christ. A very cool experience and super glad we actually got to go in and see it.  Too bad we didn't know what was going on yesterday, but it all worked out well.  We were hoping to see the Pope wave from his window or something too, but no such luck...maybe next time ;)!

Sistine Chapel and Vatican museums ...

 What a crazy day this turned out to be.  Glad we know how to adapt and are not new to the whole site seeing, Italian experience or this day would have put me over the top!  The best advice I can give someone about going site seeing is always know something will change or you will have to change your plans up a bit...oh and research your sites A LOT!

We had plans to go down to the Vatican City and see the Vatican museums, go into the Sistine Chapel and then from there skip the lines and go into St. Peters Basicilica...well nobody told the Pope our plans and they decided to shut down St. Peter's today for the whole day.  Huge bummer as that was the thing I was most looking forward to.  Oh well, hopefully we make it back down there tomorrow and not have to wait in a HUGE long line.

We prebooked tickets to avoid the lines in the museum and so glad we did. Our kids have done so much but they hit their limits a little faster than they used to, so we sometimes decide to spend a bit extra to avoid the lines so we can see more inside.  Very glad we did today as this museum was HUGE!  Besides The Louvre, I have never seen so many exhibits in one place before.  There was a whole wing of Egyptian stuff (which was super neat), a wing of just tapestries, a wing of Christian artifacts, paintings, sculptures, Roman, Greek, you name it, it was probably in there!  We didn't get to see even a small percentage of what was in there, but what we did see what amazing!  There were SO many people though it was hard to really get to see much and really enjoy what was there.

 This statue was found in Egypt, made out of marble and dates back to the 1500-1000 BD!  So, so long ago!  The picture below is a scroll of Nabuchanezer from around 500 BC.

 Beautiful Greek and Roman statues!  The below picture is of a dome in the museum patterned after the Pantheon.

 The above picture is of a HUGE tapestry hanging on the wall.  It was amazing to see the skill these weavers had.  This was a picture of the nativity scene.  There was a huge hall of maps down one of the corridors and we just had to take a picture of the one in front of Italy!

 As part of the tour of the Vatican Museums, you get to go into the Sistine Chapel.  This is where the Pope holds mass and also the Papal conclave takes place.  A whole lot of history has taken place here.  Not to mention the amazing works of art that  Michelangelo did!  I was naughty and took a picture of the ceiling even though they ask you not to, but it was just to amazing!  If you look at the bottom of the picture, that is the painting of God giving life to Adam.  This is probably the most famous of the frescos, aside from the huge one of the last judgement but there were too many people around to get that one pictured.  It was quite amazing to be there after I had researched so much into it.  It was fun to point out the different pictures of the creation and Noah's ark to the kids.  I cannot even imagine what Michelangelo went through to get this chapel painted.  He was an amazing artist that is for sure.

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 This is what Owen thought of the museums :)!

 These are the stairs leading out of the museums. The kids thought they were great.  If you see the two pink dots in the middle steps, those are the kids with Jake.

And I wish that was the end of the day and the end of the stories, but alas it is not.  On the way back from the metro, I had my hands full of a package I picked up from my Mom, the kids were tired, I was tired, I didn't have my coat on because it was hot and I had put my phone in my back pocket (which is hot pink and big...see where this is going?).  We got on the metro and it was packed with people because we were right downtown Rome.  A few stops down the line and the people that we were standing in front of wanted to get off.  I was trying to get my kids out of the way, the people were trying to get off and all of a sudden I feel my phone leaving my pocket.  I said in a very loud voice, as I shoved to the side to block whoever took my phone and jammed my elbow up, No way, you are not taking my phone!  When I put my elbow up it knocked my phone out of the guys hands and it actually fell between us and I caught it off his coat.  He looked at me like I had assaulted him and was looking at me like I was crazy.  I looked at him and said "Not cool".  He got his phone out of his pocket and walked off the metro like he was the one who had just been scandalized.  All of this happened in about a 5-10 second period, but it felt like it was in slow motion.  Jake had no idea what was even going on until he looked up to all the commotion and I was in the center of it!  My adrenaline was pumping so hard I almost punched the guy, pretty sure that wouldn't have ended well!  All in all, it is a good story to tell now because it had a good ending and I am sitting here with my phone still.  It could have ended a lot worse and I am grateful for the blessing that it did not.  I was a prime target for what they tell you not to do when going on a busy metro and made the mistakes I haven't the whole time in Italy, all it takes is once I guess.  Glad it turned out to be a funny story and not a sickening one!

Rome LDS Temple...

 I can completely understand why the Italian saints gasped and cheered when the prophet announced a temple would be built in Rome.  I have missed attending the temple and to bring one close to the saints here in Italy will be a complete blessing for them!  We couldn't pass up the opportunity to drive by and see it in its construction phase.  It will be a magnificent building to behold when it is done!  As they all are!  Maybe some day we will get to come back and see it when it is finished.

Owen asked why we stopped to see the temple if we couldn't go in and so we started singing "I love to see the Temple, I'll go inside some day."  It was so sweet.  I love my family so much!  I have loved all the little moments we have had together on this amazing journey we have taken together.

Siena...

 On our way back to Rome, we decided to drive through Siena to see the piazza there to break up the drive and eat lunch.  So glad we did. We had a great little visit.  We drove to the parking garage and walked up the steep hill about 150 yards to discover the AWESOME escalators.  They were a saving grace. We never would have made it up the hill with the kids.  It was steep!  The city is way up the mountain.  I think we took about 8 or 9 of these escalators.  The kids thought it was great!  We then headed to the Duomo to take in just how beautiful it was.  It is amazing the work they put into these churches!

After a quick glance at the Duomo we decided to walk down to the Piazza del Campo and see if we could find a dry place to eat lunch as it had just rained.  Once you walk into this square, it is quite awesome!  It really isn't a square I guess, more of an oval.  They actually hold horse races in this place with someone from each part of the city representing their area.  They bring in sand and lots of people come to watch.  I've heard it is pretty amazing to see!  I can only imagine.  We pulled it up on youtube and watched it while we were eating our lunch, that counts right?

 The kids have certainly been amazing this trip.  We have put them through so much and made them walk SO much.  I wish I would have worn a pedometer during this trip to see how much we have walked, I'm sure we would be surprised just how much we have walked!  It is funny the things the kids pick up on while we are out and about and how they incorporate it into their play. Now when we are back home and they are playing games, we will frequently hear them 'sell' stuff to each other and it is always ---Euro!  Or when they are playing they will go visit museums, or piazzas or be tour guides or what not.  This little picture of them with their umbrellas held high is them being the leader of a tour group.  They hold it up so the people behind them don't get lost.  So cute.  I hope the kids will not soon forget all the little things they have learned here in Bella Italy!

Firenze ...

 Florence is sure a beautiful city.  We got downtown via the Tram, yet another mode of transportation our kids got to enjoy.  We went through the market and found Anthony and Jake some silk ties.  After the market we walked over to the Piazza dell Duomo and got to see the beautiful Florence cathedral.  This is the biggest dome known to be constructed out of brick.  Pretty!  We enjoyed eating our lunch right by it and gazing at the beautiful pinks, greens and marble outside.  It was truly pretty.  Then we walked down the downtown part of Firenze to get to the Ponte Vecchia or the bridge that is always pictured in the pictures of Florence.  It was quite beautiful and you felt completely and totally in an Italian city.  I love it when you get the feeling of Italy where you go.  Unfortunately there were lots of people there, which kind of distracts from the feeling, but it was still beautiful.

 We then got some yummy gelato and walked back to see the amazing statue of David.  It was quite a site to see.  Yet another amazing creation from an amazing artist.  Michelangelo certainly knew how to carve a marble statue!  Every detail was included, his veins, his muscles, even his hair ... they all looked like if you went to touch them they would be just as soft as we are.  It seemed as if David could have gotten down from his perch and walked off at any moment.  Truly a work of art!

We were exhausted after the David so we headed on a bus back to the Tram station and headed home.  Our kids have been amazing in all that we have put them through.  It has been very cool to teach them about all the things we are seeing and hope some day that they will remember the things they have seen as they learn about them in school!

Volterra ...

 On our way back from Pisa, we decided to take a detour to see the fun little Renaissance town of Volterra (if you've read The Twilight Series, that is where the Volterri are from, although the film was not done here).  It was quite a different little town than we had been in before.  If it was the height of the tourist season, I'm sure it would have been a little more interesting, but as it was not, it was kind of empty.  We did get to go up into the Town Hall building, which the city still holds its meetings in.  It was neat to see and imagine what life would have been like back in its prime.  You actually get to climb all the way up into the bell tower with the bell, which the kids thought was cool since we have heard countless bells being rang as we travel throughout the country.  It provided some amazing views, even on a not very pretty day.

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 This little picture is fun, it is in the elevator as we came down the tower.  HUGE mirror, so we took a cute family picture to document that all 6 of us are truly together since we rarely have a picture of all of us.