july's gonna fly

i can already tell

i had a little visitor this weekend!

alex just spent 6 weeks in south africa
working with a ministry called living hope

he stopped by to see me for a few days on his way home

we ran to st. peter's basilica

didn't make it in time

took the picture anyway

then we got gelato
& made a big mess on the sidewalk
dear betsy, gelato is better than ice cream. it's seems impossible, i know.

then we went to the vatican
with really long legs?

there was no crowd.
so
rare

dear abby, can you walk like an egyptian yet?

finally got to see castel st. angelo
i was the "expert of the day" of this building last month
we didn't get to see it as a group
so this was fun for me

italian cappuccino
dear matt & sarah, if i could ship them to america for you i would

colosseum
it's colossal

thumbs up for the roman forum
watch this:
thumbs up for rock & roll

we found a wedding
on accident
the church was open & had tons of tourists in the back
hmm. weird.

al found some good reds

& he's only a novice

next we went to the pantheon

dear caroline, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome

in europe all the men have bags

"murses," if you will

alex didn't bring one so i let him borrow for a minute

europe has great water fountains

they're old, pretty, & don't have gum stuck to them

hooray

next we went to gianicolo hill
great view

made it to the inside of st. peter's
3 war eagle moments in that basilica
"i wore this shirt for a reason" -alex

the st. peter's foot tradition is described below:

spanish steps were alex's favorite...

not

they were so crowded

trevi fountain

we successfully mastered the "will you take a picture of us?" approach methods

1. offer to take a picture of solo shooters & then ask them to return the favor

2. look around hopelessly until someone offers

3. just ask someone (usually with a fancy camera) to take your picture

4. take it yourself & crop your arm out later

it's a science, really

ate dinner at this neat restaurant

best. calzone. ever.

and then

it was july fourth

in italy

we wouldn't let it go un-celebrated..

so we wore our patriotic clothes

for our cooking class with mary lou

she grew up in south africa, so she enjoyed getting to talk to alex

she taught us how to make shellfish pasta

yum

then we grilled hotdogs at peek's house for dinner

with the sorriest grill i've ever seen

it required constant fanning

it was a great fourth

the only thing missing was fireworks

ciao for now

ps: good ole kaitlin barton has a blog you should check out

same stuff, better detail

thought you might be interested:

http://kaitlinbarton.wordpress.com/