Lily, Caden, & Gia Lovers: Italy

Corey was headed in to the office today, so we all walked to ND together. We really picked a great spot. Less than 1/2 mile walk to ND - and the coliseum. The team at ND Rome facility are so incredibly kind. They let the kids explore the building, gave us water for the day and a guidebook, and helped book a car for an afternoon trip to the water park... I think I'm gonna like it here :)

Goofball

After dropping Corey at ND, we headed to explore the coliseum. I had the opportunity to do a preview on a run this morning so we could optimize our visit in the most direct way. Thank goodness I did. Weather is in the 90's the rest of the week.

Cute kids in the foreground

It is still hard to fathom the history that abounds in this city that you can walk and drive around. Love this pic.

Loved the kids looking intently at the gladiators posing.

Lily and I watched a BBC movie on the gladiators the night before, so she was the tour guide, telling Gia and Caden all about the gladiators. Her favorite parts were the animals that were trained to attack people, and then wouldn't once they got in the arena due to the noisy crowds and that the emperor would give a thumbs up or down on whether or not the gladiator that won the battle should kill his opponent. I was surprised to learn that 90% of the gladiators did not die, that there were game sponsors, and that the popular and talented gladiators are a bit like the great football players with people wanting to meet them and training teams trading them.

We then sat down across the street from the coliseum in a shady spot to sketch...

I love the concentration on Lily's face.

Lily's work, complete with gladiator. Her journal entry below.

Caden drew the coliseum and then we shaded together. He was getting too hot.

Gia told me she saw Jesus on a cross in the ND building so she drew that instead. Her direct quote, as she pointed towards the coliseum was, "Well I can't draw that, so I drew Jesus instead." :)

We met Corey back at the house at 12:30 to get ready to head out to a water park called Hydromania. It is about 8 miles outside of the city, so the lovely ND staff helped organize a van to take us there and drop us off. They provided lockers to lock up belongings, so sadly, this if the only pic we took of the park.

The park had a ton of water slides, pools, and a wave pool with a DJ (here's the link - http://translate.google.it/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.hydromania.it/&prev=search). So fun. Highlights:

- Gia had to work up her courage to do a slide. First attempt, we had to back out. Then she decided to go again. She could not sit on my lap, so we had to sit by each other and hold hands. She did not do it again.

- Lily and Caden were feeling brave, so they opted to do 'The Braid' - which quite frankly, frightened me a bit. Once out, Caden was in tears for 15 minutes. It was fast and hard to hold your head up. He was convinced he had a concussion.

- The wave pool had a DJ and dancers that led the crowds in some pretty interesting dances. Everyone was jumping and dancing and having a blast - including our whole crew, which was pretty fun.

The quote of the day was from Corey - "Remind me when our girls our teenagers to not let them come to Italy. And remind me when Caden is a teenager - to bring him!" The teenage girls mostly wore thongs, and had rockin' bods. The guys, not so much.

We stopped for crepes before heading out :)

We were all exhausted when we got home at 6, but our friend Idris had just gotten in so we headed out to dinner at one of the recommended spots just around the corner from our house. As it turned out, Idris was so tired that he fell asleep and didn't join. We had a lovely dinner regardless. Something a bit different from the usual Italian fare we have been having.

Cute Gia ready to go. Notice the bug bites on her legs. Mosquitoes are in full force here - especially in our house! We seriously apply bug spray to be in the house!