The Silence is Broken...

At least temporarily. I miss blogging. I really really miss blogging. But I haven't figured out how to fit it into my life again, with this new normal of two kids, and a new house, and a new life in Chicago. Everything *still* feels new these days - and not new as in shiny and pretty and flashy, but new like different and mysterious and somewhat unsettling. I'm sure this new normal will fit us soon enough - we're just breaking in our current Chicago life, like a new pair of shoes. Until then I'm doing mostly just the essential things... But I do hope to start blogging more regularly again soon.

However, the idea of "catching up on the blog" feels quite daunting - we've had so much to write about lately! Jack's amazing birth and his first few months with us, Brooks's new role as big brother, our departure from Nashville, our new home here with a whole new life in Chicago, Brooks's third birthday, Thanksgiving adventures, etc ... It's over-whelming just thinking about it. So instead, I'm going to shelve all of that right now and talk about something else.

Christmas. It's here again - unbelievably... where has 2009 gone!? We'll be packing up and heading South to see my family in less than two weeks, just after my 35th birthday. For the second time in my life, I have a newborn son at Christmas time - what a particularly meaningful way to look at the Christmas story from the eyes of Jesus's mother. I love cuddling Jack when he's sleepy or making him laugh during his play time. Last night, as I fed him in the middle of the night, I realized that we don't have too many more of these wee-hour feedings (hopefully!) left and I should savor the quiet time with just him ... I do so love new babies.

Having a vivacious three year old in the house has also made Christmas 2009 really fun. Brooks is absorbing all of it, and beginning to learn what Christmas means - we've been reading Christmas books and talking about celebrating Jesus's birthday, playing with a new nativity set,


and enjoying an advent calendar with little nativity toys to velcro into place around the stable each day. Christmas songs are playing around the house all day long, and I've loved hearing Of the Father's Love Begotten and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus in services this month. Sarah Groves' To Be With You is echoing in my mind constantly. And when we strolled to the grocery store together Wednesday night, Brooks was squealing with delight as he spotted one house after another with "twinkly lights" in the windows and on doors, decorating trees and front gates. It's different than my childhood - competing with my sister to see who will count the most house lights as we drive through middle TN - but just like me as a kid, he particularly loves the colored ones.

The big event so far this season has been the procurement of our very first Christmas tree. (I know, I know! I've been married for 6.5 years and have a three year old son and haven't had a tree before. It's just wrong!) After scoping out several places in our neighborhood for the best Frasier Firs, we went to a local nursery and picked out a beautiful fragrant tree, just perfect for our front window.


Can you tell the boys are happy!? I think Brooks was a bit enthralled by the whole event - picking out the best one, tying it to the roof of our car, unloading a real TREE, INTO THE HOUSE! Wow! The next day the lights appeared, and the following day the ornaments arrived. The first morning he saw the tree fully decked out, he did several laps around it pointing to ornaments, asking "what's this one, Momma? And this one? And this? and THIS?!" It was precious. He sang at the top of his lungs "that's our Christmas TREE!!" (where is the video camera when you need it!?) and asked if it was already Christmas Day yet. Now several days later, I sometimes catch him standing at the tree and just looking or gently touching the bottom ornaments (cloth or hard plastic ornaments, ie the indestructible ones, hang from the bottom branches) or he'll ring the little silver bells that we took home from Molly and Trace's wedding in December of 2006. What a sweet little guy!


Here's another favorite picture from this week... Brooks received a fantastic gift from our friends Yang Ping and Shireen - he loves playing "London" with a set of wooden toys from Hamley's Toy Store and I love that it gives us the opportunity to talk about double decker buses, Bobbies and Beef-eaters, Big Ben and the Tower of London, reliving some wonderful London memories. The day I snapped this picture, Brooks informed me that the policemen were in the forest guarding the boy (himself)...


Life is full and moving fast. Jack is already three months old! But I'm still savoring as often as I can, attempting to enjoy my sons rather than "manage" them. Christmas celebrations have certainly helped with that in the last week!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Deuce's Due Date

I've put aside blogging this summer, given all the other things that have taken our time and attention, but after seeing the movie Julie and Julia (which I highly recommend), I've decided I just can't let it go permanently - I love it too much! So here's a quick update...

Today is the day that we've been expecting the arrival of our second son (nicknamed Deuce by his father) but I think the day will surely now come and go without his appearance. I had my 40 week check-up today and the Vandy midwife (my primary caregiver for this delivery) said that I'm still just 1 centimeter dilated, and the baby has not yet dropped. I guess he's just enjoying the last few snug days in Momma's belly.

Brooks is enjoying Momma's belly these days too. Our good friend Tonyamas, wife of Eric's college roommate, was in town a couple of weekends ago with a group of E's college friends and she took a few shots of us. Here are some of my favorites! :)


Presumbly, our last sitting as a family of three...


Brooks loves to "give Baby Brudder a hug" every day and will regularly talk to him through the microphone of my belly button.


Come out, little man, we can't wait to meet you!

I'm sure there will be additional, more frequent updates soon, when we have a new family member to introduce ... stay tuned!

Happy Father's Day, Eric!

Just a quick note to my darling husband, who is such an amazing dad in so many ways. I could not say enough how GRATEFUL I am for Brooks to have you to look to as a role model.

Thanks to you, our home has a strong leader, a rock solid foundation, and a wonderfully fun playmate for all our leisure time, to speak nothing of your abilities to carry everything - EVERYTHING - when we travel together! :) I love you so much and am so grateful to share this adventure of life with you!

A few favorite recent shots... Here are the boys enjoying the sunshine and shade in Kew Gardens while Aunt Sissy was in town...


And here are two from a lazy day earlier this month, when Brooks wanted to join Dada on the couch to read. Brooks climbed up and over him with his book and then got very tickled when Mama wanted a picture! :)

Last full weekend in London

I can't believe that we're now counting our time left here in hours, rather than in days, weeks, and months. Today was our last Sunday at Holy Trinity Brompton, our church home for the last two years. Worship was amazing - it was as if God prompted the worship leader to choose all songs that had significance to me from both our time here and from back home. The sermon was about God's calling and was based in Joshua - much encouragement and practical take-aways for my heart right now. We said goodbye to several friends that we've seen weekly or more in the creche and at Tots n Toddlers, even since Brooks was less than a year old. It's strange to say goodbye to the children especially, knowing that I've played with them for most of their lives, and wondering when if ever we'll see them again.

Last Thursday was our last Tots and thankfully Brooks *didn't* have his best day. I say thankfully, because managing a tired, hungry toddler who didn't really feel like dancing and singing at the end of our playday, made several goodbyes less dramatic - just strap him in and run! And we definitely have lots of fun pictures of him enjoying Anke's songs and motions earlier in the summer, so no loss there!

Friday morning we got our final "preview" ultrasound of Baby Boy #2. Even though he was quite shy, we were able to confirm that yes, it's another boy! The tech saw healthy growth and development and guessed that at the current rates, our little man wouldn't be that little by his due date - 8 or 9 pounds most likely - not shocking given my size at this point and the strength of this baby's movements! Brooks really enjoyed seeing Baby Brudder on the screen - when #2 yawned, Brooks thought it was hysterical. He was also quite happy to tell the tech all about his own role as Big Brother and pointed to where #2 was kicking his own belly! What a hoot!

Friday night we had a lovely goodbye party with a few friends from our pastorate, and we shared it with another HTB friend, Hannah, who is getting married next month and moving to Singapore. We got to have unhurried conversations with several people who have really become like family to us and let Brooks run around and be loved on by the whole group until wayyy past his bedtime! At the end, they spent about an hour toasting us with stories and memories and compliments, and then laid hands on us and prayed for us. There was many beautiful, humbling words shared of the impact we had on others - both direct (serving in Pastorate, etc) and non-direct (observing us parent, watching us be married and *work* on our relationship, etc) but I must say the most striking thing to me was how very much we are leaving behind here. It wouldn't always have felt that way. Several of the people in the room we didn't even know when we went home for Christmas 2008 - we've been so incredibly blessed that friendships have continued to form here, right up until the very end. Some of these new relational roots are small, but they are roots just the same, and we are certainly disrupting a lot of earth to rip them out when they are so fresh. Along with a handful of very close friends, we have so many who feel like they *could have been* closer friends, if we'd only had a bit more time. I have so many ... I can't say regrets, it's just not the right word, but... maybe unfinished relationships to bid farewell to. It's probably good to feel sad about leaving (how many times over the last year have been ready to fly back home THAT DAY!), but oh, the goodbyes are hard.

Eric pointed out recently that these London goodbyes are even harder than saying farewell in Chicago, because when we left in August 2007, we told everyone "see you at Christmas" and "its only 100 weekends, we'll be back!" As we leave London, we do so without any immediate plans to return, and it feels very, very different knowing how much could change in our little London community before we're back here among them again. I've never been more thankful for email and Facebook and all our digital connections.

Saturday morning was spent at Portobello Road, the antiques market in our neighborhood, and we purchased a bit of a "Goodbye London" gift for ourselves - a lovely antique (18th century) map of Europe, from one of my favorite shop keepers. I rounded out my trio china collection (a trio is a cup, saucer and tea plate, so very English!) and our friends Yang Ping and Shireen bought Brooks his very own kid-sized rugby ball. Too fun. We returned home to Eric's homemade crepes, and then during Brooks's nap time, our friend Becky came over to lend a hand as we started physically sorting through wardrobes and piles, in preparation for the movers coming this week. It felt good to work on it together with Eric and Becky, as rather than just tacking two or three drawers slowly on my own, we got through almost the entire back of the house in one afternoon - wahoo!! That evening, Yang Ping and Shireen cooked us a feast of Malaysian dishes - chicken and fish and veggies, yum yum! with Yang Ping's own creation for a fruity dessert. Becky returned to our home to spend the night and go to church with us... and we chatted for a few minutes before collapsing into bed.

All in all, I would say that Eric and I are doing quite well as we tackle an amazing and exhausting list of tasks that need attention during this transition. Eric's taken the yeoman's share by far, and when he's still for any length of time, he falls asleep in about 2.3 seconds. But we're both supporting each other, and communicating well, and being as patient and gracious as we can when the stress gets more intense. Unfortunately, I am sick again with another sinus infection/painful ear ache - the resulting energy drain is horribly timed. But the good news is that it forces me not to push myself too hard to get everything done - probably a wonderful blessing at 32 weeks pregnant. We have Eric's massive to-do list that keeps us organized (we do love excel!) and we have the urgency of knowing that the movers arrive Thursday to keep us motivated!

If you're inclined to pray for us, please pray for my health and our renewed energy, our continued grace and kindness to one another in the midst of our activity and stress, Brooks's ability to go with the flow and process as best he can all the changes and chaos he's living through, and most critically, for good goodbyes here. We want to finish strong and well and lovingly. It feels important and I don't want that goal to be trumped by the urgent.

Our 100 weekends (actually 98, but who's counting?!) is down to 100 hours before the movers take away all our things, and then the end will really be upon us. I am so glad as I look back on all this time for all of the many blessing we can count, as well as the knowledge that I have even that much more to look forward to back home.

One photo to end with. This is Brooks and his girlfriend Abby, solidifying their friendship in the Garden across from our flat last week. What cuties! They clearly like each other - don't you think?


Lots of love from London!

Soon-to-be Big Brother

Brooks turned two and a half years old this week - how is that possible?! Every day, I look at him and think "he's not a baby anymore. What a grown-up little man!"

As evidence, check out this photo taken on Tuesday. He's in the hospital (the one I would have given birth in, if we planned to stay in the UK for the arrival of #2) and holding Annarose Ruth Grizzle, daughter of our dear friends and neighbors Heather and Ben, and little sister of his girlfriend Abby.

He is so proud of himself for holding her carefully, and practicing being a "big brudder". What a sweetie.


Ann, another friend from Pastorate, and her 3 month old Aiden were also visiting Heather and Annarose at the hospital while we were there. We had kids at 2.5 years old, 3 months old, and 15 hours old in the room together, and it was such joy to see young happy life everywhere.

We can't wait to meet our own new little one in (hopefully) less than three months!

A Rest in my Bathtub

Brooks has decided recently that his crib is simply too far away after bathtime, and he wants to just curl up in the bath for a rest. This video is from about 6 weeks ago, but we do this little ritual about once a week. I love the little contented sigh when I cover him up. Do you want us to turn the lights off? No! What a cutie!

Writer's Block

Wow! In the last few weeks, massive writer's block has hit me with regards to this blog. I'm sure it's not from lack of material. Life has not slowed down in the least over the last 2 months - in fact, it's definitely picked up its pace as we've tried to savor our final season in London. But I think all my creative juices have gone into this growing baby in my belly and trying to keep a silly, happy, energetic two and a half year old productively occupied! Here's to new blogging inspiration!

What's on my mind today? We've just welcomed two new babies into our family of dear friends! Deborah in Colorado gave birth to her second, a son, yesterday and Heather in London, gave birth to her second daughter, Annarose, in the wee hours of the morning today. Brooks will have lots of opportunities to interact with both of these dear babies soon, and I'll take the chance to suggest no eye-poking nor any breath-restricting hugging to prep him for his little brother's arrival! Two more dear friends are also eagerly awaiting little ones in the next week - Becca in Florida and Laurel in DC. What a great spring for new life! Congratulations, sweet friends.

London is beautiful in this season. The little hidden courtyard gardens tease and beckon me to peek over their tall brick walls with lush roses bushes and lilac and wisteria in full, fragrant bloom. The trees are all wearing their summer leaves now and the green grass lays like a blanket on all the parks nearby. I love the sound of the strong wind blowing through those leaves outside my window in the garden. I will miss the expanses of green everywhere, once we're back in Chicago.

Our washing machine is finally functioning again - actually a new one has replaced the old. I'm so glad to be done schlepping our things to the laundromat, even though Brooks might be a little sad about it. He now enjoys one of his favorite stories - "A Pocket for Cordoroy" - even more than before! This morning, we greeted the two Iraqi men who own our local laundry with waves and hellos and high fives. Brooks thinks of them as friends now, and they grinned at him for a couple of blocks as we approached. This neighborhood has finally started feeling like home.

Love to friends and family far and near. More photos and stories to come soon.

Extreme Sheep LED Art

Yes, you read that title correctly. Extreme art using Sheep and LED lights. Just one reason why I love this crazy country.

Thanks to my vet friend, Becky, for sharing this with me.

Enjoy!

London Snow Day

In the early hours of February 2, I woke up at an ungodly hour - that's what pregnancy will do to you - and happened to glance out the front window. Um - WOW! SNOW! A LOT of snow, in London!! And it was still coming down... So exciting!


We rarely have snow of any kind here, but inches and inches was incredibly unusual. Eric had already decided to work from home the next day, as I was feeling a bit under the weather. Thankfully, he didn't attempt the commute to the office - all of London's buses were suspended, and only one Tube line was operating in the whole city. We heard lots of stories of folks being stuck for hours and never making it to their destination. We ended up having a fun quiet day at home, without any of that hassle.

Our friends the Ericksons had just loaned us a hand-me-down heavy jacket - perfect for playing in the snow!!


The American college kids who live below us had either been out late or up early to construct this impressive towering snowman in front of our steps. It was taller than Eric...


Checking out the garden with 5 or 6 inches of powder... Brooks was stunned.


Brooks's first snowball!


Our helpful little man enjoyed brushing the snow off the benches so we could have a seat.


Brooks supervised as Dada rolled the base of our own snowman. Unfortunately, Brooks got cold and tired before he was finished, but it was sure fun to watch Dada's efforts! :)


I loved the way the ancient trees in the garden looked, all iced and glistening. It really was incredibly beautiful.


Another park member with his dog was out enjoying the weather, and snapped this winter wonderland photo of all of us. What a fun day!!

Video of Brooks with the Snowman

Here's Brooks enjoying a chat with the friendly pint-sized Snowman in our garden during the big snow fall in February.

I love his little wiggle when he's talking to him...

"Hi Snowman!"

"How are *you*, Snowman?"

and then later... "I wanna see the other Snowman, again".

Malshanger 2009

We had a long wonderful trip to the States over Christmas and New Years, and Brooks and I didn't return to the UK until January 10. After a week of settling back into our London life, in mid-January we went out to the English countryside with our Pastorate Group from our church, HTB. Our Pastorate has really become our family here in London. HTB is a big church, the largest I've attended with several thousand attendees on a Sunday. Given that and the typical "British reserve", I think we might have felt quite lost and alone in London without this community of friends. We meet weekly in either the larger pastorate or in smaller home groups, and study the Bible, and eat, and hang out, and pray, and live life together. It's been an amazing blessing.

So that's the who. As for the where, Malshanger is a country house and parklands owned by the Colman family, as in Colman mustard - anyone heard of them?


They're loosely connected to HTB somehow and have generously given half of their country house to HTB for the use of Pastorates and other church folks - just a big comfortable place to gather outside of London. What a fantastic privilege! Eric and I got to meet Lord Colman while we were there, and he was a delightful English gentleman, happy to hear that we were enjoying the house and eager to tell us about the previous day's hunting party...


So anyway, we drove up on Friday night and settled into the house and played games and cards until the wee-hours in front of a roaring fire. Note to self - "Star Munchkin" doesn't really cross international cultures as easily as one might hope, but then no one really minded.

The next morning we served a "big fry up" - bacon and eggs and whole bit and then had a wonderful discussion about Biblical Stewardship. We looked at over 20 passages of Scripture, dividing them up between small groups of 3 to 4 so we could study and discuss and then present the nuggets of related truth to the group. It was a wonderful way to cover a lot of ground and stir up many ideas from various contributors.

After lunch the group spent time strolling through the parklands, napping, and just hanging out talking. All three Wheelers napped for a while so I missed the big group hike but I decided to go out myself for a short walk and enjoy the beautiful afternoon and radiant sunset. I'm rarely by myself outdoors these days, so it was great to get some alone time with the trees and the wind and the birds and the sheep. I could hear the Colman's hunting party out on the other side of the property, shooting... It was a lovely restorative walk.





That night we enjoyed a yummy supper - everyone took turns prepping the meals and we spent lots of time cooking, eating and cleaning up together.


A bit later on, we gathered again for worship and more discussion time. Ross played guitar and I led the singing - it was a casual set-up but so great to look around the room and realize that we had more than 10 nations represented in our group. During the meeting time, Brooks and Abby enjoyed reading books and playing toys in the floor, right there in the middle of the room. It was somewhat distracting for their parents, but several single members of the group mentioned how nice it was to have the kids around all the time, and to not worry about them being into everything (which they were). Honestly, Brooks had a hard time keeping his hands off of Ross's guitar - I think that is the weekend that clinched his love of the instrument. Afterward, Eric got in lots of good conversation with our new friends from Malaysia, Yang Ping and Shireen while I learned a bit more about Texas Hold-Em style poker.

Late that night, we all watched the movie Slumdog Millionaire together. Yes, I enjoyed seeing it, yes I'm glad it won the Oscar for best picture, but why in the world was it billed as a feel-good movie?! I have no explanation for that. I felt uncomfortable watching parts of it and felt like the ending couldn't possibly overcome all the hard stuff leading up to it. I mean, the abuse, and the crime, and the treatment of women, and the poverty - there was so much sadness in that movie!! Am I the only person on the planet who felt like this?!?

On Sunday morning, we listened to a sermon download from Nicky Gumble, vicar of HTB, on Stewardship and enjoyed some extended worship time. After lunch and cleaning up a bit, it was time to say goodbye. Brooks ran around hugging everyone and being cheerful. At one point while we helped tidy up the kitchen, I found him curled up next to Katya, our Italian friend, who was reading him one of his favorite books.

I was sad that the social time had come to a close so quickly, but was thankful for the newly cemented friendships that a few days away produced. Weekends like that don't have to be too structured, if we're all looking for the same sort of connections. It was relaxing and relational and just about perfect.


Thanks friends for a wonderful time!

Learning to blow out candles...

One early February night, Brooks wanted blow out the candles after supper. Grandma was visiting with us via computer skype and we all cheered him on as he tried to snuff out the flame.

I love when he gets tickled at the end. That's his most authentic belly laugh. Now that he can blow them out without too much effort, he thinks this video of himself is very funny!

Rome, Italy

Since we know we have just a few months left in the UK, and we want to take advantage of every opportunity to travel and see this beautiful part of the world, we had been looking at our March calendar with some disappointment. Save for a fun weekend planned at the end of the month with our friends the Grizzles, March approached with absolutely nothing on our agenda! Quelle Horreur! So Eric scoured the web and found some amazing last minute deals to Rome - perfect, I said! Sunshine and so much to see and do and eat! Ten days later, we landed in the Eternal City for a quick weekend visit - hurray for spontaneous adventures!

Rome is one of those places that I feel like I could visit every single year and never grow tired of it. The sights are amazing, the people are fascinating, the food is fantastic and the weather (if you avoid the heat of summer) is perfect. We started off our tour by heading straight to St. Peter's Basilica in the middle of Vatican City.


The richest and most impressive church on earth never disappoints me, even on a repeated visit, and I enjoyed being able to point out features to Brooks (do you see the cross up there? can you spot the birdie? where's the yellow window?) and share my favorite bits with Eric. Even behind crowds and bullet-proof glass, Michelangelo's Pieta is still breath-taking (he carved it when he was 24 years old!), and Bernini's altar and bronze canopy in the center don't seem at all out of place - even at seven stories tall! We scanned the markings on the floor, locating the names of other great churches we had visited in Europe & around the world, all carefully laid out to show their shorter length inside St. Peter's vast nave... I also loved seeing the nuns from every corner of the globe - it reminds me that Heaven is going to be filled with every race and tribe and nation. I tried to imagine the church full... it holds 95,000 worshipers at standing room only. I still can't begin to picture it.


After exploring the main floor, we took an elevator and several stairs to get to the top of the church. This walkway rings the bottom of the inside of the dome, and the walls are lined with mosaics that Brooks just loved. It was great to see an up-close glimpse of the largest dome in the world, before attempting to climb it to see the best view of the city.


Many steps, and a little bit of claustrophobia later, here's the famous postcard view from the top of the dome down over the Plaza in front of the church - featuring my two favorite faces! Roman builders and architects are forbidden from building anything taller than the dome of St. Peters - so the view is glorious!


Given that this is the highest dome in the world, it's not hard to believe that it would require quite a climb, but some of the tiny spiral staircases and leaning corridors were almost laughable.


On the way back down, Brooks loved getting his wiggles out on the nave's rooftop. The statues behind them are the ones that look down on the main Plaza over the steps - they're huge, much larger than life. And the late-afternoon light at 5pm was just beautiful!


As we got off the elevator from the roof, we heard music coming from the nave and walked in to find security guards protecting a wide aisle in the middle of the church. The evening Mass was just starting, and we watched a beautiful, noble-looking procession of clergy loop the length of the church before taking their places at the altar. It was a magical moment...


This is the end of the long procession, incense wafting up to the ceiling, bright lights illuminating the singers (usually it's quite dim, save for the spectacular windows), and the chanted song becoming more echo-y and ethereal. It was an unbelievable moment. Can you see the guy near the back with a really really big high white hat? He's just a few people in front of the security man in the black suit. Eric asked if he was the pope. Unfortunately not, but he was clearly the guy in an outfit of honor...


We slowly found our way out to the Plaza again, and gave Brooks a chance to run and play in the area where the crowds gather to the hear from the Pope each Wednesday and Sunday. While Brooks tried to catch a pigeon ("I want to pat it!"), we discussed dinner options and people-watched by the fountain. All of a sudden, I realized I was looking at a vaguely familiar face - was this someone we'd met on top of the dome? Clearly she was an American, but I was going to let the moment pass, when she approached us and asked us if we knew each other. Come to find out, while we didn't know one another personally, she attended our church in Chicago for 4 years while we were there, before moving to Rome in 2008. We had many friends in common, and it made the world feel quite a bit smaller.

When we traveled in Italy with my parents in the fall of 2007, Mom, Dad, Brooks and I visited a restaurant near Campo de' Fiori, whose motto is you eat what we feed you. This place doesn't bother providing menus, or even taking your order. They just ask white or red, still or sparkling, to bring you your preferred beverage, and then the feast begins. Brooks is chowing down on basically the same plates of appetizers that we had enjoyed 16 months earlier - yummy lentils, olives, parma ham... all of it was delish!


This was Nona Paola, owner and Mama of this restaurant. She was just as fond of Brooks this trip as last time, and expressed this affection by bringing him his own plate of home-fried potato chips! I was so glad to have my camera with us. Brooks liked her a lot but was a bit confused by her signature turban.


We started the next morning at St. Peter in Chains, a beautiful old church built in the 5th century to house the chains that held St. Peter. It's also home to Michelangelo's beautiful "Moses" statue (complete with horns, due to a long-ago mistranslation of the Hebrew word "rays"), part of a incomplete set of 48 statues planned for the tomb of a very vain pope.

Eric and I discussed whether we thought these chains were in fact the real chains that held the apostle Peter. I'm not sure we came to any conclusion... Perhaps because of our Protestant upbringing, I think we tend to see these old church relics skeptically. But given that they were being housed less than a mile from where he was actually imprisoned, it seems that they are more likely authentic than most of the highly-venerated relics in Europe. Nevertheless, we could say that Peter's chains were these or some very like them, and it was really amazing to get an actual *visual* on what the disciples experienced for their obedience...


Next up was the Colosseum. Because we did zero pre-planning for this trip (other than hotels and plane tickets) we didn't maximize our time to avoid lines at the popular sights. Instead of waiting in the painful ticket line to get to the Colosseum, we jumped into an English language tour-group that ended up being a huge win. The guides were great, very informative and fun to listen to, and we were able to zip past all those poor tourists waiting to buy their tickets to get here.


It's quite hard to look down into the ruins and *not* think of all of the Christians who died in this arena. The mostly missing floor reveals the underground caves and cages where hungry wild animals were housed until the moment they were lifted up by special elevator, hidden behind "blinds" on the ground floor and turned loose on unsuspecting "performers" - sometimes criminals, sometimes gladiators, sometimes Christians. I can't even imagine how terrifying that must have been - to not know what was going to come out from behind the blind to get you.

This photo was taken by a sweet Baton Rouge couple who were also on our tour. They did a great job of getting Brooks to smile for the camera. Eric and I have an inside family joke about how strangers asked to take a photo for you rarely take the picture you're hoping for. This shot was the wonderful exception!


After racing a few blocks to pick up a speedy lunch to go, we joined back up with our tour company for the second part of the day... a guided loop through Palatine Hill. Standing in the center of the "seven hills of Rome" this area has always had prominence in the history of the city. Romulus and Remus - the legendary twin brothers who would later found Rome, were rescued as babies and raised by a she-wolf. As our fantastic tour guide Hannah explained, beginning as far back as 500 BC, many wealthy Romans built their houses up on this hilltop, and eventually, it became THE place to live for the Roman emperor. Around 70 AD, the ruling Flavian dynasty tore down the enormous lavish homes of their predecessors and smoothed out the surrounding hills to build their family a ridiculously large house. The remains of their palace are still there, amazing bits and pieces which have survived the "harvesting" of materials done by subsequent generations of builders and architects are truly impressive. Our guide said that a huge percentage of the marble found in St Peter's Basilica was originally used to decorate long destroyed palaces up on this hill. Incidentally, our word for "palace" originates from this spot - "Palatine Hill" is the place where the rulers live.

This picture is taken from the top of Palatine Hill overlooking the Roman Forum, up the Via Sacra to the Colosseum. On past trips to Rome, I've spent quite a bit of time wandering around all those rocky ruins below - checking out the house of the Vestal Virgins, the Ancient Senate building, the Arch of Titus, and the main Forum square. After one year of Latin at Brentwood Academy (oh, so long ago) and several Ancient History classes, all of these places still seemed very much alive to me. But I had never made it to Palatine Hill before and it was wonderful to find a "new discovery" in a city that I had already enjoyed so much.


From the back of the top of Palatine Hill, we could see the faint outline of the Circus Maximus - once a dramatic chariot course (picture "Ben Hur").


This photo is for Aunt Sissy. We can't see the Basilica of Constantine (Maxentius) without someone posing for this shot...


After a full day of touring through the remains of Ancient Rome, we decided that what we really wanted was a couple of plates of steaming pasta, so we wandered over to Piazza Navona to see if we could find an atmospheric spot to enjoy some of the best that Italy offers. At the first restaurant, the friendly maitre d' pointed to Brooks, perched up on his Dada's shoulders, and asked if someone was tired. I looked up and realized that Brooks was *falling asleep* with his head resting on the top of Eric's baseball cap. So cute. We did one slow lap to check menus and then went back to the first restaurant where the kind man who noticed Brooks a few minutes before went to great lengths to settle him in for a meal.


He pulled two big arm-chairs together and laid out a half dozen padded cushions so we could make a little bed for him. Brooks curled up on his tummy and immediately started snoring, and moments later the maitre d' came over with a clean tablecloth, to lay over him as a little brocade blanket. He was snug and warm and sleeping happily next to us, while we had our first vacation date night in several months! :)


Once we had enjoyed most of our meal, Brooks woke up and ate a bite before our fun bus ride back to our hotel. The next morning we packed up and checked out after breakfast and then wandered over to the Pantheon to check out Rome's most beautifully preserved interior. Eric had not seen this magnificent dome before and we had a great time soaking it up while Brooks ran around pointing things out and asking - "What's dat!?"

Afterward, we went in search of a few more interesting churches in the neighborhood, all richly inlaid with expensive marble and gilded with obscene amounts of precious metals. We admired the architecture (I mean, how can you not!?) but wondered about a religious culture that put so many financial resources into building more and more grandiose buildings, one right after another, all in just a few square blocks of the same city. It was almost too much - even for me, and I love these old buildings, I really do. Ready for a change of pace, we spilled back out into the sunshine to find...

I mean come on! Isn't this the reason why the world loves to visit Italy?! GELATO! :)


I thought Brooks might break his face, grinning so about his "lock-let" ice cream! And this was before he'd had his first bite!! :) I admit I shared his excitement.


Things continued to get a lot more messy after this photo, but I think his early chocolate smile was just too cute to resist. After this late morning snack we had to delay lunch a bit, but it was oh so worth it!


The rest of the day was spent wandering into more ancient churches - including the Mamertine Prison, which Eric had missed on his last trip to Rome in 1999. This church is built over the prison where the apostles Peter and Paul were held as referenced in the Book of Acts and being there was an incredibly powerful experience, even during its renovation. From there, we went back to the hotel to gather our things, grab a bite to eat, and head off to the airport.

A quick trip, but amazingly packed with important sights, yummy food and greatly appreciated sunshine! I love Italy!!