Day 10: Nemi...

Sunday we went to church in the Rome 3 ward. It was a very fun experience for us. We went to all three hours and we all had a great time. After church, Karen was preparing for an open house at the mission home. They had invited members & missionaries to bring investigators and they invited the neighbors to come. We decided it might be a good time for a drive to Nemi, so we'd be out of the way (mostly so the boys would be out of the way) while they got the house ready.

We drove to Nemi, about an hour away. Ever since I visited Nemi with Karen in 2008, I have wanted to go back. It is the sweetest little town perched up on a hill above a crater lake. The family loved it.

The only problem with visiting on a Sunday was that we couldn't buy one of the yummy strawberry tarts. We hadn't thought that out too well!





We just walked all around the town and explored. It was a great evening, warm and beautiful. The sunset was so pretty, we were happy we picked this time to visit.




The kids enjoyed drinking from Medusa's fountain!







When we were ready to go, we couldn't find Janessa. She was hiding in a phone booth... trying to make calls to her friends to tell them all about her fun trip! Life without a cell phone is really rough on teenagers!

By the time we arrived back at the mission home, they were ready for visitors. It was all so festive and nice. They had set out refreshments, had a church Christmas presentation showing and had nativities set up all over.


The missionaries sang Christmas songs outside, they were really amazing. Mark accompanied them on the violin.


President with Rick and Andrew, the next missionary in our family! It was a great missionary experience for all of us. I am so proud of what Jeff & Karen have done on their mission. They are amazing examples to us as they share the gospel with others in Italy.

Day 9: Rome...

The weather today was not as great as it had been the day before on Christmas day. I think the kids were disappointed that had not ventured out into the city with us the day before! But, we still had a great time. We split up; Rick took Andrew & Harrison to the Coliseum to tour the inside and the Roman Forum. I took Janessa & Nathan to the Borghese Park and the Zoo located in the park.


These monkeys were so cute, we could have stayed and watched them all day long. The babies would run and climb on their parents' backs and tease them. They would chase each other around and around. Parents would get territorial of their babies. It was so much fun to watch their little world.






After the zoo we walked through the Borghese park. It is so beautiful there. We had fun playing hide and seek in the trees and running around everywhere.








We took the subway over to the coliseum to meet up with the Rick, the boys, and Mark & Aersta.






Mark & Aersta are the cutest couple! I caught them kissing along a little tourist stand.




We walked all through Rome in the pouring rain. By the time we made it to the Trevi Fountain, the kids were done. We snapped a quick picture (not a good one) and ran into a restaurant to get some pizza. Despite the rain, it was a very productive day in the city of Rome.