The Little Nemeceks

As my last post of 2017, I will share some of the snowy day pictures I took of the kids this week, who had lots of fun having a snowball fight, making snow angels, and making a small snowman.

We had a very fun Christmas at home after getting back from our Italy trip.  We made and decorated gingerbread cookies, had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner complete with Christmas crackers and mulled wine, and then opened presents on Christmas morning.

Avila is now 3 years old! She loved her pink chocolate cake with fire on the candles, and said "I found something!" every time she opened a present.  We also potty trained her soon after her birthday, and she is now happily taking herself to the potty when she needs to and getting a gumdrop as a reward.

For our next to last day in Italy, we drove down to see Pompeii (on our last day we visited the catacombs of St. Callixtus, but were not allowed to take pictures).  Pompeii was huge, and amazing to see.  We did not have time to see all the highlights, but we visited quite a lot of them and Josh really enjoyed this part of the trip.

Some of the well preserved parts were moved inside

Approaching the entrance

The forum

Centaur statue in the forum

Plaster cast of one of the people who died in Pompeii

Kids on the streets (No, Avila isn't jumping)

I don't remember what this was, looks like a henge

Another view of the forum

Crosswalks like these allowed pedestrians to cross without stepping in mud and horse dung

Floor mosaid

Apparently Roman people were my height

Theatre

Temple to Heracles

Wall paintings

Alexander the Great mosaic

Faun, House of the Faun

House of the tragic poet: Beware of dog

Pompeii from the outside

Day 2 in Rome we visited the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  We also did a bus tour of Rome, and attempted to visit St. Peter's Basilica (but we were too late as it closed at 2PM). 

Sphere within a sphere

Greek and Roman antiquities

More statues

And another

And another

Mosaic floor

Hall of tapestries

Gallery of maps

Ceiling in the gallery of maps

Another ceiling

Part of the modern art collection

Another ceiling

Outside of St. Peter's Basilica

Plaza outside the basilica

Nativity display

St. Peter's again

Avila on the bus tour

Trajan's column