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Wow, so, a lot has gone on since the last blog. Where to begin... Last day of Rome, this past Tuesday, was spent at the Colloseum and surrounding ruins. Amazingly, to us, Rome's weather is more horrrid than houston's! What had begun as a sunny day instantly became a stormy nightmare the moment we stepped out of the house. It was pouring, so we quickly dove into the Colloseum and chose a pretty good tour. It was incredible to us all to see the famous arena. Afterwards, we had a slightly less impressive tour of the ruins of Ceaser's house and the old Forum. Our tour guide was... Interesting. He was quite passionate about somethings, such as the pronunciation of the Palatine hill, PAl-ah-teen, by the way, never pal-an-tine. It only got worse when the man ... read more

We missed a few days of blogging but not of material to blog about. After our firt day in Roma and meeting with the Cardinal, we finally got some good sleep (contrary to our previous blog, train sleep with seven people in one sleeper car is not the best way to catch up on rest!) Our hotel is at the base of the Spanish steps, a beautiful piazza near the Vatican. It really was special even compared to the hundreds of other piazzas we found as we wandered aimlessly though the maze of alleyway which they call streets in Rome. We also came to realize that it is better to pay more for good food then to search through the many streets for something cheap - when in Rome, eat like the Romans. Today we had ... read more

Ciao! Sorry we skipped a day, as you'll see, friday was quite an eventful day... It was our last day in Paris. We started the day at the Arc de Triumphe and then walked down the Champs Elysees. It was gorgeous and super cool, considering all that has happened there. We went through the Place della Concorde and saw the obelisk, where Marie Antoinette and others lost their heads. We also met a few pickpockets, but outwitted them all! We finally came to the louvre, where we planned to spend our last few peaceful hours. Right. At the desk, we were informed that our pre-ordered tickets needed to be picked up back at Champs Elysees, so Sophie and Dad raced back over to pick them up. We finally were able to enter, but our visit was ... read more

Happy ascension thursday everyone! Today was our 'church day' in paris. We started off the morning at the sacra couers, a newer cathedral for france, but still incredibly beautiful. It sits on a hill overlooking Paris, so the walk there was long and painful, but the view was AMAZING. Sophie got a weird experience with an actor standing outside the cathedral, posing as a statue. He was pretty convincing, because all she could say was, "their statues move!?!" inside, the Sacra Couers was incredible, with paintings everywhere and beautiful chapels. Some of our favorites were a marian chapel, showing several Marian apparations, and the chapels dedicated to St. Therese Lisieux and St. Margaret Mary Alocque, which held the saints relics. The ceiling above the altar was gorgeous, with saints from many periods of Frech history, including ... read more

First Order Of the day: baguette breakfast. And we confirmed the rumor that nutella is better in europe. Then we set off for the eiffel tower!! 668 steps and a long elevator ride later, we reached the top. The view was incredible!! We could Notre Dame, Arc de Triumphe, and the Grande Palace. The weather was gorgeous. After a tasty lunch we checked out the musee orsey. It was incredible, five stories high with a glass roof and amazing exhibits. We saw collections of degas, monet, Manet, van gogh and many others! It was amazing to see the paintings right in front of you, some of them were ten times larger than we had ever imagined! We stayed there for hours before having a delicious French dinner. Some of the best food we've ever had! We ... read more

Today was the first day in europe! Its been a long, crazy day. First off was our flight. It was quite exciting for the kids, as great amounts of movies were provided to help us deal with nine hours of sitting together. To patrick's disappointment, there was no snack bar, although we were provided 'gourmet airplane food.' for those tim hawkins fans, even though we were in the back of the plane, we didn't see any fish heads. With little sleep we restarted in england. While we didn't stay in london very long, it was very exciting to hear the english accents, even though i wasn't allowed to use my almost real accent. We grabbed lunch and then took the chunnel to paris. Most of us slept through the ride, so no word on how it ... read more