Summer

A big milestone last week.

And it was “outdoor week” at gymnastics camp. The entire camp, even the team girls like Ally went canoeing.

I absolutely love the pure joy on her face.

Italy Day 10: The last day.

10 days in Italy. We’ve had an amazing time. Eaten gelato everyday. Had lots of pizza and pasta and many laughs. What a great trip. I was also reminded that 10 days of travel is too many for our family. We are much better with only 6-7 days away from home.  8 should be our max. We all miss home and are glad to be on the plane now heading towards Boston. 

Beth has been as usual a fantastic travel companion. She could probably travel for 14 days or even longer. Becky, Ally and I are very fortunate Beth loves us and likes us enough to travel with us two summers in a row! Thank you Aunt Beth.

Yesterday at breakfast we realized we could order pancakes. There is a buffet available but it doesn’t have pancakes so this morning Becky ordered pancakes for Ally.

Becky texted me the picture of the plate above and below is Ally in the elevator when I showed her the picture.



Happy girl eating pancakes on the roof top terrace our last day in Rome.

We took a selfie in the elevator. I am terrible at selfies.

We planned a museum trip for the morning. We had a few hours before our flight and wanted to go do something. Beth found a small museum called the Galleria Spada. It’s actually in a palace and the 4 rooms of art are exactly the way they were arranged in the time the art was collected in the 1600s.

Ally was kind of bored here but it’s the only art museum we made her go to the entire trip. 10 days in Italy and she only went to 1 museum. Some people would say that was a crime. 

Becky was fascinated and enthralled in this museum. Ally and I would have been done in 10 minutes. But Becky read the guide and looked at everything. 

My favorites were this series of floral still life paintings.

The frescoes on the wall above the painting were incredible. They looked 3-D.

The Heaven Globe pictured below and the Earth Globe above date back to the first decades of 18th century. It was neat to show Ally how they thought the earth look back then. And Guatemala wasn’t even on the map!

Beth posing like a bust with some marble busts from the 2nd Century.

We saw several David and Goliath paintings and Becky was quite fond of them.

The highlight of the museum is the forced perspective gallery by Francesco Borromini. Pictured below:








It’s really cool to take a selfie in front. 





A very nice security guard took our photo. 

The courtyard of the museum had beautiful marble statues of Greek Gods and Goddesses.

One last handstand in Italy! I’ve been emailing pictures to her coach who is loving seeing the Italian sites with Ally’s gymnastics. 

10 days 10 espressos! 

And even thought it as barely 11am we all got one last gelato.

Then a couple of selfies as we waited to board the plane. Let’s hope we look this cheery after 8 1/2 hours on the plane.




Well we did it! We made it thru the long flight. Here we are after landing as we waited to disembark the plane:

And because this blog is The Life of Ally, one last picture of Ally. We are so very blessed to have her in our family. Not a day goes by that I’m not happy to be her mommy. 

Italy Day 9 Part 2: catacombs and crypts

After St Peters we all headed back to the hotel. After a quick break Becky and Beth headed out. Ally needed more rest and we weren’t sure she would even take the tour we’d booked of the catacombs, crypts and bone chapel.

The sisters heading out to conquer Rome.

Beths’s 9th espresso of the trip

Ally dressed and ready to go: new top!

It really is so hot in the sun.

At the bone chapel we had to cover our shoulders.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the church. It is a Cuppuchin Monk property and considered sacred. So Becky found these on the internet. 

Then we took a van outside of Rome proper to a set of catacombs. No bodies are in these now, but they would have all been in the slots in the walls.



Some very interesting tombstone decorations.

The one above is the oldest painting of the Virgin Mary known to exist. 150 A.D.


Some other very beautiful paintings in a family time.

After the catacombs we took the bus to a different part of Rome and visited an old church built on ancient Roman ruins:

Above is an old theater.

These are the ruins from 300BC

Marble herringbone tile! 

We were starving after the tour.

Fried potatoe coquettes and fried stuffed olives 


Beth’s pizza

Ally’s final margarita pizza in Italy! 

Becky has a hard time cutting pizza.

Gelato after our final Italian dinner.