Yummers

We have been making some really delicious dinners lately. Most of our ideas come from Pinterest and they turn out to be tasty. I love making baked french fries.

Jonathan made amazing french dip sandwiches! Next time, I think I'll make fries as a side dish.

I brought home some cheese from the Netherlands and I decided to make a fancy cheese board. It was so good! We had provolone, brie, green pesto gouda, and asiago cheese. I also got salami and prosciutto. I really want to do this again. Partially since we still have half of the gouda wheel that I brought home.

I have fallen in love with roasted green beans. I make plenty of them and typically have multiple servings of them because they are so delicious!

Now that it's summer, Jonathan has been making corn on the cob with BBQ chicken. I like cutting the corn off of the cob while Jonathan eats it off of the cob. Either way, it's so good!

Slowly but surely, we are having more delicious and varied dinners.

#FlashbackFriday

I have the tendency to have multiple photos stacked inside of frames. A few weeks ago, I was going through all the frames I have because I'm wanting to finally recreate the photo gallery I had in our last apartment.

Of course, I don't have a picture of the frames on the wall.

 I found some old gems of the kids! It's crazy how much they have all grown.

Ryan is a teenager and probably taller than me now.

Ruby, Theodore, and Spencer have joined the family since these pictures.

Tyler has glasses.

The "little" boys aren't little anymore.

They are learning and growing into wonderful people.

Day Thirteen: Rome

This was our last full day in Europe and we finished strong! We started our morning at the Roman Colosseum. The size and construction of it is impressive. It is very similar to modern sports arenas.

The cross is there because at one point there was a catholic church built inside of the Colosseum.

I noticed that the light grey stones have letters carved in them.

Stairs to go up to a higher level.

The view from the Colosseum towards the Roman Forum.

Here's a model of the church that used to be inside the Colosseum.

After we finished touring the Colosseum, we made our way over to the Roman Forum.

The Arch of Constantine.

Walking towards the Arch of Titus.

A close up of the arch of Titus.

The Basilica of Maxentius.

The foreground is the House of the Vestal Virgins and their temple.

The Temple of Romulus with the original bronze door.

The Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

The Arch of Septimius Severus.

The Column of Phocas on the left and the Temple of Saturn to the right.

The brick building is the Curia Julia where the Roman Senate met.

You can see the Colosseum in the background.

After we finished up in the Roman Forum, we went to the Altar of the Fatherland that's right next to the forum.

A view of Trajan's Market from the street leading up to the Altar of the Fatherland.

This building is gorgeous and massive!

It also provides beautiful views of the city.

This is a tiny little gas station we walked past on our way to lunch.

After that, we went to lunch across the street near where we had dinner the night before. I'm pretty sure it was at Alle Carrette. The pizza was fantastic!

I got the provolone and zucchini without tomato sauce and it was delicious.

After lunch, Chris, Annie, Mom, and I took an Uber to see the Rome Temple. Our Uber driver may or may not have driven us closer to the temple than we should have been.

One thing is for sure, it is a beautiful temple! Due to the shape of the temple each individual piece of stone on the exterior is unique.

There were talks about coming back for the temple dedication. It would be amazing to be able to make that work.

The stonework is incredible.

After our adventure to see the temple, we met up with Andy and Amy and headed out for dinner. We walked past the Spanish steps.

We searched all over for a good restaurant for our final dinner in Europe. Along the way, I found so many gorgeous little side streets.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant where we had dinner, but it was delicious. We did a family style dinner and it was perfect.

After dinner we relaxed on the Spanish steps and enjoyed our last evening in Rome.

There was a store that was near where we were staying that as they were doing construction found aqueduct ruins. They used some projectors to show the history of the aqueduct.

The different colors show what era different parts of the aqueduct were constructed or repaired.

That was the end of our trip since my first post about the trip was our crazy long travel day getting back home. It was amazing how much we were able to see in two weeks and I still sometimes have a hard time believing I really went to Europe. It was fantastic and I was so grateful that I was able to go with siblings that have already been to Europe. I don't know when I'll go back, but this was only the first of many trips!