Photography as Art...

Well, I did it. After returning home from our amazing two month long family adventure with a gazillion photos, I entered a few pieces in a small local art show.
For the first time in a long time, I’m truly proud of my photography. While taking pictures all around Tuscany, I was doing it for me with no one else to please. Clients are fun, but to take a photo without stressing out about the end product was freeing.
The theme for the art show was “Life in the City”. The only problem I had was to choose just a few pieces to enter. Helping me narrow it down were my twin sister and loving husband (my two biggest cheerleaders who are always proud of my work, even when I might not be).
I’m not going to lie, winning an award at the art show would be amazing. I would totally feel validated as a photographer. But I’m super happy to have found the pride and strength in my art; it’s taken a while to get here.
These are three of the four I entered…

Title: “To Market”

Title: “Space to Play”

Title: “Vivid Glimpses”
(a collection of three photos)

Photography: Sculpted Roma...

Looking over my favorite travel shots and found these pretty sweet sculpted beauties I took while in Rome at the end of our family adventure.

Photography: favorite travel photos off the Misters...

Now that we’re back home, I’m slowly sorting out photos. I found some of my favorite images of my Little Misters taken while we were still in Italy.

Dusk in the Piazza Navona...

Our first day in Rome we walked through the Piazza Navona just before sunset.

To the Pantheon...

My family stayed in Rome for three days to end our Italian adventure. Not much time to see all that Roma has to offer, but we managed a whirl wind walking tour. One stop was the Pantheon. I always wondered if the hole in the ceiling was indeed open to the elements. Today was raining and inside the floor was wet. Answers that question. What a fascinating building.

Our Grand Adventure comes to a close...

We woke up Sunday morning with enough time to finish packing our bags, get dressed and take in our last minutes in Italy. We paid a little extra to have a taxi pick us up in front of our apartment and take us straight to the airport. It was well worth it, knowing the other option.

photo by Oliver

After a little mix up with Oliver's ticket to London, we got checked in and walked to our gate to wait. Our flight wasn't for a couple hours, so we took a few walks and colored to waste the time.

When they started boarding we went down an escalator to a waiting bus. The bus took us on a ride (it felt like a few miles) to our awaiting plane. The passengers were boarded on the front and back of the plane. We had the very last seats in the plane, so we climbed the back staircase.

 

Two hour flight to London and we managed to get to our next gate on time. We had a little over an hour to get off our plane, transfer terminals (by bus), go through security, get our boarding passes, and make it to the gate. 

When we board this plane the stewardess saw the boys and got really excited. She asked if they wanted to meet the pilots. Oliver had been wanting to meet a pilot since our very first flight two months ago, so he was THRILLED. The co-pilot let the Little Misters climb into his chair. I said "don't touch the buttons" and the pilot said "oh, that's okay". They even let him wear his hat. What a fun experience.

It was a long 8 1/2 hour flight to Chicago. The boys slept for about 4 1/2 hours of that time. We landed in Chicago around 10pm and found our flight was delayed an hour. It was a blessing because we feared our 1 hour and 15 minute might not be long enough. We had to collect our luggage, go through customs, re-check our bags to Minneapolis, transfer terminals (by monorail) and find a bathroom. It all worked out just fine and we were home in MN by 1:30am. A long day, 17 or 18 hours of travel but happy to be home. Plus we got to see Mormor again (she came to pick us up).

Our last afternoon walk in Italy...

After lunch on St. Peter's Square, we walked past all the TV crews in the direction of the Castle San'Angelo. Stopping only for a few fun new hats for the Little Misters. They picked them out themselves, with the yellow it's hard to lose Lucius in the crowd.

We walked past Castle San'Angelo and headed into the Rome streets we walked on Thursday.  Most of the streets we walked this afternoon were new to us, but others we'd walked only a few days before.

 

You know we HAD to get one last gelato before we left Italy. We found this gelateria not too far away from the Piazza Navona, where we walked to when we had ate our fill. WE also found a super yummy snack, sausage in bread.

In the Piazza Navona we found a toy store to wonder into. The boys are always happy to stop to look at toys. Today we were just looking, because anything we bought still had to be packed in our already full suitcases.

 Lets see after we left the Piazza we saw a busy street market in Campo de Fiori, the area Sacra Argentina (another ruins filled with stray cats), past the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish stairs.

 

We stopped at McDonald's to use their restroom, and the line to the ladies room was so long, Lucius fell asleep in my arms (that's never happened since he was a baby). Poor thing. Apparently the 15 minute nap was enough as we managed to walk around for several more hours afterward.

We took the Metro to San Giovanni station to see a few more new things on our walk back to the apartment. The Boys were excited we did because we happened to find a playground in this park we walked through. They played for a while, we have no idea how they had so much energy our long day out. We finally made it back home by 5pm that evening for dinner.

"if I do like this, I can see the train"

It was a gorgeous last day to end our trip with temps in the high 60's. We soaked up the sunshine and outdoors, preparing to come home to the snow and cold.