My week in Rome was amazing! It was by far my favorite work trip thus far. The location was awesome and the company was great as well. I am so glad to be home with my family but it was quite the experience while I was gone.
Sunday - Miss M had a blast with the Cassem Family (thanks again guys!) She was excited to see daddy as well but didn't want to say bye to Natalie, even though they fought over toys almost the whole visit.
Monday - Our flight arrived in Italy around 4p their time and after getting settled in the hotel, we met up with many of the team members for a quick team dinner. I had a wonderful Margarita Pizza with Prusciotto (YUM!) I then attempted to sleep but unfortunately the jet lag got me and I was wide awake from 2-4a :(
Tuesday - Meetings didn't start until around noon so many of us took advantage of the free time and wandered a high end shopping area for some morning window shopping and initial view of the Spanish Stairs.
After meetings concluded, we met our team's tour guide and took a tour of the Spanish Stairs and many of the towns famous fountains as well as the Pantheon before we had a traditional Roman dinner (8p-11p) - Yes, lots of fun but a very tired girl!!
View from Top of Spanish Stairs
Lots of "Gyspsies" with tricks to try and get money - this was one of my favs
Pantheon
Wednesday - An entire day of meetings followed by the same tour guide taking our team to the Collesium and seeing ancient Rome (city/ruins etc). Very cool! Followed by a trendy dinner on top of a rooftop building.
22 Men Had Dinner Inside that Horse After it was built in 1911
Our Guide Marco and a famous statue due to the Red Marble
Thursday - I had my presentation of the trip and our meetings ended at noon. Many Europeans left, some had their spouses arrive to extend the trip for a long weekend and the remaining split into 2 gropus (those that arrived Monday and hadn't seen the Vatican & those that arrived Sunday and already went to the Vatican on Monday). This was by far my favorite was it was so stunning and growing up Catholic, you heard about so many of these places/works of art etc but to see them in person was amazing. After the Vatican we stopped at a little restaurant on the way back to the hotel and we had the best Lasagna of my life :) YUM YUM
Friday - I landed back in Minneapolis at 3p and was very excited to see my family! Miss M had a big week at school b/c she went #2 on the potty for the first time!!! Clint and I also had a date night on Friday night but I only made it until about 8p and then jet lag hit me BAD! So we were out for a whole 2 hours :)
Poor girl was Proud but is also Scared of #2 :(
Saturday - This weekend's weather was awesome and I hear I missed all the cruddy weather earlier this week. After Gym and a good nap, we decided to take a nice walk of Lake Calhoun. Our neighbor Karoline also joined us but she may not ever do so again since Maci made it a 2.5 hour walk vs the usual ~1 hour 3 mile walk. However, some of that was stopping at a playground where Maci swung on a tire swing, slid down many slides and waded in the lake water.
Sunday - AMAZING DAY! I am now exhausted from all the sun and fresh air, jet lag may still be in play too ;-) but today was great! We started by grabbing bagels and heading to Como Zoo for some fun zoo time but also to enjoy the Como Town rides. The Zehr's also joined us at Como, the kids had a blast! After Como, we decided to go to Gabe's in St Paul near the zoo for some lunch on the patio. Thankfully the kids were good and loved watching the cars/motorcycles go by. We then wrapped up our day with my grocery trip, Clint's grass cutting (1st of year!), walk in the neighborhood and cheering on the Minnesota Wild in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (Round 2!) I thought about getting my to do list ready for the week but I am about to hit a wall so I may just start my day a little earlier than usual tomorrow.
Our family is looking forward to a week of all of us being in town and I am sure Maci will appreciate it as well. We hope you all have a wonderful upcoming week!
Lots of Love,
C, K & M
