The summer is officially over.  Elliot and Olivia went back to school today.  Buckets and buckets of rain soaked us on the way from home, but we made it.

Cor doesn't actually start pre-school until next month (which, I'm sure, will warrant its own post), but he wanted to put on a backpack and join in the photographic fun.

Olivia is now in Group 3 (1st grade), and Elliot is in Group 5 (3rd grade).  It's absolute lunacy to see how quickly time flies.

Coming back is not the same as staying.

Down to our last week in Ohio... We're definitely trying to make the most of it.

You can find a few more images in our Family Pictures section.

This weekend, Marci and I got the chance to get away with just the two of us.  To Rome.  It was fabulous.  Our hotel had a beautiful view of the Colosseum, and we ended up getting to see a lot more of the city than we had ever expected (the Colosseum, the ancient Roman ruins, the Vatican City, the Piazza Navonna, the Piazza di Spagna, the enormous cathedral at San Giovanni in Laterno, and much more along the way).  But most significantly, Marci and I just got to have some special time together.

In particular, we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and Marci's birthday.  On both counts, Rome proved to be a lovely place for celebrating.

I could write about a lot of things that we saw, said, and did together -- but I will limit my reflections to one observation about the Sistine Chapel.  For about ten years now, I've wondered if I would ever get to visit this famous landmark in the Vatican City, and in particular I wondered if I would ever get the chance to experience what the Sistine Chapel smelled like.  The curiosity came from watching the movie "Good Will Hunting" where the old therapist challenges the young genius's tendency to intellectually pick apart everything about another person until he finds a squishy spot he can exploit.  He suggests that the young man might be able to tell him everything there is to know about Michelangelo, or even about Renaissance art -- but he couldn't tell him what it smelled like in the Sistine Chapel.  So ever since seeing that movie, I've kind of wondered what it smelled like in the Sistine Chaple.

And now I can tell you (in case you never get the chance to make it to Rome for yourself):  it smells like sunscreen, sweat, and the traces of a thousand tourists.

The painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel truly was a remarkable work of art -- well worthy of its reputation -- but honestly, my main memory of the space was the crowded tourists looking up while the two beefy Italian security guards kept clapping and shouting, every two minutes, "No photos... No talking... No photos... No talking."  The tourists didn't seem to pay much attention to the fact that the Vatican officials wanted to maintain the sanctity of the space as much as possible.

Seriously, though, Rome was amazing:  a special place that we will remember for a long time to come.  If you want to see more pictures from our time in Rome, you can go to the Family Pictures section of our website.

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And then we came back to Amsterdam just in time to see the Netherlands play (and win) its first World Cup match, earlier today.  I watched the first half of the game with some friends at a nearby cafe terrace...

And I watched the second half of the game at my kids' school -- where the normal afternoon activities had been cancelled, in order for the whole school (and parents, who were also invited) to work out their case of Orange Fever in the school gym.  Fortunately, the result was a positive one.  Who knows?!?  Maybe this will be the year for the Dutch...

You can also find more pictures of this afternoon's expression of Orange Fever in the Amsterdam Pictures section of our website.

Viva Italia!  Viva Hollandia!