Adventures of the LLB Gang

6/1/26

Italy Adventures - Vatican City

The second day of our trip was amazing and jam packed. By jam packed, I mean we saw almost all the key attractions Rome had to offer in one day! Today, I'm going to show you both St. Peter's Cathedral which we visited early in the morning, along with the Vatican Museum which we saw later in the day.

Vatican City is the smallest sovereign state in the world. The Vatican and the Holy See are interesting and would take the whole post to explain fully. Feel free to read more HERE, Above is an outside shot of St. Peter's Basilica. If it looks familiar, it might be because this is where Pope Leo greeted the public after

being elected (along with other many other appearances)

We arrived at St. Peter's Square first thing in the morning and were lucky enough to beat most of the crowds.

The Basilica is called St. Peter after Jesus's trusted apostle who is buried under this altar. An altar on which many Popes, including Pope Leo, have held mass.

The dome was amazing, as you can see. Michelangelo, Giancamo della Porta and Domenico Fontana, all had a hand in its design and construction.

The Swiss Guard, established in 1506, is the oldest military that has been in continuous use. They may have a whimsical and renaissance feeling because of their uniform, but don't underestimate them. They are well trained in counter-terrorism, hand to hand combat and are an elite force not to be reckoned with.

I could go on...and on....and on about St. Peter's, but let's take a look at the Vatican Museums.

Looking down on the modern "Bramante Staircase" designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932 based on Donato Bramante's original double helix staircase.

Mars of Todi - Thought to be a life-sized sculpted bronze warrior from the 4th or 5th century BC.

Sculpted puppy ;-).

Laocoon and His Sons - Discovered in Rome in the early 1500's, the amazing detail of this sculpture made it a favorite of Michelangelo.

Another beautiful view of the Modern Bramante Staircase, this time shooting from below.

Here is a movie showing some more of Vatican City:

Thanks for joining us as we explored Vatican City. Next week, I'll wrap up Roma with a look at the Colosseum and some fun "around the city" shots.

We are joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the

Happy Tuesday Blog Hop this week!

5/31/26

Happy June

June is one of my favorite months, can you guess why???

Look who is awake and ready to run, Larry the Lizard (and all his friends)!!!

I just love a good game of Chase the Lizard, don't you???

We're also joining Comedy Plus for the

Awww Monday Blog Hop!

5/28/26

Sky Watch on FFF/NF

Welcome to the wonderful Friday each month where Nature Friday comes together with YAM Aunty's FFF!! Make sure to visit YAM Aunty HERE to get the Rulez and join the FFF fun!!

Today, we are sharing some of the pretty skies we have had lately!

Mama and I love getting up a little early and watching the sun rise. Through the year, the sun rises is different places around the backyard.

This time of year we watch it rise over the Northeast part of our fence.

It puts on quite the color show and can start out a very light pink and explode into bright orange!

It is so very quiet and serene sitting outside, watching the pretty colors and listening to the birdies!

Unless, of course,

the silly balloons show up!

When they show up, I let Mama enjoy their pretty colors and go inside and take a nap.

We hope you enjoyed a look at our pretty skies along with the colorful (but scary) balloons.

We hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy some kind of nature this weekend!

Show us your nature! It can be flowers, your current weather, a scene out of your window, or maybe a picture from a vacation, walk or other journey! Any kind of nature picture will do! If you don't see a link below, click HERE to go to our Hoppity Page.

5/27/26

Groomer Thankful Thursday

This week we (well, mostly Mama) are so very thankful for our groomers at All 4 Paws (a small business run by a mom and her daughter). We were looking a bit like long haired freaky dogs when Mama dropped us off last Friday. They do their grooming out of their house. Mama really likes that they only groom one "dog family" at a time and usually have us done in less than 2 hours!

When Mama came to pick us up, we smelled fresh and she could see our eyes again!!!

Thanks All 4 Paws for always taking such good care of us!!

Thank you to Maxwell and Angel Brian for hosting the

Thankful Thursday Blog Hop

5/26/26

Happy European Starlings on BWW

European Starlings have been visiting our backyard for the past year or so. We first noticed them stopping by the fountain last year and then saw them again hanging out at the birdy circus this Spring. TC captured them earlier this week having fun splashing around in the fountain:

They sure look cute with their bright yellow beaks!

We are joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for the

Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop this week!

5/25/26

Italy Adventures-Arriving in Rome

Disclaimer: These Italy entries will most likely be long and "rambly". I am trying to record all memories, mostly so I remember them.

I am trying to limit the posts themselves to only 10 pictures, but the accompanying video in most posts will have all the pictures and video taken during the day's adventure. Do NOT feel you have to wade through everything or to comment on these posts, they are mostly for my benefit. Thanks so much to all of you, and to the girls, for giving up their Tuesdays (and a couple of Nature Fridays) for a bit.

Out ime in Italy went by in a blur and has taken me a week just to put the 87 million pictures in some kind of order. What I can say without a doubt is this was definitely a trip worth the wait. As some of you know, I spent a lot of my life in a part of New Jersey surrounded with heavy Italian influences. Italy is always a place I dreamed of visiting and I am so happy to report it was everything I thought it would be and more!

Our trip started with an early airport arrival. Amazingly enough we kept our luggage under weight and, with the exception of a small boarding pass issue the day before, were lucky to have a very smooth travel day.

Travel was smooth, but also long. An hour flight to Denver, a four hour flight to Montreal where we were lucky enough to board a flight with "lay flat" seats for the eight hour flight to Rome. We left Albuquerque at 7:30am on Saturday, and arrived in Rome on Sunday at around 9:30am (Rome is ahead of us here in MST by 8 hours). We breezed through customs. Did you know they don't stamp passports anymore? It's all pictures and fingerprints now, very different from the last time we traveled out of the country.

After a little wait at the Rome airport, we were picked up by our tour bus.

No time to think about jet lag. We dropped our suitcases off at the hotel then met the rest of our tour group and left to explore Rome.

As you can imagine, the ancient architecture is just beautiful! This is the Temple of Portunus, originally built in the 3rd or 4th century BC and rebuilt somewhere between 120 and 80 BC. How amazing to be standing in the same space as something over 2000 years old. Especially when your own country is only 250 years old. Needless to say, from that point on, I was in awe of all the architecture I had the pleasure of seeing.

Our first stop of the trip was hyped as visiting the Mouth of Truth, an ancient Roman mask rumored to bite the hand, placed in its mouth, of anyone who tells a lie. This mask was made famous in the movie, Roman Holiday.

Ed and I found the Basilica a bunch more interesting than the silly mask though.

A beautiful structure, originally finished in 795 AD, it has been renovated as late at 1899.

It was the first of many churches to "Wow" us with its ornate decor.

St. Valentine's bones are said to be scattered around Europe. According to the Basilica (and I confirmed with Nat'l Geographic records) this is supposed to be his skull.