Sicily with the 7th graders

I had the great fortune of being able to go to Sicily with the 7th graders at our school as they traveled on the "Week Without Walls" trip to study geology and migration.  I didn't take a ton of photos as I was busy counting noses (I had a group of 7 so I had to make sure that along the way we always had all of my 7).

But what a great trip.  I loved, loved, loved getting to observe Regan in her "natural habitat" of interacting with a diverse set of fellow students.  She has a great set of friends but also confidently drifts through the grade and feels comfortable with a wide range of friends - both girls and boys.  And I loved getting to know Regan's teachers better.  I knew I liked them but am blown away by how inspiring and interesting they are.  I feel so blessed that Regan gets to interact with them on a daily basis.

Quick hike at a gorgeous gorge after we landed.  Our flight was supposed to take off at 2:30 a.m. but ended up getting delayed until 4:45 a.m. so we were super, super tired by the time we changed planes in Rome and finally made it to Italy.

Kids and water - after this photo a bunch of them decided to wade in.  Fortunately no one fell in completely.

Playing cards on a long ferry ride to go hike a volcano

Our hike

Regan and some of her peeps at the top of a volcano enjoying a picnic lunch.

Check out all the sulfur coming out of the volcano.  And the ground was super hot in an area straight ahead - so fascinating!

Regan and I ran through the sulfur, too

Cooling off in the very cold Mediterranean after our hot hike.  Little did we know this would be our last warm day!

Brrr - hiking up around Mt. Etna a huge and very active volcano.  There was snow up there!

7D(!) movie after the Mt. Etna hike

Hiking a lava field from 1992 - the lava almost destroyed a village but was diverted by the US military!

More hiking - fun to explore but the hardened lava was pokey and hard - we had a few tumbles

Our packed lunches many of the days

Exploring a cute Italian village on one of the islands

Changing boats on one island 

Stromboli!  Where we could see the red lava (a bit) after the sun went down (and after a wonderful pizza dinner)

More exploring the Italian villages and hills

Greek ampitheater

Last day!  Some of my great co-chaperones.