Remember all the Best

Yesterday, while on the train coming home from a quick 4 days in Rome, I started to think back on all the places we've had the opportunity to visit and sights we've been able to see in our first 19 months living abroad.  My little trip down memory lane, so to speak, all started when I was sitting next to Delilah in the taxi on our way to the train station.  I had asked her what was her favorite place we'd visited on this trip and she immediately told me she liked the Eiffel Tower the best. The one is Paris, she reminded me.

Poor life of a military kid--they mix up all the famous sights they've gotten to see in their wee 3 year lifespan...

No, I told her...what's your favorite thing that you got to see on this vacation...the one in Rome, I reminded her.  The one we're on NOW.  

Oh, she said (with this hilarious look on her face)....THIS vacation.  (Heavy sigh from her, chuckle from me....) I like the building with the big ceiling (The Sistine Chapel). But I like Paris best the most...

(She talks about Paris ALL the time and has this Eiffel Tower keychain that she carries around with her, too)

All of this talking about favorites got me thinking in the taxi and on the way home on the train--how much of all these favorites would my kids remember?  My husband, Steve, grew up in Europe as well and actually remembers it all fondly, but he was older--much older than Delilah and Jackson (my youngest two who are just 3 and 6).  I think Jackson just might, because that boy has a memory like I've never seen before, but what about Delilah?

Will she remember swinging of the swing in the park on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice?

Or sailing on a pirate ship there? (yep, a pirate ship in the Grand Canal in Venice) Please ignore my mother-in-laws' finger...

Will she remember sledding over Memorial Day weekend on the Zugspitze at the top of Germany?

Or when she pitched a total fit about getting to drive the electric boat on the lake in Zell am See, Austria, so daddy just gave up and let you?

Or on that same trip to Austria, when we went on the Sound of Music tour and I took my all time favorite picture of Delilah and Jackson in the church where Maria and Captain Von Trapp really got married?

(I LOVE this picture)

Will she remember playing in sand at the edge of the Mediterranean while we were in Cinque Terre and then begging daddy and I to let her get in the water?

 So we did..

Or will she remember when we went to Sicily and had Aldo Trapani show us around some sites that were built over 400 years BC? And will she remember how tall he was and how much she loved playing with him...

Or when Pope Francis was picked and the all the churches were ringing their bells in our town and everyone was SO VERY excited--even though we're not even Catholic...I KNOW I will!

Will she even remember how excited she was when we found one of the very LAST Rapunzel dolls in Disneyland Paris?

Or when she got to see the Eiffel Tower for the very first time!  

And Daddy carried her all over Paris on his shoulders?

Will she remember when she got to see the Colosseum in Rome...

She probably won't remember the Pantheon, since she slept through it...

But for now, she remembers the Sistine Chapel. And likes it the best. From this vacation, at least.

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