Aidan's very first ballet recital...

Well, here are the recital pictures. She did a great job considering the amount of focus the ballet class required and the distraction from having an audience. We are really proud of Aidan's accomplishment over such a short time in the class. She really loves to dance and move to any kind of music, but ballet is definitely a difficult choice for such a young person. We'll keep it up for awhile longer and see how she grows into it. Here is how the recital went... The day started off well and Aidan was so excited to get on stage and dance. We had to be there an hour early and waiting tried Aidan's patience. You'll see her enthusiasm fade after the program starts.

Here she is showing off her outfit and a smile.

Standing in front of the Sicilian flag.

She was so excited and it was intensified with all the girls running around in their costumes.

Aidan doing butterfly hands.

Headed for the stage for some preshow dancing.

I just love her silly wrinkled nose when she smiles and laughs.

Here she is dancing with some of the other girls.

The feet are blurry, but it reminded me of the roadrunner... she never stops moving.

Here is a preview of her flowers before she saw them... Her teacher, Ms. Maria, bribed the kids with the idea that their parents would buy them flowers if they did a good job.

The curtain closed...

And the melodrama started.

She didn't want to stay on her spot for the recital... I got her to sit by giving her the camera. She took pictures of all the girls backs., the floor, and some extreme close-ups. I took the camera away as soon as the curtains opened.

Here she is actually following the choreography.

As you can see, some of the other little girls don't quite follow along either.

And when the audience clapped after they were done, Aidan got really excited.

Then the curtain closed again and she started with the crocodile tears again.

Here is the huddle of girls behind stage waiting for the finale. They look pretty annoyed too.

Some of the other girls wanted to take pictures too... they made me pose. Aidan's hand gesture means "good," or Buona, in Italian.

This expression definitely looks acted, but it was beautiful.

Here they are getting ready for the finale, dancing to Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea."

Again, she was not happy when I took the camera away when the curtain opened.

After it was all done, the girls gathered for group pictures.

Aidan just wanted to get off the stage.

Jason got to sit and watch the recital before heading back to shift.

They were both a little overwhelmed by the event.

Aidan loving on her flowers... she got to choose the colors a few days before the recital.

Her favorite color is yellow... and she was lucky enough to get that little yellow horse toy from her teacher.

The excitement is coming back. After the little party, she headed back to the stage. Ms. Maria asked her what she was doing and Aidan's reply was "I'm going to dance now." She never wants to dance until everyone else stops.

Here are her flowers once we got home. We put them on the table so that Aidan can see them all day. She calls them her ballet flowers.

The recital video is broken up into six parts, but it is only about eight minutes total. I don't know why the video camera won't upload it as a whole. Jason is also a bad cameraman, so forgive the jumpiness of the video and the few that are just seconds long. I hope you all enjoy.

Well, that is all for now. Until next time... Ciao.

Memorial Day Weekend Part 2: Valley of the Temples in Agrigento

I will try to keep the writing down to a minimum for this set of pictures. But to explain a little before the barrage of pictures... Agrigento was built during the height of the Golden age of Greece around 600 BC. The Greeks called it Akragas and it was built to keep an eye on Carthage. Their temples rivaled those in Greece. But because Sicily has no marble, they were made from sandstone and plastered white to resemble the home temples of Greece. The Greeks also brought olive trees to landscape the grounds and to make them feel more like home. The olive trees still stand outside some of the temples.

There are considerable remains of six so called temples... one of which is a compilation of ruins into a single imagined structure.

First is the temple of Juno, originally dedicated to Hera, built in the mid 5th century BC.

It is high atop the hill and looks down over the vast Mediterranean Sea.

It looks down over the rest of the temples as well.

This is the view of the Temple of Juno after climbing up the big hill.

And to prove that we were really there...

Aidan and I with a backdrop of the Mediterranean.

Some more of the valley down to the sea.

Aidan wanted to go and see the inside of the temple...

But she settled with standing on this rock instead.

This is the oldest olive tree on the grounds... brought when the temples were built.

Aidan was reluctant to sit still for the pictures.

These are some very young olive trees, in front of the false restoration of a temple. It is referred to as the Temple of Castor and Pollux.

This is how small the olives start...

And they grow into this.

Here is more of the Temple of Castor and Pollux... these were rooms of rest to get out of the sun.

Jason and Aidan sitting in one of the niches.

More of a view of the Mediterranean and the landscape of the valleys.

Jason and Aidan walking down the hill to see the next temple.

More of the niches.

Jason in front of the niches.

Me in front of the niches.

Some brick columns put in to hold up the remaining structure.

I have no idea what kind of plant this was, but they very abundant in the park.

Another view from the temples to the sea.

This is the Temple of Concordia, dating back to 450-440 BC. The name "Concordia" came from a Roman inscription, the name of the divinity it was dedicated to is unknown.

Massive columns in three or four rows... this was the best preserved of the temples.

Me in front of the temple.

Here is a side view of Concordia.

And a better angle showing the size of the whole temple.

Here is Aidan hiding in her canopied stroller.

This is a view of the present day town of Agrigento.

Aidan peaking out of the canopy for a nice smiley picture.

These are the remains of a necropolis... not to be confused with acropolis.

The Greeks would bury their dead outside the city walls and down the hill. The bodies were placed in the fetal position in their graves as a sign of readiness to come back into the world.

This is a house built in the park by a wealthy benefactor. He was sick with a respiratory disease and found the air in Agrigento to help with his breathing. He paid to maintain the grounds for the rest of his life.

Here is a view of the front of his house.

This is the Temple of Hercules, or Heracles for the Greeks, built around 510 BC. The temple's columns were reerected in 1928. The temple was archaic with a long column count of six by fifteen.

Here I am next to one of the segments of a column.

Me doing a courageous feat of my own, climbing up this rock for a heroic pose... Jason missed the pic.

Jason and Aidan on the ruins of Hercules.

More pictures of them... Have to get them in before Aidan has a breakdown.

The tour group was all huddled at this temple. It was hard to get a picture without someones head in the shot.

This is at the entrance to the Temple of Zeus, the Roman equivalent is Jupiter, built in 480 BC to celebrate victory over Carthage at the Battle of Himera. An Earthquake destroyed it before it was complete.

Here are the steps leading up to the temple.

The superstructure was supported by "telamons," or Atlas type figures. This is one of those figures... If you look at it from the other direction, you can see the legs and arms of the figure. This is a view of its shoulders amd head.

After the earthquake destroyed the temple, it was turned into a quarry. These are piles of the rocks that made up the temple.

By the time we got to the Temple of Zeus, Aidan had that mealt down and Jason had to go on and take pictures without us. We never made it to the Temple of Hephaistos, or Vulcan to the Romans. Also, further down on the river of Akragas, a temple dedicated to Asklepius, or Eusculapius to the Romans, stand near a medical spring.

And lastly, this is a picture of an old building... and when I say old, the Sicilians mean over fifty years old. They close down these buildings and have them turned into agriturismos. This one will be converted into a hotel/agriturismo. We saw this while riding the bus back to base after the two tours.

I hope you enjoyed our pictures even though there is a tedious amount of them. We just want to share our experience with you all. Until next time... Ciao.