For yourself or for someone else. Take a class or learn something you've always wanted to. Help a loved one or a stranger do the same.

This trip came to be after eight months of Oliver expressing an ardent desire to visit Pompeii. He's listened to The Magic Treehouse story, Vacation Under the Volcano, countless times and the ruins and still-alive Mt. Vesuvius had captured his imagination.

It helps that visiting Italy likely means seeing my sister and her family. It helps that we found good ticket prices and are so very fortunate to be able to take trips like this. And it helps that spring break started on Oliver's birthday which felt awfully special and auspicious.

In any case, we decided to make a dream come true for our little boy, and I'm so glad we did. What a joy to see him take Pompeii in yesterday.

I think he was overwhelmed at first, couldn't believe has was there, couldn't quite grasp the enormity of it. Plus, he's 7. He walked for hours, scampering up anything he could, learning the difference between the marble thresholds of the homes and the notched stone ones of the shops.

He delighted in the fact that Pompeiians fixed dyes with urine, and Jack went nuts when the guide mentioned three separate elements: Mercury (sulfide) in the red fresco paint, copper in the blue, and lead, as in the original lead pipes we saw. I adore the nerdy bits of my boys.

Some pictures of a beautiful, memorable day.