Our Piso

The view into our jardin

Our apartment/piso is awesome. I'd just like to get that stated right off the bat. We live at the end of town in a little cluster of houses off the main street, so we are a few minutes walk from cafes, shops, and restaurants. Oh, and the beach. We're about a five minute walk from two beaches. It's awesome.The boys taking their first bath in our big pink bathroom. Note the bidet in the bottom left corner.

We have this fabulous balcony that loops around part of the house and sends in all these glorious coastal breezes. It's wonderful. We eat most of our meals out there. And there is this beautiful jasmine vine climbing up the stairs to our house, so it's like stepping up into sweet cloud. Or what I imagine a cloud may smell like, though I think the good people at Downy may have other ideas. We also have a big fenced in yard that we share with some other families, that the boys love to play and get lost in. It's really amazing.

Our family/dining room with school friends who came over to celebrate Sant Joan (more on that later)

But, because this is not Shangri-la or Utopia there are a few not so lovely things about it as well. Of course. Like the two temperatures in the shower, scalding or freezing. If you jump into the water while it is switching from one to the other you have about 17 seconds of lovely non-burning warmth, but it doesn't usually last long. And we do have something of an ant problem, because none of the doors have a seal on them at all. I think this is to keep air circulating and keep things cool, because it is so, so, so hot here. So hot. And the ants just take advantage of the situation. Ants are like that, ya know. But, I'd like the record to show, that I would rather have the house a few degrees cooler and sweep out a few ants every morning than have it any hotter. Ben wandering around our bedroom, looking for mischief, no doubt

Every inch of the house has tile floors, which is the way it is done is Spain, again because of the weather. We have metal sun shades over some of our windows that completely bloke out the light (and are partly responsible for our slow acclimation to this time zone). I'll talk more about those another time. Also, we have butane tanks for heating our water and cooking, which I've never had before, so that's been a fun adjustment. And every time I light the stove I get less and less worried that I'm about to kill myself and my family in a blazing inferno. So, that's good. That's progress. Our big blue kitchen. Have I mentioned they love tile here? The counters are really fabulous and short too. Love it.

Well, that's all for today, but there is more to come, like our adventures in Barcelona, Girona, and our fun at the Beach! Stay tuned people! Maybe the boys will someday soon let us go into the water without freaking out.

¡Hola España!

I know this is very late in coming, but we are in Spain! Hurray! We actually have been since last Tuesday. We had some things go wrong getting here, like losing my sweater on the plane and missing the bus to Plajta d'Aro and having to take a train to Girona instead and get a ride, but the boys were well behaved and we sat nice to lovely non-ogrey people on th planes. They did say our stroller was too big to plane side check though, and that was annoying. They put it with the checked baggage and we thought we had lost it, but it was just in the special area.

Sam, watching movies, and not sitting in that seat that the British Airways people made for him.

Barcelona Airport, after finding our stroller again

Zach, feeding Ben and Sam European chocolate pudding on our terrace

Katie in front of the Arc de Triumph

Zach in front of the masses of olive oil

But we are here, and it has been a lot of fun so far. We don't have internet in the house, so we go down to the library to get it, but I will try to keep you all posted.

I've gotten some random questions about Spain and our stay here, and I'm going to answer them all. If you have any more, post them and I will have a big Q&A or something.

we're on our way!

Well folks, in a little less than an hour we are headed to the airport. Then, after fifteen hours, give or take, we will arrive in Spain! Wow. I was going to take a picture of our bags (three bags and two backpacks), but we already packed them in the car and we are making ourselves some food. So, sorry. Pictures to come!

So cross your fingers and pray for us. That the boys will behave, that we will get our masses of stuff there safely, that we will get ourselves there safely, that the people who sit by us will be nice, children loving people, and not mean, ogre-esque, children hating people. Is that too much to ask?

We'll keep you posted! See ya on the other side!

take me out to the ball game....

But bring your own peanuts and cracker-jacks, 'cause they are pricey up there.

Our View

Last Saturday we went into San Fransisco to see the Giants/Padres game with Zach's department. It was a fun time. We rode the train up, which the boys thought was the best thing ever. It was a little slow getting there, because there were so many people getting on to go to the game, but it was great for the price. We were sitting in front of a guy who was, according to him, both hungover and slightly drunk. I wasn't aware that this was possible, but now I know. He drank three beers on the ride up. But, he was a friendly drunk, and that's always nice.

Ben playing with peanut shells. He would try and eat one later and almost choke. It was scary.

The boys were pretty well behaved, especially when we broke out our arsenal of snacks. We had peanuts, pretzels, Gatorade, and lots more. They even paid some attention to the game, though not much. We kept saying, "look, they're throwing a ball. Oh! Look, he caught the ball!" But I'm not sure they could even see it. And besides, it wasn't a terribly eventful game. Both teams kept getting out and there were only four runs. Oh, well. It was still fun. It seems to me that a big part of the baseball game experience is the atmosphere of the ballpark. Of course, I think this was my first ever major-league baseball game, so I could be wrong. At least, it's the first one I remember.

AT&T Park
Doesn't have much of a ring, does it?

Katie & Sam (And Zach studying the game). I love Sam's expression here.

Zach, on the other hand, has been to many a baseball game. He knows enough to know that it's okay to throw your peanut shells on the ground, though I'm not sure how comfortable I will ever be with that. It just looks like such a mess. But he also knows all these little baseball traditions and signs and such that I had no idea even existed. He says that we should get a baseball package next year so he can educate me about the American pastime. I say, that I've had tons of experience with little and minor league baseball. Just because I was trying to get my Mom to buy me Fun Dips the whole time or wandering to empty fields to play in the dirt, doesn't mean I don't have experience with baseball.

All of us, freezing.

Anyway, it was fun. Despite the fact that is was freezing and we were, yet again, completely unprepared for that.

And in other news, we leave for Spain in 4 days. Four days! It's absolutely crazy. We fly out Monday and arrive Tuesday. We actually have most things ready, but there are a ton of loose ends to tie up, so we're not out of the woods yet. And we have that lovely fifteen hour flight to look forward to. So cross your fingers and pray for us.