Allie in the South of Spain

Summer officially began for us when Jose finished school at the end of June. We only had a few days to say goodbye to everyone in Spain and pack our bags before we headed by high speed train up to Madrid to catch our flight to Chicago. I was incredibly nervous for our nine hour trip but it ended up being ok. Thank you to everyone who made suggestions to us to ease our travel with the girls. They didn't cry at all and only Laura slept for a while so it was a lot of videos, walking the aisles and trying just about everything to keep them entertained. We don't do a lot of screen time normally so they were pretty excited about having unlimited access to videos and music during our flight. We bought baby-sized headphones that worked out really well and everyone who sat around us was really nice and patient. This is the second time we have flown IBERIA with our girls and I highly recommend them to other families. They were very accommodating not only of us but the seven ot...

I was just reviewing my blog, thinking that it had been a super long time since my last post but it turns out to have been only about a month ago. I guess I am doing better at this no-so-monthly updates thing than I thought. Last I was talking about my parents´visit and the girls´first feria experience, and since then we have done some other cool stuff. First we visited an animal preserve about an hour outside of Seville called La Reserva. It´s in the mountains, off the beaten track, and you drive through it in your car rather than walking. As you drive the various animals come up to your car and look for carrots. I assumed since the girls seem to love animals that they would be excited to see them up close and personal. I was wrong. Laura promptly started screaming at the first emu who rudely shoved his face into her window, so we rode with her side up the rest of the time.  They have all kinds of animals there and the least dangerous ones can either come up to your c...

My parents recently stopped here on the tail-end of a trip they took to Italy. They were here for about four days and since we hadn't seen Poppa Walrus since summer or Noonie since Christmas it was a fun time for the girls. They couldn't believe how big Laura and Vera have gotten and I have to admit that they are growing by the day. Vera is now walking by herself, wobbly when unaided and practically sprinting if she can get someone's fingers to hold on to. Laura is crab crawling along behind her and is more stable when standing. We are working on her pulling herself up.  While my parents were here we avoided going into Seville since their visit coincided with April's Fair which makes the downtown area a zoo. The fair was originally a time when people would bring their livestock into town and there would be parties and celebrations as happens when people gather together. Now it involves carnival rides, tents with food and dancing, music, traditional flamenco dre...

Ok I am going to preface this post by warning that it is going to be full of pictures, more than usual since we had a pretty chock-full week of photo-worthy moments. We kicked off Holy Week (which you probably know is a big deal around these parts) with an Easter egg hunt hosted by the American Women's Club of Seville which I have belonged to for several years. It is a club for English speakers from around the world which organizes all kinds of events throughout with year and though I think maybe Laura and Vera were a bit young for this last party, I had a good time with them looking for eggs and meeting a few new moms. Domingo de Ramos or Palm Sunday is sort of the official start to Holy Week. It is customary for people to wear a new outfit on this day as they go out to see the processions taking place all over. Vera and Laura were no different, they wore new dresses and looked adorable. We went to see the procession in Jose's hometown and the weather was beautiful...