Summer 2019

We are officially getting into autumn and so I want to record what we did, where we went, who we saw and the important stuff from the past summer. You know, so I don´t forget because one of the things that I really love about blogging is being able to look back at posts and have my memory jogged. I feel poorly about basically skipping a year but will try to go back and write about specific things that we did, like Christmas and having my family here to visit. The past year was sort of typical of our life (daycare for the girls, work for Jose and I, being pregnant, our routine). 

 The past summer was a waiting game for Carla to arrive. Her original due date was July 7th and my mom wanted to be here to meet her and help out. So she bought a flight from the US to arrive on the 4th of July. My doctor had been telling us all along that she would probably be born early (around 38 weeks) due to the location of the placenta. I even took off work in May because I was supposed to be taking it easy. Turns out that things would not go as planned and Carla wasn´t born until two days before my mom flew back home. At least she got to meet her, spend a few days and help at the hospital. She also got to be with Laura and Vera for a few weeks.




 While my mom was here visiting we went to see lots of animals. We spent an afternoon at Seville´s aquarium where we got to see all kinds of fish. The last attempt we made to visit the aquarium ended abruptly as Laura freaked out and refused to go past the first room. This time was a success and I think the girls enjoyed it. Another day we drove up to La Reserva which is a drive-through zoo. You take your car on a safari and get to feed a lot of animals like zebras, emus, deer etc. The more dangerous animals like lions and tigers are viewed from your car at a distance. My favorite animals were the giraffes and we saved a lot of the carrots that we brought to share with them.


We (or rather I should say Jose and the girls) spent a lot of time at our community pool. This was a must-have for me when we were looking for our apartment and now that we have kids I am so happy to have it, especially considering the blistering heat we get here in the south of Spain during the summer. It is something I would add to my needs for our new house as well. Jose was great and took the girls down to swim almost every day to give me time to rest.

 At the end of August we decided to finally get out of our apartment for a while and rented a house close to the beach. We spent a little over a week there and although there was no TV, we read a lot of books, the girls colored and drew pictures, we spent time in the garden, went to the pool, to the beach, out to eat and got to spend some relaxing time away before having to start back up at school again.








Towards the end of the summer I went to the doctor after my mother-in-law mentioned that she thought my neck was looking strange. It turns out I have several large lumps in my thyroid so fast forward to now and I am having surgery this week to have it out. The whole experience has been stressful as there have been lots of trips to the doctor and trying to figure out exactly what it is (still not confirmed). I am nervous about the surgery but am happy that they are able to do it so soon and that I should be healed for our trip back to Michigan later this fall. 




 I am hoping that the weather finally decides to cool off here and that it starts to feel like autumn before our flights home. The girls are adapting well to their new school and Carla and I are developing our routine in a quiet house during the day. It was a good summer and I was sad for it to end but I can´t wait for the opportunity to spend the holidays back in Michigan! Soon!

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