W13 of Y2

Barcelona

Jeremy and I got to celebrate our 16 year Anniversary in Barcelona this week!

Our beautiful apartment in the Gothic quarters of the city

The view outside our apartment included some Roman ruins.

The graffiti on the buildings around our apartment.
It's hard to see but the one of the right says Tourists Go Home in English and Catalan.
Fortunately we never felt unwelcome at all during our entire stay!

This is how the locals in our apartment complex open the main door below.
They pull the chain to take the bar off the door to open it.

Tapas!!!

Tapas!!  And more Tapas!!!  I just LOVE Tapas and they are everywhere in Barcelona.  It was wonderful!!
This restaurant was interesting.... you walk in and just start helping yourself to a buffet of Tapas.
When you're done the cashier just counts the number of toothpicks on your plate to know how much to charge you.
Each Tapa was 2 Euro.

La Boqueria

This is a huge market with everything type of food you can think of!  It claims to be the largest open air market in the world and has been around since early 1200's!

It was right after this picture that Connor called me on my phone.  I was so excited to talk to him that I threw my camera and broke it!  The rest of my pictures were taken with my phone (which isn't as good!)  :(

The crabs and lobsters were still moving!

This ham is INSANE!!!  The one on the right that our guide is showing up costs 189 EURO per KG!!!  This is called Iberian Jamon.  The black, Iberian pigs are raised in a beautiful field full of Oak trees and eat nothing but fresh grass, herbs, acorns, and olives and are said to have the healthiest meat. We got a few thin shavings to try for 8 euro!!  

Walking Tour

We spent the rest of the morning taking a tour through the city with our very knowledgeable guide!

A delicious chocolate store!

This is the walking bridge for the priests so they don't have to walk on the street with commoners.

Apparently it is good luck to always have a pooping shepherd as part of your nativity set as it shows fertility and wealth.  They had a store where everyone you could think of was pooping!

Our walking tour ended at another Tapas bar.  Yum!!!  This little dessert tapa was amazing!  A little dallop of chocolate mousse on top of toasted bread with olive oil and sprinkled with salt.  O. M. G!!!

After all that walking and eating we went back to the room to relax!

Walking by the beach looking for somewhere to eat for dinner.  The yachts were incredible!!

We found some dinner!!!  Spanish Paella and steak with Foie Gras.  Heaven!!

After dinner we enjoyed several street performers.  This one was especially entertaining!  He was singing Figaro beautifully and then broke out into the Whip and Nae Nae while he sang!

It was finally time for the game!!!  Jeremy found a place here that was willing to play the Chiefs vs. Patriots game for us. Because of the time difference it didn't start until 10:30.  We ended being there with one other Patriots fan.  Later in the night though there were 4-5 more Patriots fans.  It didn't help that we were losing the entire game right up until the end! 

After a late night we slept in and then ventured out to see some of the sights!  Placa Espanya1

Sagrada Familia
One of Gaudi's most famous peices of work and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Gaudi died before he finished it in 1926 and it is STILL incomplete and under construction today!!

This place was massive!!  I was always too close to get a decent picture.  

They really like Obama here! lol!

We LOVED the metro system there.  It was so clean, well lit, easy to figure out, and always on time!!!
Things I took for granted before living in Italy I guess.  

Another beautiful Gothic cathedral

A couple that looked like they just got married here!

The marina

Statue of Christopher Columbus

We hiked up to Montjuic (Jewish Mountain) which offered beautiful views of the city!

Arc de Triomf

Parc de la Ciutadella

We had THE BEST sushi here for our last dinner in Barcelona.

W12 of Y2

First week back to school and it

  SNOWS!!!!

As you can see it wasn't very much and only lasted a few hours. 

Guys and Dolls

Also this week.....  Jeremy auditioned for another play and got the part of Nicely Nicely in Guys and Dolls.  Here we go again!!!  Another play!!  

Basketball

The boys have both started basketball and had their first games this weekend.  

They were both really intense, exciting games!!! 

It's almost feels like Christmas Break never even happened!

W11 of Y2

Christmas Break!

Playing the new Just Dance Wii U game

New XBox One Games

Bowling!!

Connor's Birthday

We are fortunate that the celebrating doesn't end just because all of the Christmas decorations are put away.  We get to celebrate the day our first little baby made us parents!!!

Stack of French Toast and Hot Chocolate for breakfast to start the day off right! 

For his birthday we took some of his friends out to a new restaurant here called American Graffiti

The crew!!

We opened gifts while waiting for our food.  Whitney made this card for Connor and got each person to write in it.

I got Connor a big bag of personal care items: deodorant, shampoo, gel, lotion, mouthwash, etc....  

Then it got exciting when Connor realized there was something hiding inside the deodorant container...
MONEY!!!  (it was Whitney's idea)

So. Much. Food!!!!  It was delicious!!

We ordered a "birthday cake" when we made our reservation and this is what they brought out

It LOOKED really pretty!!!  Unfortunately the donuts weren't really like the American ones.  Still yummy though!

Then.... the entire place got taken over with, what we are pretty sure were, Gypsies!

It was some great entertainment!

 New Year's Eve

 After the birthday party it was time to start our New Year's Eve party!

We bought a bunch of fireworks and invited some friends over. 

This little cutie even stayed up all night and never fussed!!

Playing games

Still eating!

Had to have a REAL birthday cake for Connor before midnight!

Finally.....  FIREWORKS!!!!!  Not just the ones we were doing either.  They were all around us! 

New Year's Day

We forgot to drink our sparkling cider at midnight so we did it the next morning after writing our New Year's Resolutions.  It's going to be a great year!!

We found a missing Christmas present to Jeremy from Tara!  

Jeremy's favorite gift! lol!!

Chipmunks and Star Wars and SNOW!!

Saturday it snowed!!!  Now our Christmas break was complete!  We decided to spend the cold, snowy day watching movies.  Whitney and I went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and the boys finally got in to see the new Star Wars.   It was really a perfect ending to a perfect Christmas season!

Happy New Year Everyone!!  Here's to 2016 being just as wonderful, if not better, than 2015!