Two Little Sprouts and a Little Flower: July 2007

July 30, 2007

2 Moms, 4 Kids, 6 Bags, 2 Strollers, and an 8-Hour Flight Delay

The debate continues as to who had the more difficult trip back to Brussels - Tony and Rich, who drove the 20 hour drive from Spain, or Kelly and I, who flew with the kids. Don't choose until you consider the following:

- We woke up at 5am, packed the kids (ages 5, 3, 2, and 1) in the car, and drove an hour and a half to the airport (we only got lost once).

- While standing in line at the airport to check in, a red sign goes up indicating an 8-hour flight delay - this has got to be a joke - nope.

- I spend the next 4 hours running all over the airport, waiting in lines, and begging in an attempt to get us on a different flight while Kelly watches the 4 kids (she definitely had the more difficult job).

- Some nice airline person in Brussels takes pity on us and contacts an airline person in Spain, who manages to get us 6 seats on the 1:30 flight.

- Our 6 seats, despite being a godsend, are not all in one place, or even all in two places, so upon boarding we (and the flight attendants) have to negotiate with the other passengers to get two sets of 3-seats.

- During this process, Grayson has a pee-pee accident (oops). In some strange act of karma, it happens all over the seat of a guy who 5 minutes later makes me and 2 of the kids pack our stuff and move so that he can keep his assigned seat. I am not making this up. The seat is vinyl, so I wipe it off and we move on, with Grayson walking down the airplane aisle barefoot and wearing only his underpants (are you picturing this?).

12 hours after starting this ordeal we arrive in Brussels. Tony and Rich are still on the road, but in peace and quiet, enjoying the vistas of the French countryside.

July 29, 2007

La Alhambra, Spain

The highlight of our trip to Spain was our visit to La Alhambra, on the south-eastern border of the city of Granada (here's a map of Spain). La Alhambra was the residence of the Muslim kings of Granada and contains beautiful examples of Islamic art and architecture.

A view of La Alhambra, perched on a hill overlooking the city of Granada (to the right)

Poppy, Grayson, and Sonny loved the fountains, waterfalls, streams, and ponds that are throughout La Alhambra

The architects of La Alhambra tried to cover every single space with decoration, no matter the size of the space. Most of the interior arches are false arches, with no structure; they are there only to decorate.

An intricately carved dome ceiling

Even the stone walkways had intricate designs

"NOOOOO pictures - I want to watch the fish!"

The view over Granada

Salobreña, Spain

On Tuesday we flew to Malaga and then drove along the Spanish coast to the small town of Salobreña (here's a map of Spain - you have to zoom way in to see Salobreña), where we met up with our friends Rich and Kelly and daughters Sonny, Poppy, and Maya (3 of Grayson's best friends). In Salobreña we spent lots of time in the pool, and also did some shopping for Moorish tiles to use in a backsplash in our kitchen in Atlanta.

The Spanish Coast

Our group enjoyed churros con chocolate - a popular Spanish treat - at a local cafe one morning - yummy! On this trip we also ate Spanish Paella and drank wonderful Sangría.

July 23, 2007

Hello Spain!

Monday morning we arrived in Madrid, with perhaps the most beautiful weather I've seen in a long time. Warm, breezy, sunny weather. Absolutely perfect! After a 3 hour mid-morning nap to help counteract the jetlag we headed out to explore this beautiful city, which is both the capital of Spain and the largest city in Spain. (Here's a map of Spain)

The Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace of Madrid) is the official residence of The King of Spain, who doesn't live there but makes use of it for official ceremonies.

The Plaza de la Armas, in front of the Palacio Real

Catedral de la Almudena

At the park, Grayson befriended a little Spanish girl

The Plaza Mayor was built in 1619.
It was designed to hold 50,000 people and was the scene of bullfights, royal ceremonies, and theatrical performances.

The Comunications Palace, also known as "Casa de Correos," in Cibeles Square

The Metrópolis building, at the intersection of the Gran Vía and the Calle Alcalá

Grayson and Tony at our favorite art museum, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, which is housed in the renovated Villahermosa Palace

The Prado Museum

Bye bye U.S.A.

During our last few days in Atlanta we went to a BBQ hosted by friends in our neighborhood, went to playgroup, went to the Georgia Aquarium, went to a Mom's Night Out (just me, of course), visited Tony's Atlanta office, went to dinner with a group of friends from our church, and went to our friend Lacy's 30th birthday party. It was a whirlwind end to a whirlwind couple of weeks - and we loved every minute of it.

Grayson with his friends from our neighborhood, Clay and Jayden (not pictured: Grady, Baylee, and Grace, who were playing elsewhere at the time)

Mom's night out with my Playgroup Moms

(we promise - no dissing of husbands or 2-year-olds ever occurs)

Grayson and Martin at playgroup

The boys all love the trains

Why dining in the U.S. with a kid is so great: that's Grayson, in his high chair, using his kid-equipped chopstocks, to eat his kids meal, after he finished coloring with the restaurant-provided crayons and paper, and drinking his milk from a plastic cup with a lid AND a straw.