Gibraltar

Leah flew into Gibraltar, a small peninsula and "rock," about an hour and a half south of us. It is actually a British protectorate so we had to show our passports to "cross the border" into Gibraltar to pick her up at the airport and drop her off. Gibraltar feels very British. The people speak with British accents, there are pubs serving fish and chips everywhere and they even included the famous red telephone booths. The Spanish lost Gibraltar to the British in 1713 and they have been trying to get it back ever since. There are no signs on the highway letting tourists know where Gibraltar is and Spain only allowed flights into Gibraltar again a few years ago. They are VERY bitter at Britain.

Are we in London? Nope. This red phone booth greets you right after you pass through the Gibraltar border control.


The Boyd family towards the top of the rock. We took a taxi tour of the rock. The tall mountain behind is Morocco, Africa and the water is the Strait of Gibraltar. It was sunny in the morning when we were touring but got cloudy, cold and rainy when we got to the top of the rock.


Another picture of Morocco in the distance and the Strait of Gibraltar below.


Gibraltar is know for the Barbary Apes that live on the rock. They roam free all over and you have to be careful because they are known to jump on you and steal purses. They have been fed by humans so much that they have come to expect it. Here is one sitting on a trash can staring at O and Justin. I love everyone's expression here...even the ape's.

Sevilla & Cadiz

One of my best friends that I have known since childhood, Leah, visited us in Spain. She currently lives in London and had a long weekend off from work and flew down to see us and tour some of the local sights. We first visited Sevilla which is about an hour and a half from our home in Rota. We also visited Cadiz which we can see from our backyard across the bay.

Leah and I in Sevilla. There is a tram that runs through the pedestrian downtown.
We are posing in front of the tracks.

Here we are at the Alcazar. This is a castle in Sevilla with beautiful gardens. Big middle eastern influence as evidenced by the architecture behind us.

The Boyd family posing in the Alcazar gardens.


Eating tapas at an outdoor cafe after the castle gardens.


This is a picture from a cafe in Cadiz. This cafe specializes in churros con chocolate which is fried dough you dip in mugs of warm chocolate. Here we are enjoying the churros. As you can tell, O likes them also.

One of the only pictures we have where O is smiling. She would smile for Leah every time she took a picture.

A Klan Rally in Spain

So the Rota Klan got together on Thursday night and we decided it would be fun to hang out with them. OK, not really. This is part of the Holy Week here in Spain - look it up. It's called Semana Santa and is an old tradition, so I'm pretty sure the klan stole these outfits from this religious ceremony. The ceremony consists of a procession of penitents (the hooded guys) followed by a statue of Jesus or Mary on top of a large float. The processions start in the evening and proceed through the town into the wee hours of the morning.

I have to say, the first time you see one these guys walking down the street, it makes the hair on your neck stand up. After watching the procession the feeling goes away and you can enjoy the cultural experience.


OK, still a little creepy.


Part of the procession are these women dressed in black mourning robes. Not sure why, but interesting and they look good.



Here comes the float leaving the church. The actual float is carved from wood and carried on the back of 40-50 men. We were told the float is incredibly heavy and the procession must be timed well and move slowly to allow the float to move through the narrow streets.


Mary and Jesus pass by as the onlookers reach out to touch the float.

Following it all is a band, which plays the Spanish National Anthem as the float leaves the church. Check out the coolest trombone player I've ever seen. Spanish bands are very fashionable.

Growth Spurts

Never have I seen Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde more than when O goes through her growth spurts. This weekend she was a dream. She ate well, slept at least 2 1/2 hours for naps and her mood was fantastic. Then Monday came. She woke up early in the morning, was crabby and whining/crying over nothing all day including a major collapsing-on-the-floor Oscar winning tantrum at lunch and dinner and took a little over a one hour nap. Today, more of the same. She at least took a two hour nap but she wouldn't play with any toys during her bath and cried the Oscar winning cry again over the snack I gave her! Ahhhh. Are all kids this way? And is this what I have to look forward to every growth spurt? I just want my sweet non-irritable child back. Oh and a good sleeper would be nice too.

Recent Pictures of Olivia, Part 2

Sometimes I just like to take pictures of Olivia doing her thing, crawling on the ottoman, running around, making faces, playing with my camera, etc. Here are some more random shots.

Recent pictures of Olivia

Here are some random pictures of Olivia. She had a cute outfit on so we decided to try and capture some pictures of her. That is what we are relegated to doing. Capture. She is in a terrible anti-picture phase right now. Will not usually smile or pose for anything. Very frustrating for us especially since she is overdue for her 18 month pose. These were pretty decent for her standards.


Of course mesmerized by The Backyardigans. Don't even try to interrupt her.

You see what I mean. See how happy she is to get her picture taken.


Okay we were so happy that she actually posed here. It was only because we made a big deal of her being on her school bus.

The Crib Fiasco

A little backstory...
O's crib was recalled in the summer because the slats had broken off some cribs made from the company. So we thought this was perfect because O had no problems with the crib with the exception of chewing on the wood when she was teething and making teeth marks across the rail. I was so delighted to find out we could get a new crib for nothing. Her crib's slats were secure and it is one of those cribs that can turn into a double bed when she is older. The company wanted the hardware from the old crib so we could not use it. Well Justin convinced me that we could still set it up as a double bed when O graduates from using a crib. He would simply find comparable hardware from a hardware store instead. So we took down the crib before the move, sent in the hardware and waited for the voucher for the free crib. We received the voucher, went to Baby's R Us and picked out a newer and different crib for her room. The old crib was dark wood. We decided to pick out a white crib instead for any siblings O may have. This way O would have a bedroom furniture set and a sibling would have a set. We picked out the crib and brought it home in the box but did not open the box up because we knew we were leaving for Spain in a few weeks and thought it would be easier to leave it unassembled and still in the box. BIG mistake.

The current story...
So we finally get our belongings and Justin opens up the crib box to assemble the crib for O's room. He has the wood slats but NO hardware or directions. We are sitting with a bunch of wood slats but no way to put them together. We call B-R-U and tell them what happened and after much prodding and convincing that no, they weren't actually shipping to Spain, they contacted Bassett and Bassett shipped us the hardware. It arrives with NO directions. So Justin then had to go on their website and email someone to get the directions. They email assembly directions which consisted only of pictures and no actual written directions. So Justin says he can still try and figure it out since he has assembled a zillion pieces of baby furniture and toys at this point. He locks himself in O's room and goes to work. A little while later I hear some choice words coming from her room.
He storms out of her room and tells me that we are missing two legs to the crib and the metal mattress spring BUT we have about 3 extra pieces of the footboard and top slats. Can you believe that? What factory worker assembled this box and what is their IQ? -50???
So Justin had to rig the old metal mattress spring to the bottom of her crib and the crib is sitting flat on the ground in her room at this point.
And we still now have to contact either B-R-U or Bassett to get the correct parts shipped to us!
Ok thanks for listening to my rant. It was way cleaner than what Justin would have written...