October in Illinois

We were lucky enough to get home and visit with some family and many of our friends at the beginning of October. It was one of the most relaxing vacations we have had in a long time. We purposely chose not to pack our schedule and just took some time to catch up on sleep and catch up with people we have not seen in a LONG time. We spent a few weeks in central Illinois, attended one of my greatest friend's weddings (the one that introduced Justin and me), and spent a whirlwind few days back in Virginia with some friends on our way back to Spain. We flew for free both ways on a space available flight through the military. We took off from the terminal on our base (exactly 7 minutes from our house) and landed in Dover, DE. And then repeated that flight back home. Our flight was on a C-5 both ways. I have mentioned before how ginormous this plane is but you cannot do it justice until you actually stand next to one, climb a steep ladder inside the cargo hold to the top while passing two blackhawk helicopters that will will be flying with you. Insane. But it was FREE!! Totally worth it for the price. Below are some pics from when my friends the Hills and Fultons came down to visit us in Bloomington. I will sheepishly admit that most if not all of these photos were taken from my friend Katie's blog as she took way more pics than I did that day. So if you look at her blog at all...sorry, this is a repeat:)


The whole group catching up while the kids play.


Reading a book to some cute little ladies.


Kristine playing the "drum" with Olivia and her daughter Natalie.


Olivia eating Avanti's with Hayden and Alaric.


The rest of us eating at the "big kid table."


Ryan and Justin scheming as usual.


Me and my girl hamming it up.


All the kids together on the couch. As you can tell, it was hard to get them all to smile and/or pay attention.


Olivia acting goofy for the camera.


Kristine, me and Katie. Some of the greatest friends I could ever ask for.


Olivia, of course, got sick of taking pics and this was the shot we took as she was wresting her way out of my arms.

Out with friends

We have been lucky enough to have found a great group of friends here in Rota. It took awhile but our street is now filled with really young families and just all around great people! In addition, we have found a great friend, Jeff, that just happened to be deployed here for a little while. Unfortunately, he is leaving at the end of October but has promised us he will try to come back and visit. We all planned a night out together last month in the neighboring town. Everyone who has kids got baby-sitters and we put on our best dress. Here are some pics from the night.


Justin and Jeff playing some PS3 at our house and before we went out. O is waiting to go to sleep.


The guys enjoying some vino and tapas at one of the bars. From left: Jeff, Justin, Riley and Andy.


My great friends Alicia and Riley. They are both from Iowa so they had to sit and reminisce together at the table.

Enjoying the night with friends.

Nothing says "Spain" more than finding the Irish Pub in town and doing an "Irish Car Bomb."
Justin won as always.

Somehow we managed to find some Japanese tourists that night. Our friend Jeff had to take some pics with them while Justin proceeded to whip out his Japanese language skills and hold a conversation with them. As you can imagine, this was towards the end of the night.

Drew and O

So I had stated previously that O's new friend and beau is Drew, our neighbor. He came over for dinner with his parents and we watched them play together. Playing on the slide together was so cute. He would climb up first, wait for O to climb up, O would then slide down the slide and wait for him to come down behind her. Then he would grab O from behind and hug her. They did this over and over. And we are willing to forgive the fact that he is a Vikings fan...

Portugal

We went to Tavira, Portugal over Labor Day weekend. It is only a 2.5 hour drive from where we live so it is an easy weekend trip. And it was worth it. Portugal is THE best kept secret in my opinion. The towns are so pretty with old white-washed buildings. And the beaches. The best beach I have ever been to. The hotel we stayed at used to be an old tuna canning factory that was converted into a 4 star resort. I was able to secure a cheap rate and the place was awesome. In addition, we could take a ferry from our hotel to Ilha de Tavira, a small secluded island where the beach is located. The beach, as previously stated, was amazing. Powdery white sand, clear, Caribbean-like water, easy surf, clean bathrooms, cheap food at a little hut and not crowded. Oh and perfect weather. It was heaven-we stayed ALL day. Even had O just crash in our little sun tent for a nap-something I am never a fan of doing. The town of Tavira is known for fishing and leather. I was able to d some quick shopping and we ate at a quaint little restaurant on the river that runs through the town. A perfect end to summer for us. I can not wait until the spring when we can go back!!


O loving the water. It was a little cold but as the sun got hotter, it felt awesome. And I could see if any sharks were coming.


She sat and played with the sand for a long time. She loved the feel of it.


O getting ready for some swimming.


O and me loving the beach.


Justin teaching O how to swim at the hotel pool.


Tavira at night.

Bullfight

In August, we were able to attend a bullfight in the town next to the base, El Puerto de Santa Maria. Our Spanish tutor gave us the tickets! I was ecstatic as I really wanted to experience this very important part of Spanish culture. I was also very nervous as I know the bulls will die in the end...in front of us. There are seven bulls and multiple matadors in a bullfight. The whole event last about 2.5 hours. Each bull comes out separately and each matador takes them on. The bull is at a disadvantage from the start. He is tired out by the matador who "teases" them with the cape, a man on a horse then comes out and stabs the bull in his shoulder blades to start the process of bleeding the bull and tiring him out even more. 3 other matadors also come out ad stab the bull in the back to slow him down. The matador then continues to tease the bull with the cape until finally, when the bull is pretty exhausted and has bled a lot, he/she stabs the bull through the back and into the heart. Sounds gruesome? Well it is. I will admit that during the first fight, I was in tears and just begging for them to kill the bull and put it out of its misery. And major props to the bulls, one disgraced the matador that night by STAYING ALIVE and on their feet even after he stabbed it through the heart. One tough animal. And although it is crazy experience, it is absolutely beautiful to observe the whole event, the beautiful costumes and the excited Spaniards in the stands.



Waiting for the bullfight to start. It was 90 degrees that day but our tutor gave us seats in the shade.

Let's play "Where's the Matador" in this picture. They are waiting to be introduced to the arena.


The first bull. He looks ticked.


Bull v. matador. This man on the horse in the foreground is the one that delivers the first stab to the bull between his shoulders with his spear. Notice how padded the horse is. They also blindfold the horse so he does not go blind. You can imagine the bull takes out everything on the horse when it gets stabbed. We saw more than one horse get flipped over and the bull attempt to gore it with his horns.

Another bull v. matador.

This matador had a great fight and was awarded the bull's ears which he is holding in his right hand-a great honor. He also takes a promenade around the ring and flowers are thrown to him. I guess this particular matador is an up-and-coming star. All the girls love him.


Ole!

The last bull of the evening. A big boy.

Okay. Graphic pic but I just wanted to show what the matador must do with the sword. It is very difficult and sometimes takes multiple tries to get the sword in and kill the bull. And the crowd gets angry if the matador does not do this quickly and kill the bull. They don't want to see the bull suffer too long. Ironic...I know.

Random Olivia Pics

Just some random pics of Olivia. The first one is a pic of her new boyfriend, our neighbor Drew. He is a couple months older than Olivia and they have spent a lot of time together at the day care and at eachother's homes for playdates. The other 2 pictures are in the cockpit of a C-5, the biggest plane in the US Military. We got a private tour of the plane since we have some parked here at the base. I highly encourage you to google a C-5 picture just to see how massive this plane is. Any time one takes off, we stop and watch it. Olivia loves to see the planes take off and land.




O looking so coy with her new beau.

O in the cockpit of the C-5.

She's ready to take off.

San Lucar Horse Races

A local beach town, San Lucar, holds horse races on the beach for two weekends every August. We decided at the last minute to drive down and check them out. The beach was packed with people picnicking, swimming, gambling and waiting for the races to begin. The races occurred every half hour and the people would go back to swimming in between. FYI-It was about 90 degrees out that day. Here are a few pics....


The starting gate on the beach. It's no derby but still cool.

A woman betting on the horses before the race. What you don't see behind this booth and every other betting booth on the beach is that there are children taking the bets from the people.


And they're off!!