Toledo, Spain

We decided to take a last minute trip over the Veteran's Day holiday. Justin had 4 days off so we headed on a road trip to Toledo (pronounced Toe-lay-doe), an hour outside of Madrid. This was the old capital of Spain before the monarchs moved it to Madrid almost 500 years ago. It is a beautiful city with many remnants of its Moorish and Medieval days.


Inside Toledo's cathedral. O wanted her picture taken in front of this wall painting. It gives a nice perspective of how big this wall and painting really are.


Headed out for some dessert at a local cafe. This is about 8pm. Spain does not even start dinner until 8pm. We brought some food with us to eat and decided to just get dessert instead so O could get back for a somewhat decent bedtime. We just can't hang with the Spaniards and their mealtimes.


Sitting at the cafe waiting for me to come to the table with the desserts.


O and I in front of the Alcazar, the original castle of Toledo. It was turned into a military academy when the king moved the capital to Madrid and now it is a military museum. Crazy awesome displays of suits of armor, old weapons, etc.... inside!


Stopping to enjoy the views of the countryside (and give preggo a break). Toledo is all hills so it was a rough couple of days for me.


Justin and O in front of the gates to the city. Even O did not mind being in the stroller after she walked for a while.


Stopping for a drink break in the plaza.


We drove the outskirts of the city to get some fabulous views of it. Justin and O in front of the city of Toledo.

Tumbling

Olivia joined tumbling on base and absolutely loves it. She is the only girl in the class but she could care less and fits right in with the boys. I give their teacher, Miss Jenni, a lot of credit for putting on a class like this with 3 and 4 year old's. They can be a handful.


Each class the kids start with practicing their balance.


Olivia practices walking on the balance beam with Miss Jenni.


Ready to flip over.


Posing after her roll.


Trying out her backbend.

Posing for the camera as she tries a handstand.


A pretty good handstand for a 3 year old!

Random Illinois Pics

I realized I did not post some other pics from our time in Illinois in October. These are a random mish-mash of things we did while visiting. It was such a wonderful visit and one we wont forget. Precious time spent with family.

Asleep on the couch with her fairy wings on. This is jet lag at its best.


Playing in the "fort" she built with her aunt and uncle.


At the Children's Museum with our close friends and their kids, the Fulton's. Here O helps the skeleton move his exercise bike next to her.


O and my best friend's son, Alaric.


Me best friend Katie. We are so lucky that when we visit Justin's family, Katie only lives about an hour away and I get to see her as well!


O's Mama dries her hair after a bath.


O loved helping her Mama make iced tea everday.


We went to the local zoo again as the weather was perfect. O rode the carousel with her Aunt Sarah.

One happy girl to be riding on the giraffe.


O and her Uncle Aaron check out an animal.


The petting zoo was awesome. The goats just sat their while the kids brushed them.


O loved playing in the raked up leaves. Who doesn't?

Halloween 2010-Rota, Spain

Halloween is always a crazy affair on this base. The base usually holds a personal American only Halloween Trick-or-Treating in an empty part of base housing for the small kids a few nights before actual Halloween.
And then on Halloween, base housing holds their Trick-or-Treating for the kids...Spanish included. The Spanish love this holiday. They love candy and they love to dress up in costume. And EVERYONE, adults included, dresses up for the occasion. The Spanish arrive on base and start patrolling the streets about an hour before the T-oT'ing actually starts and once you come out, game on. Everyone comes rushing. Add the Spanish with the Americans and what should be about 2 hours worth of fun is almost always done in under an hour. Unless you break the bank buying about 15 bags of candy. Last year, we consolidated our bags with friends and 40 bags of candy were gone in an hour. This year, we took O out first to enjoy T-o-T'ing and then came home to give out our 5 bags of candy. We took O out promptly at 6pm, got home at 6:30pm to start handing out the 5 bags of candy and by 6:45pm...all 5 bags were gone. I was bum rushed at the front door trying to get out to the end of the driveway to give out candy and was trapped at the wall by my front door. 15 minutes. 5 bags gone. I had to beg people in English and Spanish to give me space and Justin had to be my bodyguard while holding a petrified Olivia clinging to him.
And then, these kids start attempting "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" in English as do their parents and you just melt. They really love this and so do the kids. And they are really trying to be polite as they suffocate you for a Tootsie Roll Pop. And so, next year, I'll go back to buying about 10 bags again because it's worth the 15 minutes of cultural bonding over that sucker.

Olivia ready for the little kids T-o-T'ing on Friday night. Fairy costume provided by her Aunt Sarah and cousin Anna. Huge hit. Huge, huge, hit.




Meeting up with our dear friend Molly at the T-o-T'ing.


O is a pro at this. She knows how to yell "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" every time. I guess you learn quick if you want candy.


Sharing some candy together.


Checking it all out as she chomps on a Tootsie Roll.


Evidence of the Tootsie Roll on her front teeth. She spoke to another little girl with this mouth and the girl actually recoiled at the sight and was trying to figure out how to tell Olivia she had something on her teeth. Hilarious.


Halloween night. The other Fairy costume we got her. We decided on this one for the actual day because of how crazy the neighborhood gets. If anything happened to this costume, we didn't care.


Pure joy as she skips away from her first candy stop.


Heading to Captain's Circle for some candy.


Captain's Circle. You don't pass their cement barriers and they had security standing at their stop. The Commanding Officer's wife is in the cow costume. And I even got festive as well. The most you will ever see me in costume for this holiday.


An example of said chaos. This is a line just to get candy at one house! We opted out of waiting in this line and just stood watching.

Pumpkin Carving

While we were in Illinois, we bought some pumpkins and made some Jack-O-Lantern's with Olivia. It was our first time carving pumpkins as a family and Olivia was mesmerized by her Daddy carving. I must say, Justin did such an awesome job carving the pumpkins. We only did two but he took it very seriously and they turned out perfectly and looked spooky in the dark.

Justin starting the process while Olivia looks on. We took some seeds and baked them in the oven after. They were delish.


The guts come out and Olivia is tasked with keeping track of the pumpkin top.


O and her Mama enjoying the Fall day and Halloween tradition.


Watch out! Daddy has a knife!


The finished products. Both done by Justin! His niece, Allison, requested a Notre Dame pumpkin.

The Jack-O-Lantern's at night. Spoookkkkyyyyy.

A Walk on The Trail

Sorry it's taken so long to blog but we have been incredibly busy and this is the first chance to catch up. We made an impromptu trip back to Illinois to visit Justin's family. We are really enjoying our time together and O is so happy to be back visiting with her Mama and Papa. They live in a beautiful wooded area in central Illinois.
Mama and Justin went on a hike with O through the neighborhood trail. O loves to see all the trees changing colors for the fall, the mid-western animals not located in Spain and generally running on the trail just looking at everything and anything.

She NEVER stops running. We have just learned to keep up.


A brief pause for the camera.


Still running.


Inspecting something on the tree.


She's amazed by how tall some of the trees are.