Life Lately Round 7

I know I have posted a few times lately, but mostly just about our recent trips -- not too much about what we have been up to as of late so here it goes:

We returned from Paris with our friends in tow and had a wonderful weekend showing them our town and beach -- we even got away for an adult only dinner after the kids were in bed!  Then our friends moved on to more travels and my parents arrived that afternoon... Well, actually my mom arrived that day.  Turns out you cannot travel with a passport that expires within three months of your travel dates, but luck was on our side and my dad arrived the next day.

[Just a side note -- my parents knew my dad's passport was expiring and they called the number on the passport website -- my dad was told it was perfectly fine for him to travel.  When they arrived at the airport to check in, the airlines would not let him check in because TSA requires your passport to not expire within three months of your return date.  The airlines was amazing and booked him on a flight the next day, he was able to get a passport from the passport agency in Seattle and all was well.  And since all this happened -- I have heard your passport needs to be within six months of expiring and it can't be "too new" for many countries -- ugh!  So just be very aware of your passport expiration dates, when you are traveling and the various laws about how old your passport has to be.]

We hung out in Rota with my parents for a few days and then Trevor and I were able to sneak away for our first ever over night away from Serafina -- two whole nights away!  We went to Granada for two nights and it was wonderful!  We had already seen the Alhambra so really we just walked around and ate (hence no separate travel post).  We loved Granada but if you aren't seeing the Alhambra, it really only needs one night (unless you plan on skiing or doing something in the mountains) -- see Ferdinand and Isabella's graves and walk up into the Albayzin neighborhood for gorgeous views of the Alhambra.  I have heard that there is a wonderful science museum if you are traveling with kids.

And then sadly we came home to a very (VERY) sick Peanut.  She got Hand, Foot and Mouth (HFM) disease while we were away -- it started out very mild on our second night away and by the time we returned home the next morning she was flat out miserable.  She had such an awful case -- blisters EVERYWHERE (hundreds of them).  So needless to say, we had a few pretty rough days and we were oh so thankful my parents were there to help.  And poor girl was sick on her birthday but we at least made cupcakes!

She finally recovered (aka was no longer contagious but was still peeling + getting new skin from all the blisters) and she started Spanish daycare/nursery school.  I'll eventually do a post about our new school once I figure out the whole process -- because currently I have no idea what is happening 90% of the time!  But she comes home happy and is understanding and speaking more Spanish each day, so it works.  Plus I love that I get pictures of their daily activities and she wears a uniform, it doesn't get much better than that :)  And then.... she got HFM again.  Yep, because it is a virus you can get this awful nastiness more than once.  Luckily this time around was much more mild and hopefully we are on a healthy track moving forward!

celebrating Dia de Andalucia

We also did some Carnaval celebrations -- we missed the bigger events because of round two HFM but we at least were able to celebrate about two weekends ago with some friends -- heading to a neighboring town for their parade.  It was small but fun -- Serafina was deathly afraid of the Paw Patrol characters but loved all the confetti being thrown!  And no -- I do not know why Carnaval events take place after Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday but oh well, we enjoyed celebrating all week!  And yes, everyone dresses up (this is like Spain's version of Halloween expect it lasts a week).  Trevor and I went to our first military ball and it was SO.MUCH.FUN -- it is basically an adult prom!  And Serafina did great with our amazing babysitter; this was the first time she'd had one while she was awake and it wasn't my parents!

Trevor and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary -- we were able to have our good friend watch the Peanut while we went out to dinner!  We give each other traditional wedding gifts and this year the traditional gift is wood, so we will be getting a table built for us while we are here in Spain!  And we took our annual family picture on our anniversary -- in the swimming pool locker room #reallife

We have no immediate travel plans -- we did a lot of traveling last year since Peanut was under 2 and we didn't have to pay for her plane ticket!  We had a busy January and February, so we are looking forward to just hanging out here and maybe taking a day trip or two -- and finally catching up on some long overdue tasks around the house!

Some other pictures of my baby all grown up --