Spain

I was lucky enough to have a hubby that wanted to take his wife on his business trip with him!  This time he had to work at the Madrid IBM site.  We flew out on Thursday from MSP to JFK for a 4 hour layover, where we got to watch the cast of Jersey Shore LIVE in action.  We even got to follow them onto our flight.  We really had no idea who they were at first, just noticed they were getting a lot of attention and I said, "Hon, I wonder if those people are famous?"  Yes, I live under a rock!
We arrived in Madrid at around 9 a.m. their time.  I didn't sleep real great on the plane, so I was pretty wiped once we checked into our hotel.  
I SO love watching these little electronic maps on the plane to know just exactly where the heck we are. 

After I had my small snooze, we ventured to the heart of the city, Plaza Del Sol, to meet up with our Tapas Tour.   I love almost all things European, especially these street signs which are painted tiles. 

This is Madrid's city symbol & where we were to meet our guide.

 I am a rock star mom after finding this guy.  He actually started to really creep me out because he kept stroking my hair.  Ish.

A first glimpse of the city streets:

Here is our first stop on our tour.  A great little place where we sampled a lot of really yummy tapas.  Even anchovies...  

This isn't a very good pic.  It wasn't a photo tour, so I tried to be respectful of our guide and the rest of the group.  We were here to learn about FOOD not photography! This was a cider of some sort that is tradition.  It was actually really yummy.  Too yummy.

Here is the anchovie.  Yes, I ate one.  But, not two.

Museo de Jamon, translated to "The Museum of Ham"  They love their ham here.  

Don't we look happy at the ham museum!?!?  

Hot chocolate is also a yummy tradition in Madrid.  After the locals party & dance all night, they come here for "breakfast" of hot chocolate and churros.  The hot chocolate is not what we have here but literally, a hot chocolate that you dip the churros in.  Very thick and very dark chocolate.  I almost couldn't eat it (I'm a milk chocolate all-American girl!)

The oldest Sherry bar in...the world?  Hmmm, I don't remember.  Too much sherry perhaps?  Anyway, it is OLD!  We met the cutest older couple here after another girl in our group and I started throwing our olive pits on the floor (I read you could do that here!).  We looked unsure of ourselves, but then we looked over and this little old lady was giving us thumbs up!  Yeah!  Accepted by the locals!  Gotta love that!  Oh, and there was no photography allowed inside, so this was taken on the fly by Jeremy and his trusty phone!  

We then walked to another great plaza, Plaza Mayor.  Executions and bull fights were very popular here "back in the day".  A really neat place, but a little too touristy if you ask me!

All roads in Spain start here at this point at Plaza del Sol.

Another favorite on our tour.  Unfortunately, we never did go back to this one.  We could never find it!

In Vino Veritas" (In wine there is the truth)

Our group at the 2nd to last stop!  A fun, young group (we were the only ones married with kids!)

The next day. We had to walk around trying to find the bullfight ticket office.  We found Christopher Columbus on our walk:

And this poor woman.  I think she was distraught because she couldn't find her top.  Just a guess though.

We also ran into this.  The National Library of Spain.  It was definitely one of the prettiest libraries I have ever seen!

The San Isidro festival was going on while we were there.

We successfully found not only the box office for the bullfighting tickets, but also one of the best sandwiches I have ever had.  It even had a runny egg in it.  I loathe runny eggs.  But, this one may have changed my mind about runny egg yolk.  (I wish I had taken a picture)

Onto the bullfight.  We had no idea what to expect.  It started raining just as we got off the subway and walked to the stadium.  The only time it rained in 8 days we were there and of course it was on bullfight night! Oh well, we purchased our pink ponchos a.k.a. garbage bags and off we went. 

Aren't we cute!?!? And pink.

Lots of colors at least!

Rain, rain, go away...

Here we go! 

Yes, the bull died.  Everyone has asked us that.  To be honest, SIX bulls died.  In 2 hours.  It was insane.  I have never seen anything like it.  We were definitely not in a place where tourists hung out.  This was almost all locals.  A few tourists, but you didn't know who since you are too busy blending into the locals.  It isn't something I would do again, but this is such an important part of their culture, we had to do it while we were there.  Here are some pics of the outside of the stadium.  It was really a beautiful place.  

Poor bull.  We wanted to send him a message like, "hey, you aren't going to win, so just walk away!" 

A quick video

A beautiful sculpture on a wall outside of the stadium.

Then it was over as fast as it started and off we went on the metro back "home" to our hotel.  

Graduation

Hudsen graduated from preschool last night.  It was too cute.  He told us before we left for the ceremony that he was going to get a diploma.  Then he said, "what's a diploma?"  I always get sad at the end of the school year and can't help to think that in the blink of an eye, they will all be gone out of mama's nest.  And that makes me incredibly sad.   

Congrats to my Huddy Buddy on a great year!  I can definitely say he is now ready for Kindergarten.

~Live from Spain~

I'm supposed to be researching where we are going to eat tonight. Instead I'm blogging.  I'm sure Jeremy will be thrilled I got a post written.  :)

I am sitting here:  missing my kids, waiting for hubby to get "home" from work.  I had a fun day of shopping and I ate some McD's.  Yes, Mickey D's.  I was craving it.  For the record, Mickey D's is way better tasting in a different country. Add in free wi-fi and I couldn't resist.  Maybe I'm homesick??  

Kaden is in the jogger club again this spring at school.  He desperately wanted Hudsen to run this mile race with him Saturday morning.  Kaden talked him into it by telling him all about the medal he was going to win.  The word "medal" pretty much won Hudsen over!  And off they went:

Thanks to our buddy Kate for taking some "action shots " during the race!

I loved how Kaden kept pushing Hudsen along!  I'm guessing he was getting quite annoyed at big bro doing that.  We were just happy that Kaden didn't leave Hudsen in the dust.

OK, let's check out this sweet medal!

SO proud of our little runners!

Mother's day...

I was blessed to spend the day with my mom on Mother's Day.  Kaden and Jeremy made breakfast.  Omelets and Orange Julius.  Yum! Got some nice little gifts, went out for pizza and then to top off the day mom and I went to the Sheryl Crow concert.  An overall good day.  This is about the only shot of Mother's Day.  I bet there will be more pics of Father's Day... ;)

We're still here...

WARNING: I have been extremely lazy about using my good camera and have been snapping most of our pics on our iphones.  Chalk it up to being lazy! 
It's spring finally and the weather is getting nicer.  It seems like we are outside most of the day now, which is wonderful.  It makes me SO appreciate my "job" and I know how lucky I am to be able to play with my kids outside at the park or in the backyard everyday or walk around the lake with Addie in the stroller. These are the days I will miss and they go by so fast.  I try to remember that when I'm SO frazzled with kids and especially a two-year-old daughter.  I have been doing this for almost 10 years and can't believe how fast time flies.  My oldest "baby" will be ten this year.  I treasure these days and have always said I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING.  
Everyone sleeps better and seems to be exhausted and ready for bed by 7:30 each night!  Gotta love fresh Minnesota air and sleeping children:

It's official...Jer and I are obsessed with coffee.  Or maybe coffee machines.  Yup, that's four coffee makers that each do different, wonderful things. 

I didn't think I would bake another cake for a year after working so hard on Addie's birthday cake, however...

It was a special lady's birthday and she deserves only the best because she is the best.  And this might be the last birthday we celebrate together for along time.  Unless airfare to Montana gets cheaper.  Or we make a new tradition of meeting in Vegas every year around her birthday!  I like that idea best. 

I love when tulips start making their appearance in March.  It's almost like they say, "you've almost made it through hell, um, I mean winter!"  

This is just ONE of my Huddy's creations.  When he is at home, he just creates.  With anything and everything he can get his hands on.  He sees a box, even an empty Eggo waffle box, cereal box, you name it, and he is asking if he can have it.  With a little (a lot) of tape, paper of all kinds, he makes some creative things.   I have to be honest and say that some days this kind of annoys me.  I mean, how many people can tolerate having this in their dining room?  

And his "art wall":

When Hudsen isn't creating, drawing or singing...he is playing with his best friend and neighbor, Simon.  Hardly a day goes by without playing with this little guy.  Oh, Simon RUNS from the camera, I barely can get a picture of him!  

Simon's little brother Landon is such a good buddy to Addie.  They are so cute together and really get excited to play together.  TOO cute!  Here we are high up at Mayo looking down at the city!  A fun little field trip.  

Hudsen and Kaden's awesome daddy started taking the boys to high school basketball tournament games.  Kaden loves the basketball playing and Hudsen loves the treats!  Some good ol' male bonding time going on there.  (I enjoyed the peace and quiet)

That same awesome daddy had to go on another international work trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  We were bummed that he had to go, but we were also really excited for him because he was going to get to go to a real futbol (soccer for us Americans!) game.  He said it was unlike any sporting event he has ever been to.  And he's been to a lot!   Here are a few pictures he took:

Actual fires are lit in the stands...um, a little crazy!?!?  

Oh, and look how nice the weather looks?  Yeah, that's because it was summer there.  It was really crappy here.  Imagine that! 

Thank goodness for Skype.  In this pic we are skyping cousins Ellery and Griffin. All the kids got a big thrill out of seeing each other! 

While the big guy was away, we played!  Grandma B. came up and helped out A LOT.  St. Patty's Day was kind of fun this year.  We decided to dye everything green for supper that night. 
I love this pic of me and my mama!  

Cheers! 

Grandma and her one and only granddaughter.  I think Addie was in a "mood" here! That or someone took her snack away.

Kaden was having fun taking pics with my phone!

Here are a couple little people that were VERY excited for their daddy to be home!

Kaden really missed his dad!

 We had just about gotten back into our groove after daddy got back and then, boom...I got SO sick the day before spring break started.  I had the flu and on top of that got bronchitis.  I was one sick chick!  Thankfully, my hubby stayed home from work and watched all of the kiddos while I was sick in bed.  I actually had just been thinking a few weeks beforehand how nice it would be to just lay in bed all day and read or digital scrapbook on my beloved MacBook, however, I was TOO sick to do anything of the sort.  I didn't even want to watch tv.  I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy (for the record I don't think I have a worst enemy).  The boys and their daddy had movie night on Friday night without me.  They decided it would be real fun to watch it from inside their fort. 

We had to say goodbye to our friends during spring break.  The Rafferty's will be missed.  Hudsen and Avery have known each other their whole lives and he really loves her!  We are happy for them and excited about their journey in Slovakia.  We are kind of hoping they don't like it TOO much and come back in two years. ;)

I still wasn't better after 4 days, so my mom offered to come up on Monday so Jeremy could go to work.  I jumped on that!  We had tickets to a concert on Tuesday that I was NOT going to miss.  I rallied, took a bunch of excedrin and went and had a good time.  Not a wild time, but I made it through.  Zach, Jeremy, my mom and I all went!  It was a great concert by my favorite guy Jeff Tweedy.  AND, it was here in Rochester!

Wednesday mom packed up the kids in my truck and took them all home with her!  I told her it was (almost) better than a Mexican vacation.  To be in my house all alone for almost 5 days...heaven.  But, then it got eerie.  Too quiet.  And I imagined that it was 15 years from now and I cried.  It is nice to have a little vacation and to miss your kiddos a little bit and then really nice to have them back where they belong.  

This was Kaden's to do list at Grandma's.  I love that she took a picture of it.  He did everything except "go through mom's stuff" Do I really want my son digging through all of my old stuff?  Not too sure on that one! Oh, and isn't the list such a mixed bag??  "Cross stitch" and then "see my gun".  "Get a beatdown" is our lingo for wrestling/rough housing with grandpa and Zach.  What a boy...

This is the boys' idea of "farmin'"!  Having a cookout and riding four-wheelers.  Doesn't get much better than that.  

The last night the kids were in Iowa, Uncle Zach decided to take Kaden camping at the farm.  I'm not sure if I would stay in that tent, but Kaden really grooves on all that outdoorsy "guy stuff".  

While the kids were in Iowa, I talked Jeremy into starting a project.  I finally got my lockers/cubbies for the kids for the front entryway.  I couldn't stand another backpack and/or coat lying on the floor.  We made them to match my old drawers that we use as a bench.  Still not completely done and I have since peeled off the vinyl on the wall.  But, it is working.  Coats and backpacks are being hung.  I'm so happy.

About a month ago when the spring youth activity book came out, I handed it to Kaden and told him to pick something out to do this spring.  He chose Archery of all things.  Tonight was his first night and he LOVED it.  Between the two boys we now have soccer, swimming lessons on two different days and archery.  So much for being low-key this spring.  

Jeremy goes to Madrid, Spain in May.  He has also bought me a plane ticket to go with him.  What a hubby I have!  My reading material lately has been Spain guidebooks.  I'm SO ok with that.

 OK, there it is.  My boring life.  I like it that way.