Spain: Volume 6

All this Spain blogging is getting a little out of control, wouldn't you say? I am sure the proverbial you is nodding in agreement. I promise, its coming to an end. Got to document it!


Ronda

The next day we headed out to the city of Ronda. It was about an hour away and if you have ever even had a hint if car sickness before in your life, you would be retching on this drive through the narrow and windy mountain roads. Poor Ali threw up countless amount of times. This is most decidedly my favorite place we went to in Spain. It was so worth the car sickness and to think we almost passed it up b/c we weren't sure of its see-worthiness. :)

Again, the gorgeous European streets. This one only for walking/shopping. No cars allowed.

This is us standing on the famous bridge that you will see in the below pictures. Its one of the top tourist sites in Spain. GORGEOUS.

Looking out from the bridge. The mountains and buildings in Ronda were breath-taking. Absolutely stunning.

The bridge crosses over this very deep and narrow canyon that you can KIND of get an idea of here.

This is a cheese ball pic Jason wanted to take b/c these roses were gorgeous and in full bloom.

Check this out. WOW. Jason and Billy and Ali hiked down a path to the bottom of the crevasse to take this pic of the bridge from below.

The city of Ronda is famous for its orange trees (which apparently aren't good and shouldn't really be eaten) and its beautiful people. Interesting. That's what the tour book said.

That night we rushed back to our hotel to catch the Flamenco dancing show at the hotel.

All about the drama these flamenco dancers are. Their facial expressions looked like they took exercise.

Of course, the best part of the show was when Jason got pulled out of the audience and had a little fling with one of the dancers.

Just a little booty shaking Spanish style.

Spain- Volume 5

The Rock of Gibraltar

The rock of Gibraltar was just about an hour away from our Marriott in Estepona. It's called one of the legs of Hercules. They believe, according to their Greek mythology, that after Hercules was done creating the world (something like that????) that he collapsed and this is one of his legs.

There were wild baboons all over the rock. They feed them so they stay there in that habitat. They are all named and have little biographies on the wall. One was said to have had "a weight problem b/c she likes junk food too much". I can totally relate.

From the look-out point.

These signs were hilarious. It depicts a stupid tourist thinking the baboon is so cute and petting it. Then the unsuspecting tourist gets taken advantage of and the baboon takes the bag of the tourist. True story ya'll. We saw it happen. They were very aggressive. Scary aggressive.

Here we are leaving Gibraltar. You can see all three flags here...Gibraltar flag, British flag and Spanish flag. The Rock of Gibraltar is a holding of Spain's and you have to have your passport to go. Its this tiny little part of Britain on Spain. They have fish n chips restaurants and the whole nine yards.

Lincoln's 5th- A Shark Party

When Lincoln chose a shark theme for his 5th birthday party I was thinking getting all of the supplies would be a cinch. Nothing is ever a cinch. I could not believe how difficult it was to find shark themed things. Not pirate things. Shark things. Anyway...we had to be creative. And this beauty of a watermelon I must say Jason and our goo friend Mike Forsyth were extremely creative. They put Swedish fish (I only bought red....dumb) in the mouth and sacrificed a unwilling barbie to the shark's mouth as well. This thing was a hit!

Now I don't want to bore with too many details but I had stayed up very late the night before the party making Link's shark cake which I have since deleted the picture off of computer because of the disdain I had for it. Anywho...to make a long story short...I was in the middle of putting teeth made out of airheads into the shark's mouth when the mouth collapsed. It was supposed to be open. I said some naughty words in my head and my eyes welled up with tears. Lincoln has specifically chosen this cake. And to add insult to injury I was running out of time to do the other things for the party because my efforts were so concentrated on making the dang cake (it always takes waaaaay longer than I think). So...I ended up doing plan B which was to make cupcakes with a shark gummy. Boring. Oh well. No one noticed. In fact Lincoln was so consumed by Jason's watermelon he didn't even care and thought the watermelon was his cake.

These were little jell-o aquariums complete with a shark inside that I made for each kid.

And then there was the shark pinata which Jason was more obsessed with than anyone. He really wanted to see how hard he could hit it. Not allowed of course. Hayden was the one who actually busted that thing wide open. But check out this action shot my friend Michelle got of Link swinging.

"The best babysitter in the world" according to Lincoln. Kailey helped out TONZ the entire weekend and kept Q out of my hair as much as she could while the party extravaganza was going on.

Overall it was a successsful party and Lincoln was thrilled. He got some sweet new presents that are already missing pieces.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!! This was taken at Sunday dinner where we honored all the fathers. The kids could not have a better daddy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUTE LITTLE LINCOLN!

Just thought I'd throw those pics in. Just enjoying popsicles on a hot hot Sunday.

Lincoln's 5th birthday was today....what a big boy. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast he said pancakes with a strawberry uncutted. :) Done. Anything for my little Lincoln. Jason and I decorated his room (which he is sharing with Ella b/c both of them are too scared to sleep by themselves) while the two kidlets were sleeping. I said to Jason, "Why don't we just decorate the kitchen so Link doesn't wake up super early excited about all this and in the process wake up everyone else". He shook his head. Prophesy fulfilled. 6:30 and I hear joyful screaming and yelling.

These next pics are at Chuck E. Cheese's. Lincoln's other birthday request. It seriously is a kids' dream. I remember going there as a kid and LOVING it. I remember adoring those ridiculous Chuck E. Cheese shows. There was a sign saying "Live Chuck E. Cheese show every half hour". I got kind of excited thinking about reminiscing and thinking about my kids having the same memories. LIARS! They showed a live Chuck E Cheese show from somewhere else on a tiny screen. That's really taken CEC down a notch in my book. But all in all the kids had the time of their life. And I wouldn't be lying if I said Jason did too.

RIGHT after teaching ZUMBA. I look disgusting but this is our birthday pic for Link's 5th.

Link's water squirter. So thrilled with my dollar tree purchase.

This is a card that Ella made on her own, without any prodding or even reminding on my part. Sweet, sweet thoughtful girl. I need to give her more credit for those things. She is sooo good at doing sweet things for people. It said "The sun is yellow. Lincoln you are sweet. I love you.". How precious.

After Lincoln exclaimed, "Dad, this is the best day EVER!".

Spain- Volume 4

Estepona, Malaga, Spain

Finally- Home sweet home! I cannot tell you how grateful we all were to come to this "home" away from home with all of our needy American-style comforts. Such as, beds that two people could sleep in, a kitchen with an oven, microwave and fridge, wi-fi, washer and dryer, hair dryer, TV, pool, hot tub, concierge to help us every question we could possibly have (there were a lot)....the list goes on.

Our awesome Marriott suite equipped with two master suites with their own bathroom. What a luxury! We had shared a bathroom with one too many weary travelers.

First order of business- to completely defile the sabbath day and go to a bull fight. Just kidding of course. Sundays are the only days they are offered...so, we seized the day. It was one of the most memorable things we did. We went to this bull ring in Marbella, a town about 10 minutes from our resort.

Packed house, right? No wonder they charged us $75 each to go. Someones gotta rent out the ring.... and pay the matadors and musicians (see below).

The live band. The ring must've been low on the budget. They sounded way better than they looked. It was fun to have a live band there to play the traditional Spanish music.

This guy was the BMOC. He definitely the star matador. Four bulls were tortured and killed (I don't know of another way to describe it....its gruesome). If my memory serves me right this stud killed two or three of them. If a matador gives a good performance and severs the spinal cord with one clean shot the audience goes wild indicating they approve of the matador's performance. At the very top of the ring is special seating with a big banner that says "El Presidente". Of what? Not sure. Anyway, if he approves he gives a nod of the head and the matador is allowed to cut off the bull's ear and keep it as a token of pride and glory. Thus, the ear. The place where the matadors sever the spinal cord is about the size of a quarter and before the matador goes in for the kill, he stares the bull in the face and then the matador charges the bull with the sword.
Most of the bulls were carried out of the rink by an ole' hitch on a car and a chain. But, if there is a good performance a horse decked out in flowers comes and takes the bull away. This matador's performance was rewarded by that as well.

Like I said, very gruesome. The matador has several assistants which help in distracting and tiring out the bull. They stab the bull with about four spears (look at pic) getting the bull good and angry and then in turn exhausted 20 minutes later. Then, he is prime for the matador to come in and do his job.