Tuesday, November 08, 2011

To Barcelona ... via New York, New York!

Yes, we are back in Spain, with the girls and we've been here since September 20th.  We arrived via New York and have been plugging away on making a life of it since then, but more on that later.  For now, a few of the highlights from that brief "taster" of a trip to the "Big Apple."

 Mommy and Aine getting ready to head out on the town : ).
 Now, really is our time.

 Well, "Hello there, Lady Liberty.

 "Chin, chin." -- A favorite mealtime pastime ; ).

 Which one is more indicative of the "Real Aoife?!?"

 Bye, bye Big Apple.

Hello, BCN.  These are the things we carried.  The only thing not pictured here is the pack'n'play and that's because at the time this picture was taken Aine was already sleeping soundly in it.  Something about changing a bunch of time zones and and 8 hour flight makes you want to take a 4.5 hour nap ; ).

So, here's where are journey began ... kind of.  I'll be back and posting more soon, because certainly a lot has happened in the month or so since we arrived.

More on that soon! 

Besos,

James, Maggie, Aoife & Aine

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Trips Up North (and our 100th post)

As any Arizonan knows, the landscape in this state has a lot to offer!  During the summer, if you live in the mid to southern part of the state, you're likely to take some requisite trips "up north" to escape the heat (it's still hot there though, like 90 degrees, but you'll take what you can get).

We've made a couple of those trips, with great reviews from the girls, as evidenced below!


They played on this bridge, running back and forth, for about 20 minutes while Daddy scoped out a place we could picnic.


Ironically, our picnic got rained out but we still had fun (and as you can see, we came prepared).
Cutties at Slide Rock (and Mommy has so very much to learn about the manual settings on the camera).
She always looks so darn cool.

Snacking together and enjoying the sun.
 Ceee-ute-ness (and gorgeous scenery, thank you Sedona).
 Playin' together.
 My little explorer.
 Get yourself some Daddy love ; )!

And, as the title indicates, this is our 100th post!  It's only taken us 6 years -- and what a 6 is has been!  I can only imagine the change and wonder that will come with the next 6 years.  I hope you'll be with us for all those adventures, too.

XOXO,

Los Stuhan

Friday, August 05, 2011

Killing the AZ Summer

So, as most of you know, we are using AZ as a launching ground before setting off on European Adventure 2.0.  We left Portland behind a couple of months ago and have been staying with Grandma and Grandpa while we've been getting ready to move to Barcelona.  Here's some of how we've been avoiding the heat and having fun this summer. : )

We constructed quite the drum-set using things found around the kitchen and the boxes from Grandma's 'things-that-go' shopping spree.

There's a lot of ham with that "cheese." ; )

Lovin' her sister  even while she's bangin' the "drums."


Turns out this box is a great thing to jump on, too -- well, at least until Mom and Dad say, "Stop."
 Art projects galore, as usual.


Our pretty, pretty princesses.
 We visited a great little, local kids aquarium.  Great concept, the girls had a blast in large part because things were super kid accessible.
Aoife was beyond excited to find so many Puffer fish, her absolute favorite.  Well, that and Anglers -- too funny.


In the bubble.  Such a neat way to observer the sea life.  Aine LOVED it, I think she could have stayed for hours.

Cute girls having fun.

Aoife gets in on the action
So, for a while there we were actually happily playing at the park(s) during the first part of the day -- especially those with "splash pads."  It's still not too bad sometimes, like after a storm, considering the Stuhan Family is up at 5:25 more mornings than not ; ).

Cute as can be an getting to be a pretty darn good climber.

My gorgeous daredevil.  (Not that this slide represents that but because of the previous picture I was just thinking that she is often the one to climb first, slide first, dive in and then big sissy follows.  They're so darn wonderful!)

Bath time.  Always fun for a half hour or 45 minutes!


We've been doing a lot of pretending.  Riding trains and planes to fantastic destinations is one of our favorite varieties.

We're mermaids -- more pretend.
 And of course we've been swimming, swimming, swimming.  As the summer progresses the girls get more and more adventurous swimming out on their own (with minor float aides/kick boards) and jumping from the waterfall are some of their more favorite activities.  Getting in the water and playing around never gets old, even when the pool is a swamp like 90 degrees, like today.  Yikes!

It's a water train.  What can we say, we like riding trains anywhere!

Ah, the SUN!
My darling little family!  WOW!

Aoife also attended a Spanish immersion summer camp.  She went every day for nine weeks and absolutely loved it.  She thrived and her Spanish grew by leaps and bounds.  Aine has been attending a gym class at a great local gym.  She is so athletic and physically inclined, we'll have to keep this up one way or another.  Mommy and Daddy keep plugging away at the normal stuff, working, cooking and cleaning, and running and reading, watching good movies and drinking nice wine ; ). 

We'll be back soon with news about our big move, so stay tuned.

XO

Saturday, July 02, 2011

Happy Father's Day - 2011

We had a lovely Father's Day weekend; quiet, with lots of quality family time, the way we like it.  On the actual day, after making and flying lots of paper airplanes (one of our gifts to Daddy, something fun to do together) we headed off to brunch together and got some great pictures!


 
Working on airplanes.

Couldn't get them both to look at the same time.

Do you think it will fly this way?

Okay, maybe it'll work better this way.

Aine gets in on the action.

And has a blast!

Daddy and his darling babies ...

... even when one is feeling less than cooperative.

As you can see, Aoife is more than happy to oblige, for the moment.

Cee -ute!


Cute, candid shot.

Playing coy ... ?!? ; )