Girona "Puente"

So, for our most recent "puente" -- three day weekend -- we decided to bite the bullet, load up the kids, and make our first overnight trip since we arrived in Barcelona.  We had a great time and have pretty hardy little travelers, as we find time and again.  I think they hold up better than we do these days : ).

We chose Girona, a little city just about a 1.5 hour train ride NW of us, because it's close, easy to get to, and we loved visiting there and roaming the streets when we lived here before.  

Waiting for our train and loving every minute (croissant as a morning snack probably had something to do with it).

I'm working on fitting in more, wardrobe wise, I was pretty successful this day.

There are a bunch of little locks with names and dates on them all along the same bridge I'm standing on above.  I imagine people are "locking their love," it's really sweet.

 Didn't have a lock so we settled for a kiss.

The fun of small Spanish towns.  I love so much about this picture.  The rich color, the fact that a new building is going to be inserted between these two older buildings, the "graffiti"/mural on the wall below, how the scaffolding looks like it might actually be balancing those two buildings weight against each other so they don't actually fall down (okay, so maybe that's what they are actually doing), all the windows and doors ...

I can't say how long this little shop has been here and open but well over a century and I imagine much of the wood and paneling are original.  Charming!

The way the "deck the halls;" too bad we didn't make it back for this one all lit up at night.

More of Girona's charm.

There are tons of sweet little squares, again with amazing color and often amazing vegetation.  Just lovely!

Our girl in the same square.

We tried to get this shot several times and this is the best we managed of Aine -- cute of Mommy and Aoife, though.

Great stairs, family shot.

More great stairs ... leading up, up, up.

Yet another charming little spot.

Aine feeling less than camera cooperative, again, but both girls looking sweet.

She's beyond stinkin' cute!

There are our cuties -- on even more serious stairs!

Bye, bye for now!

We love you.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like a BCN Christmas

We spent some time this past weekend gathering some Christmas supplies and beginning to decorate our flat.  It was quite a success!

 Heading out for the day.


First, we spent some time just walking around and hanging out -- because, as you can see, the weather is still absolutely gorgeous!

 Aoife, rocking out to one of her new favorite songs, No Woman, No Cry.  She's actually sitting here singing right now as I "blog." She likes the version this street band plays a bit better than the live Marley version -- they make it thump a little more ; ).

Aine rockin'just a little bit : ).

And here's the group at it in the Barceloneta (our old barrio -- I think Aoife would like to go and dance as they play every weekend!)! : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6_FZrQKpSU&feature=related

I think you can see why she likes it : ).

 

 Just a short walk away from the street musicians, castanyes -- yum!

 Have you had your "chestnuts roasted on an open fire" this year?  We have, and we liked them a lot!

 An aisle at the downtown Christmas market.

 Another aisle, you can see the lights above, which will be turned on soon along with lights in every other part of the city!

 The Tiós de Nadal down from the mountains for the holidays.

 Happy to have brought our "Caga Tió" home.

 Working on the tree.

 Christmas decorating provisions.

 Almost there ... and while the lighting on this shot is awful, wow that girl is lovely!

 Silly girls, loving their tree.

 Do you think we love our "Caga Tió"?

His first meal in his new home, he ate the whole thing!!!

More about that, later!

Happy Holidays!

XXXOOO

New home, new neighborhood

 This is our building and we're the top set of windows you can see.

 View down the street.

This is the lobby of our building.

Yes, there are three escalators there and they are not the only ones in the neighborhood.  The last time we lived in BCN we were on the beach, this time we live up on the mountain in the zona alta. The views are nice, and we have this just above us with lots of protected reserve areas around and behind to hike in:

 

And this is the view of the rest of the city from the park by our house that we posted previously:

Maggie put some photos up on Facebook of our flat before we moved in, and I'm afraid we don't have new ones yet--it's not really decorated yet anyway.  But, for those that haven't seen them yet here is our new place:

At three bedrooms and two bathrooms it is bigger than we thought were going to be able to get here.  We're settling in nicely and have access to everything we need: two different trains within walking distance, three grocery stores, multiple bakeries, a public gym right down the street, and we can walk to the girls' school (downhill in the mornings, we take the bus back up in the afternoon and it lets us off at the end of the street).

As always, more pictures to come.

Aine = 2 Years Old!

A few quick words of thanks to those who came to celebrate with us this year.  It was so nice to have people around us who we love and care about to share this special time.  Thank you for coming (Lindsey Wood and Francesc Aunion, Johnny and BarbaraAnn Lavery, and Jenny Jones, Dave and Wren)! 

This ranks as one of our very favorite pictures right now!  Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl, we all love you so much!

 My cake is YUMMY! 

 Big Sissy likes it too!

 Presents wrapped in homemade wrapping paper - fun!

Our sweet, best-friends-forever!

Happy Birthday Aine Maeve -- and "half-birthday"" Aoife Roisin -- we're so glad to have both of you and that you have each other.

Love, Mommy and Daddy