Sitges, Spain - July 2012

Finally, here are pictures from our two weeks in Spain this summer.  What a fantastic trip that was!  We  had the use of our friends house in Sitges (a beach town 20 mins outside of downtown Barcelona), and had no big agenda but to go and hang out.  Christy was with us and got to enjoy the beautiful house and pool.  We spent many days grocery shopping, hanging out at the house and swimming in the pool. We also ventured into Barcelona by train 2 times, and spent time at the Gaudi park and just walking the streets.  Since we had the use of a car it was also easy to nip down to the town of Sitges and wander around there a bit, doing a bit of shopping or browsing, and having a snack or something along the way.  It's quite a sweet town, with a lovely beach promenade and a great pedestrian zone.  Perhaps less than we anticipated, we did go to the beach 3 times during our time.  The funny thing is that with access to the pool it just wasn't as appealing!   During our time Liam because much more confident being in the water, and he was happy to zoom around the pool with his tube on, all by himself.  Eowyn started rolling over the day we got there.  

Here's James and Liam doing the "balancing" game in the pool:

 Eowyn looking beautiful for her daddy's birthday!  

 Barbecue outside for James' birthday.  The view was really spectacular from the house!

 Eowyn and me in the pool - she loves the bath, but because she was so unenthused about the water in Greece we weren't sure how things would go with the pool.  It turns out she did quite like it!

 Christy making Eowyn smile!

 A cute smiley girl!

 I enjoyed using instagram to catch a few artsy shots of the house - here's the staircase up to the second and third floors.  Quite dramatic, and definitely made us nervous.  We were all sleeping on the 3rd floor and were apprehensive about Liam trying to go downstairs on his own.  Thankfully we left without any accidents!

 The dining/living area

 View of the pool and sea

 We took a trip into Barcelona and visited park Guell on a hot day.  We had intended to get home for nap time after lunch, but that never happened.  Thankfully the kids handled things as well as we could have hoped.  Christy and Liam with the salamander:

 Flowers and Liam, Eowyn and me

 The benches area of the park

 Downtown Sitges looking out to the water and all the boats

 By the church in Sitges

 Taking a break from the heat to have something to drink in Sitges

 Our second trip to Barcelona - another very hot day and this time a lot of walking through the little alleys and streets, and out to the port area

 We felt very adventurous one day and decided to explore a town called Tarragona - the drive was about 40 mins and we were unfortunately underwhelmed with what we found.  For whatever reason some planners thought it a good idea to place the railway tracks right along the beach.  I guess it makes for a nice train ride, but probably not the most enjoyable beach day.  Tarragona has some ancient ruins but felt very much like a has been (or never been) kind of place.  We stayed for lunch, bought some tea and headed home!

 One of my favorite scenes was the morning routine at the house.  Eowyn was often up quite early.  She was sleeping with us in our bed, and I think she was right at the age where it was starting to become a bit disruptive for all involved.  It wasn't too bad though, and as soon as Liam woke up he'd come running into our room and start chatting and playing with Eowyn on the bed.  I love to see them hanging out and interacting together!

 One of our visits to the beach was on a slightly overcast day, which, to tell you the truth, was a relief.  There were tons of beach toys at the house to bring with us, so Liam had a grand time digging in the sand.  He was also a lot more playful in the waves and happy to go into the water with one of us.

 And this is what Eowyn did at the beach!  Poor thing!  The water was too chilly for her, so I'd have to spend a while just getting her to fall asleep.

 Eowyn and Liam both did well with their afternoon naps.  Most days we could count on about 2 hours of quiet time with both kids sleeping.  On one particular day Eowyn woke up after less than an hour but was really fussy.  About 20 mins later she fell asleep on James.  Awww!

 Walking along the promenade we never got past this bus without Liam having a ride.  James managed to fit in as his passenger once!

 The bakery below (very odd looking place, by the way) sold the most ridiculous thing.  A deep fried, cream stuffed croissant.  It sounds pretty crazy and tastes even more so!

 Just a random view of the living room area from the second floor