Antiparos - Part 2

Here's a bunch more photos from the trip!

Liam having breakfast on the back patio of our house

Babies playing - the three of them were really sweet and all playing on the bed

Best dinner of our trip - at La Louche, a french inspired restaurant with an amazing prawn and avocado salad

At La Louche - Eowyn before she fell asleep

At St Georges beach - the water was definitely a bit chillier and it was a windy day, but refreshing non the less.

Dinner at the taverna at Soros beach.  Funny that we never tried it before this trip, but it was really good and the view was spectacular of course

Ahh, Stones cafe for Loukomades - we couldn't go long without a dose of our favorite island dessert

Juniper all covered up and ready for the beach - chewing on Eowyn's toy while she was in the tent!

The water was particularly "rough" on our last morning on this beach, so after a quick dip for me we spent time building a sand castle instead

The beach just past the 2 closest to town turned out to have perfect shade from trees and the most beautiful clear water with soft sand as you go out 

Liam all wrapped up and drying off after a long swim on our last day

Final dinner at another favorite restaurant - Klimateria - Karen and Juniper playing with the pear.  If she had half a chance Juniper would definitely have eaten one

The girls on our final night

Eowyn and me at Soros

Liam buried in the pebbles on Soros beach

Ready to go to dinner after a lovely afternoon swim at Soros

Antiparos, Greece - Part 1

After much deliberation on what to do for a beach vacation this summer we decided on Antiparos once again.  It seemed like going to a place we knew well might actually be more restful than exploring something new, and so that's the route we took.  I'm glad we flew directly to Mykonos again so that the flight was just about 2.5 hours and then from there it's a 45 min ferry ride to Paros.  Given my motion sickness this is always a relief and certainly in the case of this trip, on the way back.  We had a very bumpy ride and I was as green as can be!  

All went really smoothly with flights and ferries and we met up with Karen, Matt and Juniper on the ferry from Mykonos.  They were coming from Athens and we organized it so we would be on the same boat over.  Arriving around 7pm we settled in at the same house we rented last summer (with it's 3 bedrooms it was perfect for all of us), and then headed to town for dinner.  Besides the first night, the babies and Liam did really well with evenings out.  We managed to get through dinner every night and often even had time for a little walk in town to browse the shops or have dessert.  There were certainly challenging patches where one or the other would be crying or trying to sleep and having a challenging time, but we managed really well through it all and got into a fairly good rhythm.  Mornings were some what leisurely and we'd head to town to pick up lunch from the bakery before a visit to a beach.  After an hour or two we'd come back to the house for lunch and naps.  Best part was that James and I were often able to take a nap or rest when both our babies went down.  WOOT WOOT!

Most days we went out again in the afternoon to another beach for another hour or two.  It would be later around 5pm so a bit cooler and just a beautiful time of day to be out.  From there we'd go to town for dinner and get home between 10 and 10:30pm at which point all kids were exhausted and ready for bed, as were we!

We rented a car early from the second evening on so that we could get to various further out beaches, and to cut down on the time it took getting to and from town with small ones.  It made a lot of sense, and allowed us to explore the island even more.  This time around we discovered you can drive to this cove we had gone to by boat the first time James, Sonja and I went to the island.  It's really deserted and had beautiful water and sand (and some sea weed!)  We also got to the cave that's fairly famous on the island.  We spent many afternoons at Soros beach (my favorite), and discovered a new beach just past the 2 main ones from town which was lovely too.  So glad for the week we had there and for time with friends!

On the flight over - hurray for easyjet and special assistance boarding.  We don't pay extra and get to board first!

In Mykonos we got a free taxi ride (the driver drove off before we could pay him?!) and spent an hour at a cafe at the port waiting for our ferry

First morning heading to the beach just outside of town

Karen and Juniper - they did a great job staying protected from the sun all trip!

Karen, Matt and Juniper

Instagram - Liam's new one piece bathers! 

Instagram - Eowyn sporting her bathrobe 

Juniper and Eowyn on the play mat - Lefteri provided so many things for the babies that made things more comfortable for all of us.

Instagram - Karen and me heading to town for dinner

"The Boys" at dinner

Instagram Fun with My New Phone

Right before we left for Greece I decided to get a new phone contract, and with it, the new iPhone 4S (yes, I know the new one will be out in a few months).  I am always a bit slow on the technology uptake so here I am, a good year behind everyone else, just discovering the app Instagram.  Turns out it can make some of your regular phone shots look quite fab.  You'll see more examples from our trip to Greece as my phone turned out to be the primary camera, but here are a few from before.

Grandparents Visit and Summer is Here

Liam and Eowyn have been very lucky this spring/summer with all the visitors we have had.  Our latest were Grandpa and and Grandma Cathy, and I'm so glad they came and spent the couple of weeks with us so they could meet Eowyn and spend time with Liam.  With their visit came the hot weather, and we have finally resorted to using fans again to keep us cool, but we had some lovely long evenings sitting out on the patio and enjoyed dining outside most meals and on most days they were here.

Grandpa and Grandma Cathy with Liam and Eowyn

Grandpa with Eowyn

summery Eowyn

Brother and sister - they are so cute together!

Liam playing train tracks while Eowyn watches - notice the awesome track I built!

We even made it to UBS pool a couple of times where we could finally splash around a bit in the kiddy pool.  Liam enjoyed chatting with Grandpa at breakfast, and Grandma Cathy got Eowyn chatting and smiling away with her songs.  Of course Liam insisted on a few songs of his own!  We took some lovely walks in the woods and around the village, and made a couple of excursions to town.  All in all it was a pretty low-key start to the summer and a nice way to begin to remove ourselves from work.

James and Eowyn relaxing at UBS

Liam ready for a swim

Enjoying a warm morning on the patio

The day before we were set to leave for Greece and the day James' parents were leaving Liam decided to try wearing big boy undies for the first time.  He was really insistent and did quite well for much of the morning.  He had a couple of small accidents that he was really frustrated about, but all in all I was really impressed!

Proudly showing off his "big boy pants!"