Halloween!

I think I mentioned last year that England celebrates Halloween a little different than in the states - it is much more low key and there is no trick or treating. There are costumes and decorations in some of the stores, along with a few bags of candy but it is more of an afterthought next to the huge Christmas displays. Our church does a small celebration, started by an American a few years ago, so we knew Hadley would be able to at least dress up for something! (if there is no trick or treating I can't quite figure out what people dress up for...) Since I don't have a sewing machine over here we decided Hadley would be a fairy - she loves all things pink and glitter. My mom bought her this cute tutu and I found a set of wings and had planned on doing all sorts of fun Halloween activities the week before... then I got sick.

Basically it was one of those weeks you wish you never moved away from your own mom - Hadley had the stomach flu the earlier Friday (it was pretty mild/no fever so I assumed it may have been something she ate) and had come down with a cold/cough, that Monday I cracked a tooth that I had the root canal done on, then Tuesday I went into false labor - luckily I have had real labor (and spoke with a good nurse) so there were no midnight trips to London, but it feels close enough to real labor and there is no hope of an epidural anywhere in sight - turns out the stomach flu can cause false labor and we followed Tuesday and Wednesday with the flu, and finally we capped it off with a really bad cold that basically wiped me out on the couch again. So none of my plans were completed by Saturday and I decided in the morning we would just skip the activity and plan on Halloween next year - I then remembered my Mother celebrating all sorts of Holidays sick and realized it just didn't matter! So we rallied and it wasn't pretty but we got it done!! So here is our Halloween -

Sick Mama Style!

Card just for Hadley arrived from Grandma - seriously, nobody celebrates holidays like my Mom.

Instead of lovingly decorating sugar cookies, we just popped into the local french bakery and bought our goodies.

This one is actually a little embarrassing, I had signed up to "decorate a car" for the trunk or treat, from my experience this means maybe some streamers/pumpkin or whatever but it is mostly about the candy. That morning while we hit up the bakery I found a bag of Halloween balloons and figured we were set. We we get there and there are no lights in the parking lot and about 12 cars lined up...all completely over the top decorated - like ghouls and smoke, creepy lights and sparklers. I had Jamie blow up the balloons and realized that the tape I brought to hang our lame decorations wouldn't even hold up in the wind (realized it after Jamie had to go chase down 4 of them that blew away). So I shoved them all back in the trunk, spread out the candy (it really is the point, we gave out handfuls) and Jamie tried not to make eye contact with our neighbors.

Our little fairy checking out the big kids

It was so cold she had to wear a sweatshirt, but the tutu and wings turned out really cute.

Enjoying her loot - she only got 4 candy bars, we ate those and allowed her a few gummy bears, she seems happy enough!

Her favorite part of the evening? The balloons when we got home! Kept calling it "bubba" which is her word when we blow bubbles, I guess it does kind of look like a big bubble!

And finally tonight we "carved" pumpkins! We had Jamie draw on the tiny pumpkin I found with a sharpie - it was perfect, no mess and fit her attention span!

I think she likes it!

Tomorrow is actually Halloween and I think the neighbor is sending her two kids over so we can give them candy, but other than that there isn't anything going on. I am so glad we celebrated at least a little bit and we have some pictures and memories to show!

Carcassone, France and Minerve, France

I do realize that nobody wants to see pictures from our trip more than a month ago - it is like the vacation slideshow that just won't end...but I need to get it documented!

On our 2nd day in Pepieux we headed out the Carcassone, it is a fortress town that still looks right out of medieval times! It has all the fortress walls and is in a really secure location in the valley - we read all of the history of it and basically it has transferred hands of different kingdoms numerous times but was never taken over in battle, it is still awe inspiring to hear how old places are compared to the "newness" of the US.

Entrance into the town, the entire town existed inside the safe walls

When you enter all of the narrow streets are filled with novelty/tourist shops, it appears that many people come for the shopping and forget to check out the actual structure! It was really cute though and fun to wander through the shops.

Jamie testing out the archery angles

View from one of the curtain walls, France really is gorgeous

One of the lookout points

They had a cathedral within the walls and we were fascinated with this stained glass window, you can't really see it but it tells all of the stories from the Old Testament branching out from Adam and Eve in the lower center pane.

The next day we headed out to Minerve, a city literally on a cliff!

We started the day with a little Beauty and the Beast - the different owners had collected french inspired movies and books for children, a really cute idea.

On our walk up to the city

Literally on the cliff, I could not imagine living here!!

The only "entrance" into the city

Narrow little streets, it wasn't a very big town but had a few little shops and restaurants to check out. It was just so interesting to see a different kind of town, and feel a bit transported to an earlier time.

Narbonne, France and Pepieux, France

I get quite a few questions about how/why we travel with a toddler, I wish I could have just videoed Jamie getting us to Narbonne and use it as the answer! He is amazing. On the front end I do alot of research on location, timing and packing...but nobody can execute like Jamie. We flew into Barcelona and figured the cheapest way to get to southern France was to take the train to Narbonne and then drive to Pepieux. This means that Jamie carried our suitcase, carseat, carryon while I pushed Hadley in the stroller with the portacrib (a super light bjorn one) and he navigated the metro to the train, got us on the train, navigated the train changes and then when we arrived in Narbonne and the car rental "at" the station was 3 blocks away, didn't even break a sweat and hauled everything down the street...and you better believe when they wanted to charge us more than we had agreed that we left with the original price. He then navigated us safely to the house - switching sides of the road again and on little roads with new rules. Everyone seriously needs a Jamie when traveling.

She has gotten to be quite the pro herself.

Jamie's older brother owns a house in Pepieux, France, a tiny town in the south. He shares it with a few other families and this year they were assigned September, since he has kids in school and knew we were close, he generously offered to let us use it. It was perfect, it was so nice to be in a home away from home in a sleepy little town with bakeries down the street, sunshine and a interesting sights. They had been the year before and had suggestions on the best bakeries and sights that would be interesting/kid friendly.

Local Bakery, frequented 2-3 times a day

We needed fresh bread...

...and our daily dose of pastries.

Picture leaving the town, it didn't even have a stoplight! Just a few houses in the heart of wine country. There was a little corner store, a pharmacy and bakery and that was about it!

Picture while driving, beautiful. It reminded me of Napa and the whole area with the hills reminded us of California.

The next day we woke up late (well I did, Jamie got up with Hadley) ate pastries and headed to the beach back near Narbonne. It was off season so pretty quiet but still warm and the water was cool but not too bad. Hadley was in heaven!!

She LOVES the water and kept begging one of us to take her out into the ocean, she would stay in until she had blue lips and started shivering and we made her warm up.

Barcelona Food

The food needed it's own post! We really loved Barcelona, it has been an amazing experience to be in so many different cities back to back. Barcelona is very compact and most things are right within a short walk and we discovered although I am not a big seafood/tapas fan we loved all the fresh produce and meats available.

We found an outdoor market that had these fresh fruit drinks (agua fresca is the closest to describe them) we went back a few times and I wish I could find them here! I thought Hadley and I could share one, but she needed her own!

We checked out the churros in chocolate, Hadley approved.

They were delish

Horchata, Jamie has always raved about this! It wasn't a favorite for me but he was happy. I keep reading it is from a Chuffa Nut (nothing like the mexican horchata) although my nut despising husband insists it is from a Chuffa Seed.

We finally got wise and instead of braving restaurants with a tired toddler for overpriced food, we stopped at a local bakery and then picked up cheese and an assortment of meats. It was perfect.

Look at that smile! Jamie also picked up a melon he remembered eating on his mission, it was amazing! We couldn't quite figure out what it would be called in the states, neither of us have ever seen it.

I didn't quite get pictures of everything we tried, Jamie ate a few potato pancake sandwiches, we stopped for a few pastries and we found these vanilla cookies that Hadley loved, along with the yogurt and Magdelanas we found Barcelona to be extremely tasty!

Barcelona, Spain Day 3

I really just need to finish all of our vacation posts, I am still way behind! I am 6 weeks from delivery and slipping into nesting mode, for most people this means a burst of energy and creativeness resulting in darling decorations and hand sewn blankets, but for me? It means making spreadsheets, detailed research, organizing drawers/closets, ordering baby health products online late at night, stocking the freezer and borderline antisocial behavior. This would be why my mother is receiving packages from Amazon on a weekly basis, I have all the paperwork for insurance already filled out (international requires enough to make a novel), my utensil drawer is sparkling and I owe about 10 people email responses. It was the exact same when I was pregnant with Hadley. We are so very excited for her to arrive, and at least the house will be organized the first week! Bless my sweet mother for being willing to sew the baby quilt (my little sis did Hadley's). Even blogging is losing appeal and I need to get them done before I sink completely!

The third day in Spain we decided to explore a few of Gaudi's works. We started with the Sagrada Familia which amazingly is still under construction. I will be honest - I wasn't prepared to like his work, in all of the travel guides they showed the most bizarre parts to entice tourists and I was expecting some kind of modern weirdness. Instead it truly was gorgeous, not classic styles but really beautiful and interesting with stories behind so many ideas he chose. It also is huge, we couldn't get a picture of the entire structure so it is a bit choppy looking at the pictures.

Nativity facade, so many symbols

The Passion Facade it was designed by a different artist, Gaudi knew he would not see the completion of the building and left basic designs but really wanted each artist that took over to use their own creativity. This was stark and harsh and initially I didn't like it, but they explained that the style was used to evoke exactly those emotions to better related the story of the cruxifiction.

This is one of my favorite pictures even though it is a bit blurry.

This would be what caused our excitement, the inside was stunning. It was so light and interesting, he took inspiration from nature and each element is supposed to relate to natural beauty.

In the museum section they had information on how the building is designed, it appears that Gaudi was a architect first, an artist second. This is a miniature for reference and they would build different sections in plaster, I thought they meant like a few inches high, but the plaster pieces were a good 10 feet. He would come up with a theory and since it hadn't been tested before he would build a model since it was cheaper than trying it for the first time in stone - it looked really labor intensive! He also used gravity to determine parabolas for acoustics, it was fascinating.

Jamie was able to take an elevator to the top of the building (no pregnant ladies or strollers allowed so Hadley and I hung out and people watched).

Overlooking the city

We then walked through a good chunk of Barcelona to figure out the bus system and get to Park Guell. It brought back memories for Jamie from the Mission, although he doesn't recall having to drag a large, unpleasant pregnant lady a who kept asking how much further...

It was not at all what I expected, there were trees and small building scattered around, but no grass. I was envisioning something along the lines of the large parks in England. The pieces that were scattered about the park were really interesting, some looked like cement trees, some overhangs supported bird homes and random sculptures everywhere.

This section was cordoned off, there were so many people we couldn't get a good shot of the mosaic benches in the overlook area.

Overlooking the city (behind all of the people)

In front of the famous gecko (lizard? dragon?) There were so many people this is the best picture we got!

We were able to wander around for awhile and let Hadley explore and then we headed back for our last night. We took a detour to experience some of Barcelona's best food...

Barcelona, Spain Day 1 and 2

A few days later we headed to Spain! It has been on our list of "must see" because Jamie served a mission in the Barcelona area 10 years ago and I have wanted to see the country he fell in love with. He served mainly in surrounding areas, not in the heart of the city, but we decided to stay close to their main blvd and had a darling hotel right next to the Placa de Catalunya.

We started at the Cathedral of Barcelona, it was a bit under construction but gorgeous with beautifully detailed statues.

Inside they had little alcoves with stained glass and statues of christ, it is a working church so there were many people that would go into the spaces, cross themselves and sit and mediate.

In one of the side sections of the church they have 13 geese, they are supposed to guard and warn the cathedral - Hadley was fascinated.

After the Cathedral we headed over the Picasso museum, he worked in Barcelona and Spain and they had an amazing collection of his works. I have to admit that the work he is famous for is not my favorite, but I couldn't pass up the chance to see the museum and I am glad we did not skip it - they had pieces from the beginning of his schooling until his death and it really showed how an artist developed. He actually has some stunning classic style works and he experimented with a blue period that looked quite a bit like Van Gogh's work. He loved to experiment and was amazing to see how wildly talented he was and that art was a passion and process for him. They unfortunately did not allow pictures inside!

We then headed over to the Chocolate Museum, you thought I was going to skip that?? They had a collection of basic machinery and walked through the process of chocolate making through the ages. It wasn't very large but I never tire of chocolate.

They also house sculptures from a major competition, this is the Sagrada Familia made entirely of chocolate - these people are amazing!

My favorite part was they had a little studio that you could hire for classes or parties - while we were there they were having a group of 6/7 year olds make chocolate designs, such a cute idea.

On our way back it POURED!

Hadley did not quite understand the importance of her rain cover...

The streets were lined with people trying to stay dry, even those that had umbrellas were soaked. After a good 20 minutes Jamie and I finally ran for it and figured we would eventually dry off! We comforted ourselves with ice cream...

The next day was sunny and beautiful again. We stopped at a local grocery store to pick up some food, we realized quickly that as a missionary Jamie never ate out and didn't have any memories/attachment to restaurants - but had some favorites that you could pick up at the local store. Here he is showing Hadley his favorite drinkable yogurt, she was a convert and pretty much lived on the stuff for the rest of the trip. We also grabbed some Magdalenas, the ones I have tried in the states were kind of cookie/dense/bland but these were amazing! The only way to describe them is like a twinkie sponge but much much better!! It was really fun to see Jamie's eyes light up as he found some of the foods he had not eaten in so long and share them with us.

We then walked down and checked out the shops and the main blvd, I was really not feeling well so we took the day pretty slow. Luckily they had outdoor markets, shopping and gorgeous weather...and a beach! Somehow I didn't realize that Barcelona is right on the ocean (should have taken that geography class...) I knew it was close to the coast, but you walked a few blocks and the beach was right there! We wandered around the area and on the harbors.

I have a ton of pictures like this, just watching the two of them together makes me smile. Hadley is not willing to put up with being confined to a stroller all day long while we explore so we bought her this little backpack or her "bop pop" so she could walk around. I know they are not common in the states but they are EVERYWHERE over here, I think we walk so many places and the sidewalks are so narrow that there needs to be some kind of control. We have taught her to hold our hands but it is nice knowing there is a backup so she doesn't end up in the streets or me sprinting after her - and isn't that ladybug darling?

Christopher Columbus Monument

The infamous pig leg, they really are everywhere! Jamie loved them and wanted to smuggle one back to England... all pig parts remain safely in Spain. Even though it was a slow kind of day it was so fun to be together and just be in Barcelona.