Boring Weekend Post.

As usual, I'm a day late on my "weekend update" - although, there's not really much to report.

Helping mommy select a beverage; such a good helper :)

We didn't really do many exciting things this weekend. We installed Caroline's big girl car seat (she loves it), got new coffee mugs (our awkward square mugs are going away), and reached the end of Mad Men on Netflix. We took Caroline to the park (note to self: upload photos, sheesh) to play on the swings, only to find that the swings were to hot to be played on. Whomp whomp. I did swing with her on my lap, which she loved, but it would be so much fun for her to swing on her own. Our goal is to go to the park early next weekend before the dreaded Florida heat causes the playground to become a microwave. I will post pictures once I get them off my camera :)

Play time!

Honestly, we didn't really do anything worth noting this weekend. We spent a lot of time playing with Caroline. She's coming so close to crawling; she just can't figure out what to do with those back legs! And she is constantly wanting to stand up. She grabs onto my fingers and pulls herself up, and looks so proud of herself afterwards. It's the cutest thing! We just spent a lot of time sitting on the floor with her this weekend; it was a lot of fun!

I also packed up a lot of outgrown clothes from her closet, and unpacked a tub of larger clothes. Oh my gosh, some of the hand-me-downs my mom sent are adorable; Caroline's going to be rocking some awesome 80s clothes :) One of Josh's coworkers gave us a bunch of clothes a while back, which I unpacked as well. Lots of cute stuff!! Guys, I sent Caroline to daycare yesterday in a size 18-month dress and it fit. EIGHTEEN MONTHS. My baby is only eight months old. Someone is a big baby! As you can see below, someone was way too hyper to model her dress for the camera (and too busy sticking her tongue out to properly pose).

It's amazing the things that entertain her: raspberries on the tummy, peekaboo, and blowing in her hair (yes, that's weird) all bring on squeals. Speaking of her hair, she's getting a lot of it. And there's a patch on the left side that is permanently sticking straight out and cannot be tamed. It will still be a long time before I can put her in pigtails, but at least there's now some hair on that little bald head :)

Just Because I'm Bored...

A random post!

So I mentioned earlier in the week that Caroline was sick. Well, she's doing much better. Her parents? Not so much. I left work early Tuesday feeling crappy and am still not recovered. Josh called in sick today and feels like crap. Stupid daycare germs!

I have been liking the camera on my new phone. I have actually been enjoying the new phone a lot. It's pretty and I like pretty electronics. I have taken some cute Caroline pictures that I will share!

Here she is smiling at us when we first sat down for dinner:

And here she is eating her rice snack. She actually took A LOT of bites out of the snack. However, she didn't swallow a single bite. Her cycle: take a bite, make a disgusted face, spit out the food, blow bubbles at it, look at food, take a bite, repeat.

The dogs are big fans of these rice snacks. They often end up dropped on the floor and the dogs enjoy them very much! I think they are beginning to learn that beneath the high chair is a great place to stay :)

I took a video of the adorable eating time pictured above. However, I need to learn how to use my phone because apparently it recorded upside down. FAIL.

A weekend of choices!

Ugh, it's Monday. It snuck up way to quickly and I'm not ready for it. I think little miss snot factory may have gotten her mommy sick. Stuffy nose? Yep. Scratchy throat? Ugh, yes. General "I feel like crappo" feeling? Yea Boi! I should have called in sick just to take a day off but I'm way too stingy with my vacation time for that nonsense. I'll just suffer while on the clock. Bleh!

As I'm sure you have gathered, we dealt with a sick baby all weekend. Her nose just would not.stop.running. Poor little thing clearly didn't feel well and still isn't old enough for any over-the-counter medicine. She seemed a bit better this morning in terms of the amount of snot pouring out of her nose, but if she's not better tomorrow we may take her to the doctor for antibiotics. She remained in good spirits all weekend but clearly was not feeling 100%.

I finally chose a convertible car seat for Caroline! After posing the question on Facebook of which car seat people recommended there was an overwhelming response of "Britax Marathon." However, I didn't go with that car seat. Caroline is 98 percentile in height and I don't foresee that number dropping, so it's important to get her a car seat with a tall shell. As nice as the Britax seats are, I repeatedly read [during my hours and hours and hours of research] that they are not ideal for tall babies and don't last very long rear-facing. I ended up torn between a $280 Chicco seat and a $180 Gracco seat. When it came down to it, neither seemed better than the other, so we went with the Gracco seat. We ended up ordering the Graco My Size 70 convertible car seat in "Odyssey." I used a $25 promo at Babies 'r' Us and got a good deal on it. The head rest goes SO far up I think it will last her a long time. I'm glad I finally made the choice!

I made another choice this weekend that surprise even me: I switched from an iPhone to a Droid. So far so good! The main reason for my switch? The camera in the Droid is amazing. The guy at Best Buy was about to transfer my photos from the iPhone to the Droid and was shocked by how many photos were on my iPhone. So many he suggested not transferring them because it would take an hour. Hey, I have a very photogenic baby, gosh; don't judge me! I ended up with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and I actually really like it. If I feel the need for an Apple fix, I have my iPad and Mac to take care of that.

All-in-all we didn't do anything exciting this weekend. We ate some boring food, watched some boring TV, did some boring cleaning, and ran some boring errands. And it was awesome. There's nothing wrong with boring, bwhahahaha!

Want to get a quick perspective of how much our baby has grown in the past eight months? Below is a photo of Caroline on her first outing, lunch at Newk's. Look at how TINY she is in that car seat, guys. Her head is WAY at the bottom, and that's with the infant insert under her baby bum. We're now having to replace this car seat because her head is nearing the top and she's squished in there. OUR BABY HAS GOTTEN SO BIG. It's incredible.

Little Miss Caroline, only a couple days old <3

During that first outing she slept the entire time and did nothing because she was still completely oblivious to the world around her. We ate at Newk's for lunch this weekend on that very same patio. She sat in her high chair, ate her peaches, creeped on the people behind us, talked to us A LOT, giggled, and smiled. It really puts into perspective how much she has changed in eight months. She's much more exciting now!

Caroline v. Food

As promised, here are some pictures. I bring you Caroline and her rice snack :)

Weekend Roundup, a day late.

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had lovely Mondays, if that's possible. I didn't blog about my weekend, because there's not really much to report. But, I feel like a blog abandoner when I don't ramble about my weekends, so here we go!

 Friday, I felt the need for a beer and a steak. Not a want, but a need. So, we waited for ages at Texas Roadhouse so I could get my beer and a steak. Oh, it was worth the wait. Sam Adams Summer, yes please! Perfect medium rare steak, nom nom! Their amazing rolls, hellz yeah! The veggies, eh, not so much, but whatever. Caroline was such a good girl while we ate and enjoyed watching the waiters line dance. She doesn't understand yet that staring is weird, so she stared at them like a true creeper. That's my girl ;)

Saturday, Josh made pancakes so, of course, Caroline got one to "eat." As we expected, not a single piece went in her mouth. We relaxed around the house before heading out. We had Momo's for lunch; I got a porter beer and smoked wings, Josh got buffalo chicken and a citrus-y beer, and Caroline ate peaches and had a bottle. I guess she felt she needed food and a drink, too ;) We then went to Babies 'r' Us to scope out the big-girl car seats, Best Buy to get a video game for Josh with a giftcard he forgot he had, and Publix to get dinner.

Sunday, we had eggs and bacon and basically spent the whole day doing nothing. It was wonderful! Josh and Caroline never even left the house; I left just to go to the store and be a coupon queen at Target ;) I love lazy Sundays!!

So, since that was a boring weekend roundup, let's talk about Caroline! Here's what's going on with her as a seven and a half month old:

• She's starting to really love her big girl food and get really excited when she sees you getting it prepared. She now eats once at daycare for lunch and once at home for dinner. She loves every fruit we've given her and hates every vegetable we've given her. Josh gave her apples (or pears, I can't remember) with cinnamon and oatmeal and HOLY COW she gobbled them up and got upset when they were gone. I think we have a new favorite :)
• She still loves her formula, too. She's starting to hold the bottle herself sometimes. Poor thing doesn't realize she has to hold the bottle up for the food to go in her mouth so she ends up just sucking air and we have to help, but I'm proud of her for at least trying. According to my mom, who talked a lot with the daycare ladies while we were in Spain, they teach them to hold their bottles in the next classroom (older babies); I think they have started teaching Caroline, too.
• Guys, she is getting SO cuddly and I love it! It makes it so hard to leave her in the mornings. This morning, I woke her up, fed her a bottle, and then sat her up in my lap like I do every morning (we like to delay getting ready and just hang out together on the bed for a while in the mornings). She usually sits there and stares at the dogs and smiles at her daddy. This morning she flung herself at me and laid there and hugged my belly for a good ten minutes. I told Josh I was calling in sick to work, that I couldn't leave her. Alas, I'm at work. She hugged Josh last night when he picked her up when he got home from work. She is the sweetest little thing ever.
• She's getting a lot better at playing by herself. We put the quilt on the floor, set her down, and surround her with toys. She can entertain herself for a while. She loves when someone sits next to her. It doesn't even matter if you're paying attention to her, but if you're next to her she's so happy.
• She is still very clingy. When I bring her to daycare, I can't just put her in a toy anymore or she will SCREAM. I can hand her to a daycare lady and have them put her in a toy, but when it's me putting her down she goes nuts. The ladies at daycare say they all start doing that when they reach a certain age... I guess that age has been reached, whomp whomp
• Her little head is getting SO FUZZY. So much little blonde fuzz on that noggin'. It's not enough to brush or put into bows, but it's enough to be ADORABLE. It sticks out funny on one side of her head, too. The cuteness is overwhelming.
• I see posts from other moms on Facebook, some with babies older than Caroline and others with babies younger than Caroline, that their kids are still not sleeping through the night. It makes me feel so lucky that Caroline sleeps through the night every night, with very rare exceptions. I have to wake her up in the mornings before daycare and I usually have her almost out of her sleep sack before she finally wakes up.
• She is SO HAPPY lately. She's so smiley, squeals a lot, and giggles. She finally enjoys the things you're taught to believe all babies enjoy... peekaboo, raspberries on her belly, etc... she finally giggles at those things instead of giving us the "what the heck are you doing?" stare.

Josh and I have decided we created the cutest baby ever. We don't think we're biased at all ;) She's seriously just THE CUTEST THING EVER and we're so freaking in love with her.  I mean, look at that face you guys. THERE IS NOTHING CUTER. Pardon my capital letters.

PS: I have more pictures to post, but they're on my camera and I'm too lazy to move them off.

What we learned in Barcelona.

I made a post about what we did in Barcelona, so how about a post on what we learned in Barcelona? We are, after all, world travelers now, and world travelers share their experiences. Gather around folks for a lesson in all things Barcelona!

1. Of course the people in Barcelona speak Spanish, right? After all, it is in Spain. Well, they do... kind of. A lot of them speak Catalan. According to my trusty friend, Wikipedia, "As an official language, Spanish is understood almost universally in Barcelona. In addition, 95% of the population understand Catalonia's own native Catalan language, while 74.6% can speak it, 75% can read it, and 47.1% can write it." This means, a lot of the Spanish we learned in high school and college, in Josh's case, was useless. 
2. They love their doggies. There were dogs everywhere. Train station? Dogs. H&M? Dogs. Outside at cafes? Dogs. There are dog parks all over the city, which seem empty during the day (since people are at work), and are filled with happy pups at night. The dogs there look the same as dogs here; don't ask me why that's fascinating to me, but it is. They are so well behaved there. Most were not on leashes and wandered, but stayed close to their humans. We loved the dog watching as much as the people watching.
3. Speaking of people watching, holy PDA, batman! I'm assuming everyone knows the meaning of "PDA" but, just in case, it means "public display of affection." The couples there must really, really like each other. Stopping at a red light? Make out time! Riding a scooter at 40 miles per hour? Still make out time! Walked away for 30 seconds to return a rental bike? Oh, I missed you so much; let me sprint to you in order to make out!!
4. There was another public display that caught us off guard (even though we knew to expect it) and that was the public display of boobies on the beach. We walked onto the beach fully dressed and began walking down the water, took some pictures, and then headed down the beach. I think Josh nearly fainted when he spotted his first pair of boobs. Then, we began to notice they were everywhere. One lady was striking a pinup pose, boobs poked way out, getting her picture taken. We also saw the public display of one man's bum. It was not pretty.
5. Even with all these gorgeous, topless women around, the men still can't take their eyes off a tall, blonde American. Josh mentioned to me that men were staring at me and I, oblivious to stares, didn't believe him. Then, I started paying attention. They were staring. I don't exactly look like the average local, and apparently the men like us American ladies. It was quite ego boosting, I must admit, considering how beautiful the women are over there.
6. Not only the local hornballs could tell I was an outsiders, every employee in Spain knew we didn't belong. Everywhere we went, before we spoke a word, we were greeted with hello's and hi's. Not once did we get an hola. I believe we got one buenas dias only to get it quickly changed to a good morning once the speaker actually saw us. I think we screamed American. Even if we didn't scream American, we definitely screamed, "hello there, we don't speak a word of Spanish!"
7. Despite the language barrier, most of the people there made a wonderful effort to speak English to us. If they didn't speak English, they would find someone who could to translate. A lot of the menus had English sections, which was very helpful. Everyone was very nice and willing to help, which we really appreciated!
8. People in Barcelona seem to love two things: coffee and beer. In the mornings, every cafe you pass (about three per block; these people love their cafes) has tables filled with people drinking coffee. In the afternoons and evenings, the same cafes now have people drinking beer (they often have coffee, as well). We ordered beer at nearly every meal. They never ask what kind of beer. You order a "cerveza" and they bring out a beer. We were never disappointed in their selection!
9. You know what they don't like? FOOD. These people were always enjoying beverages at all times of the day, but we never saw the locals eating food at the cafe. And when I say never, I really do mean never. They don't eat! And when they do eat, they eat late. We're talking 2:00pm lunches and 9:00pm dinners. We went to one restaurant whose kitchen didn't even open until 8:30pm. Craziness, just craziness.
10. I think we figured out why they weren't eating at restaurants. Beer at restaurants? Cheap! Food at restaurants? Expensive! Now, the food at the grocery store? CHEAP! One euro for a block of brie, one euro for an enormous jar of olives, three euro for meat that would cost ten dollars over here. The grocery stores of the USA need to travel to Barcelona, observe the prices, and get their act together and stop overcharging so much!
11. The buildings there are beautiful and antique. I swear half the buildings we passed were older than our country. Just look at the places we went for the wedding: Santa Maria del Mar, site of the ceremony, was built in 1329 and La Baronia, site of the reception, was built on top of an old farm house dating back to the sixteenth century. Every building has amazing detail, and nearly all have art or sculptures adorning the walls. It's amazing and not like anything you see here.
12. The public transit was so clean and nice. The metro was spotless and had screens that clearly told us what stations we were passing, how long until we arrived at those stations, and what direction we were heading in. The cabs were brand new and clean and the driver was so nice. He didn't just drop us off near the church. He drove through an alley way, through a crowd of people, and dropped us off right at the entrance to the church.
13. The clothes are... different. The guys? Dress pretty normally, actually. The women? They don't really wear jeans or dress pants like we do here. They wear sort of, well, pajama pants. Some are linen, some are cotton, some are silk, but they all look like pajama pants. One girl walked buy that had full-on Princess Jasmine pants! Oh, and bras are apparently not popular there. We got quite the show.
14. Getting around takes some getting used to. The crosswalks don't count down like they do here. You'll have a green walking man, then it'll blink for all of two seconds, it will then turn red and BAM the cars start moving. It's like a game of Frogger. You have to be fast! And street signs? Pssh, they must get in the way of the prettiness. Their street signs are the names engraved in tiny stones on the sides of buildings nowhere near the streets. It makes it so confusing!
15. American music everywhere!!! I was hoping to escape the evil Katy Perry or the obnoxious Rhianna... nope, they play just as much over there. Ugh. And they have American food chains everywhere. McDonalds, Burger King, Dominos, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts... check, check, check, check, check and check!
16. The weather there is AMAZING. Everywhere online we read of how hot it is there. Guys, it was 80 degrees, sunny, with a lovely sea breeze, and actually got chilly at night. Maybe we have gotten used to the Florida heat but it was NOT hot. We had the most perfect weather!
17. The areas around the city are just as amazing as the city itself. We traveled to wine country for tours of the vineyards and it was AMAZING. Other people were sleeping on the bus (they were all hungover from the groom's bachelor party in Ibiza), but I couldn't keep my eyes off the landscapes surrounding us. Both the welcome dinner and the reception were about an hour outside of Barcelona and the views were AMAZING (do I use that adjective enough? And why do I always capitalize it? So predictable). We drove through the most, you guessed it, AMAZING town on the way to the reception. I cannot even imagine living in a place that gorgeous.
18. You can totally have an amazing vacation on a budget. We didn't pay to go to any museums, didn't pay for any fancy pants tours, and didn't spend a lot of the euros we brought with us. We had an amazing budget vacation and still learned a lot about the country, saw the sites, and experienced a new country without spending an arm and a leg. It's possible!

The classiest, most mature, fanciest world travelers ever.

We had an absolutely AMAZING vacation and we are so glad we went. It was the fancy-pants honeymoon we never got to enjoy. I'm still partial to Italy because their food portions are ridiculously large and the wine is endless, and that's important to me, but Spain was wonderful. You feel like you're walking through history no matter where you step. The art is impressive, the views are breathtaking, and the people are friendly. We would absolutely go back. Next time we would bring our Caroline. As much as we missed her, we are glad we didn't bring her on this trip. Lugging around a 7 month old in the places we visited would have been stressful on both us and her. I honestly believe she was better off staying in her familiar environment. But in a couple of years? We would LOVE to take her. Next time we go to Europe she'll be by our side. 

Okay, so who's getting married in Europe next? We'd love to visit Germany, Ireland, or even Italy since Josh has never been. Get on it, friends ;)

A baby on a mission.

Look at that wild child up there. See that? That is a baby who is about to take off. That is a baby who is almost mobile. That's a baby on a mission! Ohhhhhhh dear.

See, Caroline has hated tummy time since the beginning. HATED it. She still hates tummy time, unless she's the one that puts herself on her tummy. If we put her on her tummy, she just flops around and pouts. If she decides it's tummy time, you get the goofy smiles pictured above and she has a blast.

This new "trick" has developed since we got home from Spain. We were sitting in the bed one morning and she was in my lap as usual. She suddenly decided she wanted to be on her tummy instead and lunged herself forward, catching herself with her arms and then staying there, with her arms fully supporting her. Then, she used her legs to push off me to get herself further forward (closer to her beloved Wrangler).

Later that day, I was sitting next to her on the bed and she suddenly put her arms down, tucked her little feet under her body, and lunged herself toward me for a hug (she seriously gives hugs now; it's the cutest thing ever). 

This morning, when those pictures were taken, we left her on the bed as usual, just sitting there playing with her toys. We came back less than a minute later and she was on her belly, making her way to the edge of the bed. And, as you can see, she looked so proud of herself.

She is also pulling herself up, using me as her jungle gym. Seriously, she climbs all over me and chews on my collar bone. I guess I make a fantastic teething toy? Her goal is to go from sitting to standing so she can gnaw on my collar bone. I never said she wasn't strange ;) 

I have a feeling she's pulling herself up on toys at daycare; the other day I went in to put her diapers in her crib and noticed they had moved her from a crib to a pack n' play, with the mattress at the very bottom. She hasn't done this at home, mostly because we don't have any toys that are really good for practicing pulling herself up. But, seeing how good she is at pulling herself up using my body, I'm sure she's more than capable of it using toys.

According to the ladies at daycare, she also likes to hitch rides with the other babies. She sits on the floor playing, sees one of her older friends (all of whom she's bigger than) crawl by, and she grabs them and tries to go along for the ride. I'm sure she's very popular among the other babies, geez.

So, Josh and I see crawling in the very near future, which means it's time to start baby proofing. At the rate she's pulling herself up and becoming better at standing, I think she may start walking (at least walking around furniture) within the next couple months.

When did my baby get to be such a big girl?

Barcelona!!!

Here it is guys. Prepare yourself for an epic vacation blog. Ready? Okay, here we go.

Friday ... I'll start with Friday since that's when our vacation and visitors began! Josh got his mom from the airport (after a horrible two days of travel, which we feel terrible about) and I peaced out of work for the week! We went to Newk's for lunch, where Caroline decided reaching for her daddy's soup was fun and spilled it ALL OVER him, oopsies :)  We then spent time showing Barb things around the house and then headed out for a delicious Indian dinner. I think I have a new favorite dish; it was delicious. I ordered a Taj Mahol beer and it was ENORMOUS, but delicious!

Saturday ... We started the day with a delicious Panera breakfast with Barb. Then, we headed to the airport. I cried like a BABY when saying goodbye to my baby. Holy cow, guys. It was as hard as I knew it would be. The security people probably thought I was a nutjob. So, we get on our plane in time, get ready to turn off our portable electronics and then BOOM we are deboarding due to a mechanical problem. They basically cancel our flight, Josh calls and manages to get us on a flight that leaves four hours later. We hung out in the airport for four hours missing our baby, eating overpriced burgers, and stressing over our now super short layover in Atlanta. Thankfully, we made it on our flight to Barcelona! Thank god for the free in-flight booze; I needed it to calm my nerves.

Sunday ... After a completely sleepless flight, we landed in Barcelona at 8:30am Sunday morning. The views of the countryside and sunrise on the ride in were AMAZING. After getting our passports stamped by a very unfriendly man, we headed to baggage claim where our hopes of seeing our luggage were small, as the Tallahassee airport was sure to have screwed up. Yep. No luggage. After filing a claim with the airport, we navigated through the airport and finally found the bus that took us to the metro station, somehow ended up on the correct train to our hotel, and walked around trying to find our hotel. Dude, I can't believe we made it there. None of the signs in the airport are in English, the train system is super confusing at first, and there is a ridiculous lack of roadsigns in Barcelona. But we did it, whoop whoop!!!

sunrise from the plane

Once we found the hotel, we dropped off our bags (room wasn't ready) and explored the area around our hotel. We went in search of food, got confused by all of the menus, and ended up in Pans & Company which seems to be a European fast food place. It was gross. But, we were happy to have food. We then explored the Sants neighborhood and quickly discovered that everything shuts down on Sundays in Barcelona. It was still fun to explore, though!

Josh exploring the Sants neighborhood

Once we got in our room, we relaxed for a bit and enjoyed our complimentary glasses of champagne - delicious!! We then set out for more exploring. We saw the Joan Miro's sculpture Woman and Bird, which was actually kind of weird looking but was cool nonetheless. We then walked to the Plaça d'Espanya and saw the Venetian Towers. We then made our way to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and Font màgica de Montjuïc. It was a long walk and consisted of A LOT of stairs, but it was well worth it. The view of the city from the museum was AMAZING, guys. We could see the whole city and the mountainside. Absolutely amazing!!! We then headed back to the hotel to relax a bit more before dinner. We actually ended up heading back to that area and having dinner at the top of Las Arenas mall, which used to be a bullfighting ring. We got two beers, water, duck for Joshua, and steak with brie for me. This is where we were first introduced to the tiny portions of Barcelona. Although delicious, their meals are rarely filling.

champagne!

woman and bird sculpture, and las arenas mall

plaça d'espanya and the venetian towers

museu nacional d'Art de catalunya and font màgica de montjuïc

after SO MUCH WALKING and SO MANY STAIRS

the view was well worth it

Monday ... This is the morning we were introduced to the amazingness of our hotel's breakfast. Eggs, meats, cheeses, fruits, pastries, coffee, champagne, EVERYTHING. We gobbled it all right up. Then, we headed back to the airport to reclaim our luggage (ugh). Guys, we were there for four hours. I waited in line for THREE HOURS. Josh walked around waiting to see if our bag showed up on one of the conveyor belts (one bag was in the lost luggage section when we got there; somehow our bags got split up). We finally got our bags and were SO RELIEVED. We got back in our hotel and changed out of our nasty clothes. We celebrated with glasses of wine, which quickly turned into a bottle of wine. It was awesome.

WOOHOO clean clothes!

After we enjoyed our wine, it was time to head out for some FOOD. We found a restaurant with english translations on their menu. Of course, they only had tapas. We ordered two cervezas (beer), chicken fingers for Joshua, and calamari for me. It was very delicious! We enjoyed it a lot. We then continued our walk to La Rambla, a famous street with vendors and stores. We accidentally wandered off the street and ended up in an amazing shopping area FILLED with people. We had a wonderful time exploring, seeing some amazing buildings, and people watching. After LOTS of walking, we headed back to the hotel for a bit to relax. We then headed out to get some pizza and beers. We gobbled them right up (so hungry) and enjoyed our beers. We watched all of the dogs playing and enjoyed checking out the interesting clothes of the locals. I accidentally ordered us decaffeinated espresso (this taught me to keep my mouth shut at restaurants and let Joshua do the talking).

mmmm, beer

amazing calamari

pizza and beer, hooray!

Tuesday ... This was probably our biggest day of exploring. We filled ourselves with some delicious breakfast at the hotel; Josh even popped open the bottle of champagne which made an adorable old British woman tell him she would "fancy a glass" as well. First, we made our way to La Rambla again and made sure we actually stayed on the correct road this time. It was a fun adventure! We saw so many amazing buildings, bought some souvenirs from street vendors, walked into the most amazing market ever, and people watched like crazy. It was a fun tourist-y experience!

la rambla!

one of the many amazing florist stands

gorgeous market

one of the many gorgeous buildings

After about a mile walk down La Rambla, we finally made it to the Mirador de Colom, a Christopher Columbus Monument which overlooks Port Vell. It was really neat and was surrounded by equally beautiful buildings. The port was gorgeous! So many boats and buildings. After walking past the port we made our way to the beach to see the Mediterranean! It was GORGEOUS with bright blue water. We walked on the beach, found some pebbles and sea glass, and quickly began to notice all the topless women. We even saw one dude's buttocks (thank goodness he was sunbathing on his stomach as we passed). It was quite the interesting beach adventure! We then stopped at a beach bar and had drinks by the Mediterranean. It was pretty amazing, guys.

amazing gargoyles

port vell

hello, mediterranean!

enjoying the beach for a bit

you would not believe how many boobs are in this picture

beers by the beach!

After the beach, we headed to Can Paixano, which was recommended to us by one of Josh's lawschool classmates. It's a bar that serves pink champagne and tapas. It's hidden in an alleyway but is famous and always PACKED. Josh managed to make his way to the counter to get us some delicious sandwiches and champagne. It was well worth the crowd and a very neat experience. We then explored the gothic quarter, filled with amazing old buildings, sculptures, and wonderful stores. It was a beautiful part of the city! We then headed back to the hotel to rest our feet for a bit (we walked between 12 and 15 miles that day, I'm sure. We were STARVING and headed out for dinner. We only seemed to pass tapa bars. We finally found a restaurant with real food, only to be told the kitchen didn't open until 8:30pm (umm, crazy). We finally spotted a Mexican restaurant and basically sprinted toward it. We knew they'd have a menu we could understand and large portions. We were not disappointed; it was AMAZING!

mmmmm pink champagne

he LOVED this place

one of the many amazing sites in the gothic quarter

gorgeous buildings everywhere

HELLO FOOD WE LOVE YOU

Wednesday ... Wine tour day!!! We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then walked back to the city center to catch the bus to the wine tour. We were SO CONFUSED and couldn't find the bus and panicked. We finally found other lost-looking people and realized we were in the right spot. We headed to the Torres winery first and enjoyed a train ride through the vineyards. We learned how wine is made and then learned how to properly do a wine tasting; I feel so cultured now! We tried five different wines and enjoyed some snacks (I would have eaten more if I had known those snacks were our lunch; I was SO HUNGRY afterward). We then went to the Codorniu Winery, where they make sparkling wine/champagne ("cava"). It was a gorgeous place and we really enjoyed the tour. We went through the cellars and saw thousands of bottles of cava. The tasting was so much fun; the tour guide kept refilling everyone's glasses. 

ready to tour the first winery

so much wine.... drool

the second winery ... gorgeous!

joshua exploring

way below the ground in the cellars

mmmmmmm, SO GOOD

After the wine tour, we made our way to Casa del Mond for the welcome dinner. It was WAY UP on the side of a mountain and absolutely beautiful. We drank more wine and champagne (oopsies) and eagerly awaited food; we were absolutely starving by this point in the day. We had a lot of fun meeting people and hanging out at the villa. I slept on the bus ride back into the city, as did everyone else. We walked back to the hotel so quickly because we were SO TIRED from the busy day. We collapsed into bed and slept so well!

view from the welcome dinner

casa del mond

drinking champagne on empty stomachs... oops!

Thursday ... We dragged ourselves out of bed still exhausted from the day before but determined to make it to breakfast! The goal of Thursday was to find souvenirs for everyone. We found a delicious place for lunch. Joshua ordered a beer and veal, and I ordered salmon and water (my poor body needed a break after all that champagne). The veal and salmon were both cheaper than chicken, and the beer was way cheaper than the water. Spain, you're silly. It was actually a very delicious lunch! I once again should have kept my mouth shut, though, because the lady asked if we wanted bread with tomato and i was all SURE. Yeah, it was literally a bread and a whole tomato. It cost us three euro. Lame!

salmon and a glimpse at my five euro water, wtf!

josh's veal and two euro beer. spain makes no sense.

After lunch, we found some great souvenirs and spent some time browsing stores. We went into the Apple store, where things cost way more than they do in the US. We then relaxed in the hotel for a bit, and headed back out to get a doll we had seen for Caroline earlier in the day (the store had been closed when we went back to get it. Stores in Barcelona close randomly in the middle of the day for hours; it's confusing). It was the second doll we bought for her, but we thought it was adorable. To us, it was well worth the ten block walk. After that, we went to the market under our hotel to get dinner. We got SO MUCH FOOD (everything pictured below) for 13 euro. See that beautiful block of bri? ONE EURO. See the enormous jar of olives? LESS THAN TWO EURO. No wonder no one is every eating at the restaurants; they all eat for dirt cheap at home! America, take notes. We ate our feast in our room and watched the BBC talk trash about America on the Fourth of July (according to them, we have lost our "swagger"). It was a really fun night!

FEAST

Friday ... Wedding day! Most of the day was ours and we headed out to finish our shopping. We realized that while finding everyone else souvenirs we had bought nothing for ourselves! We also tried to find a bottle for the seaglass we had found for my dad; no luck :( Then, it was back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding! We both had mental breakdowns while getting ready. Mine: my hair straightener didn't work, so my hair was frizzy and wavy. The thingy I bought to do a french twist didn't work for me because I have so much freaking hair! Luckily, after a quick lesson in bobby pins, Josh was able to help me make my hair look somewhat decent! Josh's breakdown: Tying a bowtie. He was determined to tie a bowtie and ended up watching YouTube videos to figure it out (at the wedding we realized every guy we spoke to had watched the same video that afternoon trying to figure it out). He finally got it tied and looked quite snazzy!

We then grabbed a cab (no way were we walking two miles in our fancy clothes) and headed to the Santa Maria del Mar for the wedding. It was absolutely GORGEOUS (Designed by Berenguer de Montagut and begun in 1324, Santa Maria del Mar was completed 55 years later. Santa Maria is the only surviving church in the pure Catalan Gothic architecture, with octagonal towers with flat tops, large bare surfaces, an exceptionally tall interior, rib vaults and soaring vertical lines). I have never been to a church like that, let alone attended a wedding at one. We grabbed a cafe con leche while waiting for the guests to start arriving. We then made our way through the tourists and headed to the front of the church (half of the church was still open to tourists during the wedding. Luckily, they were very respectful and even joined in during prayers and stood as the bride entered the church). The ceremony was great, Jen looked incredible, and it was such a neat experience.

outside of the church

inside of the church

feeling quite snazzy

waiting for the wedding to start with my hot date

wedding program

gettin' married

We then made our way to the buses and drove about an hour outside of the city to La Baronia, which was absolutely GORGEOUS (Dominating the hill that rises above the town of Sant Feliu de Codines, sets up La Baronia, a superb modernist building built on top of the old farmhouse of Can Bosch, already documented in the sixteenth century)!!! We were greeted at the buses with champagne and made our way to cocktail hour, with AMAZING views of the countryside. We enjoyed tapas and cervezas. We then made our way into the dining room for a wonderful dinner. We had crab ravioli, veal, a pina colada dessert, and some amazing wedding cake. Each course came with a glass of wine and we had delicious champagne for the toast. Everyone then made their way to the pool area for drinks and dancing. Due to our flight the next morning, we didn't partake in the drinks (okay, maybe a beer or two...). We were having fun, but were happy to take the 1:30am bus back into the city so we could get some sleep before the flights. It was a GORGEOUS WEDDING and we'll never forget it.

la baronia; freaking amazing

the bride and groom

looking sharp, i must admit!

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

just drinking on a mountainside in spain; no biggie

josh and the groom :)

Saturday ... We dragged ourselves out of bed after two hours of sleep, got ready to go, and checked out of our rooms. We started making our way to the train station and realized the hotel employee had chased us down and said our credit card didn't go through. So, we had to turn around and go back to the hotel. They hadn't written the number down correctly, ugh! Thank god it went through, but they almost gave us a heart attack! We then headed to the train station again, took the metro to the airport, took the bus to our terminal, checked our bags, went through security, encountered another rude passport stamper person, and then settled down for a McDonalds breakfast, bwhahaha! Guys, there's no syrup in Spain. They put chocolate pudding on Josh's pancakes. We then waited by our gate for a couple hours (we got there early to be safe) and then got on the plane back to the states!

I spent half the flight nervous about our layover in Atlanta. The second I flip my phone on, after a week of being off, the first thing I see was a CNN alert from two minutes earlier saying a plane had crashed in California. Not the headline you want to see when traveling, guys!! We got to our gate, breezed through customs, got our bags and then rechecked them (I honestly don't understand the point of that process, but whatever), went through security again and were at our gate to Tallahassee an hour early! I was SO HAPPY because I was SO ANXIOUS to see our Caroline :) After a slight delay (they had to clean the plane toilet... I don't want to know why), we were on our way! 

Seeing our sweet little Caroline was AMAZING! She was completely oblivious to us at first, but was thrilled when she realized we were there. It was, of course, so great to see my parents too :D We chatted while waiting for the luggage. We grabbed the first bag and then realized our second bag hadn't made it to Tallahassee. How do they keep getting split up?? Josh reported the bag and then we headed to dinner: Texas Roadhouse for my dad's birthday!!! I ordered a small beer and apparently the bartender decided I needed a big one :) It was a fun dinner and Caroline was SUCH a good girl (I don't think Josh took his eyes off her for one second; he missed his lady so much). We then made it home and relaxed with my parents for a bit before collapsing in bed! The only thing that woke me up all night was our luggage being dropped off at 2:30am (thanks for sounding the alarm, Wrangler). Luckily, Caroline slept through it and I quickly went back to sleep.

Sunday ... We woke up early to take my parents to the airport. We wish they could have stayed longer to hang out with us and go out to breakfast :( But, it was amazing to see them, even if just for a short amount of time. Josh and I then went to IHOP where we had an amazing American breakfast. Caroline ate some peaches and was SUCH a good girl!! We then headed home and were lazy all day! I was in bed by 8pm, no lie.

we had so much fun, but are so happy to be home with this GOOF!