The DRAKES are here...

5 days after mom left- Mike, Heather and Taylor came to visit!!  We were looking forward to their visit for months (the kids could not wait to play with uncle Mike).  

These first few pictures will be from Taylors camera (I was not with them some of the time or I did not bring my camera with me.  Either way... her camera is BETTER than mine and she takes amazing pictures).

Saturday they arrived and we didnt do a while lot- Of course, Mike, Taylor and Morgan went for a walk on the beach.... WHY do they live in Vermont??  They are beach bums by heart- they NEED the ocean!!

Like I said- Taylor took amazing pictures (THANK YOU THANK YOU)!!

Sunday while I was at church, they went downtown Chipiona to walk and eat.  

Once again- these are all from Taylor's view...

Sunday afternoon we drove down to one of my favorites places in southern Spain- Vejer de la Frontera.

Little did we know- we went on the last night of Carnival and loved it.  Everyone was in the center of town- in costumes and having a great time.

Of course- we HAD to eat at the best restaurant in Vejer!!

Monday they drove down to Gibraltar for the day and loved it of course! 

Madrid

As we travel a little more around Europe and Spain, I am always in awe of how beautiful the cities are. Moms flights was leaving from Sevilla early Monday morning with a very short layover in Madrid so we decided to drive up Sunday, see Madrid and not worry about the short amount of time she would have had to get from gate to gate.  

The drive to Madrid was long but beautiful and the city was just s beautiful.  Much like Paris, Montreal,  London, and San Fransisco (the only large cities I have really been to) they have beautiful buildings full of architecture and statues.  I love walking around seeing all of the buildings and what each city has to offer.  

We arrived later in the afternoon, walked around, grabbed a bite to eat, shopped a little, and headed to the hotel for as much sleep as we could before we had to get up and take mom to the airport.

 A fantastic place to stay...

 View from our room...

 Aydin buying his own chestnuts... Yes in Spanish

 view from the hotel roof...

I cannot believe 4 weeks came and past so quickly... we loved having mom here with us and hope it is not too long before she comes back again.  (That is only if we did not drive her crazy while she was here).


Oh- and in case you were wondering why Morgan and Liam were not in any pictures... We left them with a friend of mine and took Aydin by himself.  What a great time we had spending alone time with him.

Grandma in Gibraltar

Today we spent the last full day with mom in Gibraltar.  I am not sure you can make a visit to our place in Spain without seeing a little piece of the UK on the south tip of Spain.  We took a tour up the rock, saw the caves, monkeys, watched the kids get attacked by the monkeys, the castle, and then had lunch at our favorite fish and chips place; Roys. 

At the start of our journey... in the taxi.

Pillars of Hercules

Outside St. Michael's Cave- and the first monkeys we saw... with our tour guide (he was amazing)

Inside the cave

Aydin fell in LOVE with sausage rolls in London... and about fell over with excitement when he saw them in the little snack shop outside of the caves.  He was in heaven when he got one to eat.

Mom did NOT want to walk by that monkey on the rock...

...and she had ever reason to not want to walk by it- that monkey jumped right in between her and Liam.  Liam had NO clue but mom was terrified!! 

(dont get mad mom... I HAD to post it! To be fair- I didnt zoom in thought like I wanted to) 

She tried so many times to get the monkey to climb on her...

And when it did... it poked her in the eye and pulled her hair.  I think it is safe to say- she will not be having any more monkeys climbing on her...

High five from a monkey...

Liam was so excited to see a baby monkey on the rocks (top left corner) that he was jumping and screaming...

Little did we all know that the momma monkey did not like that he was screaming at her baby and attacked Liam.... What a great mother I am- instead of helping him get the monkey off- I took this wonderful picture! Yes- that is a monkey biting his arm...

Eating!!!

Looking at the castle from our lunch table...

After lunch we stopped in the glass shop and mom bought herself beautiful hand blown champagne flutes.

Blowing glass...

Buying glasses..

They are beautiful!!

Before we walked back tot he boarder- we had to stop and get some ice cream!