Barcelona and Prague

Dan and I had been looking forward to our trip back home to Prague for a long time.  We were gone for 10 days, the first five the kids were with Grandma and Grandpa Reeves and the last five they were with Grandma and Grandpa Davis.  Both were looking forward to being with the grandkids, but as Benji said, “Five days is a long time.”

When planning the trip we wanted to include a side trip and I’ve always wanted to go to Spain so we headed to Barcelona for 3 days.  Barcelona was beautiful!  The weather was great – but we weren’t able to take as many pictures as we wanted since the airport lost our luggage and we only had our camera the second half of our trip. 

Here are some online pictures of our favorite sights:  Our pension was right off Las Ramblas where there was a really fun market place.

That evening we went to the beach downtown and I was entranced by the musicians.  It seemed like there was an unspoken rule that each performer had a half an hour to play their music and people started sporadically salsa dancing.  I felt like I could sit there forever!

My favorite building was Gaudi’s depiction of George slaying the dragon.  The top is the dragon and the windows look like skeleton heads from inside the dragon.  And how can you go to Barcelona without seeing La Sagrada Familia?  Amazing!

My favorite part of Barcelona would either be Park Guell or the beach.

    

   Here’s Dan in front of the music hall. 

Then we went to Spain’s Arc de Triumph which isn’t nearly as impressive as the one in France but Barcelona has parrots!  Which is almost as cool!

From there we walked up to  El Poble and saw this car.  Classic but the best part was the giant scooby doo doll out front.  There were people in the car getting dressed but I had to get a picture..  Then we went to El Poble which is where they remade one building from each of the provinces in Spain.  It was really cool!

And since the beach was just a few metro stops away we did a final swim before taking off to Prague.  Funny enough we ran into friends from Prague at the beach.  I love Barcelona!

Brownie Lake with cousins!

Dan’s family has a tradition of going camping in the Uintah’s at Brownie lake, so when Randall and Lynn and their family came to Utah for a visit we decided to spend most of our time there.

The kids played with their cousins!

Dan’s parents brought 4 canoes.

We went for a hike.  The kids did a great job!And we can’t wait to see the cousins again!

Camping in American Fork Canyon

I can’t believe the summer is practically over and I haven’t blogged!  So in a half hearted attempt at recapping the summer here were some highlights.

In June we went camping with Dan’s old roomies from college.  And they sure know how to camp. There was a zip line for the kids, mountain bikes, painting, T-ball etc.

 

Vinson found a soul mate who loved Mario as much as him.  They played Mario Kart by running in circles and jumped on bowsers head and got dirtier than I thought possible. 

I love American Fork canyon!

Mom the Builder

We only lived in Kaysville a few weeks when the big wind storm came and blew down trees and shingles . . . and this play set.  It originated in our neighbors yard across the street. I remember their 10 year old telling me how he was “helping his mom by taking it apart.”  It was on it’s side and pretty much in pieces in our neighbors yard and she said that they were going to get rid of it.  “Well, if you don’t want it, we could take it and fix it up.”  She said she’d talk to her husband.

He came over and asked if we were serious about wanting it because they were going to take the pieces to the dump.  He wanted to make sure Dan was on board since he assumed that Dan would do most of the work.  Dan wasn’t excited, and it showed but he agreed that we could have it.  I spent the next couple of weeks in their backyard with a wrench so we could carry it across the street and then more weeks putting it back together.  (I wish I had a before picture – to show how it looked.)  I am impatient and Charlotte is at the stage where she wants me to hold her all the time, so Charlotte was in one arm, and the drill in the other.  She is no longer afraid of the sound of a drill. The boys love it and play on it ALL THE TIME! 

From the beginning of February I’ve been working on this beautiful desk that was pretty even in turquoise.  I decided it wouldn’t be too hard to sand it – well I had no idea how hard it is to sand painted furniture and this one was painted twice – but I’m really happy with how it turned out.  It’s SO pretty!

Easter

Easter was so much fun this year! We had a really fun week. It was spring break so we started off by having an egg hunt in our backyard. I love our back yard!!! Definitely the best part of our place. We invited some friends over. They got so excited whenever they found an egg. So fun!

Then we went to my mom's house and went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. So fun!

Last minute we went to the Aquarium in Sandy a few days later. I love spoiling my kids.
Every year we have celebrated Easter by going whipping at the Čubovi and Čankovi homes. We weren't able to go to their house but we still got to go whipping because one of our friends from Prague moved to the U.S. a month before we we did. So we were able to go to Miša's house and go whipping. It was so fun to see her and speak some Czech.

Then on Sunday the boys hunted for their baskets. I think I went overboard with their baskets. Every time I was at the store I would see something and it would be SO CHEAP so I had to get it, then we have a tradition that they get new books every year and finally they all got a hat and tail. (Sidenote: For Vinson’s birthday I asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said a car that he could drive in and a monkey costume. So I had my friend make a monkey hat for him then he got too much for his birthday so I saved it for Easter – so he got too much for Easter too. ) The boys were so cute in their costumes they wore them all day and it’s still one of the favorite toys.

Mess in 1.

2.

Maybe we need a bib.

3.

We are living with Dan’s grandmother who we absolutely love. Here she is joining in the festivities.