Hola!!On Sunday August 17th, Terry, Deb & Spencer Lauver arrived from the US. Terry and Brian have known each other for many years, they flew together at Lancaster airport, then TranStates Airlines, and now they both fly for Atlas Air. For those of you who remember Luke's escalator fall, Deb is the one who broke his fall and saved his life. It was a beautiful day when they arrived so we headed for the beach. Luke and Spencer had fun catching the waves with Brian and Terry. I posted a movie below of a great wave that Luke caught!
Jackson and Caroline were happy to play in the sand. There is also a movie of them playing below.
Here are Luke and Spencer having a blast in the sea with Brian and Terry.
On Monday the 18th we took the train to Barcelona for the day. After visiting Sagrada Familia, we walked from Placa Espanya up to the National Museum of Art on Montjuic hill.
Trying to get a family shot! Oh well, it is what it is. :)
We then walked along Montjuic past the Olympic area to catch the cable cars up to the castle.
Luke and Spencer enjoying the cable car ride!
View of Sagrada Familia and the city from the cable car. I think I take this picture every time we ride the cable cars!
Luke, Caroline & Spencer on the drawbridge.
Heading into the castle...
The kids always enjoy checking out the armery.
Jackson getting a ride. How can you say no to that face? :)
After visiting the castle we took the cable car to the funicular, the funicular to the metro, and the metro to the port. Here we are walking across the bridge toward the aquarium.
Caroline loves the kids play area at the aquarium!
View out the window of the aquarium of some pretty boats.
Kids in the mouth of the shark!
They took this one on our way in, and Terry & Deb decided to buy a print because it turned out so cute!
On Wednesday the 20th we packed up the cars and headed north into France, toward the medieval city of Carcassonne. Here we are going through the entrance.
It was difficult to capture the magnitude of this place with pictures!
Having a picnic lunch in a little courtyard we found.
Outside one of the shops the kids found a knight that they wanted their picture taken with!
Speaking of shops...there were tons of them with every knight accessory you could imagine. Luke and Spencer had fun picking out the perfect swords.
Brian and Terry.
View of the newer town that was built around the medieval city.
City walls and towers.
The beautiful cathedral in the old city.
Luke, Spencer, Jackson & Caroline. They all did SO great on this trip in the cars and sightseeing.
A highlight of our time in Carcassonne was attending a jousting tournament. The speaking was all in French so we didn't exactly understand the story line, but it was fun to watch!
There was a series of horsemen with cool matching flags and horse-covers.
They took turns facing off, charging at each other full speed ahead on either side of the wooden railing in the center.
Luke's face was hilarious, we're pretty sure he thought it was real fighting at first. :)
Here are two guys charging. The horses were very fast and beautiful.
They also had a bald eagle there who flew back and forth between two guys as part of the tournament.
Sorry, the pictures are mixed up a bit. We missed the tour of the castle in Carcassonne that night, so the following morning Brian, Terry, Luke, Spencer and Caroline went to Toulouse for the tour of the airbus headquarters, while Deb, Jackson and I toured the castle. Here is Jackson posing for us at the castle entrance.
Part of the castle tour included walking on the ramparts, which gave some really nice views!
Jackson looking out a tower window.
Okay, back to the jousting. Luke & Spencer got their picture taken with the guy who won the tournament!! :) He was our favorite.
And they found the perfect swords! Caroline chose a flower windmill for our flowerbeds. :)
Before walking back to our bed and breakfast in Carcassonne we found a great terrace restaurant where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.
The medieval city was lit up beautifully on our walk back, and Brian was able to get some nice night-time shots. This is the walkway between the inner and outer walls.
A view of the medieval city from the bed & breakfast.
More pictures from the castle tour on the morning of the 21st.
I liked this view out of the curved archway.
More views from the ramparts.
Deb, Jackson and I in one of the towers.
Deb listening to our tour guide at the end of the tour.
This picture needs no words...classic!! We had such a nice time with Jackson that morning. He was so sweet and fun to have along! Here we were on a horse-drawn carriage tour of the area between the inner and outer walls of the medieval city.
This is what we were riding. And by the end of the 20 minute ride Jackson was curled up on my lap fast asleep. :) We then left Carcassonne as the rest of the gang was having lunch in Toulouse, and planned to meet them in the French town of Foix on the way to the Pyrenees mountains and the country of Andorra.
We arrived in Foix about an hour before them, and had a lovely lunch outside at a little French cafe. We even had quiche! It was so much fun.
View down a street in Foix.
We spoke with the guys on the phone and told them to meet us at the big pavilion with red poles and green chairs. Well, there happened to be another big pavilion with red poles and green chairs in another part of town! So it took us a while to find each other. Once we met up, we continued on to Andorra! We didn't have reservations that night, and didn't really know anything about the different towns, but after about 2 hours of driving and looking, we found the most perfect place!! It's a long story how we found it, but a good one. :) So after checking into Hotel Obaga Blanca at 9pm, we drove down into the little village of Canillo and had a great dinner at another restaurant called Les Terrasses! 
In the hotel the following morning (after a fabulous breakfast) Deb & Terry saw information about a ski resort that was just up the mountain that had fun things for kids in the summer time. So we spent the day there!
Here we are riding the cable car up to the ski resort of Grandvalira.This is a view of our hotel from the cable car ride.
Beautiful mountain views.
More views of the Pyrenees.
Up at the top we found LOTS of fun things for the kids. Here is a huge chess game that they loved.
Caroline jumping on a trampoline.
Caroline & Jackson playing Connect Four.
Luke learning how to shoot bow and arrow!
View at the top.
Spencer and Luke with the results of their archery shooting. They were so cute!!
While they shot bow and arrow, Jackson collected rocks.
Caroline riding a donkey.
Jackson riding a donkey!
Caroline in the playhouse.
Luke and Spencer also rode down a tube slide.
God's beautiful creation.
There was a ski lift open that took you down to a small lake, so Caroline and I took a ride. We had a late lunch at Grandvalira, about 4pm, and then caught the cable car back down to Canillo. From there we drove through the rest of Andorra, through La Seu d'Urgell, and Berga, back to Sitges. It was a long day, but REALLY fun and scenic. We arrived home around 10:30pm and ate pizza. :)
The following two days (23rd-24th) were the celebration of Fiesta Mayor in Sitges!! So there were lots of parades, sparklers, and fireworks to be enjoyed. We walked into town to have dinner on the beach before the fireworks started (at 11pm!), and came upon the parade at a great spot to watch. Here are the giants that seem to show up at the big festivals.
Sparklers during the parade.
Caroline watching from a safe place! There was also some great traditional dancing and music that I've included in a movie below.
We made our way to the paseo and ate dinner along the sea at Restaurant Kansas.
We then went right out in front of the restaurant on the beach by these sailboats and had a great view of the church and the fireworks!
Brian was experimenting with the night-time lighting and caught a great shot of the church.
And the boys covered in sand. :)
Caroline dancing in the sand.
And the fireworks!! They were magnificent!!! It was really a beautiful show and we enjoyed it so much.
It's hard to take pictures of fireworks, but Brian got a few really good ones. We arrived home sometime after midnight, and the Lauvers had to leave early the next morning to catch a flight home. We had such a great week with them, and were so glad they could come to visit!Brian was home a few more days, and then he left as well. We now have a quiet week and a half before he comes back, and brings our next visitors (Glenn & Janice Burkhart) along back with him! School starts here on September 15th, so we might do a little homeschool this week before they arrive. We decided to do 1st grade with Luke at home since we are planning to move back to PA in March. It was a tough decision and we checked into putting him into Catalan school here, but for a number of different reasons it just makes more sense to homeschool again for these 6 months. We are also doing pre-school with Caroline, and are planning to send Luke (and maybe Caroline) to a Spanish class for kids in town. They both want to do futbol and gymnastics again, so I'm really excited about that.
Lots of love to everyone, hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!
Tonya
Tonya
