Calders, Olerdola & Tibidabo

Hola y mucho amor to all our friends & family! This week we were thrilled to be able to visit with Maria (Maite) and Henry (Enric) from Barcelona-Landisville! They now live in our neighborhood in Landisville, but are from Barcelona, and are one of the reasons that we chose Barcelona and specifically Sitges in which to live. They have a house in Calders, a beautiful spot in the mountains outside of Barcelona. They invited us over on Tuesday for a nice lunch and fun afternoon of swimming. They were in town to celebrate Maria's birthday. This picture is of Maria and the kids having lunch.
Here is a shot of the side of their beautiful house.
Henry was doing the airplane trick to help Jackson eat and it worked perfectly!!
Here is a view of the Montserrat mountains from their house.
Henry & Luke playing in the pool.

Me & the birthday girl! When I said "girls picture", Caroline ran away and Jackson came running. :)
Maria, Henry, the kids, and Maria's madre muy guapa! She was so sweet!! They took such good care of us and we had a wonderful visit with them!! The following day Maria came to Sitges for a couple of hours, but we were so busy shopping and going out for a nice lunch that I forgot to take any pictures!
On Thursday the kids and I checked out the Romanesque church and castle ruins of Olerdola, only 15 minutes from our house. It's a place we always passed going other places, and I was curious to check it out. Luke was fascinated by the history of it, wondering what all was there during Bible times.
Here the kids are hiking up the old steps to the church of Sant Miquel d'Olerdola.
They thought it was fun to talk in through the openings of the door and hear the echo from inside.

Pretty view of the church with the Montserrat mountains in the far distance. Now we are on the other side of them from Henry & Maria's house!
At the top of the hike were ruins of the castle and an old Roman watchtower. They saw a pit and wondered if it was where Daniel was put with the lions. :)
Luke on the watchtower keeping watch for bad guys.
I got the self-timer working for a group photo. Luke was our tour guide with the map in hand. Caroline was wearing a toilet paper roll (nice).
Another photo of the view from the top of Olerdola.

Then on Friday we went to Tibidabo with Josep, Teresa, Joan & Miquel! We had been there last fall with them, and the kids definitely remembered how fun it was. Luke, Jackson, Caroline & Joan riding the train.
There were a couple nice kids rides without lines that they could keep riding on over and over and over. :)
Cute shot in the tea cup, before Luke started going around too fast and Jackson started screaming. Joan isn't sure what to think!
View of Barcelona from Tibidabo, high on the mountain behind the city. It's just beautiful.
Jackson being a big boy on the carousel.

Luke being a silly boy on the carousel.
Caroline ready to ride.
View of roller coasters, the city of Barcelona, and the Mediterranean sea.
Jackson being cute.
Airplane ride that of course we had to go on for Dad.

Luke on a ride that is sort of like the ferris wheel, we could see each other from our cars.
I was with Jackson & Caroline, and they weren't sure what to think at first! It went up really high and was sort of on the edge of the mountain.
Across the way you can almost see Luke & Teresa waving from their car.
Beautiful cathedral right at the entrance to Tibidabo.
Josep trying to eat a cookie, and Miquel trying to eat a cookie. :) You can't eat or drink anything while holding him because he is all over it!

This was the third week of Brian's trip, and it was nice to have so much activity. He is now due home tomorrow morning and will be home for two weeks. Yeah!! The kids have been counting down.

Have a great week and we'll talk to you again soon!
Con mucho amor,

Tonya