Hiking, Chocolate, and Manners

Hola!!
Last Friday afternoon the kids and I set out for a short walk, and came back almost 2 hours later! Here we are starting off on the trek on a road that we can walk to from our neighborhood. It heads back through this tiny village and then on to some trails. The girls I've been running with have been teaching me all these great trails through the vineyards and hills behind Sitges, so I thought I'd take the kids out to show them the area. Jack's in the double jogger stroller at this point.

This is the tiny village we pass through, called Les Torres.

The flowers were so pretty.

Through a pretty gate we could see a nice entrance to someone's house.

Eventually Jackson wanted to walk with the others, so I'm pushing an empty double jogger stroller. :)

Here you can see from the trail, across the grape vines, to the next little town of Sant Pere de Ribes (that's actually our address). The old church is the tallest building and the first thing you see.

Luke held Tarheel's leash almost the entire hike, and kept asking me to take pictures of the two of them. We got to a point where there were two trail signs, and I wasn't exactly sure where the one ended up. But the kids really wanted to keep going, so we did! I was SO IMPRESSED with them. They were looking at all of the scenery, picking up walking sticks and other treasures, and every time I said I thought we should go back they wanted to continue on! Here we are heading up the unknown trail.

The sky was so pretty, but as you can see the sun was starting to set, so around 5pm I finally convinced them that we really did need to head home. It was such a fun hike and a wonderful afternoon to be outside.

The next day, to make up for all of that exercise, we went to a Chocolate Festival in Barcelona!! It was held by the Arc de Triompf in a huge white tent. We met our friends Josep, Teresa, Joan and Miquel there.

There were vendors from all over Barcelona, here is one of the stands where they had lots of different free samples. The one chocolate was labeled as 90% cocoa, and it was so INCREDIBLY bitter, I have never tasted anything like it!

They had a great kids area (which we have found to be very typical of local events). Here Jackson and Joan are waiting their turn to join in on the festivities.

The first event: painting with chocolate. This actually kept them entertained for quite a while! Jackson said he made a chocolate castle. Yum!

Next stop, chocolate fondue! Josep is helping Joan and Jackson put pineapple, grapes, and squares of cake onto sticks and then dip them in the chocolate.

Jackson was very excited about eating his creation.

But he had a little trouble with the fondue! He ate every last piece of his treat.

In the center of the tent were professionals from all over Europe making these chocolate creations for a contest.

Here is the one made by the guy who was listed as the best chocolatier artisan in all of Spain. I'm not sure what it is but I'd be glad to help eat it!

When I saw the forecast for Monday, I knew I had to come up with an excuse to do something outside by the sea. At the end of the paseo is a big beautiful terrace restaurant, where all you can see is the sea, so I decided it was time for some lessons on restaurant etiquette. :) This was part of school of course. The whole way to the restaurant we had true/false questions about what proper behavior looked like, it was hilarious! Here Jackson is properly drinking his orange Fanta.

My favorite lunch dates (and Brian too, of course).

Luke trying to figure out the best way to drink out of a glass with a stem.

And the best part was heading down to the rocky beach in front of the restaurant after lunch. Here is where the sea heads inland to form sort of a canal.

I didn't think the pictures taken directly into the sun would turn out, but Caroline looks kind of cool in this one!

It didn't take long until they were wading in the sea. Jackson is saying "wait for me guys!"

So Luke came back to help him.

Splashing in the sea.

And it didn't take long until their pants came off. I'm sure they'll hate me for this one when they're older!! Ha ha! I couldn't resist.











This weekend we are heading to the countryside after Luke's futbol match for the annual olive harvest at our neighbor's Spanish masia, I can't believe it's been a year since we did that last! Then late Sunday night Brian will be flying into BCN - yeah! We had a fun conversation with him tonight on the computer (he's in Anchorage), the kids were all full of stories. Then on Wednesday, Brian's sister Jess, her husband Chad, and their daughter Esme are arriving from the US! We're going to cook a turkey and all the fixins to celebrate Thanksgiving together which will be fun I'm sure.

Abrazos y besitos!
Tonya