Rock of Gibraltar

We had a great day trip to Gibraltar, which was about 1 1/2 hour drive from our resort. It was very interesting for us to learn more about the rock. Gibraltar is a huge rock found to the south of Spain. The region belongs to the United Kingdom. On one side there is the Bay of Algeciras, and on the other the Mediterranean Sea. Gibraltar borders the town of La Linea de la Concepción, part of the county of Cádiz.
We had so much fun walking around the rock. It was surprising to me that there was so much to do there. I just thought it was nothing but land and monkey's everywhere....but I was definitely wrong. It is a largely populated city with tons of stores, restaurants and sights to see.

Jason and the kids on our walk across to border. We had to park far away because the line of traffic to cross was way too long.

This is at one stop at the Pillars of Hercules. Tradition says the pillars bore the warning Nec plus ultra, which means, "nothing further beyond," serving as a warning to sailors and navigators to go no further. According to Plato's account, the lost realm of Atlantis was situated beyond the Pillars of Hercules, in effect placing it in the realm of the Unknown. So in other words back in the day this is where the world supposedly ended and you fall off if you went any further.

Jason and the kids at the Pillars, looking at Africa in the distance.

Gotta love the monkeys! Although Grace wanted nothing to do with it. Everytime we would get near one she would say, "All done!"
This shot is in the caves of Gibraltar. These caves are made of limestone and are just one of the 150 located on the rock. It was so beautiful! They have classical concerts, beauty pagents and plays in the cave all throughout the year. I can only imagine what the acoustics sound like in there!
Here I am with a monkey on my shoulder. Jackson wasn't too sure what to think of that!
Here we are at one stop of our tour. These monkeys loved to lay in the middle of the road, on the cars and they would also jump on your back if they wanted to. The lady in pink in the picture was part of our tour and it scared her to death when a monkey just jumped on her. I guess it thought she looked nice!
This is the border line between Spain and the UK Gibraltar. It's actually a airport runway (hence you can see the plane in the lower right corner) for the city. They would have to stop traffic going into the city when a plane was landing. It was so strange to walk across a runway as we were entering and leaving. Almost like we were trespassing...
We took a tour of the World War II tunnels. It was so fun to walk through them as they had recreations of the soldiers and cannons as they were in battle.
On the light poles everywhere were the city label with "City of Gibraltar."It was fun being in Spain in the morning and by lunch being the the UK. The city definitely had the english touch to it. We enjoyed a nice fish and chips lunch...Yum!

Ahhh...Spain....

We had the opportunity to go to Spain this year for spring break because my parents didn't use one of their time shares from this past year. We were so thankful that they gave it to us and we were able to stay beautiful resort. (Thank you Mom and Dad!)
We went to Calahonda (Costa del Sol), Spain for 7 days...just the 4 of us. It was so much fun being together as a family and enjoying some relaxation time!
The resort we stayed at was right on the beach not far from many restaurants and stores. It was basically a two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. We loved being able to make our own meals and not have to eat every meal out. It had an indoor pool/jacuzzi which we took full advantage of because the weather wasn't warm enough to swim in the ocean. Jackson and Grace did brave the cooler weather and go swimming at the outdoor kids pool one afternoon. Brrrr! Everyday they had a kids club that Jackson would go to and do all sorts of activities from playing in the park, making homemade pizza to arts and crafts. He loved it!!
Thankfully we were able to rent a car for a pretty good price and see many other sights in southern Spain. (more to come...)
I took over 400 pictures, and because our internet isn't the fastest here it would take too long to post all that I want to. So on a friends advice, I am going to blog in sections of our days to make it the easiest. Here is how I am hoping the order will be: resort (what today is), Gibraltar, our daily activities, and finally our Madrid trip when we were stuck for the volcanic ash.
So stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

Just getting in and getting comfy in the apartment.
The resort had beautiful flowers all around. These calli lillies were in full bloom everywhere...I loved it!! Seeing all the bird of paradise and hibiscus brought back sweet memories of our island life in Okinawa...sigh...
One part of the resort not far from the pool/beach area.
The beach in front of the resort.
another shot...


This shot makes me happy. They are so special to us!
Grace carried this baby everywhere. Funny thing is is that the baby lost both legs and an arm. So, poor thing didn't look too sweet. But, she loved it and it said funny things when you pushed her belly, so that's all that mattered!

Looking down from the parking lot to the pool/beach area. This pool wrapped around the entire resort. It was beautiful!

Grace is 2!

Hard to believe yet another year has gone by and Grace is 2! She has changed so much these last 365 days. I look back at pictures and videos of her made this past year, and not only has her hair finally grown (yeah!), but she talks up a storm, sings songs, is starting the potty training process, smiles all the time and loves playing and being with her big brother. I forgot how much fun the two's can be! I know...I know...the "terrible twos" are times that some parents dread, but it is also so much fun because they are learning to become their own person in so many different ways. We look forward to the next 365 days watching her learn about the world around her. She makes us laugh on a daily basis. I can't understand everything she says (although Jackson is pretty good at translating for us), she does talk pretty clear most of the time. One particular thing I remember was when we were at the hotel in Spain last week Jackson had a bobo on his knee that he wasn't too happy about and she looked at him and said, "Jackson-that happens." We all died laughing because that is something we say all the time so the kids don't get so worked up about getting hurt. It makes you realize how much they pay attention things you say.

Our next step this week is moving her to the big girl bed. It is something that we want her to get used to before we head to the States this summer to visit family. I bought her a princess blanket to go on the bed to make it more special and "new" to her. I am going to miss having her in her crib on the nights that she wakes up and cries or the mornings that she gets up really early. She usually just plays in her bed until we come to get her...which is nice! It is a big step for her!

We had a party for her on Saturday to celebrate. The weather was gorgeous and most of all we had some great friends over to enjoy it. I made a brisket (that was pretty good for my first one), baked beans, homemade mac and cheese and the princess cake. Jason makes an awesome hummus that we dipped veggies in. The kids had fun playing outside on the trampoline, playground, digging in the dirt and also inside in the playroom. The kids were exhausted by the end of the party after playing non stop for hours. We cherish all the memories that were made with family and friends yesterday!

.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to Spain we go!!

We are packed and ready to go! We are so excited to go on our family vacation to Costa del Sol, Spain for 7 days. I'll be sure to take lots of photos and post them soon after we get back.
Let the adventures begin....

Date Night at Burg Lichtenberg

On Saturday night Jason and I went out to dinner at a castle about 30 minutes from our house called Burg Lichtenberg. Our friends from Okinawa Lon and Jan kept the kids for us and they couldn't of been more excited. They love to go to their house and hang out with them. Lon and Jan were so sweet and even had a little easter egg hunt for them. Which they really enjoyed! The castle is 425m long and is the biggest castle ruin in Germany. The castle was built around 1200 and was owned afterwards by the counts of Veldenz and by the dukes of Palatinate-Zweibrücken. The castle was never conquered or destroyed by assaults. It was severely damaged by a large fire on 26 October 1799.
It was a beautiful, romantic place to have dinner and enjoy a night together without the kids. We will definitely go back in the summer when the weather is a bit warmer. It would be fun to spend a majority of the day exploring more of the castle. Jackson is all about knights these days, so for him to walk around a castle where knights used to live would make his day.
I loved spending one on one time with my hubby...he is the best!!

Jackson and Soccafive Bambini

We recently signed Jackson up for a soccer club/team in Kaiserslautern. It is called http://www.soccafive.com/kaiserslautern/index.php. We found out about it through a few friends that Jackson goes to preschool with. Jackson loves to play outdoors and kick the ball around so we figured, why not try it an see if he likes it? He had a blast and actually did pretty good considering it was his first practice! What I love about this place is the coaches really instill in the kids their footing and how important it is to learn before you can really play soccer. They did all sorts of skipping, jumping through hoops, running backwards, and forward backward moves. It think that makes a lot of sense! You have to get the foot moves down before you can really learn how to play the game. In Germany soccer is a religion to them...I guess there is no better place to learn than here!
Here he is with his friend Halle from school.
Practicing kicking into the goal.
Grace and Aubrey watching their siblings playing...well they were more interested in their baby dolls actually. ;)

Practicing some foot moves.

Getting a pep talk from Coach David.

Jackson getting one on one help with the local celebrity, Axel Roos, who is a former player of the local FC Kaiserslautern team.

more practice...
Coach Roos playing an impromptu game to get the wiggles out.
Go, Jackson, Go!
I though this shot was funny...as he was running for the ball he was picking a wedgie at the same time. Classic!!
Hot and sweaty afterwards!
On another side note...when I was pregnant with Jackson, Uncle Brad used to rub my tummy and say, "Gonna be a soccer player!" Who would of known 4 years down the road he would be playing soccer...and love it! ;-)