Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Our trip to Spain! Days 1 & 2

Brian had a business meeting in Spain.  Ian and I were lucky enough to be able to join him.  We were all pretty excited to go.  The girls were very excited to have Grandma Kimber come and stay with them while we were gone.

We left on Father's Day, June 19th.  I was a little nervous about Ian on the long international flight.  But he did great!  Here are some photos of us on the plane:




These were just as we were getting ready to leave Houston.  So of course he was still happy and smiling.

When we got to the airport that morning, we were told that our flight was delayed by one hour.  Since we only had about an hour and a half to make our connection in New York, we were obviously concerned about whether or not we would make the Barcelona flight.  The Delta employee checking us in looked at a bunch of different options for us, but there was nothing better that would get is there in time for Brian's meeting.  So we figured we had to take the flight we planned on and hope it all worked out.

Turns out even though our flight left Houston an hour late, we still arrived in New York at the regularly scheduled arrival time.  What was scheduled as a four hour flight, turned out to be only three hours.  According to the flight attendants, the time we left (12:30) was the normal time for that flight.  They said that there is never a 11:30 flight from Houston to New York.  So all the stress was for nothing.   We made our connection just fine and were soon on our way to Barcelona.  This was an eight hour flight.  We arrived in Barcelona, Monday morning, June 20th  Here is a photo of Ian at the Barcelona Airport.  He is still happy!


He didn't sleep very much on the plane, just a few little naps.  He was pretty happy though most of the time.  We had a short flight to Pamplona, then checked into our hotel.

Here is Pamplona Spain as seen from our hotel window:



It was a little bigger than I was expecting.  We were excited to go out and explore - even though we were exhausted from traveling all night.  (We didn't sleep much, if at all, on the plane.)  So we all got cleaned up and changed clothes.  Ian had a little play time:


Then we were off!  It was mid afternoon and we were very hungry.  We stopped at the hotel lobby to see if we could get some recommendations for something to eat.  We learned that lunchtime in Spain ends about 2pm or so and dinner doesn't start until about 8pm and restaurants are generally closed during the afternoon.  Needless to say we had a hard time finding someplace open where we could find something to eat.  We ended up having "leftover" sandwiches at a bar.  Mine was ham and cheese - kind of crusty/soggy depending on what side of the sandwich you were eating.  I'm not sure what Brian's was.  Some kind of seafood salad we think.  Brian tried out his rusty Spanish to help us order.  He asked for two waters and we ended up with two cokes.  Kind of funny!

After we ate we went exploring.  We found the Plaza del Castillo - the main square in Pamplona.


This gazebo is in the center of the square:


We walked down lots of narrow streets.  Most of the streets had shops and stores on the ground level with apartments above:


This was the Plaza de San Francisco.  There was a school and playground here.  It looked fun!


Another street:


Here is City Hall:


After walking around for a bit, we were ready to have dinner and then go to bed.  We were exhausted.  It wasn't quite 8pm yet, so again we had a hard time finding food.  We finally found a place at the main square and had chicken and french fries.  Not too bad.  We called it a night and went to bed.  Brian had meetings the next day and Ian and I planned to do more exploring in Pamplona.

P.S.  Thanks Brenna for the tip on changing the settings. Much better this way!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Ian


So...we have a new addition to our family. I figured I'd better post some photos since he is now 4 1/2 months old!

Ian is a pretty happy baby. He smiles almost all the time - especially when someone stops to talk to him or just look at him! He loves his sisters and loves it when they play with him.

Ian Russell McPheeters was born on February 22, 2011. He weighed 8 lbs 9 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long! A perfect baby boy!


One day old! Super cute!



2 days old! Still cute!



March 8 - 2 1/2 weeks old.



March 20th - Blessing Day! Almost 1 month old.
(This is one of my favorite photos - he's even smiling in his sleep!)



March 27th - first day at church. All ready to go, but has a grumpy face for some reason. We could not get him to smile!



March 29 - still making us smile with his funny faces (5 weeks old!)



April 2 - all the kids!




April 13th - this kid smiles more than any other! I love it! (7 weeks old)



April 23rd - He is getting pretty good at sucking his thumb. It is very cute! (2 months old)



April 27th - still happy! (9 weeks old)



May 6th - posing for passport photos. We got a good one! (9 1/2 weeks old)



May 28th! Still smiling and happy! (13 1/2 weeks old)



June 6th - somehow he got his hood on by himself! Pretty cute! (15 weeks old!)



June 7th - what a cute little brother! (15 weeks)



A new twist on thumb sucking...thumb with a finger hooked in there! (still June 7th!)



June 16th - in his high chair. Isn't he a cute kid? (16 weeks)



June 20th - at the Barcelona, Spain airport! Yes - he is a world traveler at only 4 months old!



June 22nd - at the hotel in Pamplona, Spain. 4 months old today! And still super happy!



June 23rd - with mom at a palace in Spain!


So...that's Ian up to a few weeks ago. He is a pretty good baby. We love having him in our family. He is so fun to play with and usually has a smile for everyone!

Updates coming

Hopefully I will be posting some updates soon. It is my goal to at least put some photos of Ian up today. It has been way too long!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Goliath!

A couple weeks ago our Primary had a quarterly activity. At our meeting when we were planning, Elizabeth volunteered Brian to be Goliath. I think it turned out pretty well. He had fun dressing up. I told the story about David and Goliath and then all the kids had a turn with a slingshot to shoot ping pong balls at him. One child even got him in the forehead, then took his sword and pretended to cut off his head. I think he was the hightlight of the party!



A couple of the younger kids were a little afraid of him until I whispered to them that it was just Abby and Elizabeth's daddy dressed up. Then they were okay.




Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Finally!

I have had many requests for vacation photos. They are finally loaded. You will probably want to scroll down to Day 1 and start back up from there. We had a great time. A big "Thank You!" to Grandpa and Grandma for suggesting the idea!