Grandpa and Grandma's

This past week we spent at Andy's parents house in Minnesota.  Their cute town has hundred's of lakes and one person is never bored!!

Drew, Andy , and Grandpa took the boat out one night and look what they came home with... dinner!! Drew's face had to of hurt from all the smiles!!  He was in heaven.

Claire not to sure about eating a roasted marshmallow

Look what we saw on our road trip from Wisconsin to Minnesota, our good friend Paul!

One night at Grandpa and Grandma's was devoted to catching frogs!!

I don't think Drew and Claire will ever want to leave Andy's parents house as he was able to shoot a gun!

HoMe SwEEt HoMe!

On the 8th of July we landed in Virginia at 3am and started our new adventure here in America.  Saying good-bye to our friends in Spain was so hard, however it will be so great to be near family for our next tour in Wisconsin.

We were able to spend three days at my brother's Brain's house in Virginia Beach, which was awesome  & with so much entertainment.  Uncle Brain is like an amusement park for the kiddos and they always have a BLAST!

We then loaded up the car and spent two days driving to Madison!  The children did awesome in the car and the time actually went by really fast!

We then spent two days in Madison checking out our new house and the kiddos school's. 

Relaxation was in sight as we headed to our family cabin in Northern Minnesota for five days.  The days were filled with fishing, boating, state parks, and swimming in the lake!  We couldn't have been more relaxed if we tried!

The Olsen's cabin

Drew and Claire ready for their first fishing trip!

Flash backs from my childhood... hammocks are ALWAYS a hit with kiddos!!

Boating with grandpa!

Drew ended up catching six fish!!! For his first time fishing he did amazing and Andy has found his fishing buddy as he will stay fishing for HOURS... YES, HOURS....

After seeing Drew catch a few, Claire wanted to try...

So peaceful..

and so HaPPy!

Baseball Season Is Here!

Drew started baseball this year and made the cut to the 6+ team!  His team was the Braves and I have one little boy who couldn't be more excited!  Drew had an awesome season and didn't even use the tee!!

Our blog is still crazy and turns the photos the wrong way without the option to turn them the right way.. UGH..

Drew at practice

Andy helped out with the team this year which made it a lot of fun!  (Andy is pitching in this photo to Drew..)

Quick Review

So our blog has gone NUTS!!!  The past month our blog has switched it's server over to an EU address and that has made it insane hard to post photos!! With this, I can not rotate the photos as well.  When I upload them, it looks like it will appear normal and then the photo is turned the wrong way and one can not change it!  UGH!!!  Only a few more weeks with this problem and the blog will be back on a US server in the states and back to normal with frequent posts.  I think this is the one and only thing I can really complain about living here in Spain, so life still is good:)

Feria

The beginning of May kicks off Feria season here in Rota.  Every town here in Spain has it's own Feria which is like one huge county fair only really elegant!  The women are in Feria dresses along with the kiddos and the men are dresses to the nine!

Claire and her friends tearing up the dance floor for Feria!

An example of the men and their outfits, it really is an elegant affair and wonderful tradition here in Spain

Drew's 5th Birthday

On May 9th Drew turned the BIG 5!!  My sister, Allison started the tradition with her kiddos with breakfast in bed on their birthday.  When Drew and Claire saw this on her blog we decided also to start this tradition!  This is the 2nd year and running!  They LOVE it and start planning out their meal a year in advance!

For dinner we went out to our favorite beach restaurant with our friends!

Drew's Preschool Graduation!

The middle of May Drew had his BIG graduation from Preschool!  The graduation was super cute filler with songs, the big hand out of the diploma, and a light lunch!

Drew and his teacher, Mrs. Luisa

And the hat toss!

Happy 3rd Birthday Claire!

All Claire wanted for her Birthday was a doughnut!  She decided not to eat breakfast in bed as the movers had already come and packed up our furniture and she was on loaner furniture and still wasn't to sure about her rental bed!!!

Time to open gifts, with of course help from Drew!

Portugal Group Family Vacation!

                                                                             

This past Memorial Day weekend we took a vacation with seven other families to a resort that we love in Portugal.  All of the families rented condos and spent time together at the resorts six swimming pool.  We left on a Thursday and returned on a Monday.  All of the families are just amazing and the kiddos were on cloud nine the entire vacation with every second spent with their friends.  I couldn't have asked for a better holiday weekend!

The group.. minus eight people!

Our neighbor Matt and his beautiful soft face...

On Friday we rented out a bus that picked the group up at the resort and went wine tasting.. kiddos and all! The place was really nice and actually very child friendly with animals on the site!  We decided to have the guys do their tour first, then the gals, with wine tasting at the end.  We had a great time!

Doing a little wine tasting

Um... so the photos would NOT let me turn them!!  However, I thought they were pretty cute and kept them anyway!

Claire and her two chicas

Andy and I were talking about how much a year can make a difference!  This year Claire is so confident in the water and we can actually relax!!  Yes, we're still there right at the pool side, however it's only getting easier!

More pool time!

The view from our patio... just steps to the pool!

The condo that we rented (the bottom floor)

IT's MOVE TiMe!!

So I have been MIA with the blog as we were getting ready for the movers who arrived here bright and early last Monday!  The movers did an awesome job and now it's starting to feel real that we leave our fantasy life here in SuNNy Spain:(  The good part is when a family lives overseas is that were given loaner furniture on this side for the rest of our duration here in Spain. By shipping our furniture this far out everything should be waiting for us when we arrive in July.

We spent last Sunday cleaning all of our stuff, Drew turned our cooler into an awesome pool!  This kept him busy FOREVER!

He was also sporting Andy's military tags!

Meanwhile Claire was at our neighbors house!!  Our neighbors are HILARIOUS and when the kiddos wake up they go outside yelling "BRANDON" (who is the dad).  So Brandon turned his backyard into a homemade slip n' slide!  Who could resist this!  (They also have a boy Claire's age, Evan).

All of the moving trucks in front of our house:(

Movie Time!

Drew and Claire have their moments however, for the most part they get along SO well!!  The other day we were going to watch a movie on a rainy Friday night and this is how they were watching the show!!