Pre Feria, March 25th.

Spring time in southern Spain is famous for their town Feria's!  Each little town has their own Feria, or Fair.  Although I have not been yet, from what people tell me they are quite the experience.  Much like our county fairs at home, but on a whole new level.  This Sunday, my parents, the kids and I headed to Pre-Feria, a runway show of sorts to display Feria wear! 

These are feria dresses.  I have a hard time imagining wearing these beautiful dresses to a fair, but that is what they do here.  They have Sevillana dances, which is also part of the tradition.  This particular show had some preformers as well.  The show was the motivation I needed to get dresses for the girls and myself.  The girls will have a feria day at school, so we will all wear our dresses there!  I will be sure to post pictures!

March 18th, first trip to Sevilla!

Our first trip to Sevilla, but certainly not our last.  My parents and I took the girls to Sevilla for the day.  What a beautiful city, I look forward to going back and exploring more.  We started the day off with a carraige ride through the city, the girls loved it!  Our guide however did not speak English and told us that none of the guides did...who knows!  After the ride we wondered around and found the Cathedral and the Castle.  We enjoyed lunch then went to the Cathedral to look inside.  The girls climbed all the way up the bell tower and we all took in the views from above!  After the Cathedral, we walked to Plaza Espana!  The park across from the Plaza is Parque de Maria Luisa, a place I want to return, lots of trails and little parks for the kids to play on.  We finished the day and let the girls play on the playground right by the parking lot!  Overall, fun day was had by all!



The Alcazar, or castle!

La Giralda, the Bell Tower of the Cathedral.

Christopher Columbus's tomb.

The Alcazar as seen from the bell tower.

Garden below.

Rooftop pools, that appear to be part of a restaurant, so cool!

Another rooftop pool!

View of the bell tower from the gardens below.

Plaza de Espana

Amazing tilework.

March 9th...Amazing Surprise!

My parents have been attempting to get on space available flights from Dover to Rota for about a week now.  When I had spoken to them last, their plan was to get on a flight going to Sigonella, Italy, because the flight coming here was taking no passengers.  I didn't hear from them this morning, so I assumed they were headed to Italy!  Much to my surprise as I was picking the girls up from school, there were my parents!!!  Since they had decided to stick around the terminal in Dover to go to Sigonella, they ended up taking passengers on the flight to Rota....SURPRISE!!!!!  We were so excited, we continued the surprise, by walking up to meet Shawn at school!  Another surprise, and he got to bring home the rubber chicken from school.  The rubber chicken is a reward for good behavior in the lunchroom, given to a class by month.  This was a big deal, since the was the first time his class had earned the chicken!  We broke my parents in quickly this weekend with Shawn's first basketball game Saturday morning and then off to the drive in that night to see Lorax! 

Then on Sunday we went in Rota for the afternoon.  There was a couple getting wedding photos taken, so we decided to take a few, beautiful with the horse drawn carriage!  The kids did great walking all the way down the boardwalk!