December??

"December?" you ask. Yes, I'm that far behind.  But  spring break is for catching up, right?  I considered skipping over the winter happenings--but too many important and fun things took place.  So, here we go....hopefully we'll be up to "real time" soon!

December was full of events for us.  In addition to Christmas, we also celebrated Sinterklaas (the Dutch Christmas.)  Kaiden put his shoe out...

 

...and found it full of goodies the next morning!  Sinterklaas came to visit!

  

What is inside??

 

Pepernoten of course!  (For those non-Dutch readers, that would be a ginger snap type cookie treat)  Kaiden didn't like those too much...

 

...but thought the paper they were wrapped in was awesome!

  

He even offered to share the paper.

 

We also got to take a trip to Barcelona!  Lichar had a conference, so K and I thought we should go too!
Our trip was cut a day short due to SNOW, yes SNOW in Houston, so we were a little bummed.  Sight seeing was quick, but we still had a great time.

Here we are enjoying dinner our first night there on La Rambla.

Lichar teaching K all about cancer cachexia. (and proof he really worked)

 

Lichar and his boss Melinda.  As you can see, they are very serious.

 

Melinda, Lichar and K on the bus to go see some sights.

 

 The famous church, La Sagrada Familia

  

  

Evidently Bingo is big in Barcelona...we were cracking up.  I've never seen a bigger or fancier Bingo place!

  

Arc de Triomf

  

K slept through a lot of our best sight seeing day, so we took this picture just to have proof he did see a few sights.

  

I have no idea what this is, but it was really pretty.  We found it when randomly walking the streets...always one of my favorite activities in a new city.

  

Another cool sight--I have no idea what it is, but different images were projected on the building and it was very pretty.  

  

Since it was before Christmas, the city was decorated with lots of beautiful lights.  These on La Rambla were neat, they moved and looked like they were dropping from the trees.

  

More cool city lights

  

 Nice atmosphere on La Rambla

  

More lights...

  

That night we had dinner at this place on the beach.  You can see a blurry me and K (although we ate inside where it was a bit warmer.)

  

Here is a better view of the restaurant from the beach.

  

Lichar, K and Melinda walking out to the beach.

  

We let K take off his shoes and walk in the sand.   He thought that was kinda weird.

  

But he did NOT like putting his feet in the Mediterranean water.  I think he was a little freaked out by the sound of the waves--since it was dark he couldn't really see what was making all that noise.

  

Nice view of the beach.  I was so sad we didn't get the chance to see it during the day.  Oh well, a good reason to go back!

  

Our last morning there we managed to see a few more things before taking off to Amsterdam.

This is the Monument a Colom, a monument to Christopher Columbus.

 

  

  

On the way to Amsterdam, K got his very own seatbelt! (stay tuned for those details)

  

I finally got to see the ocean by day....just wish I was closer!