Week of Nov. 17th, 2013

Sunday we went to this new bowling alley in a sports complex.  I didn't know it was new.  Then I see it and the shoes, this must be new, the shoes were so new and nice looking for bowling shoes!  It was small but really nice.  So we, Jason was working at home, met 2 other families here and had lunch and bowled 2 games.  It was fun.

Jacob and Sean won over all the kids, one game Jacob won and the second one Sean won, they were excited! 

Monday, early Jason took a train to Paris.  This morning I volunteered to go on Sean's class field trip.  It was to one of the museums in the city. 

 

We took the public bus from across the street from the school to downtown, not far.  Then walked the rest of the way.  It was just the morning.  They ate their snacks before we went in.  They divided the 2 classes, 2 classes had already gone, into 2 groups and they had 2 tour guides.   Ours spent almost 50 min. in 2 rooms talking about the paintings.  Finally the other teacher had to tell her the kids time was going to be up soon, please move on to downstairs.  She got into some of the paintings in one room downstairs, but I think our group missed out on 2 rooms or more.  Ugh!  Then the teacher had to tell her just to stop b/c the kids needed to pick their favorite painting and draw it.  Then we took the bus back.  So it was nice to go with Sean's class.  After this I ran to one store to see about 2 lego things Jacob wants for Christmas and I found one of them.  Then to the grocery/mall.  I just grabbed a sandwich in a little place in the middle of the mall before going into the store.  Then grocery shopping.  I had a little time to put things away and do a few things then back for pickup.  Jacob and Sean had friends over.  It wasn't raining today or too cold, so they played at the park for about an hour. 

Tuesday I had to take Jac in early for band and then we went home for a bit and then back later for the other 2.  Then after drop off my friend and I had our yoga class.  Today I got some things done around the house and wrapped the Elf gifts for our Elf will come on Thanksgiving and gives each of the kids a little gift.  After school I started making the pumpkin soup for dinner.  I had made one last year that was ok.  So this year I was trying a different recipe.  I really liked it.  Amber was licking her bowl.  The boys were ok with it.  But it is a keeper!  The only 2 that went with a lunch box today didn't come home with them, Sean and Amber!  Tonight Jacob had guitar.  It always seems to rain at night, so of course we got wet! 

Wednesday after drop off I went and had my hair done.  The color looks nice, but it is probably the lightest it has ever been.  When we went to the Canary Islands the sun really had gotten a hold of the color or highlights in my hair and it was quite a bit lighter.  So now I feel it looks like the color of Amber's American Girl Doll- ha!  Oh well.  Next time I will just have to have her do a more darker brown.  I ran to the store and then had a chiropractic appt.  Since yoga last week my back has been a bit stiff, so it feels better now. 
Amber's best friend had her b'day today and another little girl in their class did as well.  So they got chocolate cake and sugar cookies at school today.  She went home with her b'day friend and they had lunch and played and then back to school for ballet.  Sean had band today instead of recess.  They just don't have enough time in the day!  Then after school he had soccer and then went home with a friend.  The boys do a good job of knowing when they have their after school activities b/c I don't see them after school on those days.  Wednesdays the lower school gets out at 2:30 but the upper school still goes until 3:30.  But today upper school got out at 2:30 as well.  So Jacob was having a friend over so we had decided this morning for them to meet me by the bus stop/parking lot of the school a little after 3pm.  At 2:50 I get a call from  Jacob wondering where I am.  I told him pulling in the parking lot.  I told him I wasn't going to be at school until 3pm and then I have to go get Amber from ballet.  He was way over by the lower school, where I pick up Amber!  Geesh, he can wonder around a city by himself with friends, but can't figure out where to meet me after school!!
Tonight, right when I was putting Sean to bed it started snowing.  He was so excited!  He was jumping up and down and just a huge smile on his face- love it!  Tonight Jason flew to the states.

Thursday I exercised in the morning and then got ready for lunch with friends.  There were 4 of us and we went to this little healthy lunch place.  We all got the leek soup and chicken vegetable salad.  It was good.  After school Amber didn't go to Rainbows since she has been coughing so I wanted her to just rest.  But first we had to go to a basketball meeting for Jacob.  His season is now starting so he had practice after the meeting and then we just picked him up later.  Jason did round #2 of house hunting back in the states.  He also went back to the house he really liked from his visit last month and looked into the possibility of tearing down a wall in the kitchen to open it more to the family room.  I am not as crazy about the house b/c to me it feels like the kitchen is so closed off and not that wide open space feeling.  I was up late back and forth with Jason about the houses he was visiting.

Friday I had to get Jacob to school early and then back later again for the other 2.  I had tennis.  Then I spent some time on the houses.  After school Jacob had a friend over after school and he stayed for dinner.  Tonight was family movie night and I picked the movie/show.  It was Charlie Brown Thanksgiving time!  I love it!  So we watched the 2 episodes that came with it.  We also put up our little tree and put the lights and ornaments on.  I like to do it right before Thanksgiving with the Elf coming and all.

Sat. morning we had to be up and ready by 9am.  Yeah, didn't work so well.  I had to wake Amber up at 8:50.  Her friend showed up while Amber was still in her PJs eating breakfast.  So once she was all ready, the boys and I were already ready, I got my kids plus Amber's friend to the girls' friend's b'day party at the big indoor climby place and then the boys could play as well.  Another friend came with her kids so everyone played together and then we just stayed for lunch.

Then we took Amber's friend home.  We came home and Amber and I made cranberry orange bread to take to Thanksgiving when we celebrate it at my friend's house.  I will freeze it until we need it, but I have a lot of things I want to bake this week so I thought I would start now.  It smelled so good!  In the late afternoon we took Jacob over to a friend's house as he was having a little poker party!  How fun for the boys!  Jacob already knows how to play and has his own set, but they were going to be teaching the boys how to play.  So Jason tells him, ok pretend you don't know how to play and then clean everyone out!  Ok, nice.  Jacob had a nice time.

Week of Nov.10th, 2013

Sunday we went to church in the rain and dropped off Jacob's friend on the way.  After lunch Jason took the boys to see a boy movie and Amber and I painted her nails, played with some of her new toys and did some other things at home.  It got really cold out today and was back to raining.

Monday was the usual grocery store and then exercise.  After lunch I got a note from the Woman's club that the military base where they get all their food from, including the turkeys is now no longer going to be selling their food to the club.  Ok bummer.  We had all already ordered our turkeys!  So I talked with my 2 friends who we are doing Thanksgiving with and we will try and see if we can find a butcher to order them through.  But this normally is very expensive- I would say the turkey will probably end up costing around $100 or more!  Sometimes certain grocery stores might have some the week of, but you don't know until then- ugh!  Today after school Jac had cross country and was pretty cold, and Amber had a little boy over for a playdate.  After he left we went back to school to pick up Jacob. 

Tuesday Jason took Jac in early for band.  After I dropped the other 2 off later I went back home and my friend picked me up for yoga.  We have to park on this narrow street, and after yoga class we see that someone had hit her side mirror and left.  Ugh so annoying here!  We went to my house and ducked taped it back on- just the mirror part shattered and broke off, the main fixture was still there. 
Then we went over to the Woman's club to go get our turkey money back since they canceled the turkey orders.  We got some groceries that they had left.  From here we drove out to the British Import store, they sell some American food items there.  We are strolling by the freezer section and we see a 10 lb frozen turkey- yeah!  We ask if they have any more and she goes in back and comes out with the last one they have!  We have our 2 turkeys!  They cost us about $55 each.  I guess you can order them there too for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Of course neither of us have room right now to put the bird in our freezers, so we call our friend who is hosting this year, we are cooking the birds, and she is hosting.  And she has a big deep freezer so we gave them to her to store until we need them.  Perfect!  Then we ran to the mall and got some sushi for lunch.  As we were leaving I picked up Jason's dry cleaning.  When she dropped me off at home, I forgot to get the dry cleaning out of her car.  So later, after school activities I see her pull up- a dry cleaning delivery service- perfect!
After school Sean and Amber had friends over.  Jacob's guitar got cancelled so it was fine.  I made some pan burritos tonight and they tasted good. 

Wednesday morning I went in to school to help the PTO  prep the materials that they will use to make the 6th grade craft for their Christmas party.   Then a quick trip to the store.  One store here carries marshmallows.  They come in a bag about 1/2 the size as the one at home, and I need them for 3 recipes so I had a cart with like 6 bags in it!  Then back to school to get Amber and her friend, home for lunch and play, then back to school for ballet.  Sean had soccer and it was a really sunny day, not too cold.  So great for them.  So much better then the pouring rain they had last week.
After Jac got out of school and Sean finished soccer we went to get their hair cuts done.  After dinner I baked some cookies to take to Jacob's award ceremony tomorrow night.

Thursday after I dropped the kids off, I exercised and then got ready to go.  I picked up my friend and her son in the school parking lot and then we drove out to Germany to the Villeroy and Boch outlet.  I wanted to get some dishes and silverware to take back home.  So they are cream with kind of a scalloped edge on them and then 2 square serving bowls.  They also have a beautiful Christmas pattern that they have a store for too, so I got some Christmas things as I love Christmas dishes and such!  And they have a Land's End outlet store too.  So by the time we did those 3 stores 2 hours had gone by and we needed to head back to school as it was an hours drive back.  It was of course pouring by the time we got back to school.  Jacob had cross country in the rain, and Amber had rainbows.  Sean got to tell me all about his day in the peace and quiet of just the 2 of us on the way home.  Then later we headed back to school to pick up Amber.  Jason met us in the school parking lot and took Sean and Amber home and I went into school with my food for Jacob's fall sports award night.  It took about an hour and then the kids had appetizer snacks and sweets and drinks.  So it was nice.

Tonight we finished getting him all packed and ready to leave tomorrow for Belgium for the finals in cross country.  He was getting nervous before bed! 

Friday, Jac had to be in early for band so Jason took him.  And the other 2 didn't have school today for a teacher's institute day.  So we were a bit slow moving this morning.  Once ready we ran to the grocery store and then dropped off our food and went to school to see Jacob off.  The school is collecting for the devastation after the big typhoon so we brought a bag of stuff in for that of things they were collecting. 
Jacob was going to Belgium today for cross country.  The bus was leaving at 12 so he was excited to leave school early.  I am pulling in the school parking lot, which is way down the street, and Jacob is calling me asking me where I am.  I tell him I am in the parking lot and will be right there.  He is telling me he can't see me- too funny.  So I take his book bag and give hugs and take some pictures of him and his best bud that is going too. 

From here we went to the pharmacy, b/c that stupid infection I had in my toes last year is back in one toe- ugh!  I called the dermatologist  to see if she could just prescribe me the last medicine I was on and then if it gets worse I will come in.  But she is booked until March- so lovely!  She has a walk in clinic once a week for a few hours so I can go to that if needed.  But she sent me the prescription so we went and filled that.  Then over to my friend's house to for lunch.  She lives really far out.  It was about 30 min. to get to her house from here.  About 1/2 highway and 1/2 country roads.  One road is just between some one's cow fields.  And there were 2 big, big white cows/bulls laying really close to the fence.  There were no other cars around so we just stopped on the road and looked at them- they were huge!  I should have taken a picture of them.  Then one turns it's head to look at us and Sean is like, "Mom, I think they are going to get us"  Ha, so we continued on.  It was my friend's son's birthday.  So we had lunch and cupcakes and another friend and kids were there too.  We were going to go bowling, but it was Belgium and when it came time to go the kids were having fun and so we decided just to stay here and go bowling this weekend.  These 2 are in the same class together.

She has 3 cats and my kids were loving them!

We left late afternoon and went to another town not too far from her and got Sean some new tennis shoes and then the grocery there as the store we went to earlier in the day didn't have a couple things I wanted.  I hate when that happens. 

Sean and Amber played games tonight and we rented a movie.  Jacob didn't call us until a little before 10pm!  They had gone to dinner at an Italian place and it had taken 2 hours and then he had just finished showering.  He said the bus trip went well.  The hotel is nice and they are all on 2 floors.  His good friend and him are rooming together.  They took a bus into the city center and the coaches told the kids to get in groups they had 2 hours to walk around and then they had to meet back at the cathedral in 2 hours and then they walked to dinner!  I couldn't believe they let a bunch of 11 year olds, 6th graders, walk around by themselves, there were about 8 of the in Jacob's group!  Jacob went shopping and bought things to bring home so that was nice of him.  But what if one of them had gotten lost or who knows what- ugh!  So he is having a great time and hopefully he goes to bed soon and has a good race tomorrow.  His roommate is his good friend and Jacob was getting worried that he wasn't back in the room yet as curfew was 10pm.  So at 11:15 I get another call from Jacob.  His friend came back at 10pm to ask if he wanted to join him in another friend's room.  Jacob said no, and the friend left, but now it was really late and he wasn't back yet and Jacob was getting worried.  I think he was also disappointed that his friend wasn't with him in the room for a sleepover and he had been alone for awhile now.  So that is too bad.  I didn't hear from him again so I hope his friend came back shortly after.

Sat. morning my friend dropped off her 4 kids so they could go to this town in France and pick up some antique pieces for the house at a store she had been in the other weekend.  They are big pieces so they needed the whole van and would be better not to have the kids with them.  So I had things to keep everyone busy.  About an hour after they got here, I got a group one and they made no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies- yummy!  Then for lunch everyone got to make their own pizzas, half of a pizza.  So they enjoyed that and we ate.  Then after lunch they did some turkey colorings and worksheets.  Then group 2 made sugar cookies.  I had to refrigerate the dough.  So then it was movie time.  We had the guest bedroom all set up for our movie night which we didn't end up having and we haven't been able to reschedule b/c someone has always had something going on.  So the kids climbed on the bed and got comfy and they watched the Emperor's new groove.  Here are some of them.

Funny movie.  Then some crafts where you stick those sticky foam stickers on to a foam design.  And I started bringing them in to roll out their cookie dough one at a time. 

Then when their sheet of cookies were done and baked they could come in and frost them.  They turned out pretty good.  By this time it was around 6pm and my friend and her husband got back.  They got their pieces and all was good.  So we grilled out some burgers and had dinner together.  Busy day!  But I think everyone had a good time!

Jacob kept calling me from the bus.  So finally they said they would be back at 8:30, so Jason went and picked him up.  He had a really good time and his good friend got first place!!!  He said they ran in a field and it was very muddy and wet. 

Week of Nov. 3rd, 2013

Sunday morning we slept in as we got in at 1am from driving back from the airport in Germany, coming home from the Canary Islands.  I had bought stuff before we left to make sure I had enough for pancakes in the morning!  So we had a nice pancake breakfast.  Then I went to the only store that is open for a bit on Sunday to get the rest of the food!  The kids finally got to carve their pumpkins and then at night we put candles in them for them to see them all lit up.

I had to go through all my emails as we only had limited access on the trip.  Also the realtor had sent us some new listings of houses.  Just busy day catching up and starting laundry.

Monday morning after we dropped the kids off at school, which they happily went, Jason dropped me off at the car dealership.   We had left my car there over break to have the oil changed.  I had left Jason's number to call if there were any problems.  So of course they said they tried calling but couldn't reach us.  They did the oil, but the back brakes need to be replaced and 2 of the winter tires need to be replaced- ugh!  I just said I will have to bring the car back another time as I needed it back.  So once I had the car I drove out to Germany and went to the toy store to start seeing about some Christmas presents and then met my friend and we went to our 2 other stores to load up on groceries and such.
The lot across the street they had cleared 2 months ago and then nothing was ever done.  So they brought the tractors in last week and today they started digging.  It was quite noisy! 
It was pouring and cold and windy when I went back for pickup.  Poor Jacob had cross country today.  It had stopped pouring when he went running, but it did rain on them a bit.  Good thing I had made soup tonight so he got warm real fast after I picked him up and we had dinner, with some cheese fondue too!

Tuesday Jason took Jacob in for early band, and then I did the other 2 later.  Back to yoga class today.  I was glad she did just an easy stretch class after being on break last week and the week before the class was pretty hard.  After class my friend and I went to the city center and hit the gummy store for the crown gummies to put in the kid's goodie bags.  Amber and her best friend are having a double b'day party this Friday.  Since we will be moving we decided to have her party earlier. 
It always seems to start raining again, or rain harder right at pickup time.  It is so frustrating!  So I got soaked picking up the kids and then Amber had a little boy friend over.  The mom and little one came over a bit later and we chatted while the kids played.  Then back to school for Jacob's guitar lesion.

Wednesday I went to the mall/grocery store and started doing some Christmas shopping there.  I love it when I find a perfect gift for someone when I am not looking for something specific.  So I got some stuff. 
Amber went home for lunch with her friend and then back for ballet.  It was so rainy and cold today and Sean had soccer after school outside.  His class actually ended after only an hour instead of an hour and half and as I was walking up the path to get him he was just standing there soaking.  Yikes.  I had him change in the car and we headed to the Chiropractor.  Then we came home and had hot chocolate!

Thursday I met my friend for lunch in the city center.  She is now feeling better with her pregnancy so it was good to see her!  We had a good lunch and then did a little shopping.  We went back to school then.  Amber had rainbows, Jacob cross country, wet but not raining so that was ok weather.  And Sean had a friend over. 

Friday Jacob had early band.  I had tennis and then got ready for Amber's b'day party after school.  Her and her best friend were having a ladybug party at a cooking place close by.  So after school I took Amber and 4 friends over to the party in the rain.  The boys went home with another set of brothers the same age not to far from us so it worked out great! 
She had the room decorated in a lady bug theme, with a food table set up. 

Here are some of the girls.  They could only have 12 kids at this place, so 11 came and one was in Peru! 5 boys and 6 girls.

So the kids ate first, sandwiches and then muffins, and some sweets.

 

Here is where my camera died- ugh.  I didn't bring the back up battery.  So when my friend downloads her pictures I will add more.

They did a craft, played a game, and decorated a cookie. 

She had 2 ladybug cakes, one chocolate, one vanilla so they had that.  Then they had these little take out buckets they could fill with sweets from a jar.  So the kids enjoyed picking those out.  The girls enjoyed the party and I think all the kids had fun, but the other mom and I weren't that impressed with how things ran.  The lady in charge of it said when we got there that she was 4 months pregnant, which we didn't know, and so she couldn't have any contact with children- what?  So she had a helper run the party and not that impressed.   But overall if the kids had fun that is all that matters.

 After the party we went out for Chinese for dinner and then home and Amber enjoyed opening her presents. 

Sat the sun was out for the first time in like 2 weeks!  So we took advantage of it and went up to the north part of Luxembourg to a town called Clervaux.  It was a beautiful drive there.  It took about an 1:15 min.  But it was through beautiful country side, winding roads with valleys and rivers.  With the colors in the trees it was pretty. 

They had a remodeled castle that had 3 expos in it to see. 

One of them was models of castles that are all over Lux, so that was neat to see.

This is from the WWII expo.

After here we walked over to a beautiful church. 

Then out to lunch at this restaurant we could see kind of perched up on a hill looking at the castle.  It was really neat.  We sat by the fireplace and there were stone walls and it was very cozy.

From here we drove up to the look out point over the city where there is a monk's Abby where they still live.  So we could see some parts of it.

Then we drove home and the boys did some outside yard work.  Then they had a bonfire and Jacob's friend came over to spend the night.  We had a BBQ.  The mom did tell me that he won't eat anything if it is touching a fruit or a vegetable- ok no salad for him!  Then we watched Ocean's 11. 

Canary Islands, Fall Break 2013

Sat. morning we drove 2 hours to Germany to the airport and flew 4 1/2 hours to the Canary Islands.  They are owned by Spain, but are actually just off the coast of Africa, near Morocco.  When the kids got up this morning Jacob had a terrible runny nose and Amber said she had a belly ache.  I had packed the medicines just in case.  But the last hour of the flight Amber just cried that her ear hurt, and her belly.  I had the bag ready.  I thought for sure she was going to throw up.  But she never did.  Once we landed we took a cab to the resort where we were renting a villa for the week.  It was nice and sunny out about high 70's.  It felt so good!
Our villa was right in front of the beach but this part of the beach is just big rocks.  Views from our bedroom balcony.

 

Views of the villa from the boardwalk.

 

 

So to go to the sand beach we just have to walk on the boardwalk about a block or so. 
The back of the villa is really close to the pools so that is great!  The kids wanted to go swimming but it was getting late, already after 6pm.  So we walked over to the resort restaurant and sat outside- loving it!  We had the buffet for dinner.   The hotel and villas are back by the pool and the beach so to get back to the street you walk down this tunnel of shops and then you have to go up to the street.  There was a grocery store just across the street so we headed there for groceries.  This street is just filled with stores and restaurants.  We got our food and headed back to the villa and went to bed as it was a long day.

Sunday was daylight savings time here, and with the time change from Lux the kids were up super early.  We had breakfast, dishes done, load of laundry in and were dressed and at the pool at 8am!  Only to find out it doesn't open until 9am.  But you know everyone comes down and starts putting their towels on the chairs so it worked out ok.  I was happy to see that they had a washing machine.  It is super tiny and outside but it wasn't mentioned on the list of items in the villa.  Had I known I wouldn't have needed to pack as many clothes for everyone.  Then of course in any warm place here there are no dryers. 
So since the pool wasn't open we took a walk down the boardwalk towards the beach.  The kids played on the beach and Amber collected her shells she needed for school.  From here we just kept walking down the boardwalk and then went back to our street and walked down it and checked out all the restaurants for dinner options. 
By the time we got back the pool was open, but the water was so cold- 23 degrees C=73
degrees F. - Brr!  The kids played for about an hour and then they were so cold.  But the sun was out and very hot feeling.  It was in the 80's everyday and sunny and never any rain.  I told Jason it feels like the sun is so hot, much hotter then in the 80's.  He said we just aren't used to it anymore!    The kids laid in the sun and warmed up and then we went back to the villa for lunch.  It was such a busy morning we had to take a nap, not the kids!  Later in the afternoon we went to the beach. 

The boys had a great time playing with their floating tube in the water.  Amber played in the sand and collected more shells from the shallow water. 

After this we came in and got cleaned up for dinner.  This picture is taken from our balcony off our bedroom.

The 2 bathrooms in this villa are pretty outdated.  We had to do a quick dinner b/c Jason had to be back at the villa to be on the computer for a call so we tried a Pizzeria/Italian place just around the corner.  It was really good.  Jacob and I both had the traditional Spanish dish- panella.  It is rice or noodles baked in a black iron pan that it gets served in and then there is seafood in it.  Jason went back to the villa after dinner and I took the kids and we went for a walk and found the miniature golf place.  It was pretty with the cactuses and mosaic tiles around. 

It reminded us of Gaudi's creations in Barcelona.   So we enjoyed golfing.  Amber had seen girls getting their hair breaded or ribbon put in it last night so she wanted to have this done, so we went and got her hair done.  She was from Africa.  Amber loves it.  It is pink and blue with beads at the end of it. 

Then we walked back to the villa and the kids watched some stuff on the Disney Channel in English!  They were so happy with it!  We don't have American TV anymore in Lux this year b/c something happened with the sling thing we had here.  So the kids hadn't seen it since the summer.  Amber fell asleep right away tonight.  She was exhausted!

Monday Jason had conference calls pretty much all day.  So by the time we had breakfast, I cleaned up and got a load in the washer since it takes 3 hours! And I got the kids and I out to the pool around 8:45 or so and there weren't many chairs left by the pool.  Everyone's towels were there but not many people.  The kids enjoyed the pool. 

 Picture of the pool with all the umbrellas.

Then they had a great time in the water park area.

They also have a bunch of climby things in this area with a shade thing over them.  The boys loved this area.  Before lunch Jason came and joined us.  For lunch we ate at the hotel restaurant at tables just off the pool.  It was so nice.  Then the boys played pool there.  After lunch the kids went back to the pool and water park area.  Jason went back to the villa to work.  Soon after 2 of the kids went back and then finally the 3rd did too, so I took a lovely nap by the pool under the umbrella, heavenly!!  By the time I came back it was time to start getting cleaned up for dinner. 

Tonight we walked over to the Tex-Mex restaurant for some Mexican food.  It was really good.  It is so nice to be able to walk around at night since it is only in the 70's.  

Tuesday we fixed some bacon and eggs for breakfast and everyone enjoyed that! Amber was up at 4am with a fever and wouldn't go back to bed.  So I set her on the couch and let her watch some TV for a bit.  But a little bit later she went back upstairs to bed.  Jason had more calls all morning so the kids and I went to the pool.  For lunch we came home and had lunch with Jason.  After lunch I hung all my wash out to dry, and then Amber and I walked the boardwalk the other way we hadn't been yet.  She was so cute.  She was holding my hand and just a chatting away.  This way was just all rocks with waves and stores and hotels.  It was pretty.  When we got back then all of us went to the sandy beach.  The water wasn't too bad and the kids played in it.  Today Jacob noticed a topless woman and told Sean about it and then they laughed and that was that.  There really aren't very many of them on the beach.  And for the most part the ones that were really shouldn't have been!  I didn't mention anything about this to the boys before we got here b/c I wasn't sure what to expect.  So I talked to them about it after this.  This afternoon we saw one of Amber's classmates from last year on the beach.  The mom had told me they were going too, but they weren't staying around us.  They had rented a car and come over to the beach for a bit.  A lot of the island is rock so the beaches are only here or there. 

We went back to the villa and got cleaned up.  Tonight for dinner we walked to an Oriental restaurant.  I had a Champagne sangria- yummy! The food was pretty good too.  Then our nightly stop at the store.  We love being able to walk to everything.

Wednesday we wanted to go to the big water park across town, but all the cabs went on strike just today.  So since we had no way to get there we couldn't go.  So back to the pool!  For lunch we ate at the villa with the peanut butter we found at the grocery store last night.  So here on this tiny island they seem to have peanut butter but Lux can't seem to find it!!  After lunch Amber and I went to the pool and the boys the beach. 

Then we met up with them on the rocky part of the beach later.

Amber and I went for another walk.  Then time for clean up.  Dinner tonight was an Argentina Grill we walked too- another good meal!

So as I mentioned earlier the kids are loving the Disney Channel and they have had Halloween specials on all week so tonight there were some more. 

Thursday- Happy Halloween!  Today the cabs were working again so we took a cab to the water park.  It was pretty cool.  It was a Thai themed one.  They had really big water slides and rides.  Amber only did the wave pool and lazy river which was neat too.  At one point you go up a smaller conveyor belt and down a little water slide and then you go in an enclosed tube under the water in an aquarium which has sharks, stingrays and fish in it.  Above this tube is one tube that a single person flies through from the big water slide.  Amber and I walked around the park while the boys went on the rides.  The super big one with the tube, the boys made the height requirement but when they got to the top the person said you had to be 14 years old.  Here is a picture of it from their website.  You go down the middle open tube which then goes under the fish tank into the enclosed tube which comes out into a pool.  You can see the lazy river tubes going by too.



We met up for lunch.  Then I took the boys to that climby water area where that big bucket of water dumps on you.  By the time we got back to our villa it was around 5pm.  The boys went to play on the rocks by the sea and the rest of us started getting ready for dinner.  When I come downstairs I see that Jacob had collected some shells, but one of them is crawling across the table- ah!  They are crabs!  Jacob!  So we move his collection outside and put a circle around all of them and see how far they move while we are at dinner.  Tonight we ate at a Tapas restaurant.  Another good one!  After dinner Jacob convinced us that we needed to stop at the candy store on the way home, because his friends back in the states would be getting a lot of candy tonight!   When we got home and checked on the snails 4 more had moved out of their circles.  Tonight we watched Spooky Buddies with the cute puppies.  Happy Halloween!!

Friday, our last full day here.  We looked into doing some sort of boat ride with dolphin or whale watching but they were either booked or they don't run a lot of Friday b/c here that is the day most people are coming or going.  So Jason worked in the morning in the villa and the kids and I went to the pool.  For lunch I took the kids to this pub on the beach but it wasn't very good.  After lunch I started taking a nap on a lounge chair in the garden and not too much later I hear someone tapping on the tree behind me, Amber.  Jason took the kids to the beach and then I joined them a bit later.  We got ready for dinner and went to an Italian restaurant.  I had the lasagna and it was wonderful!  I was worried b/c around Europe they use a white sauce with it and it isn't very good, but this one had red and was delish!  Tonight the boys watched a movie they had rented.  Amber watched her own movie and I started packing things up.

Sat. we didn't have much breakfast food left for breakfast so we had the hotel buffet.  It was pretty good.  Then we hung out at the pool until lunch.  Jason ran to the store for some bread and we came back to the villa for lunch and then got ready to go home.  We checked out and got to the airport. 

It was a 4 hour flight back, so by the time we landed in Germany I think it was around 11pm.  We took our parking ticket to the pay machine to pay to get out and it ate our ticket!  Thank goodness there was a person working there and helped us, but it ate our ticket again.  By the time we pulled up to the house it was about 1am!  Long day.  We all just crawled into bed.  Good beach trip!!