Spain

Spain was going to be our week to enjoy some sunny beaching and relaxing. My parents decided to take their own trip to Italy and meet us in Spain. Unfortunately the annual rainfall decided to make it's appearance during the week we were visiting. When it wasn't raining it was very windy, making beaching out of the question except for one warmish afternoon. So much for the rain in Spain falling mainly on the plain. We filled our time with touring the cities of Valencia and Alicante, and the towns of El Compello and Guadalest near by. Gramma and Grampa enjoyed spending time with Anika, and DH and I even got out for a dinner date one night. We were the early birds eating at 8:00 pm!



One funny little encounter we had was while waiting in line at the supermarket. An older woman came over to admire Anika. She then started talking to my dad in Spanish telling him we needed to get her a "bando elastico" to hold her ear in place (she has a slightly stick out ear on the one side from when she was head down in utero and her ear was folded over). My dad said that we like her just the way she is. The woman responded that when Anika is older she is going to be upset that we didn't fix her ear. She told us we could even put a flower on the bando elastico, and pointed out  where we could find a selection of them in the store.

The most unfortunate turn of events happened right at the end of our stay in Spain. My parents were helping us down to the car with our bags and baby gear. My mom decided to take the stairs down while carrying the baby bassinet and she slipped and cut her forehead on the marble. Initially all seemed to be OK, but there was a lot of bleeding and she eventually required a trip to the hospital to get some stitches. The doctors recommended she not fly home for a couple of days, so they rearranged their flights and stayed on. She is recovering well, but has two black eyes. It could have been far worse.

More Photos are here:
 https://picasaweb.google.com/117900006088174950877/Spain?authuser=0& authkey=Gv1sRgCKjn1eeJifP3Xw&feat=embedwebsite