Surprise!!

Today is my Mom's birthday! She is 60 years young. My Dad and I planned a surprise party for her. Well okay my Dad planned the majority of it. I just helped. It turned out so awesome. It was really hard to keep the secret from her. I called her earlier today and asked her what kind of cake she wanted and that I was going to have everyone get together at my house. I called her later and told her that I just got off the phone with my Dad and told her we were going out to dinner and that I would see her later. Connie a good family friend called her and wished her Happy Birthday and that she would come and see her tomorrow since she was tending her grandkids. This was the cherry on top because my Mom was totally caught off guard. She thought for sure if there was to be a party Connie would be there. Nice work Connie!! Anyhow were all got there 15 minutes early and waited for her. My parents arrived and Mom true to form was totally oblivious. She walked towards the table and several people waived to her and she didn't see them. As so got closer to me I shouted out Surprise. Her face was in totally shock. As we finished our meal my Dad had a singer serenade her. He sang Happy Birthday in Italian. We then ate our dessert. I really think that see enjoyed herself. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Valentines Day

I got totally spoiled for Valentines Day! My cute hubby sent to me two fun things to the office. My friend Diane who sits at the front desk said that she wanted Jim to train her hubby. Too funny. We took the kids to Mall Cop. They loved it. We just wanted to do a low key Valentines. It was so great. Happy V-day!

Someone lost a tooth!

She is so excited to have lost her first tooth! So was totally hooked up by the toothfairy.

Award.

My sis-in-law gave this award to me. Too kind.

So here is the I nominate:

1. Shannon
2. Heather
3. Olivia
4. BreeAnn
5. Andee
6. Kathleen
7. Amy
8. Christy
9. Jen
10. Mindy

This is what you need to do. Thank the person who gave the award to you, post the award on your blog or on a post, nominate 10 blogs which show great attitude/gratitude, link to the people you chose on your post, and comment on their blogs to tell them about the award!

Malaga

Malaga, Spain

Malaga was our next stop. We went the caves of Nerja. These caves were discovered by group of little boys who fell in a sinkhole. It was huge inside. We visited the town of Nerja it was quaint and clean. We then headed back to Malaga and visited the ruin of the Alcazaba. The Moors built it in the 8th century. It was amazing to walk through something so old. Especially since we don’t have anything near that old here. We ate at a local café and I ordered hot chocolate and churros. The hot chocolate in Europe is like a melted down chocolate bar. So thick and decedent. The churros don’t have cinnamon sugar on it like ours. But it’s so good.

Funchal

Madeira Island, Funchal

Next stop Madeira. This island reminded me of Hawaii, so green. We took cab around the island. It was fun to get a taste of the local favor. We visited a local market they have a special fish they eat. This fish live about 300 feet below the surface and is transparent and colorful. But when it’s caught and pulled to the surface it turns black. They had amazing fruit. So much better than ours here. We also visited a botanical garden. They had gorgeous manicure gardens and birds there. We went to the north shore and saw and nature warm springs swimming pool that the locals use. It right next to the ocean. The spray hit the rocks and went up about 15 feet in the air. It was so cool. We ate lunch at a local restaurant and a lot of our group ordered the fish. I stuck with the soup. I am not very adventurous in the food department. We toured the rest of the island and visited where the locals have a toboggan ride. The streets look like the steep streets of San Francisco. Get for a fast toboggan ride. We shopped a little in the center of town. I bought an authentic Madeira cloth for my mom. It is hand stitched it looks similar to batten berg lace.

Las Palmas

Our next stop was Las Palmas on the Canary Island’s. This Island was beautiful. We decided to take it easy from all of our adventures the other day. We toured the city on the double decker red bus. We visited the beach, city and cathedral. Christopher Columbus used this island as a stopping point to stock up before he set sail for the America’s. And on the way back to Spain. We also visited a mall. I was nice to have some familiar territory.

Marrakech

Amazing race in Africa (Morocco)

As a group we decided to bag touring Casablanca and get a cab to Marrakech. It’s a 3-hour trip inland. Marrakech is well known as the “Red City” This is because all of the buildings have a reddish coral façade that sparkles in the sunlight. We went to the center of the city called the Medina. This is the busiest square in Africa. (Yes I said Africa….I can’t believe my feet set foot on the African continent). In this square we found snake charmers, acrobats, musicians and dancers AKA she boys. Yes these are men dressed like women and perform. Weird!! Needless to say I was taken back by my surroundings. I was very surprised to see the women still so suppressed. I guess I didn’t think too much about this being an Arab city. So we heard the call to prayer for the first time I was totally freaked out, only because it made me think of the movie Bourne supremacy. You can hear the call of prayer in the chase scene. The people there are very forward. We of course stuck out like a sore thumb. At times I felt like people were swarming us. Anyhow, Sterling and Amanda that we were with found us a quaint hotel to spend the night in. The hotel was three stories tall and it had no roof. It had a tent like top to it and it was amazing to look through at night. You could see the stars and feel the cold air. We had a lot of time to spend in the Medina this is like a huge swap meet. Vendors were out selling goods. Jim and a fun time bartering with the shopkeepers. I pick up some frankincense and myrrh. We were welcomed back to the hotel with some native dressed dancers and musicians. They entertained us for about an hour. The music to me didn’t really have a tune. It was kind of like the song that never ends. It went on and on. I had a huge headache when they left. But it was fun to see their culture. I didn’t sleep very well that night. Not sure why but I was really nervous. The hotel fed us breakfast. We had something like a crepe, tangerines and Mint tea. They serve Mint tea with everything. We then started out to find the bus station to met the boat in Agadir. We went outside the Medina to hail a cab and apparently the cabs have territories and we upset a cab driver. Four ladies of our group got into this cab and the upset cab driver came over and sat on top of the cab while in motion. It was surreal. The guy fell off the hood and put his back against the grill of the car. The car slowed down and it was amazing he didn’t get run over. Both of the cab drivers were yelling at each other. We left to find other driver that weren’t so crazy. We got to the bus station and headed to Agadir. It was interesting to see the countryside of Morocco. There are a lot of shepherds out in the fields with their livestock. On the bus we were pulled over by the police and the bus driver got out and talked to the police. We were all looking out the bus like deer caught in the headlights. We were there roughly 15 minutes. We finally made it to Agadir and were relieved to see the ship. I was excited to take a hot shower and to get a quick nap. Well little did we know that our message back to the ship did not get related correctly. The didn’t get the part that we would meet them in Agadir. So the ship called the US embassy to search for us in Casablanca. So when we boarded the ship we were asked to go to speak with the US embassy in Agadir. They had cancelled our Visa’s in fear that someone would take them and use them for illegal purposes. YIKES!! He basically told us how lucky we were not to get and that if the police wanted to they could have put us in jail for being illegally in their country. Remember how we got pulled over….
I was so relived that we made it safely back to the ship. The embassy reinstated our Visa’s and we finished the rest of our trip.

Barcelona

Barcelona

We just got back from our trip to Spain, Morocco and Portugal. Wow! What an amazing trip. I want to document some of the things we experienced. After a 13-hour flight to Barcelona we toured a little bit of this amazing city. Our first stop was to the famous Sagrada Familia. Translation Temple of the Holy Family. This is a massive Roman Catholic church. This church has been under construction since 1882. It was very interesting to see the different styles of architecture on the church. There is a very realistic side and a very modern side. Supposedly this church is going to be completed in 2026. The eastside represents the Nativity; the west side is called the passion or the crucifixion. The north and south sides are under construction still.

We walked around the city for a while and then headed to the ship. We were exhausted. Our first day on the boat was a sea day. Jim and I took advantage and slept in a long time!! It was a little difficult for me to adjust to the time change. Spain is 8 hours ahead of us. Our first stop was in Casablanca.

Happy B-Day Grandpa!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday with a movie and yummy dinner. We appreciate him so much. He has really help us through some really rough times (especially last year when Jim was out of work). I hope that we have many more birthday's to come. Happy Birthday!