Fortress, mountains and FARMOR and FARFAR!

While most days looks like routines-eating-playing-learning-playground or beach - eating-routines etc we also manage to do some tourist things as well lately.

Beautiful sunrise from our balcony

Playground fun

Simply amazing colors!!

There are a lot of old old castles and fortresses here in Spain and one of them is in Almeria (the city next to ours), Alcazaba of Almeria. The first part was built in 955 and and new parts have been added step by step after that, both by Arabs and Spaniards. The fortress has been used to film a few films of which some are Conan the Barbarian and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade :-)

The fortress garden

Looking at another part of the fortress from where we are

Fortress and Almeria

Napping on the carpet...

We have had a few good hours on the beach but it has started to get colder now, I think. The last time we were down on the beach Marlee did not even want to go in.. and I was not very exited about it even if I kind of did go in. Noah and Gabriel were still very happy about getting in :-) The water here is so clear!

Great beach day

<3   <3   <3

A sunglasses kind of day

Jelly fish in the water

We made a very spontaneous trip to Sierra Nevada yesterday. It was really beautiful and we we did some short hiking.

On our way to Sierra Nevada

One of many dry rivers in which you can drive at this time of the year

A ruin of a lead (Pb) factory up in the mountains

A lizard! We do not see a lot wild creatures here so it was exiting :-)

Panoramic view of Roquetas de Mar

Marlee showing his photographic skills :-)

We picked up Marlee's bike at the bike shop yesterday and today we went to the castle next to our house to let the boys bike and to meet farmor and farfar who came today!!!

Waiting for farmor and farfar to arrive to Roquetas de Mar!!!!!!

Farmor was caught on camera with Flamenco dancers in the back ground :-)

Gabriel has found a new instrument, the tube that belongs to a pump. He is not my drummer boy but my "lilla speleman" :-)

Big waves and brave boys

When waking up and realizing that it was not much wind today I was looking forward to going swimming with the boys. However, when we came to the beach the waves were way to big for us to go swimming. The water next to the beach was pretty yucky, too, because of sea weeds etc. And for the first time no one had cleaned the beach and it was surprisingly dirty from trash. Things that Gabriel thought was very fun to go after... Anyways, we had a good time on the beach and the boys had a lot of fun in the waves reaching them on the shore. The little playground on the beach is so perfect, too, when we cannot do swimming!

Fruit break

He is up to something!!

Focused!

Trying to live a normal life

I can't believe that we have already lived in this apartment for more than a week. Time passes too quickly! On the other hand I will be so thankful once we have stopped traveling and will just live an ordinary life again. We are trying to live as normal as possible here. The past week has included all the normal things such as cleaning, cooking, washing as well as playing, learning, exploring and trying to keep the boys happy :-)

Marlee has a tooth loose for the first time!! He is getting better and better at reading and he we have been practicing the clock lately.

Noah has learning more colors and got to practice using Paint on my computer yesterday. He did pretty good, changing color and drawing lines :-) He is also making puzzles a lot.

Gabriel learned to wave a while ago and is not playing peek-a-boo a lot and likes to sit in boxes and other small areas. Today he climbed up into a chair on the balcony so now I cannot let him be out there alone in case he falls off into the tile floor.

Making snow flakes

It is a snow flake,  just use your imagination! :-)

Just into everything everywhere...

Marlee's first loose tooth!!!!

Building a race car

We made it down to the beach for the sun rise the other day. Soooo beautiful!

Wish he knew how to use the broom since he carries it around so much!!

Marlee is trying to read Planes for Noah

Race car is finished (but broke so it has to be fixed again)

Gorgeous day and water!!

Exploring fractions

Chilling on the terrass

We took Marles's bike to a bike shop that  had a small parrot! (the bike has a flat tire)

Noah was not so exited about having the bird in his hair...

Gabriel was exited about the bird!

My little piglet!!

Making sure the pots and pans are in place!

Beautiful view, beautiful colors!

At the playground on the beach

We had dinner out today.

Today it is Father's day in Sweden and we have done our best to celebrate morfar with drawings and phone call. Pappa was, however, not celebrated and it was probably mostly because of my bad planning but he insisted that we should not celebrate the Swedish Father's day so I "blame it" on him ;-)

Uncle Doug

A very beloved person has left us, our caring, patient and humble Uncle Doug. We will miss him tremendously and we are sorry not be present in the states right now. Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunt Jackie. We love you guys so much!

Aunt Jackie and Uncle Doug (October 2006)

With Marlee (November 2010)

With Noah, who is named after Uncle Doug, Douglas (November 2012)

Uncle Doug in Madison, one of his favorite places

<3 <3 <3    (December 2014)

Noah really loved Uncle Doug (February 2015)

With Gabriel (June 2015)

A stormy day at our new place

We woke up to a very very windy day.Being on the fifth floor in a town with mostly smaller buildings makes it very noticeable. The sun has been shining however and it has been a nice day.

Good morning!

Walked down to a very stormy beach

Trying out the playground for adults :-)

Playground on the beach

Lots of hair and lots of wind makes it difficult to eat...