The Mountains of Spain

Wes and I had the chance to get away together and spend some quiet moments in the mountains of Spain.  We had friends from London come and watch the kids for 2 days. It was our Christmas gift to each other as well as my birthday gift!

Wes found this amazing old Roman villa close by in the mountains.  It was only 40 minutes away, and right close to one of the mountains we wanted to hike.  It was in the middle of an almond orchard and so quiet and peaceful.

Our room was breathtaking.  We had a hot tub in the room itself and a real wood-burning fire place!  I was in heaven. :)  We arrived in the middle of the day, and there was no one else there.  We just assumed we were early; but even as the day went on, we had the entire place to ourselves!  (Not good for them, but perfect for us!)

Our first night there, they actually called us and asked us if we planned on eating at the restaurant... and if so, what time we would like to have dinner.  We had noticed on the way up to our room that the restaurant was open from 9pm-10:30pm; but apparently, since we were the only ones in the place, we had the choice to eat earlier if we wanted.  So, we did!

 It's kind of hard to find a really good steak here; but they had steak on the menu, so we thought we'd try it.  While we were waiting, they brought out an appetizer to try...on the house.

To be honest, I have no idea what it was.  But it was good!!  hehe... :) 

Then our steak dinner came.  Wow.  I cannot even describe how delicious it was!  It was smoked over almond wood, and it was divine!... tender, absolutely melted in my mouth!  I ate every, single bite...and then I told Wes we had to go back again the next night and I was ordering the exact same thing!  It was that good.

The next morning, we had the dining room to ourselves (once again) for breakfast, and then headed out for our day in the mountains.

We drove to Almedijar, a neighboring pueblo, found a parking spot, and began our adventure up the mountain. 

We started out here, and followed these paths for about 45 minutes.  Wes had gotten an app, and we had charted our route up the mountain to the rock face where we wanted to go.  We just had a virtual map on Wes' phone.  We didn't really know what the terrain was going to look like in real life; so as we walked these paths the first 45 minutes or so, we were both thinking, "This is more like a walk than a hike!"... but then the real hiking began. :)

Right about here, the path we had chosen forked off the pathway we were following and cut straight up the mountain.  Our final destination was that rock face right above Wes' head.  It was a beautiful hike up.  I kept reminding Wes to stop and enjoy the view.  It was so easy for both of us to get caught up in watching our footing and pushing ourselves to that mountain peak that we were missing the sites along the way!

A flower in the middle of January!

Wes was enjoying being able to play with his camera a little bit!  He's usually carrying stuff for kids, so it was a nice little break to be able to bring his camera!

So I decided to take bad selfies while he was busy taking "real" pictures. haha...

The climb up was steep, and sometimes there was only room for my two feet on the path... as it dropped off to the trees below.  There were times that I had to make Wes come back and hold my hand as I went up.  I don't do well with heights.  I get dizzy on bleachers... if that tells you anything.  haha... SO at times, my head was spinning; but it was so worth it once we got to the top!!!!

Ok, you totally cannot tell by this picture, but we were going straight up the mountain.  This was me snapping a pic behind me after a stretch where I felt particularly safe... so I could turn around and take the pic. haha...

We made it!  It was kind of comical.  We got warm as we were hiking, so we had taken off hats, coats, mittens, etc.  But the longer we were up there, the colder we got.  You'll see as the pics progress, we begin to bundle back up. haha...

You can't really see very well in any of the pictures we took, but the Mediterranean is just past those outer ridges.  We could even see the port from up there!

This is looking straight down through the rocks on which I was standing.  The truth is... I couldn't look myself. :)  I just snapped the picture real quick. hehe... :)

And then we went back to the hotel to soak in the hot tub and eat our amazing steak dinner!! :)

King's Day in Valencia

We are going on 5 years in Spain; and if you've been following us, I'm sure you remember that Spain celebrates the three kings arriving on January 6th.  This is their big holiday that they celebrate together; and this is the day where they exchange gifts, since the kings brought gifts to Jesus on this day. I'm sure I've explained all this to you before, but there's no Santa here in Spain... well, there is, but they see it as an American thing. :)  The kids write letters to their favorite king, and they sit on the kings' laps and tell them what they want instead of on Santa's lap.  There are nativity scenes placed all over the city, in store-fronts, in the museums... and throughout the month, they actually change the position of the kings as they get closer and closer to baby Jesus. 

Oh, and just random thought... there are no Christmas colors here in Spain.  For us it's red and green.  Here... they have blue, red, purple, gold... they use all the colors!... as long as it's festive, it's a Christmas color! :)  Poor Carolina came home from school one day, upset because her friends kept telling her that red and green were not "Christmas colors."  She looked up at me with big eyes and asked, "But they are Christmas colors, aren't they, Mom?"  Poor thing!  She was so confused.  I guess it gives her a bigger world view, right?  I think I grew up thinking the whole world knew that red and green were Christmas colors!... and all the movies say that Santa delivers gifts all over the world, so how is it possible that Spain doesn't know him? :)

Waiting for the 3 kings to arrive

Anyway... January 5th is a day of great anticipation for all the kids... the kings are arriving, getting ready to deliver presents all around.  For us, "the kings" arrived in our neighborhood... actually at the little park on our street... in the morning!  Usually, the kids don't see the kings until evening at the parade that goes through the center of the city, announcing the arrival of the kings. :)  What great excitement there was in our little neighborhood, as the 3 kings arrived to our park on the beach! :)

They are HERE! (see the confetti?)

The all sat on the platform and the kids lined up to sit on their laps and give them their letters.  Wes and I thought this was ingenious... THREE kings go through that line SO much faster than ONE Santa!!! :)

Who would've thought????... this is what the 3 kings arrived in. :)

Talking with neighbors... I'm always amazed at how it's always the dads who are out with the kids (on our street anyway...)  Out of all our friends, every single dad was there that morning.  Not one of the Moms.  Just a random observation... :)

The boys decided to go up and talk to the kings because they got candy from them as they left... hence, the blue tongue from Nathan.

We got to see the kings arrive in our neighborhood; but later on at night, there is always a parade to celebrate their arrival.  The kids love to go every year because they throw candy out as all the people pass by in the parade.  In Cáceres, people would bring umbrellas and hold them upside-down to catch the candy as the people threw it.  It is SO thrilling for the kids! :)  We go every year, and we end up with more candy than we can eat throughout the entire year!  This year was no different in the candy department. :)  The parade itself was quite a bit smaller than what they did in Cáceres.  I guess that's to be expected with a smaller town.  We didn't go into Valencia itself; we went into Alboraya (where Jonathan and Carolina go to school), since it's closer and smaller.... and part of the fun is seeing friends while you're there! 

The parade was supposed to start at 5:30pm.  We were RIGHT at the beginning, where they shoot fireworks off as they begin... but at 6:10pm they still hadn't started.  Haha... so typical in Spain!  Jonathan's bored and resorting to silly faces.

Still waiting!... with our bags ready for candy!

Finally!

They are rushing into the street after a group has gone by and trying to get all the candy on the ground.

The kings always arrive at the end of the parade.  Each one had a different mode of transportation. :)

Well, I guess you can't quite see him but the king is in the passenger seat!

Celebrating at the end of the parade!  Confetti and happy, sugar-filled kids everywhere. :)

Then all the kids go home and go to bed, so that the kings can come during the night and leave their gifts for them!  (sounds familiar, doesn't it?) :) 

We sometimes feel like we have two Christmases!  The kids always get to open one small gift on King's Day, and we do another big breakfast... but this year, we also celebrated our neighbor's birthday! We have two little girls who live right next door... two of Carolina's best friends.  One is a year younger than Carolina and the other is a year older.  The three of them play together all the time.  Vanesa is the younger one, and she was born on January 6th!!!  They invited us to join their family mid-afternoon to celebrate her birthday.  It was so sweet of them.  We got to meet all their family, from both sides.  We really enjoyed it.

Birthday cake!

They had a pinata! yay!  just want we need... more candy! haha... :)

Later that day, we closed out our celebration with our first ever family trip to the movies!  We met up with another American family that we met recently (they live about an hour away), and we all went to see Big Hero 6... in English! 

It was so quiet at the theaters, and watching in English was such a treat for the kids!  I think we need to make this a yearly tradition for King's Day!  So... that was our King's Day 2015! :)