Random in Spain

Here are a few random pictures from my trip so far. It's basically my roommates and some funny stuff.

These are 3 of my roommates. Diane, Catie & Yolanda. The picture was taken at Guell Park in Barcelona.

This was at the airport departing for our trip to Barcelona. I've quickly come to realize that PDA's are so totally the thing to do around here... and I couldn't pass up taking a picture of the two airport janitors sharing a PDA moment! (sorry the picture is a little dark but I was trying to not be too obvious)

Found this lovely lady on the way to the Prado in Madrid. Isn't she pretty?

One of the best street statue people we've seen. The guy on the right is right is the real person & the one on the left is fake. This guy was the best one we've seen so far. We were actually convinced it was the other way around.

how funny is this?

And lastly, a quick self portrait of Diane & me.

That's it for now.
Leaving Valencia tomorrow morning, heading back to Madrid. First thing Monday morning we're heading back out on the road. (Sevilla, Granada & Salamanca are on the schedule.)

hope to share more pics again soon.

Sangrada Familia

yesterday we went to Gaudi's Sangrada Familia. What a beautiful place. The story behind the church is pretty neat too. Anyway, it's still under construction, they hope to have it finished by it's 100th anniversary. Most of the pictures are of the outside as the inside is really under construction.

this is from the back of the church (this is Gaudi's work)

also the back of the church.

back too. when construction began, Gaudi started with the back of the church. so most of this intricate work is Gaudi's. The front is completely different.

again the back of the church.

this is from the inside looking toward the ceilings. again the detail is amazing.

this picture is of the front of the church. quite obviously a different sculptor

this one was from the back of the church as well, actually from across the street & I still didn't get the entire building in the frame.

lastly, this was a detail shot of the front. It's so interesting to me how different the two pieces are... yet on the same building.

Anyway~ It's a little after 5:00pm here. We hit the stores today and just walked around the city. Tonight we fly back to Madrid. Hopefully I'll post again maybe sometime on Friday. I'll be heading to Valencia on Friday (staying at a hotel, so there should be internet access.)

Here are some quick pictures from the first couple days in Madrid & Barcelona. The places are beautiful, but I'm pretty homesick. I'm still very much adjusting to being away from home, hopefully each day it will become easier.

This is the Palacio Real. The picture doesn't really do justice to the building's size & beauty.

This picture is of the Plaza de Oriente. This is the square right in front basically of the Palacio Real.

A house in Barcelona, I couldn't get the whole house with the lens I had on the camera. But regardless it was beautiful.

This was the ceiling inside the Palacio Real. We weren't allowed to take photos once we were inside the Palace, but we managed to fire off a few random shots. Basically I just held my camera facing up and shot. (that's why there's not any real "framing" done on the picture, either way I still liked the picture.)

This is in Gaudi's Park Guell. This park was amazing. I have tons of pictures from here, I'll have to post more hopefully tomorrow.

Another one from Guell's Park.

This was in Plaza de Oriente as well. The weather this day was gorgeous.

One more from the Plaza.

Today we toured Casa Batlo, Casa Mila & The Sagrada Familia. All were beautiful. The "houses" have these amazing rooftops. And the church is still a work in progress... but amazing none the less. I hope to edit some of those pictures tomorrow & post.

Tonight Melinda & I went to the Hard Rock Barcelona. We both just really needed a meal that felt like home! Pasta & mashed potatoes never tasted so good! And yes I ate both pasta AND mashed potatoes... i didn't feel so bad she had mashed potatoes AND onion rings!

Tomorrow is a free day in Barcelona. We fly back to Madrid in the evening. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

i love and miss all you guys!

leavin today...

So my Spain trip is here... I had no idea it would show up this quickly. I had no idea I would get so emotional. I had no idea it would be so hard to leave them... so I'm gonna keep this post short. I don't have much to say except...

I'm gonna miss these guys like crazy!

more random stuff...

First... I tried to post these two pics a while ago and for some reason it was taking forever and I gave up. But... here they are now!

Kaleb was a monkey in the Friends School Play. (and a cute little monkey he was!) note: he's wearing his art institute tshirt! love it.

This was a quick shot of Ella riding in the Jeep. She is quite the little rockstar when she's in the Jeep. She dances in her car seat and her hair blows all over the place... it's a sight for sure! (note she's wearing her I love my auntie tank top! love that one too.)

So this weekend was full of randomness. I went to First Friday in Doylestown. I went because I had to shoot the event for a project at school, but ended up hanging out for a bit once I had taken care of business. There are all kinds of artist's work on display throughout the town and shops. It was pretty neat.

Saturday I did a "planning" run to Ikea. I got some pretty cool ideas as far as furniture and picked up some misc stuff for the kitchen, etc. Also caught the Sex in the City movie with my mom... I liked it!

Sunday we had company for dinner which was really nice. I took some quick snapshots of Ada & Ella. Also Kaleb did some posing for me outside by the Jeep.



This week is SUPER busy. One final down (this morning) and another on Wed. And the one week countdown to Spain starts on Thursday! YIKES! I can't believe it's here already! I hope to post lots while I'm away! (key word is hope)

Happy Birthday Kaleb... xoxo

June 3rd is FOREVER a special day in my life. Kaleb's Birthday! As most of you that read this blog know, Kaleb means the world to me and has a super-special place in my heart always. Well, my buddy is turning six... I can hardly believe it. He's turning into quite the young man, it's really a bitter sweet feeling. He's a total blast to have around these days, he's funny, he gets our jokes, and he doesn't mind just being with us, we don't always have to be up to something or going somewhere special, we can just hang out and he's happy about it, but at the same time he's not a baby anymore. I just want to put him on pause. Only for a little bit, not forever, just for uhm... well a little bit. I know I'm not being realistic but, sometimes it's comforting to pretend that he'll always be my baby. (ok, I know he's my sister's baby but I tease him that he's my baby!) Moving right along... I did manage to take some pictures of the Birthday Boy on Sunday. (I have to take advantage of these times since he's still going through that "but you have like a hundred million pictures of me, Aunt Stess!)


OK, now I should probably warn you that Kaleb and his cousins decided to get all yucked up in the water behind the house, including a triple dog dare to ride his bike through the creek back in the woods. So, I should note that my sister does NOT usually allow her son to become this messy in his GOOD clothes. But it is HIS day, so.... this is what it looked like.



After all of the water activities... he had some cake!


Happy Birthday to the bestest godson in the world! i love you more then you'll ever know!

Since it's been ages since I've posted... I'll update on a few other bits of news. I finally signed an agreement last night for the purchase of my FIRST home! It's still not really sunk in yet, but I'm getting there. I didn't really want to post about it until it was official. But as of last night I signed the papers and so did the home owners... so I suppose it's official now.

Also, I have a few pictures of Ella to share from Kaleb's birthday too!

The prettiest girl at the party, of course!

I suppose that's it for now. Hope to post more frequently. Oh and holy cow I leave for Spain in 17 days! And I'll be in heaven both Tuesday & Wednesday night as I'll be at the Dave Matthew's Band Concert both nights! Life is good!