Liam Rides A Pony

Last month we had one of the most memorable adventures with Liam yet. We went pony riding! Recommended age for pony riding starts at 2-3 years old, so off we went! We decided on the Centre d'Equitació Poni Club Catalunya, in Sant Just, as it's right next to Barcelona and that's where my friend Helena's brother keeps his horse, which we visited after the pony ride, too. 

I thought the activity was fantastic, not only because Liam looked like a pro on the pony and really enjoyed it, but because the ride is very well organized. A pony ride costs 7euros, and lasts for about half an hour. That's an approximate timing, because no one from the club comes with you, you just take the pony and go on the signaled path by yourself, which we thought was marvelous. The path is a circuit that leads you back to where you started, and it takes, indeed, around 30 minutes at a slow pace. 

Our partners in crime: my friends Helena and Cristina <3 Also, I love how Liam looks at mommy in this pic!

 

I was truly amazed at Liam and his pose for the whole time, he looked like he was born to ride a horse, ha! A month later, he stills asks me at least once a day to go back to see "Ben", his pony :D  

We went to see Helena brother's horse and Liam fed him so good! I'm so happy he enjoyed this day so much, as we all did! 

By the way, I was 33 weeks pregnant and felt huge already, imagine now at 38! :D

Summer 2016

Our summer couldn't have started any better, after finding out we were expecting our second baby on the 6th of June :) Shortly after that, on the 11th, our road trip in southern France started, and we spent 10 lovely days in a secret early babymoon discovering the Languedoc-Roussillon, Camargue, and Provence regions. 

One thing we soon realized was how much better did French schedule fit our family rather than the Spanish one. French have lunch (as most of the world does I think) a bit before 1PM, and dinner around 7:30PM. In Spain, we eat at 2-3PM and 9-10PM respectively. This schedule is really bad for going out to restaurants with toddlers who need to nap/sleep by the time we're just starting to eat. Eating earlier as the French do definitely smoothed our trip a lot, as Liam was ok during lunch (it was in fact his lunch time as well), and same goes for dinner. 

In the Camargue region, we specially enjoyed the salt mines of Aigues-Mortes. They were SO pretty with their pink color, it was such an enjoyment for the eyes! There were several huge, white salt mountains around, and we were allowed on one of them! We took these pics below while on it, and Liam and I dared trying the salt directly from the ground :p

The Provence region was our main destination, and getting to visit the lavender fields was a dream of mine that finally came true! The bloom had just started in June, but they were already absolutely gorgeous.

We also enjoyed discovering Les Baux de Provence, St Remy de Provence, and Roussillon, lovely little Provence towns we fell in love with.

Les Baux de Provence

Roussillon

The farthest we went in our trip was Les Gorges du Verdon, which is the beginning of the Verdon river, an absolute delight, it was SO pretty! We really enjoyed this one-day trip.

The most pleasant surprise from our trip though, was our last stop: Collioure, a lovely little French town by the sea next to the Catalan border. I chose it because it was in the middle of Arles (our last real stop) and our home in Barcelona, but it ended up being a major highlight of the trip. We absolutely loved being in the seaside after spending our trip in the inland, and Collioure truly surprised us by being absolutely gorgeous. 

In July, I had major bleeding in my 9th week of pregnancy as I explained here and was on sick leave for 77 days, so I didn't take much pictures... 

When Liam's school term got to an end by the end of July, we moved to our beach house and Liam and I spent the whole month there.  The hubby came back everyday after work, luckily it's not too far from Barcelona. I didn't exactly get to rest having to take care of Liam one-on-one, but it was the best for him, he had a blast every single day! So I guess that makes it all worth it :) Plus my 20 week ultrasound confirmed everything was ok with my pregnancy and I could go back to work, so yay!

We also celebrated Liam's second birthday on August 28th, which is when we also announced that we were expecting our second baby. We've just recently taken the gender reveal pics, so you know which post will be next! I hope to post it within this week.

Thanks for taking your time to read all the way until here, I hope you liked our little summer summary!

Uncle & Auntie's 25th Wedding Anniversary

Last Sunday we had a lovely family get-together, after not having been all together since Liam's 100 days party! My uncle and my auntie celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary and it was really nice. Can you believe I remember their wedding to the detail? I was just 4.5 years old! I was the girl who brought them the wedding rings, and I remember my auntie crying of happiness :) I asked my mom why auntie was crying on such a nice day?! :p

We met to go to church at 12:30 and the Father gave a nice speech commemorating their 25th wedding anniversary. We then headed to the restaurant, El Rubell in Monistrol de Calders, which serves the yummiest catalan cuisine and I highly recommend. The only drawback is the horrible winding road you need to endure to get there! The atmosphere was more wedding-y than I had thought, with presents for the guests and other suprises I really liked! My auntie and other girls surprised my uncle with a FlashMob dance which was so cool!

Liam had a blast playing in the terrace, the weather was amazing and he was oh-so cute with his shorts and elastics! :)

To my dismay, I realized we didn't take any family-of-3 pic, and Jeff was SUPER handsome in his suit. Awwwww :( Anyway, here is a pic with my cousin instead :p

Love,

One Day Getaway from Barcelona: Banyoles + Besalú

The hubby had been asking me to go on a Sunday getaway for the whole winter, but being it so cold, who would want to go out anywhere for the whole day?? So when the weather got all spring-like we knew it was our chance! 

And so we on a 1-day getaway we went! It was the hubby who chose the location this time, and it was Banyoles, a town an hour and a half away from Barcelona. 

The most typical thing in Banyoles is its huge natural lake. Lots of water sports take place in it, and going on a stroll or riding around it is absolutely wonderful. 

We rented a couple bikes, one of which had a cute chair for Liam at the front. Honestly, I had never seen a baby chair like this one. All the ones I had ever seen were at the back, and we loved this one! Liam had a blast being able to see everything and getting a hold of the handlebar! 

During our ride around the lake, I accidentally saw a road sign to Besalú at just 7km away! Besalú is one of my favorite medieval towns ever, it's absolutely gorgeous. 

I didn't know we were that close, and of course after lunch off we went to Besalú! I did a video too and hopefully I can upload it on my YouTube channel soon :)

I would love it if you guys want to leave some 1-day or weekend getaway trip ideas (from Barcelona!) below in the comments! =)

Merry Xmas 2015

Merry little Christmas, everyone! I know this comes a bit early but with these gorgeous pictures I got a couple days ago, I just couldn't wait any longer to show them all to you! I'm absolutely in love with how they came out, such a great memory for years to come of little Liam and his second Christmas. The pictures are by talented Nagira, to whom I'm so grateful for fitting us in even though I arrived when her Christmas schedule was already closed. Yay to these beautiful pictures, I couldn't like them any better!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas 2015