BARCELONA

Six kids in Barcelona!

Cafe De L'academia - Delicious!!! Great location and good interior decor (important to me!).

Jordan! What are you doing to Hanna???

 

SAGRADA FAMILIA

Sage was interviewed by some students learning English

You can see the old with the new

This is the "Sagrada Familia" (Sacred Family) on the facade, which it is named for.

The architects workroom where they continue to plan the building of Sagrada Familia which has been under construction for 125 years.

Gaudi engineered the building of Sagrada Familia by using fabric and little hanging bags filled with sand. He hung them, then photographed them and turned the photos upside down to capture the shape. The photo on the left is the sketch.

This is one of the huge entrance doors

The sun-rays spilling into the interior were magnificent!

View from the roof over Barcelona

Down, down, down the stairs!

 GüELL PARK

At the top of Güell Park - what a view!!!

ST. JOSEP MERCAT

 

Tennis ball Gummis

  

PARC de la CIUTADELLA

Quadriga de l'Aurora

These are the wild birds that fly around the park

Zoology Museum

You can see the Arc de Trionf from the park!

Feels like California!!!

These shots were taken later in the afternoon when we went back and enjoyed its beauty and the kids played the game "Taboo". Plus, they had the fountains on!

PICASSO MUSEUM

The building was beautiful! I was told it used to be a home to a wealthy, elite family.

 

OLD TOWN and TAPAS

 

 

LARC de TRIONF

 

BEACH and BOARDWALK

 

Jordan left her "mark" where she was sitting on the sand!

Sage and Hanna

RANDOM SHOTS

This is Clot Park which used to be a railway station.   

This is in front of the Torre Agbar building in Poblenou, where we stayed.

Gelato break!!!

Smurf gelato

   

Sage on the Metro

Tomatoes and fresh strawberries

     We bumped into one of Shawn's volleyball players getting off the plane from Geneva as we got on to go back!!!

Bye bye Barcelona!!!

Hello Swiss Alps!

Skiing and Boarding the Alps

Shawn took the girls skiing and snowboarding 

in the beautiful Swiss Alps! What a gorgeous day!!!

They had a great time and were happy to hit the slopes.

Just passing a castle on the way!

Sage needed a rest at the end of the day!

Jordan joined her!!!

Fed Cup Tennis Match

Did I tell you I LOVE TENNIS!? Well, I do. We were fortunate to have friends in high tennis places here in Switzerland. One of Shawn's players is the beau of a highly ranked, Swiss tennis player, Timea Bacsinszky. She was very generous to give us court-side seats to this event where Switzerland played Australia! Truly amazing tennis, especially the match where we watched Samantha Stosur, who recently won the US Open in September. She is ranked #5 in the world!

COURT-SIDE!!!

Timea is the one texting in the second row!

Samantha Stosur, #5 in the world

Photo credits: (all the really good photos) go to my friend Kate Hein! Thanks, Kate!!!

Ice Skating in Switzerland

http://youtu.be/bnmNjAv73wQ
Click on the above link to watch Kai skating (or falling).

You will notice Kai's skates in the photo below are the "hockey" skates and ones pictured above are nice white ones. Well, the hockey skates are more difficult to skate on (no toe stop an shorter blades). He was falling all over the place and having a rotten time. I realized it was his skates and went to get him some brown ones. Well, they didn't have any in his size, so white was the only choice! He loved them! He barely fell and had a great time!!!

Christmas in Lausanne

I neglected to post any photos of our "Pre-London" Christmas...so, here they are! I hope you can handle a little more Christmas!!!

 First, we made our own stockings! Even Kai sewed quite a bit! 

The finished product!

Then, Santa came two days early because he must have know we were going to be out of town!!!

The kids were so surprised when they woke up to get ready for the last day of school before their two week holiday, to find that Santa had come...we let them take the day off, of course.  Santa brought furry hats, clothes and 3D puzzles of Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower, a knight costume for Kai (and Playmobile Knights for him to play with) and Soren got a Vivitar video "flip" thing, headphones and a microphone that applauses when you are finished singing! Santa brought everyone Swiss slippers and Swiss chocolate too!

We spent the rest of the day packing for London!!!

I had to end with this photo to show the "Favorite Christmas Vest" that was worn over and over and over!