Here and Everything In It

Weddingpalooza, The Final Part: Last Days In Spain

Due to the fact that Brad and Innis and I shared a van rental with Tim and Tracy, and their flight left from Malaga two days before ours, we had a couple extra days in Malaga after we left the resort before coming back to Canada.

Malaga was actually a stop on our tour the first time we were in Spain eight years ago, and we hadn't left with fond memories. It was a holiday or something, so everything was closed. We were there in August, and the heat was unbearable, the roads dry and dusty. Everything looked cheap and faded and ... pink. For some reason, I remember a lot of the colour pink from that trip. This was also where we flew out after catching a bus from Tarifa, during which I spent three hours sitting in a seat recently doused with another passenger's spicy barf (the bus was crowded, and when we boarded, I grabbed the first available seat and had no idea what I'd be sitting in -- Brad and Claire found roomier and cleaner seats at the back), trying to suppress the nausea as the bus lurched up and down the mountainous coast and careened back and forth on endless switchbacks. In short, it was awesome.

Malaga could not have been more different this time around. Lush, green, clean, busy and interesting. For example, who knew Malaga had an ancient fort? A Roman amphitheatre? A beautiful, ginormous cathedral? Not us. But it does!

But first, our hotel. It was basically amazing. At only 75 Euros a night, we stayed on the main tourist street in Malaga, the Marques de Larios, which looks like this:

Those sheets hanging above act as shades, so everything along here is all deliciously cool, shady marble.

And Innis liked the view from our balcony:

And I liked this part:

And, we were only a five minute walk away from this park:

Which leads to a beach on the Mediterranean, whereupon we mercilessly plotted to dangle our ten month old's toes in the water, though we knew he wouldn't be too happy about it:

But when he gave us the go ahead ...

... we went for it:

We went to the Malaga Cathedral:

(we think the netting was to catch crumbling stone?)

Then we went to Gibralfaro Castle and Alcazaba (which Brad alternately called Azcaban and Alcatraz):

And then on to the amphitheatre:

Where we also saw some kitties:

And then we even had time to eat dinner in a restaurant, and Innis was on his best behaviour:

 ... most of the time:

"MOAR FOOD! MOAR FOOD!! I EAT EVERYTHING!!!"

Wow. That was the longest post, with the most pictures, ever. And that was me exhibiting restraint. Oh well, at least I'm not forcing you to sit on my couch with an album in your lap. At least with this website, you can come and go at your leisure, reading this post in, say, five or six sittings. 

Cousin Love

We were lucky to have most of the related babies present and accounted for in England and Spain, and we managed to get some cute photos as they played together/stood around staring at one another. These are the kinds of pictures that our kids will look back on one day and feel all warm and fuzzy about because even though they grew up hundreds and even thousands of miles away from one another, they still spent quality time together when they were babies.

Around the umbrella are my cousin Sam's kids Jenna and Louie, Tim and Tracy's Olivia, and then Innis and Colin are seated:

It was so cute, Olivia tried so hard to hug Innis throughout the whole trip, and though she was very gentle and patient, he fought her every time.

So she had to settle for a tummy raspberry:

And here is further evidence that Colin and Innis will be identical grown ups:

BECAUSE THEY ARE IDENTICAL BABIES.

Weddingpalooza Part Two of Two: Spanish Wedding, OR, When I Said "Tomorrow," I Really Meant Today

I had the best intentions of posting this post a couple days ago, but couldn't deny Innis the sunshine and cool things to look at in Malaga, and each time we got back to the hotel at night, we crashed.

But here it is! In all its weddingy glory!

(This is a picture in which I'm thinking: "Claire's dress is so pretty! The lacy train looks so Spanishy! This could totally be a wedding in Spa -- oh, yeah! We ARE in Spain!!!)

And where was Innis during the ceremony? Why, lulled into obedience by Cheerios and Baby Whisperer Sarah, of course:

Our dashing pseudocousins, Simon and Matthew:

Lovely Tracy:

And oh my god the RECEPTION VENUE:

The pool looked better in real life. It had clear water in it that reflected the late afternoon sun, and those are rose petals:

Amazing.

Mum and Olivia:

Tricia and Peter:

Robert and Peter:

Spanish guitar:

My siblings, the professional photographers:

Orange Fanta!

My best International Woman of Mystery (with baby) Pose:

Looks better with two:

During the reception Innis oscillated between screaming and, well, this (I preferred this):

Example of least desirable option:

But then there was food, and we all know that food solves all problems:

After a quick wardrobe change:

All in all, a beautiful day:

Weddingpalooza Part One of Two (Or Three): Spain

Spain, I misjudged you. When we met before, you were too hot and smelly. I didn't like your food. Your buses smelled like taco vomit, and your sidewalks were covered in dog crap.

But I now realize that I was wrong to judge your merit based only on the parts of you I'd seen (well, except the part about the dog crap, as Brad will attest to since he just stepped in a giant steaming pile of it only a couple hours ago). Now that I've seen more of your Spanishness, I will admit that you are quite lovely, and my experiences on the last two occasions we spent time together were too short and of too little geographic variety for me to form a full and supported opinion.

And quite frankly, if these are the views from some of your hotel rooms (as it was from ours on this trip), I'm willing to forget your past shortcomings and objectively reform my opinion.

I've divided the Spain posts up into a couple of installments. This post will cover where we stayed in the Sierra Nevada, some fun in the sun, and the Wedding!! The next one will be about us staying in Malaga for the last couple days before we fly home. And I tell you these things just to, you know, keep you organized (and in suspense!).

So, our resort was called the Cortijo de La Argumosa, and this is its incredibly unhelpful website which is entirely in Spanish.  But here's my translation: it's in a national park, it's surrounded by mountains and olive groves, and it's really really beautiful.

It also has an outdoor pool, which was inexplicably frigid when you take into account the constant +30 degree weather:

(some people didn't appreciate the refreshing water temperature)

But here are some nicely posed action shots by Simon, Matt, Sarah and Brad (and a random topless girl!!):

I like to call this next one the "Inevitable Vacation Pre-Burn:"

Ok, so I totally meant to put the wedding pictures in this post as well, but honestly, there are so many of them they'd run this entry into the realm of Longest Post Ever, and I think maybe the wedding deserves its own post because it was FABULOUS. But the main reason I'm cutting this short is that Innis is tired of playing "Foot Exploding Daddy's Face" and is now just whining and crying and trying to climb me like a monkey climbs a tree. In short, it's bedtime again, and duty calls. So, until tomorrow!

Weddingpalooza Part One: England

Even though we're now in Spain, I want to backtrack a little to share England with you first. We were there for only four days, but we actually packed quite a lot into that time, ranging from our redeye to England to our full fancy-dress Pirate Wedding on the Golden Hinde, moored at a Thames dock in central London.

We were originally going to stay with Claire and Corin in their flat, but for a bunch of reasons (which were mainly baby, baby and baby) ended up staying in Oxted, instead, at Aunty Tricia's partner Peter's house (which was only one street over from Tricia's, so we still got to spend lots of lovely family time together). And, well, Oxted is pretty awesome:

And Innis got to play the piano for the first time here ("play" being loosely defined as: SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!), and also met his cousins Olivia and Colin for the first time ever, as well:

And, of course, we squeezed in a day to visit the sights in London, though they were a select few sights indeed, and we only gave them a cursory examination as we powerwalked past (though Tim and Tracy will tell you they appreciated Brad's tour guide route, which effectively showed them all angles of Buckingham Palace (twice, I think):

And why were we powerwalking? We had a mission to find the bombed out church Brad proposed to me in ... eight years ago. It's St. Dunstan's in the East, which we didn't know before our search, and we thought we'd never find it again since neither of us had remembered its name or location from way back when in 2003. But hey!! Here it is!!

(New and improved with a baby!)

And then, of course, the reason for the whole trip: Ahoy!

This is Innis lasting, get this, 37 seconds in his parrot costume. Which took me about six hours to make, but which also happened to act as a feather torture chamber -- turns out babies don't like the feeling (or taste) of being tickled by one thousand feathers, all over their bodies. Probably should have seen this coming ...

The feathers weren't actually meant to stick up as though he's suffering from an electric shock, either. Or, you know, make him look like a muppet.

Here's the bride and groom, and the rest of the crew:

And, of course, every pirate bride must throw her bouquet:

And now we are in Spain. But our travels and experiences here are, my friends, fodder for yet another post as I am tired and am now going to go to bed. Buenas noches, amigos!