Going, going, going

Here's what we've been up to these last few weeks of July:

Pitchfork music fest with Uncle Jon and the Brandis! This was the first night -- Wilco headlined. Jason and Jon went all 3 days...they even brought Molly on Sunday. She loved it.

First trip to the Skokie pool, which has a huge pool and 2 sets of water slides

The Little Mermaid on stage at Navy Pier with friends from school

Back porch BBQ with Lainey

Our favorite face fountains at Millennium Park 

Maggie Daley Park. Unfortunately, it was 90 degrees and we couldn't go down any of the metal slides. It looked like fun though...

Burning off some energy with Cousin James during our photo shoot with Ford Photography

We're having a pretty awesome summer so far. The past three or four weekends have been glorious, and I've also taken a couple of mid-week days off, which have allowed us to do a few extra fun things, like go to the pool. It's starting to feel like the clock is ticking on our summertime fun though... We had our first Kindergarten playdate last weekend and school starts in less than a month!

Party on, Molls

Since we've been to what seems like a million birthday parties for Molly's school friends, we decided to return the favor this year and have one too. It felt a little stressful at first, planning it in a hurry before we left for Spain. Venue #1, the pavilion at our favorite park, fell through, so we basically ended up copying another kid's party and having it at Little Beans, an indoor playground in Evanston. I'm so happy it worked out that way because the party couldn't have been easier. We pretty much just checked a few boxes on their website, picked up a cake, and then showed up on party day.  

The party was a lot of fun, but also bittersweet -- it will be one of the last get-togethers for this group of friends (and their parents). Molly has been in the same class with some of these kids since she was 2 years old! I'm going to miss their little faces.

Birthday girl

Cake! Cake! Cake!  The class loves to chant -- it's their thing

Too loud Molls?

Fabulous five!

Molly turned five yesterday...how did that happen? She woke up in the morning and said she didn't feel any different. Then she went and looked at herself in the mirror and asked if she was taller. Ha!

I LOVED age four. If I'm being honest, I'll admit that I'm a little nervous for age five. Kindergarten. New school. New friends. New parents! But so far, every year has been better than the last, so let's hope the good times keep coming :)

My five-year-old

Getting ready for her party :)

Princess Leia cake (and trick candles) courtesy of Grandma

Ripping into her birthday gifts. Barbie! Barbie! Barbie!

Thumbs up from a happy birthday girl

Just the two of us

Jason left Thursday morning for a brothers weekend at Joe's in Roanoke, VA, so Molly and I had the long holiday weekend all to ourselves. The weather could not have been nicer, so we took full advantage -- 3 trips to the beach, 2 nights of fireworks, 1 festival, 1 parade, more park trips than I can count, and hardly any TV. Even though we were home all weekend, it almost felt like a vacation!

Girls weekend

Evanston parade with buddy Grace

Cousins at the beach...making goo

Molly with a moostache. Waiting for the fireworks

Slide time

Ready to do it again

Learning to pump. Almost there!

We had a blast and now we're both exhausted. I have about 2 episodes of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in me and then I think I'm going to pass out. Happy 3rd, 4th, and 5th! 

Spain, part dos

I've been meaning to write about the end of our trip, but it's been a long week catching up on sleep and settling back into normal life. Better late than never! 

The last 2 nights in Barcelona were wonderful. We checked out the beach and walked around the Barceloneta neighborhood. We also got in the top Gaudi sights -- the Park Guell and La Sagrada Familia, easily our favorite tourist activities of the trip. The Park Guell was super hilly and beautiful, and though we opted not to pay for the tour of the main grounds, we were still able to see what it was all about from the pathways and through the trees. 

La Sagrada Familia was like nothing else we'd ever seen. Just crazy in its detail and history. I love that it's still a work in progress and that a new generation has taken over to see the latest phase through. For some reason, Jason and I opted IN for the tour of the towers -- the towers of terror as we later nicknamed them. We both got shaky legs as we stepped off the elevator and realized how high up we were. Needless to say, we took no pictures from that part of the tour.

We learned all about the "Rick Steves effect" in the L'Eixample neighborhood where every restaurant on his list was packed to the gills and we ended up in a second-tier spot down the street with rude servers and bad music ("Love is an Open Door" from the movie Frozen...I know Molly would have approved, but it's not what you want to hear in Spain). That was probably our only real miss of the trip. 

It was hard to leave Barcelona, but we were both missing Molly and anxious to see her again. The 24-hour pit stop in Dublin ended up being a really nice buffer between Spain and home. We had already been to Dublin in 2006, so didn't feel pressure to do anything touristy. Instead, we walked around the city, stopped for pints of Guinness at different pubs throughout Temple Bar, watched some hurling, and picked up a few souvenirs for Molly.

After that, we were HOME and reunited with our favorite girl. She was happy to see us too and didn't seem to bear us any ill will for leaving her for 10 days. Relief. When's our next trip? 

The Park Guell

More from the Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia -- work in progress

Inside La Sagrada -- amazing!

Last night in Barcelona

Final shot from our favorite neighborhood, El Born

Change of scenery...Dublin

Happiness is a pint of Guinness in Temple Bar

What a long great trip it's been

Hola from Barcelona! This trip has been amazing so far - it feels like we've done so much and been gone for so long and yet we still have 2 nights in Barcelona and 1 in Dublin before heading home.

We started our trip in Granada (southern Spain / Andalucía), which was a really nice, laid-back introduction to Spain. The star of the show was definitely the Alhambra, an enormous, elaborate, part Islamic, part Christian palace complex overlooking the city. We toured the Alhambra for close to 3 hours before poor Jason started feeling sick and had to go out of commission for almost a day. But he didn't miss too much, just one hike and one dinner. The food in Granada was excellent and the restaurants all stuck to the free tapas with every drink rule, so we were able to go out for much less than we would have spent in Chicago.

Next up was Madrid, a totally different type of city. Very urban and busy, but so much fun. Our big touristy adventure was a trip to the Reina Sofía museum, which was filled with contemporary Spanish art by Picasso, Miró, and Dalí. We had rooftop drinks at a couple of really cool bars with nice views of the city and went tapas bar hopping at night in the La Latina neighborhood (crazy with bachelor parties) and then along the Calle de Jesus, where we had our first taste of the fabulous little green peppers with sea salt, Pimientos de Padrón. Yum.

After Madrid, we spent one night in Barcelona, our favorite city by far. Everyone just seems so relaxed and happy here. We are in an awesome neighborhood, El Born, which is filled with shops and pintxos restaurants. We walked through the Gothic neighborhood and along the touristy stretch Las Ramblas, but didn't get to hang out for too long before taking our side trip up the coast to the delightfully weird Dalí museum in Figueres and 2 days at a breach resort in Platja d'Aro. After all the traveling and sightseeing, it was so nice to just relax by the pool!

Now we're back in Barcelona and getting ready for our last couple days of vacation. We plan to eat as many tapas and pintxos as we can handle and also see a couple of the major Gaudí sights, La Sagrada Família and the Park Güell. After that, we'll have 24 hours in Dublin to drink Guiness and feel Irish and then we'll be back home to see our girl, who we miss desperately. It's been fun. Here are a few of the highlights (in no particular order)...

Beach time - Platja d'Aro

Me in Madrid

Jas in Madrid

The amazing Alhambra

Barcelona's Parc de la Ciutadella

Hasta luego!

Our trip is finally here! We leave for Spain tomorrow. I will do my best to blog a couple of times from the road. If not, I'll take plenty of pictures and write a long post when I return!