The happiest place on earth

The holidays are magical, wonderful . . . families and friends get together and everyone seems to be in high, happy spirits. . . for the most part. The holidays can also be difficult when dealing with a loss or when you miss someone. It can be a very sensitive time for a lot of people. So this year we decided to visit Orlando. I rented a house on airbnb and we drove here.  Yup, 14 hours.  We split the trip in two days.  We stopped in Pensacola the first night and arrived at our destination by 5 pm the next day.  I am so proud of our little men, they are such good travelers (knock on wood).

We visited the Magic Kingdom yesterday. We've been twice in two years but this time Niko enjoyed it so much more. He's a bit older and loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He was so happy meeting his favorite characters. I must say I felt truly happy and blessed to be spending the holiday with my family in such a magical place. My dad, sister and my brother and his family are also here. It's been great and when I think about my mom I think of how happy she must be watching us spend the holidays together in such a great place. Everyone must visit Disney during the holidays it's absolutely beautiful and so much fun. 

I wish everyone a joyous season filled with love, laughter and kindness.

xoxoxo

Barcelona

Flash back Friday edition!!

V and I were married in 2009 in the Catholic church.  We had a fabulous honeymoon! We traveled to Athens to visit his family, then departed on a Mediterranean cruise.  We went to the Greek Isles, Izmir, Istanbul, Alexandria and Cairo.  It was amazing!

V's parents insisted we have a second wedding in the Greek church so we decided to do it on our anniversary.  Now, how can someone have two weddings?! That's because the Greek church does not acknowledge a Catholic marriage so the priest was able to marry us again.  If we would have gotten married in the Greek church first then we would not have been able to get married in the Catholic church because they would have acknowledged the first marriage. 

Both were lovely ceremonies.  In our Greek wedding we did the traditional walking around the table, which I first learned about during episode 1 season 4 of Full House when DJ walked around a dining room table with the Greek kid.  We didn't walk around a dining room table.  We walked around the ceremonial table at the church.  We wore crowns, it was a lovely wedding.  Due to our second wedding we went on a second honeymoon/anniversary trip.  We unanimously picked Barcelona! 

Barcelona is so vibrant.  Full of art and beautiful architecture.  It was easy to get around because of the subway system.  Not everyone speaks Spanish, a lot of people speak Catalan. Those are the two official languages of Barcelona.  We were there for about a week and we had a friend come meet us from Jordan and later friends that were vacationing in Portugal joined us.  It was a lot of fun.  The night life in Barcelona is crazy, one night we did not get to the club until 2 AM we left by 4 and people were still coming in.  It was an amazing time and I cannot wait to make my way back to visit!

Here are some of our pics at Casa Mila (La Pedrera), Park Guell and Sagrada Familia all designed by Antoni Gaudi, you can definitely feel his presence in the city.  As you know the Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family) was never completed.  Gaudi passed away before the work was finished.  It is still a work in progress but it is completely breathtaking.  Pictures do not do it justice. 

We also visited the zoo, the aquarium. the Olympic stadium, the port and the beach.    Barcelona faces the Mediterranean sea and the beach is beautiful.  Even the port of Barcelona is gorgeous! I've been to the port of Houston and it's not nice at all . . . like at all.  Out of a score of 1 to 10 the port of Barcelona gets a 10 the port of Houton gets a -1. 

The entire city offers so much to do, you will never have a dull moment if you visit Barcelona.  Don't forget to visit the soccer stadium and las Ramblas!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love and marriage

. . . go together like a horse and carriage. My parents never let me watch that show. They thought it was too risqué for my young eyes.

V left for the DMV last night. We won't reunite until December 31. I miss him so much already. I cried . . . a lot. I think it's the pregnancy hormones. I cry a lot in general but lately I've been a lot better. I only cry when I'm really sad or scared which only happens like every other week as opposed to every other day but today I felt an immense sadness. He's left before and I don't miss him as much but today I do.  He makes me very happy. So much so it used to upset me. I hated that my happiness was dependent on someone else, but then I realized he makes a better person and I like who I am when I'm with him and he's taught me so much so I'm happy because I like who I've become because of him. We work well together. Being married is a lot of work. We have learned to compromise and we always take each other's thoughts and opinions into consideration before making a decision. Loving him however is effortless. We are equals. Partners in crime! I think being pregnant has made me realize what a better wife and person I want to be.  I feel much more at peace now and a lot more calm if that makes sense.  I can't wait to see him. I'll be 30 weeks then and we'll start our new year together. 2014 will be a much better year. I feel it!

Some of my favorite couple pics . . . taken here, Tangier, Barcelona, Athens and Cairo

Babymoon

Last month V and I went on our babymoon.  When I first mentioned it he had no idea what it was.  Who doesn't know what a babymoon is?! Craziness.  Since it involved traveling he was good to go.  We hadn't taken a vacation since our trip to Tangier, Morocco last summer so we were long over due.  We settled on Maui since we had a ton of points to use for our flight and hotel.  We stayed at the Sheraton Maui.  The room was nice but pretty standard.  I'm used to nicer resort rooms.  My favorite one so far has been Excellence Playa Mujeres.    I loved it there!

The weather was nice while we were there.  We relaxed, enjoyed time on the beach and the pool.  I am not drinking (obvi!) so I settled for fruit smoothies and juices by the pool.  I usually avoid drinking by the pool anyway because I get super bloated, but this time it didn't really matter.  Maui was nice and relaxing not as pretty as I thought it would be but nice regardless.  We drove up Mt. Haleakala and we hiked.  People recommend driving in for the sunrise or sunset but we went around 10 AM.  It's  like a 2.5 hour drive.  You're 10,000 feet above sea level once you're up there so driving through the clouds was pretty cool but kind of scary.  We drove the road to Hana, a registered historic place, and stopped along the way to see the waterfalls and the different landscapes.  On the way there the first stop was in Paia and we stopped by the Paia Fish Market and the mahi-mahi burger was delicious! The food was really good and not as expensive as I thought it was going to be.  We also loved Kimo's in Lahaina.  Overall we had a great time.  There were so many families and babies so we are definitely excited to take Baby K on a trip next year.

Our resort, The Sharaton Maui

Mt. Haleakala

Hiking, posing for pics

View from the top

Stunning!

My favorite picture of Mt. Haleakala

Are we done yet? 

View from the patio

The Dharma initiative

Inside the Lava Tube

Inside the Lava Tube

Inside the Lava Tube

V being silly 

Don't go chasing waterfalls

V swimming 

Last night in Maui :(