Spain for Thanksgiving!



We had a last minute change of plans for our Thanksgiving break and switched our vacation from Italy to Spain.  We had planned on spending a week driving through Italy (with the Greens) and the reality of how daunting our itinerary was sunk in (we were going to be spending 3-6 hrs in the car everyday for a week).  Our plans were to hit Switzerland, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Venice, Verona and then Garmisch by car which is exciting that it can be done, but not so exciting when 6 kids are involved!!!!!  Sooooo, we started shuffling our plans and thought about flying into Pisa and renting a car, but then Leevi saw that a week with our Marriott Timeshare was available in Spain for less than $400 (they offer specials in addition to your already paid for week)!!!!!!!  Airline tickets weren't too bad (around $600 total), so we convinced the Greens to join us and with two weeks to spare, we completely shifted our vacation atmosphere!  We were LONG overdue for a sit-on-your-booty vacation!!!!   We truly understand our blessing of being able to sight-see in Europe, but while we know our kids will appreciate the pictures/experience when they are older, it's tough to keep them excited about driving in a car to look at buildings.  Spain was AWESOME and so refreshing!  We parked ourselves on the beach or at the pool each day, but did spend one day in Gibraltar (a UK territory off the coast of Spain) and one morning touring the town of Marbella. 

 

We started our trip at 3am with an hour drive to the airport for an early flight!  4 adults and 6 kids...crazy or ADVENTUROUS???!!!

Everyone crashed on the car ride from the airport to the hotel...

We stayed right on the beach at the Marriott's Playa Andaluza in Marbella, Spain in the Costa Del Sol region!

The resort had plenty of extras....putt putt, playground, rock wall, soccer/basketball court, tennis, ping pong, pool, chess/checkers, volleyball/badminton!  It was awesome!!!! 

We just had to catch the sunset on our first night in Spain and it didn't disappoint!  The kids even jumped in the water (and then warmed up in the hot tub!!!)

Even though we had great weather, sunny and low 60's (only one rainy morning), it was too chilly to swim outside in the pools.  It's strange that they keep the pools open year round, but it's far too cold to swim in them in the winter.  On two separate occasions, Leevi and Charlie tried to tempt the kids to jump in the cold pool by throwing money in (a 10 euro bill and a 5 dollar bill) and BOTH times Kailee was the only one to jump in and get the money...she came home pretty rich!!!  :)  The top right photo is of the kid outdoor pool (there were two more other pools), but when we weren't on the beach our time was spent inside in the heated pool and hot tubs!

Swimming snippets!  Other than the bath, Luke hasn't been around a pool much (OR A BEACH) and it just must be in his blood because he LOVED it!!!!

Jenny and I planned all of our meals for the week and we each packed a 45lb checked bag of just food!  Snacks for the week were stuffed throughout our 5 carry-ons and I must say we did pretty well and saved a ton of money.  The guys went to the local grocery store a few times for milk, cheese, bread and water, but other than that we had plenty to get us through the week.  The airline we flew on is known for their cheap flights, but will nickel and dime you anywhere else (baggage, car seats, etc). We stuck to the 22lbs carry-on regulation and paid about $30 for our checked bag, so not too bad! 

Lots of movie nights!

The water was cold, but nothing stops kids!!!!

 Random beach snippets...

 

Luke made the greatest sacrifice and took ALL of his nap pool or beach-side the entire week!  I just couldn't bare missing out on some much needed vitamin D!

 

Luke napping outside reminded me of Kailee doing the same thing during our vacation weeks in Hawaii!!!!!  Such troopers!!!

And to totally confuse you....the collage below is from the Marriott resort in Hawaii!  I went looking for the sleeping picture of Kailee and got lost in browsing through these pictures from two separate trips to the KoOlina resort, once for Kai's 1st birthday (and Leevi's R&R) and again 6 months later during spring break.  Such memories...many families spent the week with us!  This was the main reason that Leevi and I committed to the timeshare hoopla...AWESOME family vacations!!!!!  (Little did we know that we'd be able to use it in Europe!!!!  We had thought those overseas vacations would come after retirement and the kids were grown!)  And we used our week at the Marriott near Disney Paris for Hailey's birthday last year!  Such an opportunity!!!! 

Back to Spain...

Lots of ice cream and hot chocolate!!!!!  Charlie made up a rule that "since we were on vacation", the kids could have ice cream every day!!!!!  Oh my!!!!!!  They held us to it all but the last night when it just got too late and we had a crazy early morning for our flight home!

My whole heart.....

A "pyramid"!

The Green boys...

They were promised a goofy picture if they posed for a decent one!

 

We saw these rock stacks (called carins) all over Sedona, Arizona when we were there in April, so we showed the Green boys how to make them.  It's supposed to be meditative and as you concentrate to stack the rocks, your mind resolves whatever frustration is ailing you.  Hailey always says, "how can this be relaxing?  It's so hard!"  :) 

Kai was definitely the most interested...

We spent Thanksgiving day in Gibraltar (that will have to be a post in itself!) and then had dinner in Puerto Banus at the Hard Rock Café!  We did have an official Thanksgiving dinner (with the Greens) the Sunday after we got back, but I didn't take a single picture!!!

The Greens walking off into the sunset!

There were many, many perfect sunsets!!!!!

He drug the pool/beach bag around constantly letting us know that he was ready to get out of the hotel room!!!

Date night after Luke went to bed and the big kids watched a movie with the Greens.

Other than Gibraltar, our one time away from the resort was to Old Town Marbella.  It had a cute little boardwalk that I'm sure is bustling in the summer months.

The Greens...

We practically had the resort to ourselves (at least the kids did)...it would have been nice if it was about 10 degrees warmer, but we really couldn't complain since the sun was shining and I'll take the cooler temp over the crowds! 
Sand castle building contest...

Our last night in Spain...

We had the same early flight back home!  Once we were home and unpacked, I headed to the commissary since we were out of food and I came home to Luke and Leevi passed out on the couch at 5pm!!!!!!  I thought for sure that Luke was going to have a hard time going to bed that night, but he woke up, ate dinner, and went right back to bed and slept until the morning!  A fun week on the beach will do that to you!!!!!  

Hasta luego, Espana!