Birthday Boy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE! We've had a fun day here in Spain (although Mike did have to work). I made Mike a smoothie and blueberry bagel for breakfast - I would have made muffins but I added 1 1/2 cups of water instead of 1/2 to the mix, so that didn't work out so well. I had been up since 4:45 a.m. with Jay. I guess he must have been excited for daddy's birthday! We met Mike on base for lunch and after we ate we had cake at his office with friends. We had a great BBQ dinner (Mike was the chef) and later that night Mike and I went to see Ocean's 13 in Spanish! I didn't understand super well, but we still had a good time. John, Maria and Lunisana brought Mike a cake with candles, so he even got to make a wish! We'll celebrate more in a few days when we leave for our cruise to Greece and then on to visit our good friends, The Price's, in Zurich!

The Weekend Away

We had a great time this past weekend with the fam! We stayed a night in Rota at a beautiful little hotel next to the beach. There was a path from our hotel through a wooded area and straight on to the ocean. We showed Jay the water, walked along the shoreline and enjoyed the sunset together. Papa Lee even had the bonus opportunity of finding some very pretty beach glass along the way. He could make great money in Hawaii turning it into jewelry!

The next day we went down to Gibraltar to show everyone the monos. It was a great day! We saw all the major sites and this time we had some great interactions with the monkeys. Our guide was so much fun - he encouraged the monkeys onto Rob and Mike's backs. Jay loved seeing them play. He laughed and laughed at them. We saw some really tiny baby monkeys holding onto their mommies too. We watched one little monkey try and try to climb up onto our van when it was parked- it was pretty funny to watch him fall back down over and over again. He was very persistent! It wasn't a clear day, so we couldn't see to Africa this time, but it was still beautiful. At the top of the rock we could see the clouds rushing up and over one side. We enjoyed our time being together, even though we had a crazy British lady giving us wrong directions back to Jerez the whole time we were driving. GPS? I'm not convinced yet.

Videos of baby Jay

I feel like I have so many things to post! Well, here are some recent videos of Jay... with more to follow once we get them uploaded. Happy nine month birthday little baby boy!!!

A Visit From Uncle Rob!

We are so excited to have Rob here staying with us this week. We love having family around and the more the merrier. Jay is having a great time getting to know his uncle again. Rob is very good at entertaining his little nephew. Yesterday we all went to Ronda together (except poor Mike who had to work). We had a good time seeing the gorge, the Arab bathes and the surrounding city. Jay even got a new hat that has a fish on it and says, "The meat is more tasty." We're not exactly sure what it means. Is the fish trying to persuade us to eat meat? It's hard to tell. There are SO many shirts and hats in Spain with English on them that don't make sense. People love to wear the clothes but we doubt they know what is actually written on them. I'm sure it's the same in the states when people wear clothes with other languages on them.
A few of Jay's favorite things of late are sticking out his tongue and shaking his head no. What does this mean? It's pretty cute actually, especially because he's just doing it for fun and doesn't know what it means - or so we think. He also likes to squeeze his hands into fists over and over when he's eating. We think he might be using it as a sign for "more" since he seems to do it every time he finishes swallowing a bite of food. Who knows? He sure is cute! One of my favorite things is when he's nursing and he looks up at me and touches my face. I think it will be hard to ween him. It really is a special time for the two of us. He's definitely becoming more and more attached to me now, and his daddy too. He certainly knows who we are and frequently reaches to be in our arms. He's been really good with his grandma, grandpa and uncle though. It takes him a day or so to warm up to new people, but he's good after that. We sure love our little boy and we're so glad he can have some family here visiting. We go to Greece next week - and yes, I'll definitely take lots of pictures Leslie! Then sometime after that Jay and I head back to the states. We're sure looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family at home!

Happy Father's Day!

Jay participated in his first Father's Day yesterday. He was especially lucky because his daddy and grandpa were there to celebrate! Jay gave his daddy little presents with notes on them like a bag of cashews that said, "Daddy I'm nuts over you! I love all the "cash-ew" bring home." He also gave him a small football, basketball and soccar ball so they can play together. What a lucky daddy!

Jay and grandpa have been having so much fun together. Grandpa gave Jay his first experience with a steering wheel few days ago in the mall. Jay loved it! Of course grandpa had to go out and buy him his own steering wheel after that (although he would rather have bought a pedal car for him). We're all enjoying being together. On Saturday we went to Sevilla and wandered around. Mike and I are becoming experts on the city! We are really looking forward to visiting Greece in a few weeks.

Hola Nona y Papa!

Mama and Papa J are finally here and we're so happy to see them! It has been over a week since my last post because we've been having way too much fun together. Jay has enjoyed getting to know his grandparents again. They are great to play with! We've been trying to get Jay to be more comfortable on his stomach and maybe he'll finally figure out how to crawl. Now that grandma and grandpa are here mom's more comfortable with the idea of Jay crawling - more people to help keep track of him! One exciting new development with Jay is that he's cut his first tooth!!!!! He's 8 1/2 months old now. Pictures are pending.

Some of Jay's favorite things lately are watching the washing machine, looking at details and mostly playing with his soccer ball. Jay loves his soccer ball! He still wants to be outside as much as possible too. We've had some great weather lately so to Jay's delight we've been outside a lot. We love to take walks. Papa Lee especially is enjoying walking as well as watching the pelicans that live on top of the tower across the street. We're so glad to have family here and we look forward to seeing Uncle Rob soon too. We miss everyone who can't be here right now and can't wait to see you soon!

Jay playing

Pools and BBQs

Yesterday Maria, Johnny, Mike, Jay and I went to the base to go swimming. The pool opened a few days ago and we couldn't wait to check it out. We weren't disappointed. It has two diving boards, two tube slides, lots of lounge chairs and even a kiddie pool! It is a beautiful pool. The great thing is that it's usually not very crowded, since there really aren't a lot of families here. Out of the American families we do know here, most showed up to go swimming yesterday too. We saw Luisana and Christopher, the Scheels, Nikki and Abby, and some new families too. We had a great time together! The pool was pretty cold but warmed up the longer you stayed in. Jay wasn't too happy when when we first put him in. It definitely wasn't as warm as his nightly baths. We slowly got him used to it though and after a while he was all the way in and loving it! He's a pretty tranquilo boy though so he didn't do much splashing. He just hung out with his daddy and watched the action.
Later in the day we had a BBQ at out house. The Hammond-Perez family came over as well as a new couple we met, Evan and Maria (Yes, another Maria! We love Marias). We had some great chicken and hamburgers. I made potato salad and we also had jamon y queso con pan. My favorite part was dessert - chocolate cake! Tonight I'm making enchiladas. One of the good and bad things about living in Spain is that no restaurants open until 9:30 or 10:00 at night. It's bad, obviously, because we can't go out for dinner very often; it's good because eating at home is probably better for you and cheaper too. Too bad the Euro is so strong and the dollar so week or we'd really be banking it. After our BBQ dinner Mike and the boys got his Lacrosse sticks out and played a little game outside. While they were playing Mike was attacked by a hive of bees! I came outside right as he was running away, with one shoe on, and yelling like a mad man. I couldn't figure out what in the world he was doing. He just kept yelling, "Quick! Go inside! Close the door!" I guess he didn't want them getting into the house. Our friends were pretty confused since he was yelling in English. He ended up getting stung 4 times, ouch! Except for the bees we had a great time! We're so glad we have good friends here in Spain.

More pictures at the pool

Daddy's Home!

Jay loves to see his daddy when he comes home from work!