Ronda, Spain

This past weekend we and explored a town, about 2 hours away from us, called Ronda.  It is situated in a mountainous area and there is a river that runs through and carves out this really cool canyon that the city perches upon.  Anyways, Ronda is a pueblo blanco (white-washed town) that has a lot of history.  The first place we checked out was the bull-ring.  Ronda has the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain--it was built in the 1700s.  It was kind of fun to go and see some of the behind the scenes stuff--we saw where they kept the bulls, how they get them out into the rings, then in the museum we saw all kinds of different bullfighting outfits and capes--it was fascinating!  I think the kids' favorite part was pretending to be bullfighters or the bull in the bullring!

Kailey and I posing like a matador

Me with the bull

Sitting in the bullring

Where they keep the bulls right before the fights

In the bullring--Kailey pretending to be the bull

Eric as the bull

 Next we walked through town to go see the new and old bridges--it was unbelievable and I have no idea how they built these bridges!

It was amazing to look down-this is the "new" bridge

The gorge below

Finally we ended the day playing on a playground that we parked by--we have to test out the playgrounds wherever we go!!  We had a great day and Ronda was such an interesting place to go visit!

 

Eric's birthday and Carnaval

The end of last month was Carnaval here in Spain--it is a huge deal--parades, things going on every night, etc.  The kids had a little party at school and got to dress up and wear masks.  Here is Kailey in her costume and mask.  

It has been fun being part of a foreign school, because we are learning all about their holidays.  Last week was another holiday--Dia de Andalucia.  Andalucia is the province we live in, here in Spain and it was a day to celebrate all things Andalucia.  The kids, again, had a party at school--they painted the andalucian flag on their faces, they ate things pertaining to andalucia--churros, hot chocolate, tried different types of olive oil, etc.  Later that night we went  into town and they had a really fun outdoor handicraft and culinary market--we tried some good food and saw a lot of fun things.  I just love living in a foreign country!!

 The middle of February was Eric's 34th birthday--I swear we are not that old, I still think we should be in our 20's.  We just did a low key celebration at home!

This is Cade's happy face--when you tell him to make a happy face, this is the face he does!

Everyone helping to blow out candles!